My lawn doesn't grow...its your fault!

[BRIMOW525]

I don't know about anyone else but I'm tired of Chemlawn guys telling my customers that their grass isn't growing or looking good becasue cut it too short.. cut it too high... go too fast... go too slow (yes too slow)..cut too often.. not often enough.. blades too dull... cutting when its wet.. cutting when its dry...cutting too early it day... cutting too late in the day... It's never Chemlawn or the customers fault. Like.... never water it??? Right kind of fertilizer???? Enough fertilizer???? At right time to fertilize???? I don't make it grow.. I just cut it when it does. Is that so hard to fiqure out?? OH OH and never because there isn't enough sun getting through the trees... NEVER! :cry:

[Eric ELM]

What gets me is when you see a lawn growing an inch a day in heavy growth times on an over fertilized lawn and here they are out wading though knee high grass pushing their spreader. :mad:

[crazygator]

Well just remember, if you had a company that just blew alot of smoke wouldnt you want to blind as many as possible? This would increase your sales right? It is obvious TG/CL is following many of us and trying to decieve not only our customers but everyone they can. Why would they do this? Must be the majority are catching on to their wrong ways, and tired of being cheated in prices vs service. And when they stop coming and spraying their lawn paint what happens? It turns funny colors, just not green and for sure isnt healthy. I dont think this can be good for your business to grow on. If you perform a bad service, it will catch up with you. Maybe its finally catching them! Lets only hope....LOL!

[Keith]

Originally posted by BRIMOW525
I don't know about anyone else but I'm tired of Chemlawn guys telling my customers that their grass isn't growing or looking good becasue cut it too short.. cut it too high... go too fast... go too slow (yes too slow)..cut too often.. not often enough.. blades too dull... cutting when its wet.. cutting when its dry...cutting too early it day... cutting too late in the day... It's never Chemlawn or the customers fault. Like.... never water it??? Right kind of fertilizer???? Enough fertilizer???? At right time to fertilize???? I don't make it grow.. I just cut it when it does. Is that so hard to fiqure out?? OH OH and never because there isn't enough sun getting through the trees... NEVER! :cry:

Sounds familiar. I have had a many run-ins with these slackers. They blame weeds in the yard on you too?

[Barkleymut]

Why not sell them on your own fertilizer program? I have a couple who are still with other companies but only because I just picked them up. When aeration time comes around I will sell them on my program versus the 3 apps during 90+ degrees they get with the big boys. One of my new lawns uses Scotts lawncare. I was there one time when the guy was applying and I spoke with him. It was late June and was on a lawn that is never watered and he was applying a 30 something nitrogen product. I about fell over laughing so then I asked him if it was slow release and he said yes 100% "not that crap that Lesco sells". Then he asked if I would be done soon, I guess he couldn't tell that I was done mowing, trimming, and edging and only had to blow off the drive and sidewalk. He said that he had to spray some weedkiller, well he apparently used something that doesn't work worth a crap because that lawn has more weeds than ones that I haven't sprayed in a month. By the way last week there was more fertilizer on the lawn. I wonder how many # of nitrogen they use per 1000 sq. ft per year? I would guess about 50 as I triple mow this lawn in the dead of summer. They sure are lucky we have had adequate rainfall.

[kutnkru]

Originally posted by Barkleymut
Why not sell them on your own fertilizer program? ...I agree that if you are not going to offer your clients a one-stop-shop then you cannot complain when you are not taking proactive measures to ensure their investment is recieving the best possible care.

If you are not State Certified to apply chems, I would find an applicator that does not cut and hire him to do it for you - this way you are working together with the applicator, and you have eliminated the "He Said/She Said" riga-ma-roll associated with Giants such as TG-CL who sell volume not quality care programs.

Good Luck!
Kris

[awm]

do believe chemlawn is outnumbered . mabe we just get togather and give him a little blanket party. if you younguns dont know what that is. you were never in the service and im just old.
later tm:D

[GLM]

