Complaints for Cut Right Lawn Care, LLC in Cedar Rapids, IA

Complaints	Type of response
0	Making a full refund, as the consumer requested
0	Making a partial refund
0	Agreed to make an adjustment
0	Refusing to make an adjustment
1	Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement
0	Unanswered

Customer Complaint

9/13/2021

May 3, I entered into an agreement with Jordan Travis, to mow trim and edge 4 properties. Ms Travis agreed that the 3 properties, would only be mowed every 3 weeks and that my home would be mowed and trimmed every 2. On 6-13, I added another house. On 6-18, when Ms Travis was mowing the lawn at my home I texted her to weed whack the front & the weeds around the back deck. She says was "I would have to do it a different day, but yes." On 7-9th she has an issue with her equipment and tells me she has to come back another day. 4 weeks later she cleans up the 8 weeks of overgrown mess in front & then omits the way overgrown mess of weeds in my back & side yard. On 7-26, I receive a bill for an additional $150.00 for the overgrown weeds. I'm surprised! I assumed weed whacking was included in the $65. lawn charge. Had she timely done the weed whacking 4 weeks sooner would I have been charged $150.00? Ms Travis came to my office to be paid for 2 lawn care and a $150.00 weed charge. When I expressed my concern for the $150, she said that she charges $75. an hour. I have no notice that it wasn't included or what she would charge. I told about all the other weeds that had grown so big she said she would take care of them that day, she took care of only about 40 & charged another mowing fee. 16 days later I get another bill, It was way too dry and brown for mowing. I paid her anyway. She is bulling me to pay her $570 now without even an invoice, I have no contract. Resolution Sought Take responsibility for her actions. I should of not had to have hired someone else to clean up the weed mess left my this lawn care service. I paid someone $20. an hour for 8 hours of cleanup yard work. I paid this company for mowing very dry lawns and now Ms Travis wants to continue to extort and bully me for more money for breaking a contract that doesn't exist plus additional mowing charges.

