TruGreen Lawn Care — Local services in Jersey Village

Please read our letter to TruGreen (Please read it all).

Dear TruGreen;

From 9 July 2010, we have employed TruGreen to service our lawn at the address above. We first called TruGreen to assist us with a chinch-bug infestation in part of our backyard. The treatment was effective and we managed to restore our lawn to its former state of good health by resodding the affected area. Since that time, we continued to use TruGreen's services which were generally good. It was helpful to have consistent care, because (as do many lawns in our region) we have a constant struggle with 'Brown Patch' fungus.

For most of the past five years, our chief complaint with TruGreen had been its bureaucracy that resulted in poor communication between the representatives at telephone call centers and the local operations staff and frustrating confusion with regard to scheduled treatments, billing errors and time-consuming attempts to resolve them. Beginning in July 2014, however, the problems escalated to involve the 'point of service.' Instead of having one technician, who would visit regularly and with whom one could coordinate a consistent program of lawn care, it seemed that each visit would bring a new technician whose comment would typically be, "This is not my usual route."

By January 2015, with what had been a rather wet Fall and Winter 2014, as we began to perform the tasks needed to prepare for Spring, we noticed troubling decline in the health of our lawn, particularly in the front and near the foundation along the South side of the house. When a technician came, on 28 January 2015, to apply preemergent herbicide, we discussed with him my concerns. His diagnosis was chinch bugs. We spoke with TruGreen's customer service and Scott, the same technician who had initially visited us back in 2010 visited us in early February. Scott did not agree with the cinch-bug diagnosis, instead suggesting that the lawn had too much thatch and offered to aerate it with no additional charge. Following what then seemed to be a promising meeting, we proceeded to prepay for our annual service plan ($441.64), to include 8 regular treatments and 2 treatments for Brown Patch.

Then occurred a very long wait. Periodically, we called the telephone number that Scott had left, but there was never an answer and on at least one occassion a message that the voice mailbox was full. Noone returned our calls and no aeration was done. On 11 March 2015, a technician came to apply preemergent herbicide and fertilizer. We inquired when the aeration would occur, but he could not specify. We asked him and he agreed to look into it at the office.

We waited until early in April, watching as our front lawn continued to deteriorate to its current state, as shown in the photographs (I have six compelling photos I'd love to attach).

On Friday 10 April, we cancelled our contract with TruGreen.

Interestingly, on 21 April, a technician finally came to perform the aeration. We queried him as to whether there would be a charge and as he confirmed there would be none, we allowed him to proceed.

We write to thank TruGreen for the complimentary aeration. However, we believe you must agree, it is "too little, too late" for our poor lawn. We have enlisted the services of another company, whom we hope can assist us to save it.

We are anxious to hear from TruGreen how a lawn continuously in the care of your service for the past five years came to look like this, and await your response with interest.

Sincerely,

Jonathan and...

I had two different services performed in the same day. The lawn was first assessed and treatment performed by the first technician. Within a few hours, the second technician came and performed aeration on the lawn to improve water and nutrients absorption. I learned so much in such a short time. While, I have normally maintained my own lawn, sometimes you just have to call in the professionals. The sales representative provided several different payment options and was very understanding and patient while I made my decision, which is a rarity these days!

UPDATE: 3/7/2025

Because of Sarid, I did not cancel my services with Trugreen.

I have the unpleasant responses from Darlene, a Trugreen supervisor who has been for the most part inappropriate and condescending to my comments.

She is not professional and does not represent the true face of Trugreen.

She takes what you say in your comments and makes light of them. She is demeaning and does not value the customer.

Moreover, this is not the first time this inappropriate behavior has occurred. At least two other times. When I called Customer Service, I was informed that the case was closed. She casts a stone, then hides her hand like a little child. This sort of behavior cannot continued to be tolerated!

After talking with Sarid, I will stay for now. He offered me a savings discount, but what stuck with me was he cared and understood where I was coming from as a customer.

It is about caring and respect that will allow me to stay for now.

However, Trugreen has to earn my trust back.

UPDATE: 3/18/2025

Well Trugreen has done it again!

The system needs an overhaul, just terrible!

Why give the customer the option to select preferred technicians, preferred days and times, when the system cancels your preferred requests and leaves you hanging thinking that the service is going to happen and it doesn't.

Customer service representatives are only given the script response to refer customers back to an app that doesn't give enough information to do anything with, but make a phone call inquiry.

Trugreen, you really need to get it together, just lost another Star!

UPDATE: 3/26/2025

Today was a better day with Trugreen!

I had an amazing technician named Jeffrey E. He did an amazing job and pointed out areas of my lawn that need additional attention! He took time with the lawn as though it was his own yard!

UPDATE from 4/25/2025: Now for the BAD News

Well, since we appear to be in the budget cuts cycle of our lives, I decided to start doing some budget cuts myself.

Did you know that Trugreen will doing away with the monthly payment plan before the end of the year and possibly before October 2025. Well, this is what I heard when reviewing my plan with a customer representative last Friday.

Oh, and by the way, if you change your plan, the monthly payments will be terminated.

It seems these days, everything seems to be never to give the customer an edge.

We should never sacrifice customers for profits.

UPDATE from 5/13/2025: It Is Done

I have cancelled my services with Trugreen and my balance paid. I know that there are other not so well known companies out there that can do the same services if not better than Trugreen. You know when you have to start advertising, it's not...

BEWARE!!!!!! Ok if I could give these people a negative 5 stars, I would. I only WISH I would have checked more reviews before I contracted them. I have only used them for a week, but in that week I have have almost ALL of the problems some of the other customers do and then some of my own. I must say, I don't know how this company is in business. From day one, like one customer said before the guy whom sold me the service did NOT explain what we would be getting when and how much. This was over the Labor day holiday so he said they would come out theTuesday after. They came on Wednesday. The only reason for concern was I had questions for the tech. When they arrived on Wednesday, they were done and gone before I got a chance to go out and ask the guy anything. Then they came back out and I happen to be conversing with my lawn guy when Trugreen said, " of I'm sorry ma'am I need to add another product because I didnt have it this morning. " I asked him if there would be an additional charge and he said no extra charge. I called customer service to confirm this and they said the same thing "no extra charge". Like another reviewer said, it was $29.00 to start . A day later saw in my account that they DID charge me $70 for the product the guy came back to apply the same afternoon. I called them the next day and they apologized and said they would put in a refund request and I should see it in the next 5-10 working days....we will see. Then I asked to please explain what services we would be getting from now on, when to expect them and how much for each service. The only person that I have spoken to over there was young lady by the name of Tiffany whom explained the services and put in the refund request. She rescheduled an aeration and overseed, for 9/9 but here come Monday they told me they do NOT have it scheduled until the 21st. The problem is every time I have called or messaged, NO ONE seems to know what is going on over there. They cannot EVER give you a concrete date and time for an up and coming service, always say the BEST they can do is a 24 hr notice, and if you call they day before, they MIGHT be able to tell you when. If you are someone whom like to keep a schedule in order to coordinate other services, this DOES NOT work!! I don't see how anyone can run a business this way. I think THEY need to be calling the customer to let them know NOT the other way around. Every single person I have spoken with over the phone seems uninterested in helping the calling customer, put out, annoyed, amused and could care less what my concerns were. You can just tell by their demeanor over the phone. I ONLY wish I had seen all of these reviews before. I will definitely NOT recommend this company to ANYONE and only hope other potential customers check them out THROUGHLY before, to...