to send a very snotty message

[BrennieGirl]

It has taken me ages to find a landscaper/gardener to tackle my back garden but I finally found a small family company to do the job. They were quite busy but I told them I was willing to wait for a couple of months.

They have called to my house four times to discuss various things, help me choose materials and spray weed killer. They suggested they start last week and said they'd be in touch. I didn't hear anything until the end of last week when they said they'd be at my house on Tuesday at 8am.

So of course you've probably guessed they didn't turn up. I texted Tuesday evening and got no reply. I texted Wednesday and asked for at least the courtesy of a reply but got nothing.

I've been wanting to sort out the garden for years and this year we could finally afford to do it. We were really excited about having a nice garden for the first time ever.

I waited in all day Tuesday and Wednesday and had even arranged to get a cash deposit from the bank.

I'm so fu**ing annoyed. It's not just that they didn't turn up, it's the rude and unprofessional way they've treated me. If there was somewhere I could leave a review, I would but they only seem to have their own website and a Facebook page.

DH says to just leave it but I want to sent a really snotty/sarcastic message. They probably won't care, but it will give me some satisfaction.

What I really want to say it that they are lying bastards and total wankers for messing me around but I won't use language like that.

So mumsnetters help me get across my feelings using more polite language??

Just leave it at that and find another company, you cannot trust them not to disappear mid job or after you handed the deposit. They simply won’t care, I suppose a bigger job came in and they decided to take it instead.

Best thing to do is block their number and tell us who they are.

We've messaged someone to do some work which is at least £300 worth with the possibility of extra work with a neighbour and they haven't even replied to say sorry, booked up for weeks or anything. We won't use them even if they replied in a minute.

Just cancel them and find another company. I wouldn't bother with them at all.

They've invested a lot of time into your garden already so it's strange they've just vanished.

I'd be tempted to ask them for a quote from a different number before leaving a snotty message. If they reply quickly to that then they're getting messages and deserve the snotty message. If they don't then something else is likely going on.

A snotty message won't achieve anything beyond perhaps temporarily making you feel better. It won't make you look good if it's public, and it won't make them come out to you quicker or give you better service. I'd send one final very polite message saying that as you haven't heard from them, you assume they are no longer available for this job, and are now moving on to another company. And then book someone else.

I know I should be the bigger person etc but I'm so disappointed. I feel like Santa didn't turn up.

I realise that emergencies happen but it's more likely that they got a better job.

I've left a review on their FB page. I just said exactly what happened and that I felt they were very unreliable. I presume they'll delete it as soon as they see it.

To the poster who asked could we not do it ourselves, no. It's being totally relandscaped and a wall is being built. It's a big job so I wanted a professional to do it.

I know I'll just have to find someone else for the job but it's easier said than done and the whole process takes so long. Some companies don't even return your initial call. Some of them charge outrageous prices. The garden is only 20ft by 50ft and I got one quote of 14K which didn't include everything I wanted.

Sigh...back to the drawing board.

Ring them from a different phone, shortly after trying them from your own. If they pick up with strange number you know they’re crap.

Speaking from experience- had a pisstaker builder who had a lot of sick relatives, sometimes 2 a day depending on what he remembered saying! We gave up with him after the first simple job took him an on and off 3 weeks.

Do it yourselves and keep the money!

I see you've left a FB message. I would have definitely made it clear that my obligation to them ended when they failed to turn up/reply because IME people like this have a habit of being quite particular about enforcing their 'rights' regardless of how they've behaved. You dont want them to turn up with some excuse just after you've hired someone else. Did you sign anything?

I’ve found this a lot recently with landscape gardeners in particular. Not returning calls, not following up on quotes and most recently not turning up once quite has been agreed. I don’t think something catastrophic has happened to the 10+ gardeners I’ve talked to in the last few weeks, I can only assume that no one wants to work on my garden!

A lot of landscaping/gardening services put the bigger jobs first and squeeze in the smaller ones around these contracts. We waited ages for our tree surgery but we were told this at the outset. When a neighbour began complaining, I simply rang them and asked the lovely receptionist to have a word and they turned up the next week, with four men and did the job in one day. Expensive but worth it.

It is rather strange for a smaller family firm to just go radio silence. Years back I had someone make loads of excuses as to whey he hadn't turned up (car crashes etc) all in all about four. He was clearly a very unlucky man. He was actually in court for assaulting his wife.

Don't bother posting negative comments, just get someone else. If they are unreliable they have probably done you a favour because you don't want to be sat around with half done jobs as the weather gets better. I had three estimates this time and two were both fine and around the same price.

Just as an aside, with smaller companies I always think cash deposits are not a good idea (although I realise you had not yet paid). At least with cheque or bank transfer there's a paper trail if ever it ends up at small claims court.

I think you’ve been too hasty in leaving a bad review. It’s strange that they’ve already invested time & resources and then gone to radio silence. It could have been due to anything, tools stolen, van broken down, member of staff ill / quit. They should have called you back to explain.