Discussions

I posted a couple days ago about a company that I had booked to do some landscaping for us. There were two problems with that thread: 1) my frustration with the situation was second only to my brevity in explaining the circumstances, and, 2) what I did say was misinterpreted by a large number of posters.  
 
I want to first state that since posting the intial message I was contacted by not only the sales and marketing manager but also by the owner of the company to help clarify their position and work through the issues I had.  
 
I have a great deal of respect for the two folks at this company as it takes a lot of professionalism to answer to critique. I don't know that I've ever spoken with two individuals who were as passionate about their company, the quality of their work and their committment to customer satisfaction as these two were.  
 
I was also contacted by another landscaping company in town who assured me of company in question's reputation and helped get me in contact with someone who could help, should I need it.  
 
As someone who has never worked in or with anyone in the landscaping business - I have no friends or family members in this line of work - the manager was more than accommodating in explaining the complications of timing service dates in co-ordination with things like weather, road restrictions, supplier deliveries and the like, much less the fact that nature hasn't co-operated with producing the required sod for customers waiting still from last year. She was patient with my questions and gave great attention to ensuring that I understood anything that I inquired about.  
 
I spoke with the owner as well, who invested nearly half an hour of his time with me to talk through the issues that I had posted about. He re-iterated his company's commitment to excellence and assured me, on the back of his reputation, that when given the chance head-on that his company takes strides to correct any mistakes that his company might make.  
 
To say that I appreciated the time and respect afforded to me would be an understatement!  
 
Now, I don't want to leave my original post unaddressed. I would like to clarify the two points that I was brief about and were contorted in the thread, especially in light of the comments about the company that came following my original post.  
 
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The issue of my deposit: It is standard practice for any contractor to take a deposit on work to be completed. This company does the same. My deposit - in the form of a cheque - was issued in the third week of April and has been in the company's safe since that time.  
 
So, while I gave them the cheque the company had not cashed it, which is what was assumed on the thread. I by no means meant to imply that this was the case, but did so by being as brief as I was. I apologized to the owner in this regard. There has been no fiscal malpractice on the part of the company whatsoever and, in fact, their standard to *not* deposit cheques prior to commencing the work is a form of protection to their customers.  
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The issue of communication: Again, I was brief in details in this regard and was thankful that the owner extended a phone call so that I could apologize to that extent. I had tried three times to get in touch with the only contact I had there - which as it turns out is the owner - and had been contacted by other staff in return. There *was* communication from the company, but it wasn't what *I* was looking for. We were able to work out the first two calls but they have no record of the third.  
 
He and I were operating under a different set of assumptions for communication, based on a conversation in April that we remember differently. It was because of what my wife and I took away from that conversation that our expectations were very high. We were under the impression that work would be done by now, and didn't understand why we'd not yet recieved a call to even book the installation. Because our expectations were as high as they were, our level of frustration grew rapidly as the dates (as we understood them) came and went.  
 
What we lacked was an understanding and appreciation of how the industry operates and is as dramatically affected by weather as it is. The owner also spoke to our interpretaion of the dates and reiterated that they were at the mercy of the weather.  
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In the end, without having had any work performed yet by this company, we recognize their effort and appreciate that they are as committed to building - and maintaining - their reputation through a committment to solid work and customer satisfaction.  
 
I can't wait to see how our front yard turns out!