The opinions expressed here are my own personal opinions. The images displayed are original and are not modified in any way.
Blake Miller produced this lovely looking lawn in just three short months. He's reliable and capable. After all, he belongs to all sorts of professional groups.
What use to be a mature lush lawn has quickly turned into a dust bowl after contracting with Blake Miller Landscaping. In 2007, Mr. Miller's contract stipulates that he will mow once a week or as growing conditions dictate. That "growing conditions dictate" only means that he can come more often and charge you for the extra trips when the lawn is growing rapidly. It does NOT mean that during a major drought and the grass is not growing at all, that Mr. Miller's crew will refrain from mowing. Even after expressing our concerns to Mr. Miller about the deteriorating condition of the lawn, he explained that he would still need to charge us weekly, even if his crew didn't mow, because he has "equipment and payroll obligations to meet". After speaking with Phil and Todd, other lawn care people in the Fairport area, it appears that Mr. Miller may be the only lawn service owner who has his crew on a fixed salary.
This lawn has had constant applications of lawn care products via Davey's and has never been in a condition like this. We even had Davey's make a special trip to help us understand what was happening.
Davey's explanation:
They checked for everything they could and found nothing that they could provide us a remedy for. They explained that when lawns are under drought conditions they should be left alone. As the soil becomes less resilient and hard, and the grass crowns start to become brittle from dry conditions, any time something comes in contact with the crowns, they will split and die. No amount of water will bring them back. If they are left alone, when the moisture returns, they will revive and start growing again.
The trim work made easy.
Also watch out for the person operation the string trimmer. In this case the trimmer is tilted about thirty degrees to cut off the crowns at ground level. I guess that means they won't have to spend as much time trimming next week.
The ZTR skid mark.
The Zero Turn Radius machine is noted for leaving skid marks. This occurs when the operator gets to the end of their path and turns with the inside wheel stationary. The entire machine pivots around that wheel until the turn is completed and the operator starts going forward again. It will happen under all conditions, wet or dry. Wet conditions will leave a mark for a few day until the grass grows and fills it in. Dry conditions will leave a mark and destroy the crown. Of course hot rod speeds only make things worse. I know that turning a ZTR machine is a difficult concept to understand and only "Professionals" like Mr. Miller have the ability to completely understand the concept but please bare with me while I attempt to explain the proper procedure. The turn should be done slowly with one wheel moving forward and one wheel moving backwards. I apologize for such a lengthy and complicated explanation.
The lawn is revived but no thanks to Mr. Miller.
On Sept 3rd we left two messages on his cell phone. On Sept 4th we left four more. At 8:30 pm we finally went to visit his registered place of business. He guaranteed that he would stop by on Wednesday the 5th to examine the lawn and he would also give us the phone number of his crew leader. We never left the house until Sunday and (Surprise!!!!) he never showed up. Finally a complaint to the BBB in Buffalo spurred Mr. Miller to stop mowing. However, he is billing us for every week during the summer plus a "early cancellation" fee of $125. We sent him a registered letter of our BBB complaint but he delayed picking that up for two weeks, so he claims he had no idea about not mowing. That's when I put a large sign in the front yard stating "BLAKE MILLER--DO NOT MOW". He has never offered any resolution for the "dust bowl". There is $120 worth of seed, 12 hours of de-thatching, watering three time a day for 15 minutes in every spot that costs us $100 extra in our water bill. Was it worth his discount price of $15 ???? I don't think so.
2-28-2008 It appear that most lawn care services are charging between $27 and $30 this year for a 1/4 to 1/2 acre typical lawn. When the flyers are stapled to you mailbox post or stuffed in you paper tube and the wind starts blowing them around please pick up the flyer and call the owner to come and clean up the neighborhood. Some areas looked like a confetti storm last year. If the owner is unwilling, the Monroe Sheriff will surely lend a hand at encouraging the owner to clean up his mess. Personally I think any such flyer should be mailed.
October 20th, believe it or not, after all of the complaints and phone calls to Mr. Miller, and the BBB over the last two and a half months, his lawn crew arrived this morning to mow the lawn. It was obviously mowed just two days ago and didn't need mowing but we had to physically stop them. I called Mr. Miller and left a message on his phone that I would be forced to file a trespass complaint with the Sheriff if they entered the property again. A Monroe County deputy suggested writing Mr. Miller a certified letter and said that he will keep an eye on our property.
As recommended by the Sheriff department, we have just (Oct 22) sent him a Certified letter warning him of a possible "trespass complaint" if he continues to enter our property. Of course he hasn't picked this one up either.
From the US Post Office today 11-8-2007:
--Label/Receipt Number: 7005 3110 0001 9996 7680
--Status: Notice Left
--We attempted to deliver your item at 1:19 PM on October 23, 2007 in FAIRPORT, NY 14450 and a --notice --was left. It can be redelivered or picked up at the Post Office. If the item is unclaimed, it --will be returned to --the sender. No further information is available for this item.
Check out http://search.buffalo.bbb.org/codbrep.html?ID=66008798&cons=y . Are 6 complaints in one summer normal? That's for you to decide.
Here is another complaint about Blake Miller.
dietcokeinhand yahoo.com wrote:
email: dietcokeinhand@yahoo.com subject: blake miller complaint message:
Hi - I just was looking up Blake Miller's address so that I could send a letter to him -- a complaint -- and I found your website.... I was just wondering if you ever had any resolution to your problem? My problem is that his company was doing work at the house next door to mine, and his guys ran over a "Barbie Jeep" of my kids .... thank god no one was in it! He was very rude to me when i talked to him on the phone --after he didn't' return several of my calls.... and I still have no resolution ,,, Just wondering how you fared out. Marie
Freedom Flight / Bill Leibenguth <Bill_Leibenguth@freedomflightinc.com> wrote:
Marie,
Would it be OK with you if I incorporated your email into my web page? I love spreading the word about rip offs, cons and arrogant people.
Bill
HI Bill -- sure - you can put my e-mail in your web page -- I was surprised to find it - but i was typing in Blake Miller to find his address. I sent a complaint to BBB. I am going to send a certified letter and then possibly go to the attorney general.
So you never got any resolution or payment from him?? that is just criminal. I am sure that you spent much more money than my little kids Power Wheel. However, his guys clearly ran into it and smuched it. They took responsibility for it -- yet their owner did nothing to rectify it. My kids are so disappointed that they are missing their Jeep. I am attaching a picture showing the Jeep and the front of his truck, after the hit. All I can say is Thank God no kids were in that circle when they did it.
Marie
