Garden

[Aliceinwonder1]

Hi.
Hoping someone can help me with this issue. At the beginning of June we appointed a landscaping company to redo our garden.
This involved levelling the grass as we had a slope and also installing retaining walls/flower beds and patio area.

The person we appointed had good reviews and the pictures looked great. We paid half the amount as agreed to cover materials and the other half to be on completion once happy with the work.

Since then it's just been issues. He's using a team and is hardly here which I think is an issue as his communication seems poor. The wall wasn't built correctly which meant he's had to bodge that a bit but fine. Then the ground wasn't levelled enough and still a visible slope which we queried and they got some soil and levelled it out, however this means it's higher than we were told it would be. We've accepted it but it means the second wall is higher and the side walls are also higher. The gardener is putting the blame on us and has got really annoyed as he needs more materials and has taken him longer in labour, which we've said isn't our fault. I feel he's actually underquoted for the job in general and is now trying to recoup the cost. The job originally was going to take 6 days he told us- there was no way this would have been the case.

The patio went in last week and it's highlighted that the step and wall they built is really off and not straight at all. Part of the patio was done by the main person and looks good, some was done by one of his workers and the grout lines are awful. There's still a path and bottom patio to do and I'm dreading it. We messaged him about our concerns and he basically said we both knew things can't be square/straight (unsure what that means as our whole thing has been wanting things to be straight and level etc). And there's nothing he can do as too far along to change things now.

They're coming back tomorrow and I'm dreading it- I feel because he's not getting much profit on this job (he keeps telling us how little he's making on it etc) he just wants it done and is doing it as quickly as possible resulting in a sub standard finish (in our eyes). I'm gutted as this is a lot of money to us, we've saved up to get it done and I was so excited but have spent the last 4 weeks anxious and stressed. I'm worried the path will be wonky and the paving poorly done.

Planning on having a chat with him tomorrow but what do we do and say. He's quite hostile in terms of when we've pointed stuff out before but also just says it's us changing things when we haven't changed anything - simply asked him to rectify the mistakes so it's as we asked for in the beginning.
When we pointed out the paving lines he just said once all done we won't notice it, but is that good enough?
Where do we stand on this- ultimately we're paying him to do the garden to a good standard. Who decides what that is?

You do! You’re paying him the rest on completion I assume? So you tell him you’re paying for exactly what you asked for. That’s what I would do. Obviously with some leeway as there are some issues which I think can come up once a job is started but it should still look nice once done, if you’re not happy with it he should fix it

I feel he thinks we're difficult customers as basically instead of just accepting mistakes we've challenged it and asked it to be put right. Resulting in him having to spend more time etc. I do understand his frustration here but ultimately if it had been done right in the first place nothing extra needed. We feel we have compromised on certain finishes to be honest.

He's outright said they won't fix the wall, basically it's not straight and really it would have been obvious had they measured and checked before putting it in. I'm just so gutted and upset by it all.
I'm now panicking they'll do a crap job on all the rest as they are annoyed at us. There's also a strong chance they will run out of sleepers again and my husband thinks he'll refuse to build the last retaining sleeper wall unless we pay. The bill has already gone up by nearly £1k because of miscommunication and we've said we won't pay for his under quoting as otherwise what's the point in getting a quote!

Well I was going to suggest you contact your local Trading Standards office. Their remit covers companies not doing work to the standard expected and they should be able to give you advice.
However if you are talking to the landscaper tomorrow it doesn't really give you any time to do that.
I agree with the pp that you certainly shouldn't pay the full balance of the outstanding amount until you are satisfied with the work. Don't allow him to bully you. Of course he is going to portray you as difficult customers but expecting to have the job done as agreed is not being a difficult customer.

They're now not coming to work on the garden today, the main person will be round this afternoon to discuss the points. So another day they won't be making any progress which is frustrating.
I'm so worried about the patio being put in correctly as it'll be so noticeable so I'm hoping to appeal to his nicer side today just so that can get done. If then they mess the other planters or grass up it's fixable but the patio isn't so if they just chuck it in it will look absolutely awful.
Wish we'd never got it done now to be honest- was meant to be the best and least stressful option!

Who decides? Small claims court if he bothers to take you to one if you rightly decide not to pay if you are unhappy.

I really feel for you OP.
I had a similar experience when I got a new kitchen a couple of years ago. That was also a company with a good image- lovely show room, professional seeming designer and good reviews. I found out later from one of the workers the reviews were manipulated. And the workers bitching about the company was one of the nightmares of the whole experience.

I paid more than intended for something which at the design stage was lovely. The workmanship ended up shoddy, the materials used not up to standard and the design not fulfilled. After months and months of dealing with the really unpleasant bullying from the company and remedial work that brought it up to an acceptable standard I settled with them because I couldn't take it any more. The kitchen is OK rather than what I really wanted and, like you OP , I wished I'd never even started the renovation. Although in truth it badly needed doing.

