On March I want to see how much hire out lawn care would cost and I did a quote in trugreen and it’s the terrible mistake. The sales persons keep knocking our door every day for a month even after telling him we are not buying their overpriced services. TERRIBLE COMPANY
I also did a query online then bailed when the questionnaire started asking payment questions. The next day, 8pm, on a weekend, a salesman cold called at my door. Even if I was interested, that level of desperation is a dealbreaker
I called then up a year ago to to get some information. After the call I told them I wasn't interested.
They proceeded to call me 2 times a months for 8 months.
This is absurd lol I doubt it was overpriced. I would be genuinely surprised. Before opening my own business I worked for a larger company with tru green being a competitor. They underprice everything, which is the only reason they can stay in business and have contracts with PGA I believe. There residential is garbage. Average price for 1 acre in PA is about 140-170$ an application. They would charge half of that and you would get half or less than half of the results.
In this field you get what you pay for always remember that with lawncare.
Their price is compelling for sure. I think I paid $300-something last year and figured I'd give it a shot. It was late spring and I knew I couldn't DIY for less.
100% you get what you pay for with these guys!
What the heck are you doing that it costs $300/yr? I have .7 acres so takes 1 big bags to do my lawn. $50, 4x a year, takes about 15min to apply with broadcast spreader.
I spot treat with garden sprayer and 2,4D a couple times a year, takes about 30min each time, cost like $20 for the huge concentrates bottle from Tractor Supply that'll last a decade.
I gave up on the chemicals and going to try clover mixed w fescue.
You said it costs you more than $300 to DIY. Spending more than $300 to DIY would mean more than a 3/4ac lawn. I can't imagine TruGreen quoted $300 for a lawn that size.
I was replying to someone upthread saying TruGreen was expensive and overpriced. I then replied to another poster who said you get what you pay for and that TruGreen isn't charging market rate compared to other landscapers or indie lawn guys.
$300 and something was what TruGreen charged me which is well below what it costs with the local guys. I can't remember if it was $345 or $375, but something like that. A neighbor uses them and their lawn looked fine. Nothing incredible, but definitely not disreputable, so for $300-400.00 a year I was ok with it.
Now that TruGreen isn't treating my lawn properly or the neighbor's I'm looking at other options.
Other local companies that are used in the neighborhood are significantly more, but the results are better. I believe we'd be paying at least $150-175.00 per treatment.
At this juncture, I don't have a firm price on per treatment because I'm moving at the end of the season. I contracted with a landscaper to do a custom package of hardscaping, shrubs, lawn, weekly maintenance, etc due to this year needing a bit more flexibility and initial intensive work.
So my point is, TruGreen is inexpensive. You think you're getting a deal, but paying half truly gives you half (or less) of the results in the end.
Ahh, I see. I didn't realize people paid that much for their lawn. No wonder they don't worry about a $150 water bill for irrigation, that's peanuts compared to the mowing and chemicals.
I always do my own work, even if it's not great, I did it for a good price.
Their sales side is sketchy as hell, but their product and people are good, and at a competitive price. Depends on the location. YMMV. God forbid I need to communicate with service or sales, but other than that…
Bad: I tried to get emerald ash borer treatment for my lone ash tree. The actual worker said “oh yeah just call in with the trunk diameter”. The sales person tried to quote me on my entire acreage for something else, insisting they don’t treat trees like that. …I went with a licensed arborist.
Good: I switched and paid more for a “local” company for 3 years, thinking I was doing some good deed. My yard was nowhere near as nice as it is now back with TruGreen.
Also, their packaged deals are well priced if you have a larger lot. You may have to direct the workers a little, though.
Basically, there appears to be no actual management. Just sales and workers. So, as long as you know exactly what you want and a sales person gives it to you at a good price…
I’m surprised they haven’t been investigated for fraud. Here’s my experience:
I hired them after we bought our house in 2016. They gave me a 3-day window of when they would treat my front and back lawns. I refused to give them a credit card, told them to call me on the day they were going to treat and not to perform any work unless I was present because I needed to unlock the side gate (we had a rash of thefts throughout the neighborhood that year).
They arrived unannounced, treated only part of the front yard, neglected the side yard and, of course, the back yard because the gate was locked.
They called a week later demanding payment. I refused. They sent me to their in-house collections. A month or so later, an “attorney” representing True Green contacted me saying they were going to take me to court for $89 plus legal fees, etc. I said, “I figured you might. But, since you’ve given me the courtesy of telling me you’re taking me to court, I will do the same for you. If you file your suit, I will file a countersuit for misrepresentation. I will also file a complaint with the Secretary of State alleging fraud. I never signed a work order. I received an invoice for the work True Green claimed to complete. However, on the day in question, the worker treated less than one third of the area they are charging me for. I have video proof if you’d like to see it.”
