Our front yard had french drains that were inadequate. Years ago we installed too few, too shallow…read more We were going to re-do them ourselves, but I thought it would be a treat for my hubby to pay a pro to do this so that he could focus on his other projects (total kitchen remodel simultaneously) I knew Jeff & hoped that trading pro skills would serve all of us nicely.
I am filled with remorse that I pushed my fella to pay this company to work in our yard. Each day he came home from work & was immediately angry. The crew were not executing as discussed. Each day my fella felt obligated to become the "general" on this job, outlining concerns, expressing expectations, offering use of OUR lazer level to ensure this is done BETTER than we could have done ourselves. Each following day, instead of relief that we had gotten on the same page, he would find yet another disconnect between expectation/agreed to processes, & further fear that we had made a bad decision here.
Jeff is a very nice man. He listens to your concerns. He tells you he will make it right, even if HE PERSONALLY has to come help. However that doesn't actually occur.
In the end, after all the funds were spent, we ended up with SEVERAL ugly surface drains (where there used to be none), far less topsoil than agreed to, a hardpan that was never dug down deep enough, nor properly graded & ultimately the job failed... the yard was now WORSE than before SLS started. Add to this, our backyard never got proper topsoil depth, our sand pit was filled with borderline gravel NOT sand, & we did not get the drawings/map for our irrigation system as promised. We hoped that things would "settle" eventually, even waited several months to be sure of drainage failure before expressing upset & insisting on remedy. We were promised that would happen in spring. We waited and heard nothing about starting the job/remedy.
At this point, devastated at having thrown huge money away (excess of 10k)& watching my husband's face as he accepted that we are in fact going to have to SPEND more, & do it over again, I went over Jeff's head to the owner.
They were ONLY willing to offer SOME dirt, & seed. They would not bring their machines over. They would not refund. As you can imagine, my husband was NOT willing to have the crew come back & attempt to do the work correctly, there was no reason to believe it would go differently.
Now, after literally taking a full week off from work, & spending literally over 5k MORE, my fella has the front yard corrected. He did EXACTLY what we asked for, agreed to, & paid for, but NEVER GOT.
We have pics to document that this is all true, as well as receipts for all of this. We tried so hard to make this a mutually beneficial experience. We hoped so much to sing SLS praises & continue referring them going forward.
Sadly, now I warn against them. I lost a friendly connection that I valued & lost clients DESPITE never dropping the ball on my end of the professional exchange.
No Good Deed Goes Un-Punished :(
