Last year I hired the local lawn care service known as “Lawn Doctor”. They told me that they will treat my lawn in a total of 6 services. They also explained that there will be a change after the second service. Now it has been approximately one year and all the services have been applied and there has been absolutely no change at all. When I called them to complain, the employee/owner told me that their owner had recently changed and they can’t help us. After I called again the next day to customer service, the same man told me, “This is not a hamburger that we can refund; if you call me again I will call the police”. The service was terrible and they would only spend about ten minutes to treat my lawn every service. I was appalled after talking to them over the phone. The fact that I spent $432.10 on this lawn service only to receive rude and disrespectful service in return disgusts me.

In 2010 I decided to go with the local Lawn Doctor. I signed up for their 6-step process. I also ordered the additional Aeration at the beginning of the season in April. After the aeration and step one were complete things were looking good. The lawn was new sod laid down the prior year, however we didn't move into the home until November so unfortunately the lawn went without a winter fertilizer. Everything appeared to fine until step 2 in mid-May. 4 - 5 days after application I started getting bright yellow streaks across my yard that followed the exact path their machine ran across the yard. Also a large patch appx. 10feet in diameter turned bright yellow. Days later it was equal to hay and all the yellowed areas were breaking off. I immediately called for assistance. Basically I was told it was heat stress. What!?!?! It's the middle of May. LD technician took a bag of seed from his truck and sprinkled it by hand over the bad areas and said to saturate the area. Over the course of May-September I had steps 3-5 I believe. Each visit my lawn was worse. I had more dandelions, clovers, crab grass and other wildflower weeds all across my yard than the bare lot across the street from my property. The areas that burned out earlier, that seed was sprinkled on, were now solid weed/crabgrass. Each visit as well did more bright yellow streaks/paths appear.

I questioned each time whether or not they were chemically burning my yard. I was told no way, our stuff can lay in a pile on grass for weeks and never burn the grass. I asked are they putting too much down. My lot is 100x100 which is 10, 000 sq. ft. but there's a house and driveway and other areas that aren't grass so it really works out to just about 6000 sq. ft. Tech told me, nope it's by the lot size to which I said you aren't fertilizing my house just the grass. Unfortunately, I could see I was getting no where. I called about 2 times a week documenting all the problems I was having and requested they send a different tech. to my yard (it was the same guy each time so far) and said look I need a second opinion, because obviously this guy is doing something wrong. By late August a new guy showed up to LOOK at the yard. His reply was WOW this is bad and that he would report this to his manager and get this fixed, unfortunately though it being HOT SUMMER I would basically have to wait until next year for it to come back.

I am beyond frustrated with this by now. By the time September rolls around and it gets somewhat cooler what grass I have left is looking decent and weeds are subdued mostly. Mid-Sept I get a spot power seed to seed over all the areas that died. Within a week I had grass growing in those spots where grass wasn't all year. By the end of September and into October my yard wasn't so patchy. So I paid for a service to kill my yard, make it full of weeds and dirt, and then seed it late to then give me not even a month of decency? Step 6 was just around the corner which was the winter step. Guess what? 3-4 days after they left, large yellow streaks and the grass died AGAIN.

I called for the manager and was told himself personally would be down to inspect my yard. That was Late October, early November... I have yet to see this manager.

So a six step process was contracted. I checked my records and I had 10 additional service calls for complaints. Unacceptable for them to be here more for (supposed) fixes and redo's than for actual contracted services. I decided 2010 was in the bag and was now time to look elsewhere.

In February 2011 I get a letter in the mail saying I have been renewed for 2011 and instead of the 8 payment plan I had for 2010 I was now in a monthly plan for 2011 and since it was Feb I had 2 months due. I was livid. I called LD and said I never renewed, which I was told if you say nothing you automatically get renewed (which I did find on my original contract) so I asked for my account to be terminated with a brief explanation as to why. I received confirmation my account was closed by LD via a letter in the mail. Since then I have been flooded with mailers and phone calls offering me all these discounts and promotions to get me back as a customer and all these sorry you left notices. WHATEVER.