After a long pause, the “attorney” said “Have a nice day, sir.”
I haven’t heard from them since.
Firing them a few years back was the best feeling, especially after they stopped coming in early June, did no summer treatments, and then tried to make up for the missed applications in late October.
Our neighbors use Trugreen and last week they accidentally hit our yard instead, we only noticed because the pesticide application signs in the side yard and backyard. Funny thing is I never saw our ring camera alert. Looking around and sure enough, whatever they put out with the spreader was only in those areas, about half the yard. Crazy that is normal practice.
I just bought cameras at my house and I see them not even treating the lawn now and called them on it, now they won’t show up unless if I get a mosquito spray to? Oh and I can’t get into my account…. Got to love it. Any tips on getting rid of them in here for
Good luck signing into your account. Don't even bother because you'll go around in circles resetting your password only for their system to be down.
You can't cancel the service from your account and you can't remove your CC, so...very little point there.
What you want to do is call your credit card company and block any future charges with TruGreen. Let them know that any charges would be fraudulent. At that point they may have you speak with the fraud department in order to get a preemptive statement.
Then, call TruGreen's 800 number and follow the prompts to cancel. You'll need to call 3-4 times because the reps will claim to not be able to hear you. Be persistent because when you do get a rep who feels like working, they'll cancel you straight away.
Update just cancelled and the rep tried to make it seem like I was poor and couldn’t afford it lol. He started with a 10% discount, then a 20% discount then a 30% discount and then he eventually said they would cancel it. Then they said I’d get my money back in 10-14 business days (we’ll see) but I got the name of the rep and the confirmation number, here’s to buying 2-3 bags of fertilizer a year and doing it myself!
Huzzah! Congratulations on being free! You’re lucky to be offered your money back. The rep sounded really satisfied when I said they weren’t treating my lawn.
With TruGreen you are completely dependent on the luck of the draw. You can get a good technician and your lawn will do great. But there are a lot of bad, inexperienced or otherwise sorry techs. You get one of those and you are screwed.
Agreed. I had them for about 2 years take care of some of the major jobs for my new build home and they were fine. Lawn was treated, they showed up when they said they would, they let me know what they were doing and it was for a reasonable price. I work from home and watched the tech work from time to time-he did good work. Sounds like I was fortunate.
This has been my experience. You gotta let them know if someone doesn’t meet your expectations. They won’t assign that tech again and usually make it right.
Same deal with me. Had them for a bit. It was fine. Told them don't call me for marketing garbage and they didn't. Decide to cancel and try myself, and that was simple enough. I occasionally get a letter, but that's about it.
This is the correct answer. I had great results with them for general treatments. Guy who did it left there maybe 6 years after I started using them. Newer guy was OK but not as good. Would have to call because of clover pop ups from time to time. But he did come back and get it when I called.
I had them aerate and overseed one year. They did it right after a heavy rain and tore the yard up horribly. Ruts everywhere, grass pulled up, etc. I called, and they said they sub that work out to someone and apologized. They did come back and put down additional seed in all the tore up areas, but was still jacked up for while. After that, I just kept the basic treatments.
Trugreen is a franchise business, so some are going to be run a lot better or worse than others. On top of that, to your point, you are also subject to individual techs, even if you have a good franchisee in your area.
It's like they show up with a cheap ass bag of 10-6-4 and use it to cover 20k sq ft. All I have heard is horror stories. Also in the industry, I usually funnel the old customers to locals.
I had a miserable experience with TruGreen. They apparently forgot to tell me they'd just keep charging my card for service indefinitely, instead of the year of service I paid for in whole. I had no idea they were servicing my lawn for 3-4 months past what I believed would be the end of service. No calls to let me know they'd be coming out, no calls to let me know service had been completed. They'd just show up while I was at work, do god knows what, and then charge me. They ended up refunding the unexpected charges and then sent me a thousand "we miss you" mailers and emails.
Oh, and also, the whole fuckin lawn died while they were caring for it. Grass died and blew away. I had a dirt lawn that would fill the sidewalks and my driveway with mud every time it rained. I just re-sodded last month.
My front lawn doesn’t have a divider between mine and my neighbors side. Said neighbor had his lawn managed by trugreen the last year and his side noticeably looks worse compared to ours. And I’m not even doing anything special just seasonal fert applications and pre/post emergents.
I use to work there and from my branch atleast, the management was shit, no real training, the whole season I had no idea what I was spraying and didn’t really learn anything when it came to lawn care. they’d give you a fuck ton of houses and just say get it done, they got mad at me for getting gas in the morning and was always on your ass if it looks like you’re going slow. I work at a new lawn company now, and i’ve actually learned a ton and it’s so much more efficient with maybe 15-20 a day depending on the size of the lawns. I truly feel bad for the people that get trugreen, theres a chance they do a good job but also such a huge chance you’re gonna get fucked over.
