TruGreen Violation of Fair Debt Collection Act, Services Not Rendered, Poor Customer Service Shawnee Kansas

I hired TruGreen in Shawnee, KS last spring for lawn applications. By far, they are the worst company I have ever dealt with.

First of all, they stated they would come every two months to apply fertilizer. Rather than showing up every two months, they came every month the first three to four months despite repeatedly asking them to only treat the lawn once every two months.

Second of all, they burned out our lawn and applied grub control when it was not ordered. A manager showed up to inspect the lawn, stated he would credit our bill for the problem, and then failed to do so. I had to repeatedly contact him via e-mail before the bill was finally credited.

Third of all, they give you about 24 hours advance notice before showing up to do your lawn. This was a major problem this fall, because it took forever for all the leaves to drop on the trees. I repeatedly asked them not to apply fertilizer if leaves were not racked or mowed over yet, and they willfully applied fertilizer despite my request. The rep on the phone simply stated that we should just mow over the leaves which would release the fertilizer on the grass and soil. How does TruGreen know that we don't rack our leaves? Moreover, mowing over the leaves does not properly release the fertilizer on the grass. I know this by looking at our lawn. The areas where there were no leaves to begin with are quasi green and the other areas are completely taupe.

Fourth of all, I refused to pay for the last two lawn applications, approximately $100, because our lawn looks like it hasn't even been treated. A collection agent called our home three times in about five minutes, each time with me answering the phone, which isn't legal per the Fair Debt Collection Act. They can only call once per day if a person answers the phone.

Fifth of all, I called to complain about the collection calls, the appearance of our yard, and the overall experience with TruGreen since 04/2014. I requested that a supervisor call me back. I began calling on 12/31/2014, and I placed three to four calls before a manager called me back. More specifically, they gave the excuse that they had the "wrong phone number" on our account, and they were not able to call back due to the incorrect number. They gave this excuse each time I called, each time I corrected them and gave them the correct number. This seems like a convenient excuse considering they had the correct number before (e.g. lawn application notifications and collection calls) when calling our residence. Moreover, I e-mailed a manager on 01/10/2015 and received no call back or e-mail. Therefore, since no one had called me back or e-mailed by the 15th of January, I filed reports with the BBB of Kansas City and the Attorney General of Kansas.

On 01/22/2015, I finally received a call back from TruGreen. They stated they would send someone out to look at our lawn. On 01/27/2015, a rep showed up at our residence. While he offered to repeat the lawn applications, I told him no, because I had terminated our service with TruGreen and had hired another company. He then proceeded to say, "then why am I here"? I told him it was because we needed our bill credited, that he needed to inspect the lawn, and that I had no desire to continue to use them due to the problems over the last year. Their rep then began to argue with me, stating that our lawn should look taupe because it is winter. I pointed out the green areas of our lawn, the other lawns in our neighborhood, and reminded him that they applied winterizer. He then jumped the gun and stated the company that we hired must be lying to us and claiming that our lawn should be greener. Not so. I told him I know someone with a horticulture degree, that my grandfather was a farmer, and I know what our lawn should look like; moreover, we have had our lawn treated every year since we moved here in 2006, and it has never looked so terrible. It is also worthy to mention that I have taken Botany courses and have a general understanding how our lawn should look. He then stated that a person with a horticulture degree wouldn't know what they were talking about because they only treat shrubs and that my grandfather was only "a farmer" and didn't know what he was talking about. This explains why our lawn looks so terrible, since any reputable company as large as TruGreen would hire employees that actually know what the field of horticulture does; they treat fruits, vegetables, algae, fungus, woody plants, and handle turf management: residential and business lawns. It is also pretty pathetic that he didn't know this considering K-State sends out turf management tips to Kansas residents every year, specifically their horticulture department.

When I told him that I didn't want to argue with him and ordered him off our our property, he told me I was rude. Finally, he stated we would continue to get collection calls because he would never credit our bill, stating our lawn looked fine, even though he had offered to retreat it, a blazing contradiction, but more specifically because I was rude to him. Employees should not be allowed to make subjective judgments about a customer's attitude, nor should they be allowed to refuse to credit a customer's bill based on their judgment of the person's attitude. Seriously.

Because of all of these problems and filing the reports about the incidents, they have finally removed the charges.If they are not properly treating your lawn, it is a big deal to hold them accountable, because it boils down to services not rendered.