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| - In mid 2011 we had our whole property re-landscaped by Rob Plowright (our designer who is also part owner of this company) which cost over $22,000 in hard and soft scape. I wish I could show photos of our property today, $4000 of DD's bill were for plants/grass, 60% of which have since died or I tried moving due to an inappropriate location (additionally, many of the plants we agreed upon were unavailable upon delivery and were changed to less desirable ones). This does not include the 35 out of 90 plants/trees DD initially replaced during our (bargained extension) 3-month warranty. During the process I learned DD is not very educated on horticulture/plants i.e. location, species, spacing, design (style, color, size, pattern) among other things.
Overall I think DD lacks understanding and execution of long-term business practices/relationships, in addition to offering or taking on more than the owners or crews are qualified to perform. They have installers who aren't instructed appropriately nor carefully supervised, lack follow-up with customers for satisfaction (could have been given maintenance instructions for the softscape areas to avoid major plant loss). Since DD's installation, I've had to move/modify two major grass areas (1000 sq feet each) sprinklers at an additional cost due to ineffective placement (i.e. sun vs shade) by DD. Even with weekly landscaping maintenance over the last 2 years, both of the new summer sod areas DD created are severely failing. As for their crews, I had to be at home supervising every minute of every day, otherwise, they repeatedly erred i.e. installation locations, quality control, etc. I can list dozens upon dozens of mistakes on installation alone, one example was on their first day (we were traveling and were specific as to when we would return, irrespective they started early without notice) they installed a firepit incorrectly and in a considerably wrong location, all of which had to be torn down and redone. Another example - after their crew incorrectly installed 15 slabs of 2'x3' flagstone, twice, in 115F temperature I personally picked them up and strategically placed each one because they could not understand (language barrier included) design and utility placement i.e. spacing required between stepping stones along a pathway.
The final and most important complaint I still need to take up with the Registrar of Contractors and BBB. I trusted that DD would not offer products or services they weren't skilled or approved to do, however, after the project was done I found out they do not have a license nor permit for creating Water Features. They not only installed water but also ran electricity without permits. The hardscape looks nice but it doesn't function as originally intended and was completed with engineering errors. To correct it would be to compromise the entire water feature and firepit area. So I chose to live with the problem. I also had to repair a different hard & softscape area after 1 year (remove and re-install 30'x3' pool planter with dirt/drippers/electric/plants) to fix a major leakage problem which DD minimized and gave bad advise. I did not trust DD even if it were under warranty so I paid handsomely for another contractor to correct.
Miscellaneous -low site respect (cigarette butts, urinated behind our shed, left a ton of debris & cement remnants), plans/blueprints not matching locations for what was installed (off by 2-10 feet), excessive emails and poor communication, 3-foot sinkhole, many rock areas now showing unsightly black landscape fabric, over 20 feet of electrical wiring showing after being superficially buried, water feature malfunctions and clogs (no way to fix without tearing it down), 2 pillars visibly unlevel (more than 1-2 inches off)... etc etc etc
The only redeeming quality is that one portion of hardscape looks great. But it is by far not worth the cost, aggravation and stress, and excessive time wasted with this company. More than once I attempt to bring my issues to the attention of the majority owner but I was referred back to the designer for resolution. So it surprises and dismays me that on their website they are listed as "Super Service Award 2011" on Angies List. Which was the year I contracted with them. I might have to join just to post my experience...
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