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Green Thumb charges hike
susan.elliott242
Posts: 4
Hi, first post here.
My elderly parents have used green thumb now for maybe 10 years including at their last house which had lawns front and back. Were always happy with the service at their last house, but since they moved about a year ago it's a different team and they've not been so good at arranging when to come and they missed a couple of treatments.
Services ( weed, feed etc) used to be around £16 and I think they paid around £25 for scarification.
They received a letter a few weeks ago recommending scarification, which they agreed to.
Green thumb came last week and spent 20 minutes scarifying it and also left a load of mud in the garage and when they got the invoice it was for £77!
I've checked the letter and it doesn't give a price and parents assumed that it would be around the same as previously.
They called the number on the leaflet and were told that Green Thumb have been taken over by another company. Anyway,they've told them to take a hike and cancelled the contract.
I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?
My elderly parents have used green thumb now for maybe 10 years including at their last house which had lawns front and back. Were always happy with the service at their last house, but since they moved about a year ago it's a different team and they've not been so good at arranging when to come and they missed a couple of treatments.
Services ( weed, feed etc) used to be around £16 and I think they paid around £25 for scarification.
They received a letter a few weeks ago recommending scarification, which they agreed to.
Green thumb came last week and spent 20 minutes scarifying it and also left a load of mud in the garage and when they got the invoice it was for £77!
I've checked the letter and it doesn't give a price and parents assumed that it would be around the same as previously.
They called the number on the leaflet and were told that Green Thumb have been taken over by another company. Anyway,they've told them to take a hike and cancelled the contract.
I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?
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Posts
I haven't had much experience of Green Thumb, my dad has used them a couple of times, but eventually decided to do it himself. My understanding was that Green Thumb is a franchise , l haven't heard anything about a takeover of the company and can't find anything online.
One of our neighbours used to use them but when the franchise was sold, he wasn't happy with the new guy and used a local business instead.
I think it must be the local franchise that's changed as I couldn't find anything online regarding the actual company being taken over either. A few people on a local forum said they're ex customers since the company changed several years ago, so that would make sense too. Maybe people are selling their established franchise businesses on at a profit and the folks buying them need to increase prices to get a decent return. Unfortunately I think a lot of people won't be prepared to pay more than double what they were paying previously.We're in the NE, so often our prices for services etc are cheaper than further south.
The charge was definitely just for the scarification. I saw that other post, but my parents have always just paid per treatment. Their website doesn't even give prices for special treatments. Naughty not to state the price in the letter they sent out. I thought that by contract law they had to.
I've found someone local who's going to quote and his scarification rates start at £15.
I would be very surprised if they did a scarify for £25. They scarify from December through to February, which is the worst time of year to do it. They don't offer waste removal and their scarifies are never thorough enough.
Every one of their lawns ends up thick with moss and thatch due to bad management.
Their feeds encourage too much soft sappy growth. They then tell you to cut the lawn long, so it hides the rubbish beneath.
Anyone can buy a franchise, and they are rarely experts in lawns!
However, they are experts in marketing, and this is why so many people use them. The public generally don't know much about lawn care so think they are happy and think they are getting good results.
My parents signed up for GT when they got into their 70's when we were living abroad. I don't think the lawns at previous house were ever scarified. The back lawn was fine, but the front had a lot of moss in it.
Guess we'll just have to sort it ourselves from now on. We managed to look after an acre and a half in the USA so we'll manage if we do some reading. At the end of the day it's a lawn, and there's other more important issues to be dealt with.
Thanks again.