TruGreen

We had been using TruGreen for almost 15 years and have stopped using them due to their unethical sales practices. Yes, they show up as professionals, notify you they are here, bring dog bisquits, etc. However, those guys at the door often say, «we’re here to do xyz services». As normally I just thank them and go on my way. Come to find I never «ordered» those upsells, and they charge you because you politely say, «uh huh. great, thanks.» as many would. Also they have sales people who call you and do the same tricky way of upselling. I would think they would value my business more than that. Goodbye and good riddens. Buyers beware!

I wrote the following review 18 months before, and during these 18 months, I have received around 10 calls from them to sell their service. I tried everything, I tried to explain the reason patiently and tell them I won’t go with their service. I tried to hang up their calls directly. I tried to tell them «please don’t call my number anymore», but nothing can stop them from calling.
I am writing this after they called me again 15 mins before.

Follow up from previous post: Tru Green Arrborist visit…
Goal: simply determine if my ornamental garden was now suffering and dying from the effects of the weed killer sprayed directly on it.
Outcome: I got a report that my cherry tree is fine (great thanks, I appreciate that) what about the lilacs? Um there is no report for them! What about the hydrangea? No report for that either! Apparently when Tru Green write a report, they will not report on the issues, just come back and report on what they choose?
My disgust for this company continues! I am going to start with a quote from the Redmond Manager J. Selk. «There is nothing safe in this world!» (I told him I would quote him on this, where he continued to say, sure quote me… highways are not safe, even water is not safe!)
This was his response to the weedkiller product. This comment came right after discussing how one of his own staff told me that the weed killer they use is SAFE! That kids and pets can play on the lawn right after this has been applied! Never mind what it does to the weeds and on further reading, coming across studies in other states where this product is now band or undergoing class action lawsuits. Thanks Jim, but your comments don’t fill me with confidence in your brand, product. As a consumer, I just want to know what I am using!
It’s funny, this isn’t even the real issue. Honestly, the REAL PROBLEM I have is that this product was sprayed in my ornamental garden months ago, the plants are now sick and dying and they are denying that they even sprayed in that area.
The manager has since spoken with the staff member who sprayed my garden to kill the buttercups (see previous post on story). He denies doing this now. So as a client where do I go from here?
The dishonest and shady practices that take place with this location is beyond disturbing and stakeholders in this company need to pay attention.
All I want to know as a client is this:
— Is the weed killer product you are using on my lawn SAFE for my kids and pets to come in contact with straight after application, first thing in the morning when there is dew on the ground? (If not, I will keep them off, just don’t tell me it is safe if it is not!)
— Is the product safe for surrounding plants and plants that it comes into direct contact with? (it is hormone based and my plants now have clear symptoms of hormone confusion)
Well, thanks Jim for calling me today, I am now even more disappointed with your company. It seems that the best way to get your attention is to post here, as you clearly mentioned you were calling me as you were being contacted by your supervisors regarding my past post. I would love very much to speak with them regarding this matter, explain to them the disregard you have for your clients as well as your own staff, but that is another story.
I just want honesty and my garden back to how it was before you sprayed the buttercups… is that too much to ask? Pathetic really!

They are the worse company ever. They damaged my concrete boarder just installed. Spread grass on non grass beds, and NEVER are available for calls, or call you back.
UGH The phone # to call just give you ads for more services, no one available for assistance.
Finally reached them after a week of calls and messages and they put me on hold, then hung up. No call back.

These guys are awful! I’ve been using them for years and my lawn looks worse than all my neighbors who don’t do anything to their lawns. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! When I complained, a manager came out to see my lawn and refused to reimburse me for applications I didn’t want. They are expensive, their products don’t work, and the customer service is terrible.

I am updating my prior review. This is not a personalized company, it is run nationwide and cannot deal easily with each individual’s concern in the way that I and many people might prefer.
However I spoke to the regional manager who was truly phenomenal and heard every one of my concerns. He said that as a company they are working to be able to offer a more personal type service for those who need it. He handed me off to the local management team and serviceman who then addressed our needs very well. I have been very happy with them for six months now. Grass looks fantastic and I am happy with the service. Most of all I am thrilled to see the regional management really in top form listening to customer concerns and needs and actively involved in creating a better customer care. This company will do well if it continues to grow along this model. I do not hesitate to recommend them. Get in touch with local management if you gave specific needs.

First, let me say that we have no complaints regarding the actual application of their products. Their workers or «specialists» were both professional and friendly. Our final «specialist» was Robert Shilling, efficient and knowledgeable. Our problem is with their deceptive business practices. They really sell you a «bill of goods». We purchased a 12 month contract with them and paid in advance (probably a mistake, in hindsight) and after only 7 months of service, with summer on the horizon, we were sent a bill. My husband called and we were informed that our «year» of service was over. Hmmmmm, how could this be? It turns out that a «year» of service is 10 applications. We were never told this and we made it perfectly clear that we expected 12 months of service. They (corporate) don’t give a rat’s behind about customer retention. It’s the bottom line, folks! We’ll chalk this up to yet another lesson learned… we’ll do our homework next time, hope you do yours too! Unilocal,what’s up with the four star rating right at the top? It’s the only one. Seems disingenuous. Does Tami J. work for them?