Fast forward to yesterday 3/23/2011 over a month since my account was closed. Guess who was outside? LAWN DOCTOR. I ran outside and said shut your machines off!!! The tech (different guy from last year) showed me the work order for my property dated a few days prior. I stated I closed/terminated this account last month. Please pack up and leave because you are not touching my lawn and I am not getting billed for this. I immediately called the LD office and asked for the status of my account. I was told CLOSED. So then why is there two techs waiting outside with a truck full off equipment? I got no real answer other than the computer must not have deleted the work load after I canceled but I was assured my account was closed. I went so far as to log in to my account and it also showed closed.

I can't believe this. When I wanted service I got lazy service or dead end promises. Now that I cancel they wanna be attentive with offers and calls and to not even remove the work order. Good thing I was home yesterday morning to catch them.

I thought it was all over then. I go upstairs and get my cell phone and see a voicemail. It was the LD tech stating he was on the way to my house to do my CORE AERATION service!!! The core aeration is an ADDITIONAL service paid separately than the 6 step program and has to be ordered separately. So who ordered this? I sure didn't. So not only did they have a work order for my lawn, it was for a service other than the program that gets renewed each year. What Nerve this company has.

My account is closed, confirmed by their office as well as my online access. We will see if yesterday is the last time I have any interaction with LAWN DOCTOR of Millville/Vineland NJ.

Alan Moore

I made the mistake of hiring Lawn Doctor to treat my lawn. After Lawn Doctor got my money, the company stopped treating my lawn. I would advise people to avoid hiring Lawn Doctor and not waste their money. In February 2007 I hired Lawn Doctor (in Montgomery, Alabama) to treat my lawn. I paid in advance with my credit card for the entire year. Lawn Doctor agreed to come every two months to treat my lawn--and more often if necessary--such as if the weeds didn't die or diminish. After Lawn Doctor received my payment, they stopped treating my lawn. The company missed both the April and June treatments. When I called in August to say that my lawn had not been treated in 6 months and that the company had broken its agreement, Lawn Doctor started treating my lawn again but declined to refund the money for the April and June treatments they missed. Meanwhile, the weeds on my lawn have greatly increased and have taken over my lawn, and Lawn Doctor seems unwilling to make an effort to reduce the weeds on my property. My lawn is an embarrassment because of Lawn Doctor. I paid in advance this year (2008), paying $648 to Lawn Doctor. I have the credit card receipt. I agreed to try Lawn Doctor for another year because when I called the company, the person I spoke to promised and guaranteed that he would make sure that the amount of weeds would be greatly reduced this year and they would make up for the previous year, and that he would make sure that the Dallis grass weeds would be spot sprayed. Lawn Doctor failed to keep its promise. He said that Lawn Doctor would return again and again (in addition to the treatments every other month). That never happened. He said that Dallis grass had to be sprayed and then resprayed two weeks later, but Lawn Doctor didn't come back and spray the weeds in the way he had promised. Although I was promised that Lawn Doctor would keep treating the weeds until the weeds were gone, the company failed to keep its promise, and it seems to have stopped treating my lawn. The weeds on my lawn are completely out of control and have taken over the lawn, and Lawn Doctor has made little or no effort to fix the situation. Although I paid for the entire lawn to be treated, the person who comes from Lawn Doctor did not treat the whole lawn; when I watched him, I noticed that he only treated part of it. Lawn Doctor has also not honored their satisfaction guarantee. After watching my lawn get worse and worse--and the indifference from Lawn Doctor--I canceled my service in June by mailing a letter to Lawn Doctor, asking for a refund for the second half of 2008 (for which I prepaid). Lawn Doctor never responded. I called, but again Lawn Doctor never responded. I wrote to the corporate office, but I still didn't receive a refund. I want a refund for the two missed treatments (April and June 2007) and a refund for the second half of this year--July-December 2008, a total of $540. I am not asking for a refund for work that Lawn Doctor has done (even though it has been poor and ineffective), only for the work that Lawn Doctor never did. Lawn Doctor is one of the biggest lawn treatment companies in the country, so it's a shame when its work and its customer service are so disappointing. I have been very disappointed in Lawn Doctor.