Choosing a Fertilization Company

National Companies

National companies are big. Huge! They are in every major city and most small cities as well. You know their names, but here is a short list of some of the biggest:

1 Trugreen

2 Valleycrest

3 Brickman

4 Davey Tree

5 Scotts

Again, these companies have a place in the market. Obviously. Just look at their size. Here are some things to know about the big companies. The good and the bad.

The good:

Well, they are big. They have a recognizable brand name and there is a lot of comfort in knowing your lawn care company is going to be around next week and next year and the year after.

They have a lot of buying power with distributors so they are able to help contain their costs that way which in turn don’t have to be passed on to you.

They are easy to find. You know who they are and can easily do research on them online so you don’t have to guess about their origin.

Guarantee: Well, not so great here. One of the bigs say they will refund the cost of your last application if you are not satisfied. Which isn’t much, but they do offer a guarantee.

 

The not so good:

The big national chains have a program dictated to them from the corporate office – this is not going to be customized to YOUR yard and in some cases, not even your region of the country.

Not unique to the region of the country that you are in Some national programs it doesn’t matter whether you live in Long Island, Charlotte, or Sarasota Florida, your program will be the same The actual timing of your lawn applications is timed more by what is most efficient for them, not IDEAL timing for your lawn.

Some national companies lose more than half of their customers every year When you are ready to end the contact, some will harass you unmercifully and take you to court If you really want an eye opener, Google: harassment trugreen and see what people are saying on Yelp.com and other review sites. This will give you a real eye opener into what you might expect.

Contracts If you engage with one of these big national providers, please read your contract carefully! Why? Because they MEAN every word of it. If you search Yelp.com you will find reports of people being harassed by bill collectors over a few dollars, incorrect billing, triple billing, unscheduled treatments that you get billed for.

During peak times a year they use uneducated/untrained temp labor.

It’s not they are the lawn care axis of evil, they are big and they are inexpensive to hire and if you are a low cost provider, you have to be a low cost producer, so they have to do everything they can to shave pennies where they can.

They sell you the seven fertilizations and then try to up-sell you with other services later; services you should have had in the first place – you will have them constantly marketing back to you all year long for: Brown patch - Aeration and seeding - Grub control - Fungicide

 

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