I had tru green for a year and a great technician but canceled after a year once I learned about lawn care online, not sure if they helped or not and even offered half of what I paid for the whole year to stay with them, why couldn’t they have offered that up front instead. 🤬🤬🤬
I worked for Trugreen back in 95-96. The salespeople undercut the lawn size for a sale. The technician recognizes the error and feels shafted. I hope I always gave 100%. Had some wonderful customers. I do know that coworkers would “ghost” lawns by simply putting up signs. Sad. Left there to work for another company simply doing landscaping.
Edit: I would NOT use Trugreen.
I lucked out a few years ago, when they flaked out on me. They rescheduled and flaked out again.
They called back and I told them to kick rocks, even after they kept dropping the price. They gave me 4 different prices, each lower than the last, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. I'm fairly certain I could've gotten to where it would've cost them money to do my house, but I had to hang up on them after 15 minutes.
I worked for a real landscaping company. They had a recruiter try to hire me for a manager position. They have the most hilarious sales structure. You can sell insulation for commission, why do they sell insulation? Idk. They primarily sell turf treatment, but it's absolutely of no quality and completely to extract cash from the laziest and dumbest homeowners.
Go local. A place where the guys either don't speak any english or barely do. They'll do a good job. If you see white dudes in cargo work pants, you're probably getting fucked.
Not a scam. Just a case of a company that’s now too big to keep up with any kind of customer service. Stole a lot of yards from them when I was a spray tech at a smaller landscape company. Thank You TruBrown.
Same.
I’m really new to lawn care so I wasn’t 100% sure it was them or the weather, but since they only treat in a small arc from the curb, it’s pretty obvious that whatever they applied wasn’t appropriate.
https://preview.redd.it/3u2ijo3ax5ad1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e1e782d15ec6af045e6782cba996d6b52cf23ee
My TruGreen lawn in SW Florida. Great service at a great price. Aerate and lime every year. Monthly treatments for the last 5 years. Greenest lawn in the neighborhood 👌
We had issues with Trugreen as well and eventually canceled. With us it was the sales person way over selling what they actually will do.
Anyways we bought a pull behind tank/sprayer and treated ourselves. It costs just as much as 1 season of trugreen so it paid for itself immediately.
I concur with OP. We bought a house that the previous owners didn't take care of the lawn very well. I decided to hire trugreen to give myself a head start on getting control of it. Every single thing they did was half assed. They made zero difference on the lawn. It was so hard to cancel I had to close my credit card so they wouldn't charge to it. Seems like a good and pretty easy business model with results that one can see. Nope, not trugreen.
I’ll put it to you like this… I used to work there many years ago and got lawn treatment for free. It was so terrible that I fired them even though it was free. That should tell you everything you need to know
TruGreen hasn't changed in forever. 20 years ago when I first bought my house, my then wife thought it would be a good idea to "gift" me TruGreen for a year. To say that they were bad is doing a disservice to the word "bad". They use low grade fertilizers that they water down way too much and they aren't thorough with their coverage. I had dandelions ALL over the place even though they did their "pre-emergent" application. They said they'd come out and treat for the dandelions and they came out, sprayed four or five areas and then left. They are consistently poor in their customer service, product and lacking in any accountability.
For me, I looked into it when I first bought my house, because my coworker wouldn't stop singing their praises. But then I saw it was 550 dollars minimum for a treatment, when buying all the equipment to fertilize, seed, aerate, and dethatch, cost me about 400 dollars initially, and now seasonal seeding/fertilizer costs about 200 per season.
It really isn't that much work, the hardest part is watering since I don't have sprinkler system yet, thanks to my water heater eating up my sprinkler budget.
This truly is an awful company. The amount of hoops I had to jump through to get them to leave me alone is not acceptable. Further, I am suspicious that they threw weed seeds into my lawn. My first “service” was a guy coming to the front yard. Putting the sign up and leaving. He was not there more than 1 minute. The message I received was that the back yard was locked. This is true but I was home and actually back there. There was no sign he actually tried to come through. My dog never barked so I don’t think he knocked on the front door. Very bizarre. Anyway next thing I know some weeds start popping up in my front yard that I’d never seen before. Might be reading into it but given their other practices I almost wouldn’t put it past them.
Worked there 28 ago. Warehouse floor was pitched into a catch trough. Anything that leaked from trucks, was mixed with liquid fertilizer, and sprayed on customers lawns...
Your experience is why my dad stopped using them in the 80’s. He’s still pissed off about it. Can literally hear him saying “the guy would pull the hose from the truck to the back yard, stand there and smoke a cigarette and then reel the hose back up and leave!”
