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My credentials: I worked in the landscaping and lawn care industry for five years when I was in my early 20's. Later, I studied Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University. I have always proudly cared for my own yard including the application of fertilizers, *** control chemicals and pesticides. I hired TruGreen in the spring of 2015 because my age and health had made it difficult to do the work myself. This was a huge mistake on my part.

The TruGreen 'Specialist' who cared for my yard over-treated some areas for weeds while ignoring other areas where weeds flourished. This created dead spots especially around edges but also in sizeable patches throughout the lawn. He applied fertilizer sporadically resulting in multi-colored grass, light green in large patches, medium green in between the patches and dark green around the edges where multiple passes resulted in over-application. He created receipts which did not reflect reality. In other words, a typical receipt would indicate that he treated my entire yard of 7,600 square feet with 7.6 gallons of *** killer when in fact he sprayed only one or two gallons in a spot treatment format around the edges of my lawn. By the way, my yard is over 15,000 square feet in area. He ignored my request to NOT treat my fenced in backyard, a request I made because that is where my dogs spend all their time. After treating this area against my express instructions TWICE when I was not home, I literally had to make a sign to hang on the gate to remind him to not enter the back yard. Finally, the 'Specialist' had a habit of testing his sprayer over my front sidewalk where he created dead borders by accidentally spraying desirable ground covers while adjusting the spray head pattern or concentration.

I made multiple calls to TruGreen Customer Support about these issues over the course of the summer. I was generally polite and receptive to suggestions about cutting my grass longer in hot weather and watering during dry spells. I met with the local TruGreen Manager who came to my home to explain why my bad looking yard was not their fault. However, when I finally hit the end of my rope and told Customer Support that I wanted to stop service at my address, she informed me that TruGreen would come back to apply more fertilizer and/or *** killer for free between all regular scheduled applications, and that I could have had them come to my house "8 or 10 more times for free" in order to fix any and all problems. I think this is a TERRIBLE business model because it requires the customer to perform the critically important process of quality control for TruGreen, something they are apparently not capable of doing themselves.

I am glad to be rid of TruGreen and will now find a new lawn care provider (A) who knows what they are doing, (B) who does not blame me or my yard for their over-application and under-application of chemical products, (C) does not require me to provide quality control inspections and (D) does not call me frequently to try to upsell more applications or treatments than I originally contracted.

Reason of review: Bad quality.

Location: Canton, Ohio

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Guest

If you know so much then you should do it yourself. I'm guessing you didn't do your part in making your lawn beautiful line regular meeting at correct height, watering frequently, following up with trugreen if and when you had issues. Tot can blame them all day but 9 times outta ten your the problem.

Guest

July15, 2015 Fertilizer was applied in a terrible pattern and with piles. Killing my grass in the highly concentrated areas.

Killed my new grass. Killed my neighbors' grass on either side of me. A representative came out and applied a little lime to certain areas five days after the application. But not enough and not in all the bad places.

I was not home. He told my husband that lime would counteract the fertilizer. Our summer has been very dry. Even though I water, I could not counteract the fertilizer.

They should check with the customer if they plan to be away on vacation in the summer prior to applying fertilizer. I worked late hours and didn't get home until 8pm.

That fertilizer sat in the summer's heat until I got home. Plus who could possibly water the entire yard in the dark ?- Maureen Hosie Gaithersburg, Md