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I've been a customer of the ABC lawn care service for years, but today I closed my account.
I have a few gardening projects, and I irrigate with drip hoses. Evidently, the crew yanks on these to gain access the strips of grass that they cover. The hoses were being torn and the plants damaged, so I called ABC and was told that a note would be added to my account to be careful with the hoses. After it happened a couple more times, I called in again. They did then credit my account for the hoses (but only after I asked).
Around this time, there was also damage to a grill cover located on the concrete porch. Evidently 6 inches of space between the cover and the edge of the porch is too close to avoid the weed eater.
So I thought: okay, it's my fault for expecting too much from the crew. I moved the grill and bought a new cover and a few extension hoses to reroute the lines so that they were even more out of the way. Still -- more damaged hoses, so I decided I would just henceforth remove the hoses from the yard completely before the crew arrived. Since the service days are not entirely consistent from week to week (and the web schedule isn't totally reliable) I asked to be notified before future visits. I was told this was possible, but it never happened.
As the plants grew larger, I started finding outer branches ripped up by the weed eater as soon as they came near to the edge of the garden box. So I then covered the garden box with a Clam pop-up shelter, thinking that the crew would keep their distance from this. But just for good measure, I surrounded it with yellow caution flags.
I was home the morning of the next service, and when I heard the crew, I looked outside just in time to see the weed eater bypassing the yellow flags in order to get under the edge (!) of the Clam's skirt. I went outside and asked the guy not to weed eat in this area any more.
As an aside, I can almost appreciate his desire to be thorough, despite the lack of judgment displayed. But unfortunately, the areas where I would expect thoroughness (around the foundation of the house, along the fence line, etc.) were rarely satisfactory.
Fast forward to Tuesday of this week. I have some minor home repairs underway, and the backyard is being used as a staging area. So, I went to the ABC customer web portal and filled out the form to cancel/reschedule this week's service. In the comments, I asked to be contacted (since I'm not entirely sure when the house work will be finished). And indeed, after I submitted the form, I received a message saying something like Thank you. You will be contacted shortly.
Well, I wasn't contacted, but when I returned home this morning (Thursday) from running errands, the crew was here anyway. I explained that I had cancelled my appointment (or attempted to) and they politely apologized and left. I then called customer service and explained the issue and asked for my account to be closed. I'm hoping that this resolves the issues once and for all.
Maybe their poor communication is partially due to technical limitations. Their customer web portal has seen some improvement over the years, but it's still one of the worst that I have had to deal with. In 2016, if you can't hire a decent team of developers to build and maintain your online account services, then you're doomed.
I'm embarrassed to post this review, because it feels petty to me to complain about something like this (#FirstWorldProblems). But in speaking to customer service today, I didn't get any sense that they took it seriously (I would have expected something like, Thank you for your feedback; we regret the problems you've had; rest assured that we will take measures to improve our services in the future.) But nothing. And their service isn't cheap, so if I can save other people the headache and the money, then I suppose I can live with this feeling of pettiness.
I have a few gardening projects, and I irrigate with drip hoses. Evidently, the crew yanks on these to gain access the strips of grass that they cover. The hoses were being torn and the plants damaged, so I called ABC and was told that a note would be added to my account to be careful with the hoses. After it happened a couple more times, I called in again. They did then credit my account for the hoses (but only after I asked).
Around this time, there was also damage to a grill cover located on the concrete porch. Evidently 6 inches of space between the cover and the edge of the porch is too close to avoid the weed eater.
So I thought: okay, it's my fault for expecting too much from the crew. I moved the grill and bought a new cover and a few extension hoses to reroute the lines so that they were even more out of the way. Still -- more damaged hoses, so I decided I would just henceforth remove the hoses from the yard completely before the crew arrived. Since the service days are not entirely consistent from week to week (and the web schedule isn't totally reliable) I asked to be notified before future visits. I was told this was possible, but it never happened.
As the plants grew larger, I started finding outer branches ripped up by the weed eater as soon as they came near to the edge of the garden box. So I then covered the garden box with a Clam pop-up shelter, thinking that the crew would keep their distance from this. But just for good measure, I surrounded it with yellow caution flags.
I was home the morning of the next service, and when I heard the crew, I looked outside just in time to see the weed eater bypassing the yellow flags in order to get under the edge (!) of the Clam's skirt. I went outside and asked the guy not to weed eat in this area any more.
As an aside, I can almost appreciate his desire to be thorough, despite the lack of judgment displayed. But unfortunately, the areas where I would expect thoroughness (around the foundation of the house, along the fence line, etc.) were rarely satisfactory.
Fast forward to Tuesday of this week. I have some minor home repairs underway, and the backyard is being used as a staging area. So, I went to the ABC customer web portal and filled out the form to cancel/reschedule this week's service. In the comments, I asked to be contacted (since I'm not entirely sure when the house work will be finished). And indeed, after I submitted the form, I received a message saying something like Thank you. You will be contacted shortly.
Well, I wasn't contacted, but when I returned home this morning (Thursday) from running errands, the crew was here anyway. I explained that I had cancelled my appointment (or attempted to) and they politely apologized and left. I then called customer service and explained the issue and asked for my account to be closed. I'm hoping that this resolves the issues once and for all.
Maybe their poor communication is partially due to technical limitations. Their customer web portal has seen some improvement over the years, but it's still one of the worst that I have had to deal with. In 2016, if you can't hire a decent team of developers to build and maintain your online account services, then you're doomed.
I'm embarrassed to post this review, because it feels petty to me to complain about something like this (#FirstWorldProblems). But in speaking to customer service today, I didn't get any sense that they took it seriously (I would have expected something like, Thank you for your feedback; we regret the problems you've had; rest assured that we will take measures to improve our services in the future.) But nothing. And their service isn't cheap, so if I can save other people the headache and the money, then I suppose I can live with this feeling of pettiness.
9475 E Hwy 290, Austin, TX 78724