If I was having the experience you are having with my garden I would be genuinely distraught because my garden is more precious to me than my kitchen.

I'm really sorry they are making you feel you are in the wrong for expecting what you paid for. This really is a bullying tactic that is common with bad companies. You entered into a contract with the firm and they should be fulfilling their side of the contract I.e. doing the work agreed to an acceptable standard to you for the amount you agreed to pay.

Do you have any a friend or relative who could be present when you have this next discussion? I'm a widow and I found part of the problem was them thinking they could get away with anything because I was a lone woman. When my son was present I got listened to a lot more. That's a very sad thing to have to say in the 21st century. Perhaps your landscaper might be more amenable to listening if you had someone present to observe and if necessary make interventions to support your viewpoint.

I hope you get things sorted OP.

I'm sorry you had that experience. It's horrible when you're so excited but are let down.

My husband is here during the conversations, problem is we try and reason however I don't think he's the type to do that. Just keeps saying he's losing money etc. I understand things happen however the way he's gone about it isn't right, constantly trying to persuade us not to have things as it'll reduce his costs down (not ours as we've already paid for it essentially). I do know things can change but in truth the issues have been caused by their workmanship, some things he's confirmed they've done incorrectly but just says it'll look fine.

I don't think it helps that my husband especially has really high standards, and my expectations are very high when paying a professional company to complete the work. Ultimately I expect it to be better than what we can do ourselves.

This whole thing has taken over everything it feels. Almost wish they'd just abandon the job and call it quits. We haven't made the final payment so would find someone else to finish the patio and my husband would do the grass etc.

I'm already thinking they won't clear all the old stuff like they are supposed to and we'll be stuck with it. So annoyed with myself for using them.

You may well be better off to get someone else in now rather than let him finish a botched job. So sorry.

If they don’t compete the work you take them to small claims court. If you’ve paid for rubbish removal and they don’t do it you sue for the cost of getting it removed as they didn’t fulfil their contract.

sorry it’s been a shower of shit though. The whole point of. It diying is that it’s easy and done and why it costs a bloody fortune. For it to then be wrong is horrid.

Make sure you give honest reviews when they are finished.. Save someone else having a shoddy job done.

I made sure I gave honest reviews after my kitchen fiasco. The company promptly came on and told untruths and effectively rubbished me personally because they had a right to reply to the review
I then replied to their reply but then stopped looking at the review because it was becoming a fiasco being played out in public. But I hope that any prospective customer would look at what I had said - which was an honest account - and the personal attack on me the company made in reply - and would draw the correct conclusion that this company was not all it purported to be.

I think this is what they'd do to me- make out I changed everything and was difficult.
Part of me thinks some of it is he had forgotten the ins and outs of the job and just cracked on, well got his team to. But had he communicated with us that might have been resolved.

Thanks. That's why I'm so gutted. Might be a small thing to some but for us it isn't. I am genuinely upset about it and it's consuming everything.
If we wanted this stress we'd have done it ourselves and just taken the hit that way.

I just know it'll be another fight about the removal. I think some of it is he almost forgets what's been said because he's got several jobs on at once (he would deny this but his workers have confirmed).

He views us a micromanaging, picky customers and we might be now but its because all the issues have lost our faith in the ability.

Firstly do you have a written agreement for what work will be completed, at what price and in what time frame? Are there clauses for ‘unexpected costs/issues?’ Refer back to this

secondly you can either - call it a day now, don’t pay him any more for the fact that the work is unfinished and not to the standard you specified and use the money you have remaining to get someone else to rectify

insist he rectifies the poor job and withhold the remaining payment until you are satisfied as per the original agreement

pay him the money and see how it goes… (not what I would do…)

agree to pay him additional money to rectify (I wouldn’t do this either unless the original contract said this with clauses)

What agreements do you have to prove the price quoted, what it includes etc?

Paperwork, emails, list of materials, diagrams, WhatsApp messages etc.

When discussing, you need to refer back to these;
"you have included x and we want x"
"It needs to be the price you quoted"
"We specified x in the original request"
"The design shows x"

Rinse and repeat, very calmly

It's horrible when you've saved hard and have an idea in your head and they then don't do what they promised

Maybe get another company in to quote to see how much it will cost to fix/finish and then make the decision whether to continue or cut your losses and use someone else

The original quote didn't have any clauses for cost increases or anything like that. Also the increase in his labour costs are due to the workmanship. I actually feel it might have been different if he'd been here overseeing things but he wasn't and mistakes were made. Some we were able to stop but really we shouldn't feel we've had to watch each time they're there.

I'm trying not to get angry as he will be here shortly and I need to discuss moving forward with him and I know getting angry will not help.

Print off the quote and any other paperwork you have. Keep calm and just repeatedly refer to what you agreed in writing, he can’t argue with that. If he under quoted, didn’t anticipate extra costs etc that’s his lookout. If he needs to rectify poor workmanship by his poor planning/failure to oversee employees or employing untrained labour then again that’s his issue to stump up the cost.