These guys do absolutely nothing. DO NOT waste your money paying them to spray placebo on your lawn. Doing nothing would be just as effective. Gotta wonder if Unilocal is BS. That top review that is right in front looks like it was written by someone from TruGreen.

Tru Green is one of those companies that has a very agressive sales force and tech’s who come and go very frequently. The work they performed on my lawn was sub par, in fact it look worse now than before, I quit them in January and the straw that broke my back was when they came out in November to but down fertilizer and grass seed. The leaves on my maple tree completely covered the lawn, as I didn’t have the time to go out and rake them up. The idiots applied it right over the wet leaves and charged me full service to boot !! Their robo calls «This is Trudy from TruGreen» became so obnoxious to me I really grew to hate that voice. They would give me one day heads up and I’d have to immediately call the techs to cancel. Then the sales people always wanted you to prepay for a year in advance, or get you to spend way more on your lawn with other services. I would never recommend this company to anyone.

Try to contact them via phone to speak to a service/​operations person and it’s impossible.
I won’t bore you with details of my service issues, but when the company makes it nearly impossible to reach a real operations person via their phone tree system, shame on them. (Of course no problem getting to their sales department … just don’t expect them to transfer you to an operations person … not going to happen.)
And shame on Unilocal … notice the 4 star or 5 star review on top of the 1 star reviews … even though the 1 star reviews are more recent. What’s Unilocal’s business model … charge TruGreen $$$ and push the bad reviews down??? I thought Unilocal was about helping consumers.

I prepaid for a year service for our lawn, trees and shrubs starting ⁹⁄₂₀₁₃. I was planning on canceling at the end of the contract as our lawn looks terrible and we lost a tree due to mites, costing us $ 700 to remove and replace. As the tree was supposed to be treated all along this should not have happened. They treated my lawn on ⁷⁄₉ and sent me an invoice for service. When I called to question it, we were prepaid for a year, I was told that the year was over (in my book a year is 12 months) They said that since they are seasonal a year is not 12 months. On their paperwork everything states prepaid for a year service. I would stay away from this company, not only because of bad service but also due to shady sales tactics. I am going to turn this company in to the Better Business Bureau as well.

I signed up despite the poor reviews, impressed by their sales patter. Thought I’d give them a try and hope to get lucky — as they are pretty cheap. I got a quote of about $ 1400 for 1 year of care.
Within 2 weeks (2 weeks!) they’d burned through $ 700. I’m serious. Now if my lawn had taken a big leap forward I wouldn’t be so upset with this but it’s now two months in, 6 weeks since they finished splurging half of my yearly spend and there has been ZERO improvement in the lawn. ZERO. If anything, the lawns is in worse condition than when they started.
Cancelling.

The company kept sending different technicians to our house — each one knocked on the door and asked us where to do the lawn service. Our lawn layout is a little complicated but not that bad — even so you figure the drivers would take notes or update our files so they didn’t have to keep asking. It gets really old for my wife, holding our baby, to keep explaining to lawn techs where to spread fertilizer.
Beyond that, their notification systems is completely broken — we’d get automated calls that they would be there on a given day, and then no one would show up that day. And then other days drivers would just show up unannounced.
The lawn did look nice, but it’s just way too much of a bother to deal with their poor management and constant parade of clueless new drivers.

We were Nutri Lawn Customers for years & years. We had some great techs and some terrible that as with others did a hurry up half ass quicky job.. It seems to come with the lawn care business. The techs have no one watching over them other than the home owner so the company has no way of knowing who is doing a good job and who is not. Our Nutri Lawn was bought out by TruGreen. I was NOT !!! happy If you as customer are not happy keep complaining to a manager if you get a tech who is not doing his job otherwise that person will stay employed and continue to do a crappy job for others. It’s not so much the company as it is the tech you happen to get. All companies end up with somet bad lazy techs.