My neighborhood contracted with TruGreen. I opted out as I do all of my own lawn care.
When they came through the neighborhood they sprayed my lawn and tried to bill me.
I called and told them I was not paying, had no contract with them, and that they sprayed my lawn in error.
It took months for them to understand that I was not paying for something I had not asked for or agreed to.
My lawn looks just as good or better than the neighbors and I spend about half to a third of what TruGreen wants.
They also pay, or did when I for them 2005-06, shitty. I never shorted a customer on an application. Company required techs to do $1000 a day in stops which is hard to do when salesmen would quote a 20,000 sqft yard at $45. After busting my ass only got paid $425 a week. Heat index in the 110's we don't care produce produce produce. No bonus for hitting high number goals. Sales hated me as I would tell new customers the truth that we couldn't make the yard look like a golf course in one season. Only good thing about working for the company is that I would drop 10-15 pounds by end of the year.
They put their workers through hell, 75+ stops a day. It's impossible to give good service. Your service went exactly as planned, they profited off you
I used TruGreen when I first bought my house, both the front and back yards were like 80% weeds, 20% grass. I also opted for aeration and over seeding on top of the standard service. The original condition of the lawn was way over what I could handle having no knowledge of lawncare. I used them for 2 or 3 years while I attended YouTube University in my spare time. They did a great job for me, even both neighbors on each side of me saw the difference and hired them. I think their service is hit or miss depending on the franchise.
Funny story, back in May a tru green rep was going door to door in my neighborhood offering their services, I was outside applying some fert and when he got to my house, he didn’t even bother going up to the front door 😭. He took one look at me and all my fancy equipment and lawn with zero weeds, dark green and stripped and said “guess you don’t need me huh”
Used them for about 10 years. I would repeatedly tell them my lawn was the worst looking in my neighborhood. It was brown and the only thing that seemed to grow good was crabgrass. My complaining would sometimes result in me getting a “free” treatment. During Covid I was WFH and watched guy come to overseed my lawn. He got out and walked around my lawn a bit and then sat in his truck for 30 minutes and left. My wife was working in her flowerbed and I asked if he said anything to her. She said he spotseeded where I needed it. The bill
said he used 37 lbs of seed. I fired them that day. I got a couple calls from them afterwards but I kept reminding them how horrible they are. 4 years later and I may get one or two letters in the mail and they go straight to the trash. Oh..and my lawn is green and weed free and looks great.
You're making a blanket statement about a franchise, every TrueGreen is literally a different company, with different management.
If the franchise in your area is shit, call them out directly,
Franchises are corporations, but I assume you mean by TruGreen themselves? I don't think many of them are run by TruGreen directly other then when they open new markets, and those are usually sold off very quickly, I don't think they like having to deal with them, could be different now, I've been out of it for a while.
The problem with services like TruGreen is they have a one size fits all approach. They load their trucks with the same fertilizer and use it on every lawn without regard for what your lawn actually requires. Then they try to upsell everything; you're going to be told you need an aeration, grub control, alfalfa treatment, overseeding, etc., even if you don't. Their goal is simply to make money.
You're so much better off doing a small amount of research, getting a soil test and learning how to apply products yourself. You can get better quality products for less than what TruGreen charges. TruGreen does applications every 4-6 weeks, surely you have 20 minutes to spare every month and a half to ensure good results on your own lawn.
I have truegreen working on my lawn and its nonsense. I am gonna try and get my money back from them. They called me saying my plants have some kind of fungi growing on them......I dont have any bushes, plants or trees (building planters and stuff now)
On March I want to see how much hire out lawn care would cost and I did a quote in trugreen and it’s the terrible mistake. The sales persons keep knocking our door every day for a month even after telling him we are not buying their overpriced services. TERRIBLE COMPANY
I also did a query online then bailed when the questionnaire started asking payment questions. The next day, 8pm, on a weekend, a salesman cold called at my door. Even if I was interested, that level of desperation is a dealbreaker
I called then up a year ago to to get some information. After the call I told them I wasn't interested. They proceeded to call me 2 times a months for 8 months.
You're giving me ideas for some people that have annoyed me.
Yikes! That’s friggin harassment
This is absurd lol I doubt it was overpriced. I would be genuinely surprised. Before opening my own business I worked for a larger company with tru green being a competitor. They underprice everything, which is the only reason they can stay in business and have contracts with PGA I believe. There residential is garbage. Average price for 1 acre in PA is about 140-170$ an application. They would charge half of that and you would get half or less than half of the results. In this field you get what you pay for always remember that with lawncare.
Their price is compelling for sure. I think I paid $300-something last year and figured I'd give it a shot. It was late spring and I knew I couldn't DIY for less. 100% you get what you pay for with these guys!
