1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar

Consumer Affairs


TruGreen ChemLawn - Inadequate Service


Consumer Complaints & Reviews

I have been having them treat my spruce tree for bag worms for several years. The past two years, the tree has been over half destroyed by bag worms and TruGreen personnel have done nothing. The tree is over 35" tall.

Second issue: I cancelled their services on two separate occasions over a month apart. They are billing me for services rendered after call and will not remind me.

I signed up with TruGreen in May 2012 due to the discounted rate offered which was lower than our previous lawn care company who provided high quality service. To my regret, from the very get-go, the problems began. First, without our awareness, they completely excluded our backyard from treatments which we had no knowledge of until several months into it I called to complain about the super heavy weed invasion. Now, the whole property was looking much worse than what it was prior to their treatment, but the backyard was the worst. I proceeded to contact the local manager and as I expressed my complaint, he said my backyard wasn't part of service and to include it I'd have to pay so much money.

I knew that was false and told him he needs to get it right to which he assured he'd call me back once he got the recording to which I agreed. It took several weeks of me trying to get him on the phone and even then he'd come up with excuses as to why he still didn't have the answer. As I persisted to call, he finally admitted they had made a mistake and will issue me a refund to the last two services which was really a joke because by that time, they charged me many more times than just two and the back was in need of saud to get it back into shape as it missed vital treatments and it later proved it would take a whole year to restore the backyard to original shape, according to the TruGreen technician I and my husband spoke with in December of 2012.

Almost eight months since they began treatment, our lawn looks horrible and they are trying to collect the undiscounted rate for every service since the two credits (due to untreated backyard) which I never signed up for. The agreed figure was $47 which is what I was billed prior to the two credits and recently I received a statement for $79.80 for every service they claim to have provided after that time (which Ill discuss below). I have tried to get a hold of the same manager for three weeks in a row, in October/November, only to hear a bunch of excuses such as he's on vacation, busy, away from the office, unavailable right now so please leave a message.

I finally got in touch with the second manager at the same location (early December, right before I got the statement with the false high charges) to resolve the weed issue. He was very rude and unhelpful to which I said I'm just going to file a complaint. His angry remark was, "Do you want me to help you with that?" Needless to say, I was shocked by their nasty service. I told him he needed to send someone out here to kill these weeds which he finally agreed to doing. What we didn't know is that he was just going to have someone show up but not do anything about it. The technician came out the next day saying that because there was so much weeds by that time and the grass missed important treatments (which Ill address below), to kill the weeds would leave blotches of nothing. Instead, he recommended we give them a year to treat it to see improvement.

By that time, I knew they were just empty promises. They just want to rip us off and not do much here if anything. My husband and I were there listening to technician tell us how he too wants to leave this company as they have unrealistic expectations and are concerned about quantity only not quality. He said most of his customers were unhappy and complaining but it's impossible to treat the lawn in the allotted time TruGreen provides. He said the management is rude and he's not going to hang on. We requested he comes back to at least kill the weed in the back which he promised to do the next day as he said he didn't have the necessary chemicals to do it.

Now, I'd like to address the treatment part. My husband and I were home when we witnessed the technician come out to treat our lawn in early December right before I got a second manager on the phone to complain. He had pulled in, unwrapped the hose, put the bill in the door, without knocking, wrapped the hose up and left leaving no trace of anything being sprayed. Needless to say, the technician never showed up. We're assuming hes quit and the company couldn't care less about doing anything.

On May 21, 2010, TruGreen treated my lawn. Two weeks later, the leaves fell off the entire tree from 2 trees. I was told by TruGreen that this would resolve the following year. Not so. Five trees are dead, hedges are dead, lilac bush dead, grass in huge spots dead. There is not enough room for me to detail this whole story. I now have to remove all the dead trees before they land on my house. I think TruGreen should remove and replace trees and affected lawn and hedges.

I signed on with TruGreen as I had their service before in Michigan and they did okay. This year, Dallas is undergoing drought and the fertilization was important, but after signing on, my lawn started looking worse than before. I called and complained to the Richland Hills office that serviced my lawn in August. The supervisor claims that he came, but there was no change in the condition of my lawn.

Yesterday, 10/4/11, I was working from my home and the guy came to service. As I was on the phone, I could not go out, but was keen on looking to see how he does the job. To my dismay, he did not drop an ounce of fertilizer. As I was on a call, I could not go out, but I went round the house to see, but still, nothing.

But sure, sometime later, the bill was on my front door and the guy drove off before I could catch him. I called and complained to the supervisor. Instead of addressing the issue, he started questioning me even when I said that I was at my house. My lawn has never looked worse. We put more water than our neighbors and still, no use.

This company is a sham and has no morals. The only thing they have given me is the bill. I was stupid to sign in with them without checking on the internet. I found a lot of bad experiences all over the country. It looks like this company, as a whole, has issues that need to be addressed. But in the meantime, customers like me are left wondering why we ever signed in with them and having nightmares about how much it will cost to address all the issues.