I opted for Tru Green service as I had moved from a house with a postage-​stamp backyard the size of an average living room to one with over an acre, so I figured I’d use a professional service for the first year to ensure a good start to the property.
We had an incident last summer where the Tru Green guy showed up in the morning just as I was leaving for work. He was a nice enough guy and had the outward appearance of an honest guy; we exchanged pleasantries, and he began applying something to the lawn. I left for work, but perhaps unbeknownst to him, my wife was inside the house watching. It turns out he did about 5 minutes of work, barely covering 20% of the yard, and then left. I complained to Tru Green, and to their credit, they sent someone out a couple of days later to do the work correctly. But these things just shouldn’t happen. Had my wife not witnessed it, I would have been paying a lot of money for obviously sub-​par work, which in fact probably constitutes fraud.
Also, beware that Tru Green service automatically rolls over from one year to the next unless you proactively cancel. In fairness to them, they tell you this fact on every invoice, but I did not realize that until an invoice suddenly showed up for service just recently (in January). I really don’t like this way of doing business especially for a high ticket item. That January invoice was itself questionable in terms of whether the purported work was actually performed, but that’s a long story; the evidence is circumstantial and I cannot prove anything. So I sighed and reluctantly paid the invoice rather than go through the trouble of fighting it, and then promptly canceled my service.
Anyway, if you do elect to hire Tru Green, you might want to insist that they tell give you advance notice of when they will be coming, and that you can arrange to be home to witness their work to ensure they do what they say they are doing. .. either that or install a video recorder of your yard. As for me, I’ll invest in a fertilizer spreader and do it myself this year. It’ll be fun. And I’ll save about $ 1,000 over the year.

Everything about Tru Green is thumbs-​down! After $ 700.00, I saw absolutely no difference in my lawn. I have lived in my home for 3 years and did my own landscaping and lawn care for the first 2 years, including aerating, weed and feeding, and fertilizing. When Tru Green came into the picture I went with the services they recommended and forked over the money. I signed a contract for 8 bimonthly treatments spread out over the spring and early summer primarily. I found out later that my neighbor paid half the price for the same service, and our lawns are the same size! I called Tru Green and requested a partial refund, which they hesitantly gave into. After the first 4 services my lawn appeared to be in worse shape than before they started. Again I called Tru Green to voice my concerns and was told to continue the services and wait for results. Tru Green always rings the bell to alert homeowners of their presence and leaves a service ticket at the completion of each session. On two occasions I was home during the service visits and watched from my window as the maintenance worker spread a skimpy fertilizer over partial areas of my lawn, while skipping other places. Both times I witnessed the worker pull up and leave within 5 minutes. This is a rush service I will never again pay for! Buyer Beware!!!

This company contracts with my homeowner’s association, despite my opposition at every single homeowner’s association meeting. Why do I oppose them? Let me elaborate: they use the oldest, loudest, most polluting leaf-​blowers on the market. They use them inefficiently, I have seen four workers surrounding a tiny pile of leaves, blue gas clouds everywhere, the cacophony unbelievable. (It is a very rare thing to see their workers with any sort of eye or ear protection, which you would think would be required by OSHA.) They use them inconsiderately; they simply blow debris here and yon, with such force that it comes under our doors regularly, what a mess! Oh, and Tru-​Green has no qualms about firing these beasts up outside bedroom windows at eight a.m., that’s every week, and from what I can tell it all this accomplishes very, very little, because, the next day there are leaves all over the place again. All this, and they aren’t even effective!
I’m shocked that these loud, polluting, extremely environmentally-​unfriendly devices are still legal here in the eco-​centric Seattle area. Many municipalities have outlawed them for not only the reasons I’ve outlined, but also for the reason that they disturb pollen, dust, and particulates, thus aggravating asthma and allergies. At sound levels that can reach 90 decibels, these machines can really terrify our furry friends. Tru– Green is behind the times.

Well, apparently the saga continues. Today we received notice that we’re enrolled in not just lawn care, but shrub care and have been billed $ 700. Where’s KING 5’s Get Jesse when you need him.

I have been extremely impressed with the service, and am very happy with the change to my yard.
Two years ago, our yard was basically moss and weeds, so bad that we were planning to take it all out and replant it. One of our neighbors suggested that we give TruGreen a try, and offered us a referral discount. The yard was so bad that we laughed at the thought, but decided what the heck, we’d give it try, knowing it was a lost cause.
Boy were we wrong! Within weeks of the first treatment, our yard started looking like a yard again. The moss was disappearing and the grass was looking healthy — a look we hadn’t seen in years. Within months you would never suspect how awful it had been. For a couple hundred bucks a year we have our lawn fertilized, moss controlled and air-​rated. Totally worth every penny. Each time our lawn is serviced they give you a written description of what was done along with tips for caring for your yard between treatments.
I have been very impressed with the service, and would highly recommend TruGreen.

Terrible service, over priced. Tried cancelling they begged me to have a service manager come by and review my concerns. I clearly remembering saying okay but I am not paying for on going service. Of course they conveniently don’t have a record of that. They continued to service my lawn and charge me $ 120 their mistake. They refused to remove that charge and threatened with collections. WOW.
My lawn had more weeds and issues at the end of a years service than it did for the years prior that I maintained my lawn. They just thrown down chemicals whether it’s raining or not.
Run a mile. Seriously by your own product and apply yourself so much cheaper, the cost just keeps escalating with them.