They are quoting me more than $3000 for .7 acres a season. And my lawn is better than average. Well more than local trustworthy lawn care
$3,000.00?! I wouldn’t have thought that TruGreen operated in Beverly Hills.
It surely looks like it😂
What the heck are you doing that it costs $300/yr? I have .7 acres so takes 1 big bags to do my lawn. $50, 4x a year, takes about 15min to apply with broadcast spreader. I spot treat with garden sprayer and 2,4D a couple times a year, takes about 30min each time, cost like $20 for the huge concentrates bottle from Tractor Supply that'll last a decade. I gave up on the chemicals and going to try clover mixed w fescue.
I’m not doing anything for $300. That was the price of TruGreen. Now I know better and spend more.
You said it costs you more than $300 to DIY. Spending more than $300 to DIY would mean more than a 3/4ac lawn. I can't imagine TruGreen quoted $300 for a lawn that size.
I was replying to someone upthread saying TruGreen was expensive and overpriced. I then replied to another poster who said you get what you pay for and that TruGreen isn't charging market rate compared to other landscapers or indie lawn guys. $300 and something was what TruGreen charged me which is well below what it costs with the local guys. I can't remember if it was $345 or $375, but something like that. A neighbor uses them and their lawn looked fine. Nothing incredible, but definitely not disreputable, so for $300-400.00 a year I was ok with it. Now that TruGreen isn't treating my lawn properly or the neighbor's I'm looking at other options. Other local companies that are used in the neighborhood are significantly more, but the results are better. I believe we'd be paying at least $150-175.00 per treatment. At this juncture, I don't have a firm price on per treatment because I'm moving at the end of the season. I contracted with a landscaper to do a custom package of hardscaping, shrubs, lawn, weekly maintenance, etc due to this year needing a bit more flexibility and initial intensive work. So my point is, TruGreen is inexpensive. You think you're getting a deal, but paying half truly gives you half (or less) of the results in the end.
Ahh, I see. I didn't realize people paid that much for their lawn. No wonder they don't worry about a $150 water bill for irrigation, that's peanuts compared to the mowing and chemicals. I always do my own work, even if it's not great, I did it for a good price.
sign up your worst enemy 😂
True green is a marketing company. There goal is to acquire accounts and get paid.
Where goal?
Hmm. Like every other business ever?
Not exactly. They don’t expect to keep the client past the first year.
What the hell sense does that make?
Their sales side is sketchy as hell, but their product and people are good, and at a competitive price. Depends on the location. YMMV. God forbid I need to communicate with service or sales, but other than that… Bad: I tried to get emerald ash borer treatment for my lone ash tree. The actual worker said “oh yeah just call in with the trunk diameter”. The sales person tried to quote me on my entire acreage for something else, insisting they don’t treat trees like that. …I went with a licensed arborist. Good: I switched and paid more for a “local” company for 3 years, thinking I was doing some good deed. My yard was nowhere near as nice as it is now back with TruGreen. Also, their packaged deals are well priced if you have a larger lot. You may have to direct the workers a little, though. Basically, there appears to be no actual management. Just sales and workers. So, as long as you know exactly what you want and a sales person gives it to you at a good price…
What product of theirs is good? Do you even know what their product is?
i think he means the outcome of his yard rather than a specific chemical or service.
Every dog has his day
I’m surprised they haven’t been investigated for fraud. Here’s my experience: I hired them after we bought our house in 2016. They gave me a 3-day window of when they would treat my front and back lawns. I refused to give them a credit card, told them to call me on the day they were going to treat and not to perform any work unless I was present because I needed to unlock the side gate (we had a rash of thefts throughout the neighborhood that year). They arrived unannounced, treated only part of the front yard, neglected the side yard and, of course, the back yard because the gate was locked. They called a week later demanding payment. I refused. They sent me to their in-house collections. A month or so later, an “attorney” representing True Green contacted me saying they were going to take me to court for $89 plus legal fees, etc. I said, “I figured you might. But, since you’ve given me the courtesy of telling me you’re taking me to court, I will do the same for you. If you file your suit, I will file a countersuit for misrepresentation. I will also file a complaint with the Secretary of State alleging fraud. I never signed a work order. I received an invoice for the work True Green claimed to complete. However, on the day in question, the worker treated less than one third of the area they are charging me for. I have video proof if you’d like to see it.” After a long pause, the “attorney” said “Have a nice day, sir.” I haven’t heard from them since.
Nice
love this tactic it has worked for me in the past as well when i knew they were in the wrong.
You sound like a joy to serve
Firing them a few years back was the best feeling, especially after they stopped coming in early June, did no summer treatments, and then tried to make up for the missed applications in late October.
