Lawn Care Forum banner
21 - 40 of 91 Posts
Tru green, like bad weather, will always be with us! If necessary, they will lawyer up, file chapter 7 and change their name, but they will always be around!
 
TG sucks around here too...I love seeing them spray in the wind and pouring rain.

Around here they also do lawn mowing, they lowball worse than two drunks on a Murray mower from Walmart and their quality is the worst. The city here is about to fire them.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
TG Chemlawn and TG Landcare are no longer one and the same, in regards to the mowing comment.

Be happy if you have a national in your market. They pump up the awareness with massive marketing campaigns, creating demand, then they so far oversell/underdeliver that they leave hordes of customers out searching for what was promised. Unauthorized or ghosted apps, burns, jamming everything into a 4 week schedule to get extra apps in at the end of the season, constant telemarketing additional services, etc. etc. should give you plenty of opportunity.

But they still created the demand.

I've heard the drums pounded heralding the demise of Chemlawn and now TG about every other year for the past 25, through disastrous changes of ownership, oddball acquisitions and more. Yet, they're not only still here, they're still number 1. I wouldn't hold your breath on that changing..lol
 
TG Chemlawn and TG Landcare are no longer one and the same, in regards to the mowing comment.

Be happy if you have a national in your market. They pump up the awareness with massive marketing campaigns, creating demand, then they so far oversell/underdeliver that they leave hordes of customers out searching for what was promised. Unauthorized or ghosted apps, burns, jamming everything into a 4 week schedule to get extra apps in at the end of the season, constant telemarketing additional services, etc. etc. should give you plenty of opportunity.

But they still created the demand.

I've heard the drums pounded heralding the demise of Chemlawn and now TG about every other year for the past 25, through disastrous changes of ownership, oddball acquisitions and more. Yet, they're not only still here, they're still number 1. I wouldn't hold your breath on that changing..lol
I agree 100% with this post and think it adds to my first post to this thread. But once again the oversell/underdeliver is a matter of untrained Employees who are under paid or on a commission that causes them to Lie, Cheat and Steal from both the Company and the Customer. How many post here have been a bout TG/CL Ghosting application (invoice without service) to make the daily bonus?? How many posts were about being under cut by TG/CL because the salesman under measures the Property to make the commission??

IMHO TG/CL is top heavy and consider the worker as cheap commodities that can be replaced. I think their Equipment even shows that in the fact it is very Idiot Proof. (BTW I own a former TG/CL Isuzu) Spray techs only need a Driver License and the ability to find an address.

TG/CL does create a demand and they do keep or satisfy a certain group of people. I have run into those people and you have too. They are only concerned that their weeds are some what green and the Price is low. I think in that case I/we over produce quality that the customer never perceives. So yes there is a place for TG/CL current level of service.

.
 
I think their Equipment even shows that in the fact it is very Idiot Proof. (BTW I own a former TG/CL Isuzu) Spray techs only need a Driver License and the ability to find an address.
This statement caught my eye. Isn't it good to make things as easy for your guys as possible? I try to idiot proof everything -- even for myself. Its so much easier to do all of the "heavy thinking" things at the shop and keep everything KISS simple when I'm on the lawns.
 
Just announced today. ServiceMaster is "separating" itself from TruGreen. Effective Dec 31. TruGreen is supposed to become a privately held company. Actually probably that best thing for TruGreen and their dwindling customer base. This move may allow them to get back to their roots of the 1980's. TruGreen is estimated to lose approx $30 million this year. ServiceMaster can't make a profit b/c of TG!
 
Just announced today. ServiceMaster is "separating" itself from TruGreen. Effective Dec 31. TruGreen is supposed to become a privately held company. Actually probably that best thing for TruGreen and their dwindling customer base. This move may allow them to get back to their roots of the 1980's. TruGreen is estimated to lose approx $30 million this year. ServiceMaster can't make a profit b/c of TG!
It is actually sad to think that True Green might go under. While we have no respect for the Quality of their service, They do provide both a mass advertising and Chemical Lobbying that helps our Industry greatly. Fact is TG is my best salesman, I would hate to lose them.

.
 
Just to clarify, TruGreen is not "going unde"r, (i.e. out of business, filing bankruptcy, etc.) ServiceMaster is calling it a "tax-free spin-off" of TruGreen. Making TG a stand alone company. As such, TG will be an independently held private company. As I said earlier, essentially going back to its "roots" before the first time that they were bought-out in 1987 by Waste Management. IMHO that was the beginning of the end of the "Original" TruGreen. Further compounded by the following year of the great drought of 1988!!
 
It is actually sad to think that True Green might go under. While we have no respect for the Quality of their service, They do provide both a mass advertising and Chemical Lobbying that helps our Industry greatly. Fact is TG is my best salesman, I would hate to lose them.

.
As a Stand alone Company TG has a better change of going under. They haven't turn a real profit or paid back years of Losses.

.
 
IMHO I don't think that TruGreen's soon to be ex-parent company ServiceMaster has done anything to help Trugreen. Just look at their financial mess. Too much centralization and micro-management. This is why 2 GREAT managers Don Karns & Dave Slott left years ago. The corporate "Fix" was to get rid of the mgrs that had knowledge in lawncare. And replace them with managers with a background in retail! TG can't do any worse going it alone, And may actually heal itself. They're realizing that most of their problems have been self-inflicted. :hammerhead::wall
 
Not by much.... literally baby steps, for a once great company that had it all mastered decades ago. I hear that the major debacle in 2013 was new scheduling software, that left a lot of current and new customers never getting serviced on time. (Or at all in some cases.)

Just check out what all their p.o.'d customers and even some disgruntled employees are saying. Go to www.pissedconsumer.com and type "trugreen" in the search box.
 
Some of their properties are really nice! It has to do with the manager. Some managers are horrible and don't have quality control checks. They have a just don't care attitude.
 
TruGreen is owned by ServiceMaster which in turn is owned by privite investment group Clayton, Dublier & Rice out of New York City. To my knowledge John Deere Landscapes/Lesco Inc. doesn't have any business connections with CD&R/SVM/TG. Except that TG buys their turf tractor applicator equipment from JD. And most of their products form Lesco. Then again who in the this industry doesn't buy from JDL/Lesco?
 
On January 15, 2014 ServiceMaster cut all ties with TruGreen and sent then off on their own. SVM wants to go back to being a stock-traded company, but couldn't do it as long as TruGreen kept dragging them down. And getting a new CEO every year or so, wasn't fixing TruGreen either.

HERE ARE THE BASIC FACTS:
Since 2010 TruGreen's customer counts declined 22% :confused:
Revenue declined by $210 million :dizzy:

The whole story can be found here...
www.turfmagazine.com/article-10230.aspx
 
TG is to big to completely fail. I would say that losing 500,000 customers in the last 3 years is pretty epic but they will still attract customers because of there ridiculous underpricing. Now that they have been sold off, it will be years before they start to see this huge down slide they are in to even out.
As much as you would like to use this as a selling point, you should really focus on benefits of the service you provide. Throwing another competitor under the bus no matter who says a lot about you. I don't think that's a good business practice.

But it sure is nice to see them slide!!!!!:clapping:
 
21 - 40 of 91 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top