Donna Burdick from D&J landscape contractors.com is my worst nightmare. I my opinion, what she did to me and my backyard amounts to evil, criminal, deceptive business practices, and Elder Abuse. I am 65 years old, have a permanent handicapped parking plaque, have had three-foot surgeries, and damaged my knee. I was on a walker when I met Donna Burdick. My right leg was swollen double its size.
I am filing a complaint with the contractor Licensing Board and hopefully suing her in small claims court. She stole $10,000 in my home's equity for over charging. Because of Covid I could not get other landscapers to give me a bid. The Philbrook Farms HOA wanted our yards done within 6 months of moving in. Now I have to pay another landscaper to fix what she did. My nephew and I spent two weeks bagging 80 bags of the garbage Trail Mix mulch she put in my yard. My leg and feet got worst.
A Contracting License Board Agent told me $10,000 is about right, for landscaping a backyard. Burdick charged me $20,000 for a poorly done job and she used free mulch from the county and used rusty cloth staples. She redesigned my yard and did not follow the plans. For $20,000 you could have had the front and back done. I need thousands more to remove what she did and redo her crappy work. My backyard will be $30,000 when it is completed. The sprinkler system was poorly done and has to be redone, too.
Burdick declared my backyard an orchard. Burdick told me she had a better mulch for my yard than what Bruce Hegna from Nature/Nurture had in my HOA approved plans. She didn't show me what this great mulch was and I never heard of it either. This crap is not sold in stores. The county gives it away for free and it has huge chunks of wood in it, I discovered this later. Burdick kept saying it was the best for my yard. After being badgered, I told her if it was the best, go ahead. I was horrified when they brought it in. I told her men; I could not walk on that. When she showed up for more money, I had taken the large chunks of wood, lined them up and told her to walk on them and show me how safe that was. She refused. I asked her to pick up all the large pieces and she did not. I told her I could not walk on it. She adamantly said, "This is the BEST mulch for you." I became afraid of her. The look on her face was frightening.
She sounded like those crazy Antifa and BLM protestors, in Portland. I am 65 and afraid of falling and twisting my ankles. Burdick insisted these chunks of free wood mulch were prefect for my yard.
I have sent her email mails to remove it. She did not. Burdick made it so I could not walk in over 2/3 of my yard. Burdick lied about many gardening questions, I asked her. She made me get rid of many of my plants she didn't want to plant. She refused to put the 3 trellises up for my Espalier apple tree. She kept putting the trellises on the side of the house. I pull them out. She told me to wire the apple tree to the fence. Burdick put a sprinkler box on the outside of my house under the overhang. The wires were hanging down to the plug. I asked her to cover the wires. Her man used a left-over plastic tube with words on it. She told me to paint it.
Donna Burdick does not tell you what the whole job cost, when giving a bid. Part A was $11,350. When paid, she sends you part B. She wanted $7,700 more. If I had known that I would have never hired her. She wanted that contract signed right away. I was trying to call a lawyer. Because of Covid no one called me back. She wanted $700 for arborvitaes and $250 for whisky barrels, more. No plants are included in the cost. She did buy me one jasmine. She sent me Part C after the $20,00 was paid for $1,216.00 more she claimed was taxes she forgot. I did not pay that. She is evil and deceptive. The work was poorly done and looks like an amateur did it. The trees were not planted deep enough. The sprinkler system needs to be redone. Burdick doesn't listen when you tell her what you want. She does her own thing. I told her to scrape out the wheat grass and weeds. She covered them with some dirt and cloth. The yard was not leveled correctly. She poured the large chunks of wood over the cloth and I was not given top soil. She did not want to plant sod grass area. I was supposed to have flowering plants in beds. She did not do that. She did not tell me her 5 whisky barrels were to replace my flower beds. I did not want the whisky barrels. I was going to have to paint them red. She did not take pictures of her finished $20,000 work. They did not clean up my driveway. They covered up the rocks around the trees and she did not come back to check the work.
My neighbor was quoted $48,445.00 Part A, by Burdick. After knowing and seeing my yard done, by D&J Landscaping Contractors, the neighbor got Four Seasons. They did a beautiful job for her under $30,000. She had 3 retaining walls done.
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