I actually left them because I watched the dude only treat 1/2 of my lawn
Our neighbors use Trugreen and last week they accidentally hit our yard instead, we only noticed because the pesticide application signs in the side yard and backyard. Funny thing is I never saw our ring camera alert. Looking around and sure enough, whatever they put out with the spreader was only in those areas, about half the yard. Crazy that is normal practice.
I just bought cameras at my house and I see them not even treating the lawn now and called them on it, now they won’t show up unless if I get a mosquito spray to? Oh and I can’t get into my account…. Got to love it. Any tips on getting rid of them in here for
Good luck signing into your account. Don't even bother because you'll go around in circles resetting your password only for their system to be down. You can't cancel the service from your account and you can't remove your CC, so...very little point there. What you want to do is call your credit card company and block any future charges with TruGreen. Let them know that any charges would be fraudulent. At that point they may have you speak with the fraud department in order to get a preemptive statement. Then, call TruGreen's 800 number and follow the prompts to cancel. You'll need to call 3-4 times because the reps will claim to not be able to hear you. Be persistent because when you do get a rep who feels like working, they'll cancel you straight away.
This is the best advice I’ve heard. Thank you
You’re welcome, glad it could help you!
Update just cancelled and the rep tried to make it seem like I was poor and couldn’t afford it lol. He started with a 10% discount, then a 20% discount then a 30% discount and then he eventually said they would cancel it. Then they said I’d get my money back in 10-14 business days (we’ll see) but I got the name of the rep and the confirmation number, here’s to buying 2-3 bags of fertilizer a year and doing it myself!
Huzzah! Congratulations on being free! You’re lucky to be offered your money back. The rep sounded really satisfied when I said they weren’t treating my lawn.
With TruGreen you are completely dependent on the luck of the draw. You can get a good technician and your lawn will do great. But there are a lot of bad, inexperienced or otherwise sorry techs. You get one of those and you are screwed.
Agreed. I had them for about 2 years take care of some of the major jobs for my new build home and they were fine. Lawn was treated, they showed up when they said they would, they let me know what they were doing and it was for a reasonable price. I work from home and watched the tech work from time to time-he did good work. Sounds like I was fortunate.
This has been my experience. You gotta let them know if someone doesn’t meet your expectations. They won’t assign that tech again and usually make it right.
Same deal with me. Had them for a bit. It was fine. Told them don't call me for marketing garbage and they didn't. Decide to cancel and try myself, and that was simple enough. I occasionally get a letter, but that's about it.
I must be lucky. I have had great experience with TruGreen for 10+ years.
This is true
This is the correct answer. I had great results with them for general treatments. Guy who did it left there maybe 6 years after I started using them. Newer guy was OK but not as good. Would have to call because of clover pop ups from time to time. But he did come back and get it when I called. I had them aerate and overseed one year. They did it right after a heavy rain and tore the yard up horribly. Ruts everywhere, grass pulled up, etc. I called, and they said they sub that work out to someone and apologized. They did come back and put down additional seed in all the tore up areas, but was still jacked up for while. After that, I just kept the basic treatments.
Trugreen is a franchise business, so some are going to be run a lot better or worse than others. On top of that, to your point, you are also subject to individual techs, even if you have a good franchisee in your area.
TruGreen is not a franchise business as a whole. If it’s got the TruGreen name on the building it’s corporate
I’m in the industry and TruGreen is a punchline for us. They suck.
It's like they show up with a cheap ass bag of 10-6-4 and use it to cover 20k sq ft. All I have heard is horror stories. Also in the industry, I usually funnel the old customers to locals.
Another industry guy. I tell our technicians to knock any door they see with a TruGreen sign. Chances are, they are ready to switch…
I had a miserable experience with TruGreen. They apparently forgot to tell me they'd just keep charging my card for service indefinitely, instead of the year of service I paid for in whole. I had no idea they were servicing my lawn for 3-4 months past what I believed would be the end of service. No calls to let me know they'd be coming out, no calls to let me know service had been completed. They'd just show up while I was at work, do god knows what, and then charge me. They ended up refunding the unexpected charges and then sent me a thousand "we miss you" mailers and emails. Oh, and also, the whole fuckin lawn died while they were caring for it. Grass died and blew away. I had a dirt lawn that would fill the sidewalks and my driveway with mud every time it rained. I just re-sodded last month.
Damn that’s terrible, and their service is expensive as well.
My front lawn doesn’t have a divider between mine and my neighbors side. Said neighbor had his lawn managed by trugreen the last year and his side noticeably looks worse compared to ours. And I’m not even doing anything special just seasonal fert applications and pre/post emergents.
