GreenGate Turf & Pest Response
05/16/2024
Mr. ******** signed a 12-month serve agreement to begin mid-January of this year. His first treatment with us was on January 18th. We ask that clients commit to 12 months on our program so that we can accomplish our goal in a reasonable timeframe. Grass takes time to fill in and recover after any sort of damage, and at the time of his cancellation we had no reason to believe that Mr. ********** yard was at risk or under any sort of infection or infestation.
On 2/7, In response to us sending over the results of the soil test we did, Mr. ******** asked about some “dead spots” in the grass. He replied with photos once we asked, and at the time we were unsure of an exact answer, however believed what we were looking at was leftover drought damage from Summer ’23, or possibly where weeds were killed of with herbicide that we sprayed (which is a normal occurrence). The lawn was dormant at the time so we were unable to exactly pinpoint what had happened, however were confident of no disease being present.
On 4/8, Mr. ******** sent in new photos of different areas of the grass, where bright yellow struggling spots were coming up amongst the green grass. At first we were unsure what was going on, and mentioned that this could also be leftover from last year, but did not appear to be detrimental. By 4/22, Mr. ******** reached back out informing us that he believed these areas were due to dog urine. We agreed with this diagnosis, as the spots are classic examples of this issue, and still he seemed to have no evidence of diseased grass. We provided helpful information on what to do for the dog urine spots.
Mr. ******** then, on 4/22, sent in more photos of a different area of the lawn that does not appear to be from dog urine. These areas were bare of grass, revealing brown dirt underneath. Photos from when we began servicing over winter show that these were bare at that time, as well, so we advised that these were similar to what we described back in February, where sections that got damaged from last year’s drought were still waiting to recover and fill back in. It was at this time that Mr. ******** decided to fill us in that he had new sod laid in September, following the drought, so this was probably not drought damage. We were unaware of this information until this time.
There was active fungus in the grass when we started service in January, but that was treated at the time, which we informed Mr. ******** of. Fungal and drought damage look quite similar after some time, as they simply leave behind patches of dirt like Mr. ******** was seeing and reporting to us. Still, his yard, based on the photos provided, did not appear to be in any sort of danger of dying off. Any fungus that was there in January had been treated at that time.
At this point Mr. ******** had not requested any sort of in person meeting, and was simply asking us questions via email about his yard, that we responded to with the best of our knowledge and expertise. On 4/24, Mr. ******** requested pricing for our mosquito services. We sent the quote, and he replied expressing his frustration with our services so far and the results of his lawn. Mr. ******** reiterated how he has sections of dog urine damage and other damage, and that his lawn has never looked worse. The areas of other damage had already been identified as pre-existing to starting service, and we were in the process of encouraging the growth and recovery these sections needed as we had been in conversation with Mr. ******** about. We immediately offered an appointment with our field manager to come and walk the yard and discuss in person, as our remote communication was clearly not getting our point across, and we would like our clients to feel seen and heard. The appointment date that was offered was 1 week out (5/2), as that was the earliest available window for an in-person meeting. Mr. ******** then replied that he would only be available “tomorrow” (4/25) during a specific time. We took that as him wanting a different day, which the next open window would be on 5/3, which we offered. Mr. ******** agreed to an appointment on 5/3. He then informed us that he was going to move forward with installing sod, and asked if he could have a fungal treatment in the meantime. We explained that fungicide can be harmful to the lawn, so because there was no active fungus at the time of his request, we would not feel comfortable putting that down and stressing out his grass that is still trying to grow and recover. Had Mr. ******** had active fungus, we would have been out for a complimentary treatment long before our conversation reached this point. Mr. ******** then sent several more photos and videos to us via email. Before we could respond, Mr. ******** emailed again to cancel his services, saying he’d be going in another direction.
We then processed Mr. ********** cancellation as per his service agreement, which incurs a $99 cancellation fee in addition to any charges due to settle the value of services rendered vs monthly payments made (in this case, half of his typical monthly bill), totaling $149.26 after tax. Mr. ******** expressed that he was upset about paying the cancellation fee, due to our lack of availability to a next-day appointment request. He confirmed that he would still like to move forward with cancellation, and to bill him whatever was owed.
We sincerely apologize that we could not meet Mr. ********** expectations of our availability or what we could do for faster recovery of the yard, but we stand by our diagnosis of the issues and that the concern was non-emergent.