Dont even get me started on this subject! I now tell people once that I am cutting at proper height with sharp blades once a week and doing everything posible to help thier lawn and on their second complaint I tell them "You should probably have the fertilizer guy mow since I an not able to mow to his high standards thank you for your bussiness, I am unable to take care of your property any more." You should see their jaws drop. I am so sick of this I just give those accounts up and walk away. Example from this summer.
Client talking about first cu on new lawn..
Client " the lawn is all uneven cut it lower"
Me " I am cutting it at 3 " and any lower will damage it."
Client "cut it lower"
I lower the mower and Proceed to "even it out"
next week scathing letter from client about conversation with the Organic fert guy. You are killing my lawn cutting it way to low cut it higher !
I call and remiind her that I was ordered by her to cut it at that height. Oh no problem.
Couple months later. Lawn is starving for fert. covered with red thread and some ugly looking.Untreated back yard is nice and green.
Client says "Fert guy says you need to cut at 3 inches"
Me " go get your tape mesaure and meet me on the drive way."
Cleint "why"
Me " so I can show you that thats how high your lwan is alaways cut"
Cleint " well he says its not and you cannot cut it every week it must be ten days so his product can have time to work."
Me " why is that back yard that is not treated by fert guy so nice and green and thick?"
Client. "I don't know but I paid him for the whole year and I have to do what he wants."
Me " well you better have him mow it because I won't mow it every tem days the back is already too tall at seven, I'm sure that he can acomodate you since he has all of your money already."
I loade up my mower and left. that was in June and I still havent been paid by her. This week she gets the "Nastie" gram sent it the mail. These fert. companies are so quick to blams the guy cutting the lawn its not even funny getting that customer in the middle. I really questiond this customer and she has no idea what product is bineg aplied and mesured my mower at 3" but still said the fert guy said it was to low. I could go on all day I have to go calm down! This topic was close to home. :blob2: :blob2: :blob2:

[yergus]

please do not talk bad about chem-lawn/ tru-green. i love them.
hell if it weren't for those guys, i wouldn't have a chem app business at all. with them out in the force, i get a lot of calls from their dissatisfied customers, then when i show them that chem apps do work, i get even more referrals from them. so thank you chem lawn, keep at it, i want More business.

[gusbuster]

I can't even see how a big company with so many un-certified techs telling somebody that the lawn is cut too short, too long ect..

chem-lawn/ tru-green has bought out some of the bigger commerical maintenance companies in my area. They just keep on losing them to smaller maintenance contractors such as my uncle and myself.

Keep up the good work chem-lawn/ tru-green:confused:

[Nathan]

Just ran into a similar situation today. We did a recent bark job on a maint. customer. We are always very careful with the mulch around plants, and double check every plant before the job site is left.
The customer comes out and tells us that davey tree was just there to do the shrub fert. and told her all,yes all bushes are buried by mulch and will die if not unburied. I told her that it was very unlikely, blah blah. She then tells me that the 'arborist' said if we didn't do it immediately everything would die. I actually started laughing and asked the lady if she truly thought the applicator was a licensed arborist, she did. I showed her a plant that turned out to be, surprise not buried and proceeded to check the rest, all fine. Hopefully next time the customer will question the dumbass techs and believe my statements.

[David Gretzmier]

cool- another gripe session. I have no steam to blow off except to say it rained today, but please don't gripe that you would kill for rain. Dave g

[yergus]

I JUST STARTED CHEM APPS THIS YEAR, DID VERY LITTLE ADVERTIZING, AND I PICKED UP 13 CUSTOMERS (SO FAR) AND THEY WERE ALL PRIOR CUSTOMERS OF TRU- GREEN. ALL BUT ONE WAS SATISFIED, AND THE ONE REALIZED THAT THE REASON HE STILL HAS CRAB GRASS WAS BECAUSE HE TURNED ON THE IRRIGATION SYSTEM SHORTLY AFTER I SPOT SPRAYED.
SO CHEM LAWN REALLY DOES HELP, NOT THE CUSTOMER, BUT US SMALLER COMPANIES.

[GreenStar]

i thought scotts was really going to make a dent in the service market.they advertise that all their techs go to the turf institute in ohio,b.s. i stopped one of their guy's no special scotts fert they are throwing 33-3-10 40%scu. i thought they would use bcmu in all the products.oh well i guess we'll pick up their slack.this really bothers me,all the old barefoot people run this operation .you have to admit barefoot did great work

[cos]

All the fertilizing companys always blame the grass cutter. The most common one is that the blades are too dull. My friend refered a customer to a big fertlizing company in the area and they inturn told them that he wasn't cutting the grass with sharp blades. He sharpens them everyday. What a bunch of pathetic business practices.

[GrassChopper]

The chem companies are starting that here too! They told one of my customers that I was cutting their grass too short (4") and they dumped me! I didn't really care too much for that account anyway, but it's the principle.

They have told others that I cut too short and my blades are dull. Fortunatley these other customers didn't listen to them.

[Falcon2006]

Chemlawn is out to bleed you and your customers dry bottom line. There company has no integrity . If you spend the big bucks you may get a reasonable service otherwise look out . They play a great game of blackmail once they get you hooked in. The other day a customer of chemlawn asked me to take care of ther lawn. She said her lawn looked like the big " C word". I kindly spoke the truth about chemlawns service. You know the old saying .What comes around goes around.