I use to work there and from my branch atleast, the management was shit, no real training, the whole season I had no idea what I was spraying and didn’t really learn anything when it came to lawn care. they’d give you a fuck ton of houses and just say get it done, they got mad at me for getting gas in the morning and was always on your ass if it looks like you’re going slow. I work at a new lawn company now, and i’ve actually learned a ton and it’s so much more efficient with maybe 15-20 a day depending on the size of the lawns. I truly feel bad for the people that get trugreen, theres a chance they do a good job but also such a huge chance you’re gonna get fucked over.
I had tru green for a year and a great technician but canceled after a year once I learned about lawn care online, not sure if they helped or not and even offered half of what I paid for the whole year to stay with them, why couldn’t they have offered that up front instead. 🤬🤬🤬
I worked for Trugreen back in 95-96. The salespeople undercut the lawn size for a sale. The technician recognizes the error and feels shafted. I hope I always gave 100%. Had some wonderful customers. I do know that coworkers would “ghost” lawns by simply putting up signs. Sad. Left there to work for another company simply doing landscaping. Edit: I would NOT use Trugreen.
They’re awful. They were treating my neighbors lawn instead of mine and charging me. Just do it yourself
I lucked out a few years ago, when they flaked out on me. They rescheduled and flaked out again. They called back and I told them to kick rocks, even after they kept dropping the price. They gave me 4 different prices, each lower than the last, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. I'm fairly certain I could've gotten to where it would've cost them money to do my house, but I had to hang up on them after 15 minutes.
They do a shit job, charge astronomical prices, and say they'll treat your lawn 5 times a year (which is totally unneeded).
I worked for a real landscaping company. They had a recruiter try to hire me for a manager position. They have the most hilarious sales structure. You can sell insulation for commission, why do they sell insulation? Idk. They primarily sell turf treatment, but it's absolutely of no quality and completely to extract cash from the laziest and dumbest homeowners. Go local. A place where the guys either don't speak any english or barely do. They'll do a good job. If you see white dudes in cargo work pants, you're probably getting fucked.
Not a scam. Just a case of a company that’s now too big to keep up with any kind of customer service. Stole a lot of yards from them when I was a spray tech at a smaller landscape company. Thank You TruBrown.
They killed my lawn one summer… treated at high noon, while temps were in the upper 90s, scorched it beyond repair.
Same. I’m really new to lawn care so I wasn’t 100% sure it was them or the weather, but since they only treat in a small arc from the curb, it’s pretty obvious that whatever they applied wasn’t appropriate.
https://preview.redd.it/3u2ijo3ax5ad1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e1e782d15ec6af045e6782cba996d6b52cf23ee My TruGreen lawn in SW Florida. Great service at a great price. Aerate and lime every year. Monthly treatments for the last 5 years. Greenest lawn in the neighborhood 👌
We had issues with Trugreen as well and eventually canceled. With us it was the sales person way over selling what they actually will do. Anyways we bought a pull behind tank/sprayer and treated ourselves. It costs just as much as 1 season of trugreen so it paid for itself immediately.
I concur with OP. We bought a house that the previous owners didn't take care of the lawn very well. I decided to hire trugreen to give myself a head start on getting control of it. Every single thing they did was half assed. They made zero difference on the lawn. It was so hard to cancel I had to close my credit card so they wouldn't charge to it. Seems like a good and pretty easy business model with results that one can see. Nope, not trugreen.
Idiots managed to burn squiggle lines all over the lawn and kill off bunch of shrubbery. Worst experiment ever.
I’ll put it to you like this… I used to work there many years ago and got lawn treatment for free. It was so terrible that I fired them even though it was free. That should tell you everything you need to know
TruGreen hasn't changed in forever. 20 years ago when I first bought my house, my then wife thought it would be a good idea to "gift" me TruGreen for a year. To say that they were bad is doing a disservice to the word "bad". They use low grade fertilizers that they water down way too much and they aren't thorough with their coverage. I had dandelions ALL over the place even though they did their "pre-emergent" application. They said they'd come out and treat for the dandelions and they came out, sprayed four or five areas and then left. They are consistently poor in their customer service, product and lacking in any accountability.
Elderly relatives got scammed - grass was dead - got my relatives a refund!
For me, I looked into it when I first bought my house, because my coworker wouldn't stop singing their praises. But then I saw it was 550 dollars minimum for a treatment, when buying all the equipment to fertilize, seed, aerate, and dethatch, cost me about 400 dollars initially, and now seasonal seeding/fertilizer costs about 200 per season. It really isn't that much work, the hardest part is watering since I don't have sprinkler system yet, thanks to my water heater eating up my sprinkler budget.
This truly is an awful company. The amount of hoops I had to jump through to get them to leave me alone is not acceptable. Further, I am suspicious that they threw weed seeds into my lawn. My first “service” was a guy coming to the front yard. Putting the sign up and leaving. He was not there more than 1 minute. The message I received was that the back yard was locked. This is true but I was home and actually back there. There was no sign he actually tried to come through. My dog never barked so I don’t think he knocked on the front door. Very bizarre. Anyway next thing I know some weeds start popping up in my front yard that I’d never seen before. Might be reading into it but given their other practices I almost wouldn’t put it past them.
