Hi everyone,
I would like to share with you our very unpleasant experience with the company that we hired to landscape our garden. It's a long story but I try to keep it short.
This company has a nursery on the road to the Elephant Village. When you drive from town to the Elephant Village, it is located on the right hand side of the road after the Elephant Village, but before Angel Hills development. They also run a stall at the Grand Hotel night market every Thursdays.
One of their biggest problems is being so unreliable. They said they would come on a certain date or time, they either never showed up or came much later. so our job that was supposed to last from 6 to 8 weeks ended up taking almost 4 months, and is still not completeandworking properly. They just dragged it on and on and made us feel so frustrated during the process. They started by giving us a rough drawing of what to put where in the garden. However, they later tried to talk us into planting fewer trees and plants because of so and so, and did not give the amount of trees and plants they said they would. They could not do their job properly. We specially asked them to use tall plants along the boundary wall to block the view from the outside and allow more privacy in the garden. That was not achieved at all. We can still see the houses behind us!! When you questioned them, they would come up with some excuses and explainations to try to get away. When the garden was finally considered "finished", and we paid them the final payment, the pump of the water pond stopped working. That was when we realized the nightmare was not finished yet. The pump was broken at least a month ago and we still cannot get them back to fix it. We called them and when they finally answered the phone, and promised to come the next day or so, they didn't turn up and didn't ring to explain why. Now we are totally at their mercy and let them decide when they can spare their time to come to finish their work. As I write this, they said they were coming, and there is still no sign of them. The other thing is they said they would take care of the garden for one month after the job was finished by coming to our house every day to water the plants twice a day, they hardly came to do so. We also have doubts about their knowledge about plants. They put a bamboo tree next to our water pond, and all the leaves of the bamboo tree and other trees around the pond fall and clogged up the pump. That's why the pump failed. Even our maid pointed that out to us that they shouldn't have put trees like these around the pond before the problem actually happened!!!!
We meant to recommend them to our friends, but obviously it won't happen now.
Be warned! The quality of their work is very average. Their service and professionalism are atrocious! If you would like some more frustration and anger in your life, they can definitely help.
Have a nice day!
Be aware of bad landscape company
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Wanderlust
- Legend
- Posts: 2862
- Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:27 pm
- Location: Hua Hin
Hi carmiebee,
I have edited your post as the bold font was hurting my eyes! I understand you want to make your point but bold should be used to emphasise certain parts not hte whole post! Anyway, sorry to hear of your bad experience, and I hope you can eventually rectify the problems. I don't know how long you have been in Thailand but bad timekeeping is very common, and although that doesn't make it OK, it is something that you are going to encounter again and again. On the issue of this particular company, if you have any Thai friends, preferably an older male, get them to go with you to see the boss of the company to explain everything, and in your dealings with them try to stay calm, as getting angry doesn't get you anywhere most of the time. I may be telling you things you have already tried, and if so I apologise, but it sounds like you may need some guidance. It also sounds like you paid them either up front or before the work was really finished which is never a good idea, as they have little incentive to give you good service. Even if this doesn't apply to you it may still be useful advice for someone else reading this.
Anyway, good luck, and keep us informed about what happens.
I have edited your post as the bold font was hurting my eyes! I understand you want to make your point but bold should be used to emphasise certain parts not hte whole post! Anyway, sorry to hear of your bad experience, and I hope you can eventually rectify the problems. I don't know how long you have been in Thailand but bad timekeeping is very common, and although that doesn't make it OK, it is something that you are going to encounter again and again. On the issue of this particular company, if you have any Thai friends, preferably an older male, get them to go with you to see the boss of the company to explain everything, and in your dealings with them try to stay calm, as getting angry doesn't get you anywhere most of the time. I may be telling you things you have already tried, and if so I apologise, but it sounds like you may need some guidance. It also sounds like you paid them either up front or before the work was really finished which is never a good idea, as they have little incentive to give you good service. Even if this doesn't apply to you it may still be useful advice for someone else reading this.
Anyway, good luck, and keep us informed about what happens.
It's a sorry tale, with which we call sympathise. But is this anything more than the normal trials and tribulations with this kind of thing in Thailand? My experience with gardens, plants and watering systems is very similar.
It's frustrating in the extreme, but it may be a bit harsh to single these guys out for critisism?
It's frustrating in the extreme, but it may be a bit harsh to single these guys out for critisism?
ดวงขึ้น
จิม
จิม
My wife came home a few hours ago with another 5 big plant pots.
Heaven knows where she's going to put them. It's a jungle out there already. Every day I have to fight off tigers, scorpions, centipedes and elephants. And I've not even mentioned the snakes.
Still, if I live in a semi-tropical country, I suppose I have to put up with these interrupions in my "natural karma".
Heaven knows where she's going to put them. It's a jungle out there already. Every day I have to fight off tigers, scorpions, centipedes and elephants. And I've not even mentioned the snakes.
Still, if I live in a semi-tropical country, I suppose I have to put up with these interrupions in my "natural karma".
Updates
Hi everyone,
The company that we hired to landscape our garden have finally come to fix the pump of our fish pond eventually after our persistant attempts to get them to our house to do so (my hubby kept calling them everyday). We just hope now that the problem is fixed for good.
The people that we have dealt with are the owners, so you can imagine how desperate our situation was. We paid them the final payment because then the job was apparently completed. Who knows the water pump just broke down a few days after the final payment!?
We have learnt a lesson from this though. Never pay them all the money until we are 110% sure that the job is properly done. I know that the Thais are laid back and don't work like the way we do, but I really don't think there were any excuses for how they treated us as their customers, let alone friends. We were on very good terms before the whole thing went wrong. What a shame!
The company that we hired to landscape our garden have finally come to fix the pump of our fish pond eventually after our persistant attempts to get them to our house to do so (my hubby kept calling them everyday). We just hope now that the problem is fixed for good.
The people that we have dealt with are the owners, so you can imagine how desperate our situation was. We paid them the final payment because then the job was apparently completed. Who knows the water pump just broke down a few days after the final payment!?
We have learnt a lesson from this though. Never pay them all the money until we are 110% sure that the job is properly done. I know that the Thais are laid back and don't work like the way we do, but I really don't think there were any excuses for how they treated us as their customers, let alone friends. We were on very good terms before the whole thing went wrong. What a shame!