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| My lawn before the grass was burned. |
Today a representative of another lawn service company came by (at my request) to evaluate my lawn. First thing he said upon getting out of his vehicle "What happened here?" YES!
This was the reaction I was expecting from the owner of my lawn service company yesterday but didn't get it.
This new representative, who by the way was very good-looking (always helps) and professional. After I told him what application my previous lawn service company applied (wire grass and fungicide) he said it obviously was "herbicide burn." Viola! I knew something went terrible wrong.
He said the fungicide application wouldn't have killed the grass and I probably didn't need that application anyway but the application for wire grass was a lot different. He said the wire grass applicate is a mixture of three ingredients that should be exactly measured and applied during a cool day, not in the heat. The day my previous lawn service company applied the application was very hot (90 plus degrees). He also told me that my wire grass wasn't that bad and probably didn't even need an application.
That tells me a lot about the new owner of my lawn service company. He didn't know what he was talking about yesterday, that was obvious. He chose to ignore my questions about all the dead grass.
"Travis", the representative of the my new lawn care company told me that new grass "would never come back." So much for "it will grow back." He said what had to be done is aerate the lawn and then reseed it. He said the combination of heat and wrong application of wire grass poison KILLED the grass too.
I called my previous lawn service company and told them I would no longer be using them. I felt bad because the woman I told ("Laurie") was the mother of the previous owner and the person who always called me to advise me of schedule lawn service. Her husband, the previous owner's father, used to service my lawn. I knew something changed about a year ago because different men were coming by to applying application to my lawn. That was when the ownership changed, which I didn't know about.
Apparently the new owner doesn't know anything about lawns. He just brought the business because he was "bored" and wanted to do something in his retirement. That's what he told me yesterday. He obviously knows nothing about customer service because I have yet to hear from him since I informed "Laurie" that I would no longer be using their service. A good businessman would call me back immediately and either offer to fix the mistake. Back up a little bit here, yesterday he could have got out of his car and said "What happened here? I have to fix this at no cost to you. I apologize to you for this mistake." But oh no, this guy DIDN'T know what happened and he is no way going to offer to fix it. He could at least call to apologize but I don't expect him to call me or apologize.
What will I do? Move on. I'm not going to sue him or report him to the Better Business Bureau. This was a mistake. When a mistake happens or poor service, you don't use that business anymore.
I was very upset about this whole mess until today because in the back of my mind I thought may I was wrong. But I feel justified now in believing what I saw with my own eyes, dead grass and dead plants around my border. All those flowers dead and my beautiful pink autumn chrysanthemums damaged. I'm not as upset now, now that I know I was right and taking action to correct this horrendous mistake.
My lawn is one of the few pleasures I get out of my life. One of the commenters of my blog yesterday basically told me to "get over it, life is too short." Uh, no, I won't get over it. I took care of the problem and fixed it.
That attitude reminds me of what my neighbor Jane told me about her neighbor's comment to her because she wanted her lawn cut in a pattern. Her neighbor said "You're too picky, it doesn't matter. Get over it." Of course Jane took offense because seeing her lawn cut in a pattern is what gives her pleasure. Why can't she get it done like that? Who is her neighbor to pass judgement on her about what she wants. It like my neighbor complaining about the colorful rainbow spinners that I placed in my oval planter to deter the rabbits from eating my impatiens flowers. She said "Looks like a carnival over there!" Actually Bill and I both like the spinning colorful pinwheels. That was an unexpected side benefit of placing those pinwheels there. Pinwheels will be there every year as long as we live here.
My annual trip to Canada is coming up in a few days. I have to calm myself down to enjoy a week of adventure with my Canadian Travel Buddy Pat in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. There is a possibility we may be visiting Montreal. Viola!