Company Response

9/28/2021

Ms. Brestler is not being "bullied" as she has stated. She is being treated like any other customer who does not want to pay their outstanding balance. The condition Ms. Brestler allows her properties to get into before permitting me to mow is egregious abuse to my machines, but I have continued to assist her this season because I felt she needed the help, since her previous help had taken advantage of, according to her. Now, she has shown why small businesses do not wish to work with her. We all apparently take advantage of her. Ms. Brestler and I entered a textual contract May 3rd to mow 3 vacant properties and her personal home, every 3 weeks to "keep the city off her back". I gave her prices for those properties on May 2nd. May 31st I sent Ms. Brestler pictures of one of her properties standing at 2 ½ feet tall after 3 weeks and let her know that kind of length was going to be difficult for my mower to handle, even though it was commercial; I received no response. June 6th another of her properties was 20" high and I sent her a picture and texted her; no response.I have contacted her many times regarding issues with her properties and it never yielded a response. I even went so far as to post "no dumping" signs at two of her properties this year at no charge. I have moved cement, logs, branches, trash, and other various items from her properties to do my job without charging Ms. Brestler and made her aware of this. I have also made her aware that weed control was absolutely necessary at her properties because the areas that are not part of weed wacking are so overgrown, yet I have taken care of them anyway (sending her photos of these areas). She just did not want to pay to maintain her properties. June 9th I was mowing Ms. Brestler's house and the drive belt on my mower broke, forcing me to push a 500lbs,. mower into my trailer and I made her aware of this incident. June 19th my mower caught fire at her house because the starter went bad and I had to get it out of there before it got dark. These are 2 instances when I forgot to trim her house. These are the only instances. The charge for $150 was to take down an over grown flower bed at the front of Ms. Brestlers house. She was shocked at the price, but said nothing upon payment. On July 27th I text Ms. Brestler and explained "My trimming is around the house, around the retaining wall, and various other places. I don't weed wack flower beds because there are supposed to be flowers there. Once you ask me to take care of it, that is an extra charge because it is extra work. I haven't charged you for any of the extra work. I haven't charged you for any of the extra work I have done." Ms. Brestler's response: "I'm sorry I'm wrong. I admit I'm good at being wrong. I should have asked you what the charge would be. My stupid mistake." When there were overgrown weeds at another property, they were in a driveway, also not part of typical lawn care weed wacking. When Ms. Brestler asked me how much it would cost to take care of it, I told her I charge $75 an hour. I am a tenured lawn care professional; I have been in this business for seven years and that is my hourly rate. Another reason those weeds had not been wacked down is since there was wood spread throughout them, causing a hazard to anyone with a gas trimmer. I also explained this to Ms. Brestler. August 30th she started sending me pictures of the properties and telling me to wait to mow them because they were too dry. The pictures had been taken after I had already mowed the properties. They were not too dry when I mowed them, they were the proper length to mow and on the schedule she set. The fact of the matter is, Ms. Brestler does not want to maintain her properties and expects someone to work for less than their worth. She does not want a lawn care professional, she wants a lawn mower. We had an agreement for the entire 2021 season and because I refuse to continue to abuse my equipment, she wants to dissolve our agreement. I pride myself on never mowing a yard just for the sake of charging a customer and I have never done that to Ms. Brestler., She is playing the victim when she is simply a customer who does not want to pay their bill. She is upset because I gave her 1 week to pay her final bill or I would take her to small claims court, as I would any other customer. That is still my plan because I will be paid for work that was done. She further claims that I refused to give her dates the properties were mowed, but she wanted dates for the whole season, which she already had from previous invoices. I will gladly provide her with dates for the last mow. I will not have a customer who does not want to pay to destroy my good reputation. I have screenshots of all of my messages to Ms. Brestler and pictures of all of the instances I have mentioned above and would be happy to provide them upon request.

Customer Rebuttal

9/29/2021

I received a 2nd threatening text from Ms Travis. Stating she is taking me to court, and has never lost a case yet in 7 years. On Iowa Courts online her or her father has never even filed a case against anyone. This is an intimidating tactic to extort money. Now she's telling me that she's going to charge me more for all the past work she should have charged me for and didn't in addition to the now $580.00 for breaking a contract that I never signed or agreed to. This business is desperate to extort money that is not due. This is malicious, unethical, & unprofessional conduct. She refuses to submitted any invoice for me of her demands. Telling me she’ll have to charge me more for a statement. She doesn't want anything in writing. Jordan Travis is unable to accept responsibility for the expense and mess she's caused me, and wants to bully me into paying her because I simply will not allow her to continue mowing my properties. I went to the council on aging. They advised me to file a complaint with the attorney generals office.The legal council advised me after reading all her text demands to not pay her. I wouldn’t want any other elderly person to get taken advantage of.

Company Final Response

10/2/2021

Ms. Brestler was not threated, she was told she would be taken to court after she missed her payment deadline. Due to the aggravation, she has caused me by trying to slander and defame my personal and professional character, I absolutely intend on seeking retribution for the past work I have done for her, which I declined to charge her for. I would like the record to reflect how capable Ms. Brestler is, since single handedly runs and maintains her own business, her home, and four other properties. The simple fact is, Ms. Brestler does not want to pay what is owed. She is used to being able to take advantage of others or manipulating situations where she could ruin their businesses good standing so they will back down, but I will not. I am a singly owned and operated, female lawn care and landscaping specialist and the only one in Cedar Rapids. I would not jeapordize my business. I am no “bully” and if you contact any of my other customers, they will tell you the same thing. I mow veterans yards for free and elderly citizens yards at a discounted rate because they are on a fixed income. I run an ethical, professional practice, which is beyond reproach, and have done so for years

Complaints and Resolutions

Cut Right Lawn Care, LLC complaints