Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Martis Valley Landscapes Inc.'s headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Martis Valley Landscapes Inc.

  PO Box 8114 Truckee, CA 96162-8114

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  Martis Valley Landscapes Inc.

  10185 Thomas Dr Truckee, CA 96161-5012

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/06/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We contracted with MVL to provide monthly landscape maintenance and repair for our vacation home. The irrigation repairs were not done in a timely manner and the lawn, which was replaced last fall, died in large swaths. Repeated requests for repairs and updates to *******************, the owner were not responded to in a satisfactory way. After 2 months of requests he sent someone to "fix" the dead swaths. The sod he provided was not at all viable and he didn't fix the irrigation which was the primary issue and would cause the lawn and other plants to die off. After his horrible "fix" we terminated him for cause the next day. He did nothing further to try to make the situation right and instead charged us for an additional month of maintenance due to not giving him 30 days notice - per his contract he said. He also charged us for the "fix" (damage) to the lawn. He was rude, threatening and sarcastic. He did not abide by the contract, violating the "right to know/regular reporting" clause which states "contractor agrees to keep the owner informed as to the conditions of their property...This will allow the owner to act on problems as they arise and in a timely manner." We were the ones trying to get him to act in a timely manner. Also per his contract we could pursue damages from him as the "damages" clause states "the contractor agrees to cover any expense for damages caused by staff to owners property." We would like him to make this right, drop his ridiculous outstanding charges and abide by his contract by compensating us for the replacement lawn. This business has absolutely no customer service and *** is very unprofessional. We would not recommend them to anyone and hope no one else has to deal with a similar situation. Thank you for your help.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/07/2024

  The above is an unfortunate result of a billing dispute with a former client of mine. I never truly worked with *********************, more so her husband, *****. At Martis Valley Landscapes, we do our absolute best to avoid conflicts or disputes with clients and often seek compromise or mutually beneficial resolutions even in tough situations. This however, was a rare instance where we had to take drastic measures. I hope to provide you with my side of the story in hopes that you can form an unbiased opinion.
  
  
  Ive worked with the Thompsons for the past two years with a company in which I was formerly employed. I helped them with Landscape Maintenance, Enhancement Projects, and other miscellaneous projects that well get into in a moment. ***** and Is working relationship was great. The Thompsons property is located near **********, much farther than most landscapers out of ******* are willing to travel. However, they were consistent clients who demanded a high level of aesthetic, so the money to travel that far was worth the trip. ***** and Is rapport from my previous outfit was so good that when I started my own business at the beginning of this year, he asked for proposal to remain a client of mine because my former employer was falling short prior to me joining and taking the reigns of their maintenance department. 
  
  
  ***** would often give me lists to complete, of which I normally completed a lot faster than those in the past. The thing that got strange was that because he had limited access to good help in his isolated area, ***** would often ask us to do things outside of the scope of our normal services. Often times, as an advocate of our fragile ecosystem on **********, I felt uncomfortable with some of the requests. One of the first projects I did for him was a beach clearing in which ******************** requested my former employers crews to removal all the rocks on the beach (in and out of the water) at the ********* so that they could have a ********************* beach. Being new to the area and naive, I agreed not knowing doing so is a MASSIVE TRPA violation for disturbing natural rock formations on **********. Other instances that stood out was the removal of a fire pit that they allowed to sit, in the lake, over winter which was almost completely embedded into the sand. Other times my crews removed beer cans and trash from the lakeshore, and we often found remnants of their parties in Lake as well. 
  
  
  The incident that ********************* is describing above took place over the beginning of this season from April to June. They contracted with my new company for a full service contract which includes spring cleanup, routine maintenance, and winterization. During the spring cleanup I brought it to ****** attention through several conversations that the lawn had significant vole damage and would likely need to be replaced. I informed him that this was going to be difficult to overcome, but wasnt something that was all that surprising because the health of the back lawn had been a topic of discussion the prior year in which he decided to put it off for other projects. We aerated, thatched, seeded, and topped areas that were burnt out, but ***** was unsatisfied with the time to recover and asked us to reseed a second time. Both attempts failed because it was too large an area to completely fill in quickly with seed, and ******************** became impatient with the results. A few weeks after the second application he asked me to patch the lawn with new sod, which I advised against because it often takes just as much time to assimilate. We monitored the turf and watered throughly through each attempt, despite Mrs. ********* claims, and we have work tickets, conversation logs, and photo evidence to back up our position on all fronts. Because the above described will likely be the subject of legal proceedings we are remiss to share them until the matter is settled. 
  
  
  The reason we have remained steadfast in our collection efforts, is that even after calling me and texting me repeatedly on my wedding day, ******************** cancelled services with us for dissatisfaction in the middle of my honeymoon, and didnt allow us a chance to rectify the situation. Instead he had his lawn replaced by a competitor, and then tried to back bill me for the cost of replacement with completely new sod as I had advised since the beginning and in years prior. The outstanding amount after all three of these attempts was a fraction of the cost he incurred to replace the lawn, and per contractual policies he agreed and signed off on, I pushed to retain the final months billing for the untimely cancellation given the circumstances (something we normally write off for clients within good reason). As a California Contractor, I exercised my right to file a mechanics lein on the Thompsons home for non payment of services rendered. As I am sure any entrepreneur can relate to, the cash flow was badly needed, and the fact that ******************** was threatening to counter sue for total replacement of the lawn really pushed the situation over the edge and left us with no choice. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/07/2024

  I am rejecting this response because:

  The stated facts are untrue, nor are they relevant to this complaint. Although it is not the purpose of the BBB to mediate or arbitrate this claim I would like our complaint to be a matter of record and displayed on the BBBs website so that future clients do not have to deal with this unprofessional business. Had **************** reached out with any efforts to rectify or ameliorate the situation, we would have been amicable to a resolution. However, not only did it take over two months for him to make any significant repairs but from the photos you can see that this was not an acceptable fix. The right thing to do would have been to look at the photos, realize that this was on him to repair and make the necessary repairs. Not blame it on us, send us a bill for the repairs and future maintenance and file a lien less than 60 days after he sent his invoice. This is not the way any entrepreneur would run a service-oriented business that they want to be successful. The resolution we would like is to have him remove the lien and remove the charges for shoddy work and undelivered service. If he wants to abide by his contract then he has to abide by the entire contract including the damages clause. Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

  
  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/10/2024

  The facts I presented in my original response are true, and as I mentioned I have photos (from account history spanning back to 2022), text, email, work tickets, and all other necessary evidence needed to ultimately prove my side of the story. To even further push home that notion, please see the attached. Also provided below is a timeline of the events in which ********************* claims to have given us room to rectify the situation. Hence why we've been unwilling to drop the lien.

  - May 17th, first request to re-seed the lawn via text from *************************** to *******************; responded 4 minutes later to let ***** know that the lawn had already been reseeded prior to him asking - direct disputes T. ********* claims that we were unresponsive.

  - June 3rd, Inquiry from ***** via text message as to the health of the lawn and plants; responded 3 minutes later letting him know that irrigation was just adjusted and that I would be by soon to check on the timing and coverage again when I had a chance. 

  - June 12th, Text message from ******************* to *************************** at 10:15pm, "Hey *****, Just wanted to send you guys a heads up I'm here. My guy was fighting a stuck valve today and turned off the backflow. I'm going to reactivate it before checking out for my wedding. Sorry for the inconvenience."

  - June 13th, text from *************************** to ******************* with video, "Lawn looks terrible, can you get on it ASAP?,"; response 4 minutes later from **** "Yeah, working on it. Stopped by last night to turn the water up. STILL A LOT OF VOLE DAMAGE FROM LAST YEAR THAT WE MAY NEED TO DISCUSS PATCHING"

  - June 15th, *********************** Wedding Day - text from *************************** with list items: "When will you be down this way next? 1. Irrigation shooting straight up in places (referring to drip irrigation, not lawn, clarified in phone conversation) 2. Talk about lawn repair. Replace? 3. Fix broken site lights"

  - June 18th, Text from ******************* to ***************************, "Hey *****, sending guys with sod tomorrow to patch the lawn during routine maintenance service. I'll have them haul off the zodiac as well. I'll send an invoice for that and the additional maintenance items as we've performed so far when I get back. If there are any other wishes you'd like to pass along for tomorrows service, let me know." Seperate text exchange later that day, "CAN YOU PLEASE ALSO REVIEW THE OUTSTANDING INVOICES. YOU'RE WAY BEHIND ON BILLING. MY WIFE WILL SEND AN EMAIL WITH THE PAST DUE BALANCES TO **** SHORTLY."

  - June 20th, text from *************************** to *******************; "**************** will be paying online tonight for the outstanding invoices. Unfortunately the repair made the lawn look terrible. We hired another company to repair the lawn for us as we cannot wait. We will no longer be using your company." with photos of the patches that were laid a day prior. Text from ******************* to ***************************, "10-4 best of luck to you. Just a heads up you're locked into a maintenance contract for 30 more days from the day of notice to terminate. Let us know if you'd like us to continue service during that time or if you just want to pay the difference in full to exit. Might want to read the contract." Text from ***** to ***, "No more service."

  To summarize the above, the ********* gave us a little more than weak to make tweaks to the lawn, didn't like the look of the patch, and fired us a day after it was laid down. There was no effort from them to allow us to rectify the situation as has been so flase stated many times. They were trying to sell the house, so the rushed the process every step of the way despite the time limits not allowing for suitable re-seeding or establishment of a sod patch. As you can see, they were a problem account from the beginning, they owed us quite a bit of money when I made the first demand for them to review their outstanding invoices on June 18th. They then had their entire lawn replaced by another competitor on the 24th, and when we attempted to collect on the work that was done, they threatened to counter sue for the total cost repair and other items not related to the lawn, despite knowing that the lawn was not in good condition going into the season from prior years damage.

  Sadly, this is a case of a client trying to pull a fast one on a contractor. There was no consideration for my personal life or the events I had going on during that time period as I didnt return from my honeymoon until July 1st. The only concession I am willing to make in this instance is a 15% reduction of total cost on the invoices in question for early settlement outside of legal proceedings, and the deletion of slanderous and untruthful review left on ****** and yelp. Otherwize we will forclose on the lien if it hits 90 days, and likely also pursue a slander/defamation claim againt the Thompsons. 

  Thanks for your consideration!

   

   

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/11/2024

  I am rejecting this response because:

  A picture is worth a thousand words. The attached photos are of the "repair" that Martis Valley Landscapes did to the lawn. The need for this "repair" was due to the lawn dying in large swaths due to negligent maintenance and a failure to properly irrigate. These photos should also explain why we are not paying him for this repair and why we terminated his contract. It is apparent that **************** is unwilling to take responsibility for his work and his responses continue to be unacceptable. This matter can be closed out by the BBB. We will pursue this through other avenues. Thank you for your efforts.