I wrote my first review on this company on February 20, 2015. I gave it two stars. I wrote a second review following my experience with the president on July 13, 2015. I lowered the company to one star. I find myself now writing a third review about a year later. I increased my rating from 1 to 4 stars. Below is my experience.
In early 2016, I received an unexpected telephone call from the company's owner. I had moved on after my earlier experiences and forgotten about this company. Apparently, they had not forgotten about me. The owner had been aware of my earlier issues, but had believed my situation had been resolved to my satisfaction. He learned otherwise when his company began updating their Internet presence and found my Yelp review. He asked to come take a look at my mulch so the company could correct my problems. I told him to forget it. I considered the matter resolved in that Aguinaga fulfilled its side (abeit belatedly) of the deal to refund my money (discussed in my July 13 review). He was respectfully persistent and continued to want to explore ways to "make things right" so we arranged to meet.
The owner arrived at the meeting with his certified composting programs manager and his daughter (heads up the online business platform). It had been more than a year since my first issue with trash and I had removed about 99% of it by hand by the time of the meeting. Although there was no significant trash for them to observe, a visual inspection indicated to them that the mulch I had received was, for lack of better words, a "one off" from their typical product. Following our talk, Aguinaga agreed to remove the old mulch and replace it with new mulch. Given that I had picked most of the trash out of the mulch and because it was already breaking down into the existing soil, I did not want it removed. Therefore, it was agreed that they would provide new mulch to go on top of the existing. They handled all the product and installation at no cost to me.
In addition, Aguinaga has been working on a coconut coir mix for gardens and want to test it out in my garden. It was agreed that come late summer/early fall Aguinaga would return and plant a garden test bed with their mix. Again, at no cost to me.
Following the above, I thought I'd give Aguinaga another chance so I ordered 25 cubic yards of mulch. The certified composting manager came out on the delivery date to make sure everything arrived in good condition. It took four people about 8 hours to move that much mulch. Aguinaga provided free delivery, but otherwise, I paid the standard price for the mulch and moved it myself (with help, of course). I wish I could write that there was zero trash, but I can't. However, I can write that the amount of trash was very nominal. Although I consider any non-biodegradable trash problematic in an environment being maintained as organic, I think the cost of the mulch ($17 cubic foot) has to be weighed with the quality of the product. In this case, I am satisfied and only needed to remove about a handful of small plastic debris (almost 100% small bits of plastic bag that made it past filters). The process to remove trash and debris from the product was explained to me. It seems to be a very sophisticated process requiring a significant investment in equipment. Overall, I think it works and the product is very good. I will use it again.
In addition to the much improved product (or perhaps the product had always been good and I just received a "one off" bad product), I am increasing the number of stars in my review because of the interaction I've recently had with the company's owner and employees. I had completely written this company off and even if the product improved, I still had no plans to ever buy from them again. But, after interacting with the owner/employees and seeing their resolve to make the situation right, I changed my mind. So, I have changed my rating. read more