[work_it]

Wow, talk about digging through the archives for this thread.

Falcon, only advice I can give you is to hold your tongue when talking with a customer about another company. It doesn't matter what the company does or your opinions about the other company; it's considered very unprofessional to speak poorly of another company. Instead you should respond with something like, 'Sir/Mrs/Miss, obviously you're not pleased with them. You should consider hiring a different company.' This is also when you offer to give her an estimate if you're licensed and insurred to apply turf chemicals in your state.

[K.Carothers]

Wow, talk about digging through the archives for this thread.

Falcon, only advice I can give you is to hold your tongue when talking with a customer about another company. It doesn't matter what the company does or your opinions about the other company; it's considered very unprofessional to speak poorly of another company. Instead you should respond with something like, 'Sir/Mrs/Miss, obviously you're not pleased with them. You should consider hiring a different company.' This is also when you offer to give her an estimate if you're licensed and insurred to apply turf chemicals in your state.


work it has some good advice. I never talk trash about another LCO when I get a call from a "dissatisfied" customer of theirs. This customer may be the biggest pita and soon will be talking trash on me to another LCO. We owe it to each other in the business to let our work speak for us. It's hard at times, I know, but it pays in the long run.

P.S. TruGreen is another story. Sometimes the truth must be told to our customers when companies like Trugreen pull that blame crap.

kc

[work_it]

P.S. TruGreen is another story. Sometimes the truth must be told to our customers when companies like Trugreen pull that blame crap.
kc
I know it's hard to keep from bashing them back, but I still respectfully disagree. Never lower your standards to meet somebody elses. I have said things like, 'Their professionalism is showing through as usual...while I'm shaking my head with a very sarcastic look on my face. Then try taking a few minutes and try to educate your customer or whomever you're talking to while addressing some of their concerns.

[TforTexas]

I worked for ChemLawn for several years back in the day, but I didn't blame all my customers turf problems on the mowers, I took the time to identify the pest or enviromental problems causing stress on thier turf. My lawns grew, were green and my customers were very satisfied. I can assure you that it is not a Chem Lawn policy to short service the customer and blame all the problems on the mowers like this post suggests.
I think any company is only as good as its applicator.
Its just that ChemLawn being the largest lawn care company in the country has the greatest number of applicators so conciquently also has the most rookie, disgruntled, bad attitude, and inept applicators.
I've seen some small companies that offered some pretty attrocious service and programs, believe me!

[kmann]

I don't know about anyone else but I'm tired of Chemlawn guys telling my customers that their grass isn't growing or looking good becasue cut it too short.. cut it too high... go too fast... go too slow (yes too slow)..cut too often.. not often enough.. blades too dull... cutting when its wet.. cutting when its dry...cutting too early it day... cutting too late in the day... It's never Chemlawn or the customers fault. Like.... never water it??? Right kind of fertilizer???? Enough fertilizer???? At right time to fertilize???? I don't make it grow.. I just cut it when it does. Is that so hard to fiqure out?? OH OH and never because there isn't enough sun getting through the trees... NEVER! :cry:
You forgot: Your Lawn Guy is trimming too short, and the reason you have Weeds and Chinch Bugs is because he brought them in on his Mower!!

[QualityLawnCare4u]

I have a client that 2 years ago had a nice green healthy lawn but just would not leave it alone. Had one of those squirt companies to come in and spray the lawn and told him I was cutting it to short (3 inches). The client literally came running out of the house in a rage when I pulled up to do his lawn and I had no idea what he was so pizzed about until he told me. The next week his nice green lawn was dead as a doornail:D The tech still tried to blame me but it was later found out that whatever he sprayed was mixed 10 times stronger than what it should have been. My client sued them to have his lawn resodded but the lawn finally came back before they went to court. I love being blamed from everything from weeds to dead spots to bugs and everything else:mad:

[pjslawncare/landscap]

One of my long time customers came out and said the fert guy told her that my mowers were bringing weeds to her lawn from under the decks :realmad: . While talking to her I noticed wide spaced shades of green across her yard and mentioned that it looked like they were skimping on material. After further discussion, she told me that they didnt like the first price they gave her so they lowered the price. She became pissed when she relized that it looked like they were skimping and asked me to take over the fert. I told her my price, she said fine, I know youll be worth it and she went inside to call & cancel the guys that were blaming my for the weeds payup :gunsfirin

[WalkerMike98]

Tru-Green is the biggest joke I have ever seen. They suck. In the last two years I have aquired 11 of their clients.

[cwlawley]

What gets me is when these people expect sod to appear after you have mowed it once....I'm thinking to myself it was mostly weeds and dirt in the first place.