Great Outdoors — Local services in Scio Township

I used them for my lawn maintenance for roughly two years. We recently had to part ways because the owner employs peeping toms. We have had a few issues in the past that never came to much, but I should have known a year ago to stop using them. They mowed/weed whacked some young flowers down and also have knocked down a small garden ornament. Most recently, I called to complain about the person who mowed my lawn a couple days ago. I actually walked up onto my deck and started looking in my window wall. I did not see him look, but my two children did. I did see him walking off of my deck though. I came in the house and my kids were FREAKED OUT about him looking in the window. I called them and was told that the lady who answers the phone was waiting to hear from the crew supervisor about my complaint. When she finally called me back, she tried to tell me that the person doing my lawn care wasn't looking in my window, but was actually just going slow because he was trying not to cover my neighbors in grass. My response was "that isn't true, because my neighbors are on the NORTH side of my house and the side with my deck is on the SOUTH side." I then asked for that crew not to come back to my home and was told that I am not allowed to make such a request. It was suggested that I speak to the owner. I called back and was told that we were hearing about discussions that other people had. I did agree to that and explained about my kids seeing him look in the window and also me seeing him leaving his deck. So to make a long story short, the crew supervisor that they called WAS NOT ACTUALLY AT MY HOUSE.

I can't express enough how horrible this experience was. PLEASE do not hire them. I believe I may be the first person to complain about basic lawn maintenance, but I have been viewing plenty of poor reviews about their snow removal and...

I’ve been working with Great Outdoors since the winter to evaluate the installation of a French drain along my backyard and side yard due to the slope of my property. We agreed to hold off on the project until spring when the weather would be more favorable.

During the winter, our underground sump pump line froze, causing water to back up and discharge through the gutters and downspout near the house. I had Rebecca come out to assess the situation, and she provided a quote to bury the sump pump line and extend it to the front yard, in addition to the previously discussed French drain installation.

On March 17th, I submitted a 50% deposit to cover all three components of the project. However, around the same time, a contractor working on our sunroom remodel recommended delaying the French drain work until after demolition and construction were complete, to avoid damaging any new drainage installation with heavy equipment and trucks.

On April 8th, I reached out to Rebecca to request an updated proposal. I asked her to proceed with the sump pump line installation now and to create a separate proposal for the backyard and side yard French drain to be completed in the fall, post-construction.

Since then, I’ve been trying to coordinate with both the finance department and the Great Outdoors team regarding the partial refund, as the sump pump line cost is significantly less than the original 50% deposit. Nearly two months have passed, and I have yet to receive a clear update on when the refund check will be issued. I’m becoming increasingly frustrated and concerned about the lack of communication and follow-through on resolving this matter.

The sump pump line work was done well, but this unresolved issue has really overshadowed...

Last summer, we went with Great Outdoors for our patio, bed prep and the planting of a few trees. It was a pretty miserable experience with a lot of missteps and sloppy work along the way. Among other issues, the bed prep was woefully inadequate and now, this spring, other landscaping companies are telling us they can’t plant in our yard due to the poorly done bed prep (Great Outdoors gave us significantly less than the expected six inches of bed prep). As a result, when my wife planted just a few tulips and daffodils late last summer, we had to dig out a bunch of the clay (see photo) and add in our own soil. After hearing from multiple landscaping companies early this spring about how screwed we were, we asked Great Outdoors to come out and take a look with us. The Great Outdoors owner acknowledged that there wasn’t enough soil and asked to confer with his employees who were directly involved in the work last summer. After discussing it with them, he offered to drop off some soil for us. We replied that this would still leave us with the cost of removing the mulch, adding in the new soil, and tilling it in, all of which were supposed to be part of the original bed prep; we didn’t think it would be fair for us to eat the thousands of dollars of correcting their job that wasn’t done properly. We haven’t heard back from the owner since then. I’d advise people to stay away from Great Outdoors. Plenty of people in town have had far better experiences with other local...