Late April, Jude (Curbz's owner) and I agreed on the scope and price ($350 per month) to maintain my property this summer. The scope includes: "hand weeding of all gardens and lawns, edging of all gardens, pruning and dead-heading of all perennials, shrubs and trees, lawn care (including overseeding, weed control, etc.). All applications as required as part of the regular maintenance regimen are included (organic pesticides, washes, etc.)".
Her crew showed up a week later to cut the grass. The week after that, they never showed up. I left her numerous emails, voice messages, and texts and she never replied. Finally showed up days later to cut the grass. Jude told me a firm schedule will be emailed to me and service will become more consistent. Sure enough, no schedule was sent to me so I emailed her again to ask what's going on - no reply from her. Finally, I got an email from her saying that she doesn't have enough customers in Etobicoke to justify coming here and will stop servicing my property immediately.
So I paid her $350 upfront (yes, silly me) for the month of May and only got 2 grass cuts. I spent the next 2 weeks trying to get my money back. After hearing more excuses from her about why it is taking so long to refund my money, I finally received a partial refund today (June 4) of only $210, which means I paid $70 per grass cut (I could have asked my neighbour's kid to cut the grass for $10). Needless to say I didn't receive any of the other services that was agreed in the scope.
Beware if you choose to deal with Jude. If you do choose to use her company, my advice would be to make sure you don't pay them anything until the work is completely done.
It's too bad because her crew seems to be nice people and does decent work.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $350.00