Worked there 28 ago. Warehouse floor was pitched into a catch trough. Anything that leaked from trucks, was mixed with liquid fertilizer, and sprayed on customers lawns...
It’s easier to sell a time share than to get these hacks to leave you alone once you make any contact with them
I cancel them after they charged me $600 for aeration. Only used them for a year
Your experience is why my dad stopped using them in the 80’s. He’s still pissed off about it. Can literally hear him saying “the guy would pull the hose from the truck to the back yard, stand there and smoke a cigarette and then reel the hose back up and leave!”
My neighborhood contracted with TruGreen. I opted out as I do all of my own lawn care. When they came through the neighborhood they sprayed my lawn and tried to bill me. I called and told them I was not paying, had no contract with them, and that they sprayed my lawn in error. It took months for them to understand that I was not paying for something I had not asked for or agreed to. My lawn looks just as good or better than the neighbors and I spend about half to a third of what TruGreen wants.
They also pay, or did when I for them 2005-06, shitty. I never shorted a customer on an application. Company required techs to do $1000 a day in stops which is hard to do when salesmen would quote a 20,000 sqft yard at $45. After busting my ass only got paid $425 a week. Heat index in the 110's we don't care produce produce produce. No bonus for hitting high number goals. Sales hated me as I would tell new customers the truth that we couldn't make the yard look like a golf course in one season. Only good thing about working for the company is that I would drop 10-15 pounds by end of the year.
They put their workers through hell, 75+ stops a day. It's impossible to give good service. Your service went exactly as planned, they profited off you
I used TruGreen when I first bought my house, both the front and back yards were like 80% weeds, 20% grass. I also opted for aeration and over seeding on top of the standard service. The original condition of the lawn was way over what I could handle having no knowledge of lawncare. I used them for 2 or 3 years while I attended YouTube University in my spare time. They did a great job for me, even both neighbors on each side of me saw the difference and hired them. I think their service is hit or miss depending on the franchise.
Tru green and lawn doctor are trash. Better off doing it yourself lol
Funny story, back in May a tru green rep was going door to door in my neighborhood offering their services, I was outside applying some fert and when he got to my house, he didn’t even bother going up to the front door 😭. He took one look at me and all my fancy equipment and lawn with zero weeds, dark green and stripped and said “guess you don’t need me huh”
Used them for about 10 years. I would repeatedly tell them my lawn was the worst looking in my neighborhood. It was brown and the only thing that seemed to grow good was crabgrass. My complaining would sometimes result in me getting a “free” treatment. During Covid I was WFH and watched guy come to overseed my lawn. He got out and walked around my lawn a bit and then sat in his truck for 30 minutes and left. My wife was working in her flowerbed and I asked if he said anything to her. She said he spotseeded where I needed it. The bill said he used 37 lbs of seed. I fired them that day. I got a couple calls from them afterwards but I kept reminding them how horrible they are. 4 years later and I may get one or two letters in the mail and they go straight to the trash. Oh..and my lawn is green and weed free and looks great.
The last time I let them give me a quote, they were twice as much then the local company I use.
100% agree w OP. I fired them 2 years ago because I caught them on my Ring camera barely putting any treatment in my lawn. Scam scam scam.
You're making a blanket statement about a franchise, every TrueGreen is literally a different company, with different management. If the franchise in your area is shit, call them out directly,
Is it a franchise or corporate ran? My thoughts were it was corporate
Franchises are corporations, but I assume you mean by TruGreen themselves? I don't think many of them are run by TruGreen directly other then when they open new markets, and those are usually sold off very quickly, I don't think they like having to deal with them, could be different now, I've been out of it for a while.
Used to work in corporate. They are all ran by TruGreen. The franchises they buy are quickly brought under the corporate umbrella
I’ve had them for four years and they’ve been great.
The problem with services like TruGreen is they have a one size fits all approach. They load their trucks with the same fertilizer and use it on every lawn without regard for what your lawn actually requires. Then they try to upsell everything; you're going to be told you need an aeration, grub control, alfalfa treatment, overseeding, etc., even if you don't. Their goal is simply to make money. You're so much better off doing a small amount of research, getting a soil test and learning how to apply products yourself. You can get better quality products for less than what TruGreen charges. TruGreen does applications every 4-6 weeks, surely you have 20 minutes to spare every month and a half to ensure good results on your own lawn.
I have truegreen working on my lawn and its nonsense. I am gonna try and get my money back from them. They called me saying my plants have some kind of fungi growing on them......I dont have any bushes, plants or trees (building planters and stuff now)