MC Landscaping

MC Landscaping just did a major overhaul on our front yard. A completely new driveway, a low-water parkway, all new drought-tolerant plants in the flowerbeds, new sprinklers and a drip system with RainBird controller, and a Marathon Sod front lawn. Marcus was very good about helping us explore our options in the planning stages, and up front about the 5-week wait to start the project. There was some additional delay due to bad weather, but then they came with an army and work progressed quickly. The whole project was completed in a week. Leo the foreman oversaw all the work and made sure everything was done to our satisfaction. He even programmed the RainBird controller for us. Even our neighbors commented on how diligent and efficient the crew was.

Five Stars for a job well done.

TL;DR:

-The company has no issues charging you in advance for services that they do not perform and will not provide exact dates for, allowing them to change the schedule on a whim without repercussions.

- In order to ensure services are being consistently performed, it is on the owner to follow up repeatedly to make sure that that work is being done or the money is being refunded when it is not.

- Their system is either faulty, poorly managed or both. They have no issues making promises, continuously breaking them and then gaslighting you into thinking they are performing the services and taking your money.

- I am still trying to wrap my head around giving a company a final chance to perform work that they have A. Already charged me for B. Admitted that they didn't do and C. Adamantly promise they will perform the next day and (either out of spite or incompetence) still cannot follow through with it. I am truly at a loss.

Long Version:

Firstly, I want to say that the work by the actual maintenance workers was fine. So this is not a reflection of their work, but how the business is run and managed. This mainly stems from their system of charging you in advance for the work each month, and no specific dates are provided on the bill so you have to trust that they will show up and perform the work without any indication of when it will happen.

I first solicited work from this company early in the year for a couple projects (gravel work, trimming and removing trees etc.). The work was expensive, but it was done well. I then decided to have them do ongoing maintenance, servicing my yard twice a month and this is where things went rapidly downhill.

At first, the work was being done and the crew would show at a regular interval. Then the "rainy" season hit around March/April and there were several miscommunications on the companies side about canceling and rescheduling work (continuously postponed, no exact dates provided, just vague assurances). I finally received an email reply in April regarding a "make up" of the work and I asked for more notification moving forward if there was going to be zero or incomplete service for the month (especially since I had already paid for it).

About a couple months later, I noticed that the gardeners were not showing up twice a month. I work from home and am here quite frequently (I know, I have no life) and I would see them once a month at the most. I contacted the company again and Anthony assured my that the work was being done and that I must have been missing it and he doubled down on a promise that they would be there regularly.

At this point, the ownership of the scheduling and crew organization was swapped over to Cody. I contacted Cody initially to bring up my concerns and he outlined that the crew was assigned to me on Wednesdays. I brought up that I did not see the crew coming twice a month, but he "looked into the dates in the system" and called out dates they were there, so I took him at his word (ignoring my own memory and recall).

That brings us to this month, December. I noticed that, once again, the crew had not shown up to do any maintenance and contacted Cody on the 20th asking about service. He said that he "saw the dates in the system" again, but this time confessed that they did not show up on the first scheduled date (December 6th) without any explanation and that this was "the first time he was hearing about it" (?!) and while the maintenance for that day (the 20th) was rescheduled due to rain, the crew would definitely be coming on the 22nd. I expressed my disappointment and flat out said that this was a last chance after the runaround they had been giving me for months to perform the services. So yesterday, the 22nd rolls around and no crew shows up, no communication is sent and no explanation is given.

So, to sum up, this company has no issues charging you in advance for services that they do not provide. In order to ensure services or a refund, it is on the owner to follow up repeatedly to make sure that that work is being done or the money is being refunded. Their system is either faulty, poorly managed or both. They also have no issues making promises, continuously breaking them and then gaslighting you into thinking they are performing work and taking your money. I have cancelled my services moving forward and do not recommend working with them.

I recently had a home project done by MC Landscaping. I had walked by one of their lawn care crews in the neighborhood a few weeks ago and was impressed with their courtesy and friendliness. I took down the contact info and visited their website. The reviews were excellent and they stated "no job too small". My project was relatively small so I decided to test their promise. My first few encounters were with ERIC who was terrific! He was helpful, responsive and proactive. I was impressed. Next I met with JOSH to determine the "what and how much" for my job. He was open to questions and had a variety of suggestions to help guide me to my final decision. He had my estimate to me the next day. He remained active and involved with my project. My next step was with LEO and one of his crews for a job walk/project start. (Typically 2 steps, but we combined.) As had become the standard, the customer service and concern was stellar! Leo was always reachable for clarification and help when needed and the CREW was diligent, highly skilled and a pleasure to have at my home.
A positive experience from beginning to end.

They did a backyard paver job for me and it came out terrific‼ They whole crew was great to work with, good communication, quality work, good pricing. Highly recommend this company.

Mc Landscaping made landscaping my back courtyard easy. After an estimate, Leo walked the project with me and we finalized my needs. Leo quickly knew what I wanted and suggestions were right on. The crew that came out were kind courteous and hard working. A great job cleaning up and then Leo walked the project and made sure I was happy. I was!

I'm editing my review just a little bit. I'm still overall happy with the end result but during the process they installed a chipped pony wall top and they'd promise to come back and fix it but it's been well over a year and they haven't. And also a big part of my design request was to have an evergreen tree that would provide some privacy from my neighbors. Now that it's winter it is obvious that the tree they put in is definitely not evergreen. It's just a bunch of sticks right now as all the leaves fell off, not providing any privacy at all. So those two things have caused me to reduce my star from 5 to 4.

Their website requests you to send information and they will contact you within 24 hours. Not true! You'll be lucky if they contact you at all! I'm surprised they are still in business.

Make sure one of your calls is to MC Landscaping for home exterior. We envisioned front and back attractive habitats focused on California native plants and other drought tolerants. They delivered that and more. They are super knowledgeable on all of the diverse topics we discussed. From the first visit to the final cleanup they were top-notch. We got better than we asked for on time and on budget. Cannot say enough about everyone that we dealt with; sales, design, management, implementation...they are all good at their jobs...and just plain great people. Leo did our project management. He and his team were very accommodating, pleasant, and most importantly effective. We redid the front, entryway, side of the driveway, and the whole backyard; all of it gorgeous. We (and the neighbors) are thoroughly pleased with MC Landscaping.

Our backyard needed a lot of TLC, Marcus's crew cleaned up a ton of weeds, trimmed our trees, pulled down a huge chunk of vines off our garage, and left everything looking so much neater. Would definitely recommend for anyone looking for yard care!

New Front and Backyard

Marcus and Leo from MC Landscaping helped us update our front and backyard. They were patient through the design phase and had great suggestions as to how to make our space more useable. Once they broke ground, the whole project was done in 2 weeks. They were flexible with the changes we made during the process which was a huge help. Pricing was honest and up front. Their team worked extremely hard and were very friendly. They cleaned up the job site and sidewalk each day with we really appreciated. We are so happy how it turned out and recommend that if you are thinking of upgrading your yards, you call MC Landscaping to take care of you.