I used TruGreen for the first time. They killed a large section of my front lawn by spraying fertilizer during a drought. They tried to tell me that it didn't cause the problem. They did two lawns across the street that have the same dead areas. Our neighbor's lawns are fine and they don't use TruGreen. The neighbors also don't spray chemicals in August during a drought when it's above 90 degrees. All I asked was for TruGreen to fix my lawn. Their response was it was caused by grubs.

I received a bad service from TruGreen in Irwin area. They didn't come back to re-apply when I asked them to. I had to call and find out why but there was no answer from them. I told them about my neighbor having dogs and for them not to spread granular fertilizer on the blacktop. They did not sweep it off. They drove over my new grass with their truck and denied doing it twice. I always get the run-around every time I call to get an answer about my lawn issues with them. Because of this, I terminated my contract with them yesterday.

TruGreen has not honored the contract that we agreed upon based on the following. Trugreen technicians canceled appointments without notification and sometimes claimed to have provided services that I know were not provided such as: I was home during a period when maintenance was scheduled, but not performed. The time of application was on the receipt, but I was home and the technician did not show up. I have several complaints about the condition of my lawn as I continue to have weeds in my yard and they have yet to respond to this complaint.

I received and paid for full service with TruGreen during the 2010 season. The service was expensive and too frequent, with mediocre results. I chose not to contact them about the 2011 season, choosing instead to use my personal landscaping firm. Subsequently, I received a bill in late June for service received in early June. I did not subscribe for any 2011 services and had no communication with TruGreen since fall of 2010 until that statement was received.

I was subsequently told my Mike **, Service manager in Lake Forest, Illinois that once you "subscribe for seasonal service", it continues for life until cancelled. That means that TruGreen is the only service provider in America who can come to your home, provide an unsolicited and unordered service, bill an unsuspecting "customer", and then expect to get paid.

Applications not only killed the real lawn I had, but failed to kill the forest of weeds that took its place, nor the cinch bugs and other insects that began to infest it. I canceled the service but I continued to receive weekly calls to set up service appointments. I literally had to call over 5 times to have any results. One of the worse companies I have ever dealt with.

We had trouble last year with TruGreen. They talked us into trying another year. Our yard has grubs in it, brown dead spots, and weeds! When we call, we have to call every day. No one ever calls back. We want to get reimbursed our money for the lawn. We won't have them back next year.

I hired them to take care of my weed problem on my lawn and fertilize my trees, plants and shrubs. After one visit, my yard had large burn areas. My knockout roses were wilting . And my 18 ft Leyland cypress trees were turning brown.

They blamed the burn spots on winter fungus that I had never had in the 4 years I have lived there. The weeds were all still there. I have tried contacting corporate after the local branch stonewalled me. And then I got the run around from corporate. What a complete joke, how are they still in business? After 15-20 calls to the local branch they finally , without admitting guilt , gave me the rest of the years service for free. They said they would be out every couple weeks to treat, and 3 months later I still have weeds, my roses are all but gone and my trees are still looking bad. I took the day off today to stay home because there was supposed to be a service call today and no one showed up.

This is the second season that TruGreen has been servicing my lawn. I figured that I should give them two years as I know that these things take time. Well, in the middle of July 2011, the technician over treated my yard and dozens of burn areas show up in a matter of two days. The technician came out and confirmed that he had over treated the yard and would take care of it in a couple of weeks. His definition of take care of it was $10 of grass seed and I get to take it from there. I asked if he really thought that grass seed would take in the middle of August (dry season in Indiana). We did get the grass going, just in time for TruGreen to come out and shock the grass again, killing all the newly grown and making more burnt areas. Even though we have watered extensively and regularly, we have been struggling to keep the grass growing ever since. There are burnt areas everywhere in our lawn. I have cancelled my TruGreen account and will work on finding a new service. I definitely cannot recommend TruGreen.

I own a house and for ten years I used their lawn care service. Last year, I complained and they came out and redid their work. This year, I prepaid them and all I have is weeds. This company leaves a lot to be desired but their website has hundreds of complaints.

They ruined my lawn and it looks disgusting.

Anytime I call to express a concern about my lawn or shrubs, I am given a "free" service. I called again two weeks ago and refused the free service and insisted that someone, who was qualified to diagnose lawn problems, come to my home and inspect the property with me to determine why it looked so poorly. No one has returned my calls or come out to the house.

My lawn looks much worse than when I first hired Tru Green. They have destroyed my grass.

Trugreen arrived to spray lawn for spring visit #2. The associate proceeded to spray the lawn EVENTHOUGH the WIND was BLOWING SOUTHWEST at 15-20mph with GUSTS up to 30 mph. On the invoice, the associate CIRCLED WIND EAST with WIND SPEED at 0-5mph.(This was a blatant lie-anyone who was alive this day knew the wind was REALLY BLOWING!) Where do they get their weather information? When I phoned their number to complain it was a recording stating regular working hours are...with no option to leave a message. I will follow up once the weekday arrives, but this behavior should be stopped and have some monitor in place.

After using this company's services for several months, I discovered that the technician was not treating my entire yard as he was paid to do. I happened to be at home when he came and noticed that he never entered my back yard. When I called the company to complain, the manager got the technician on the line and the tech insisted that he had treated both back and front yards. When I informed him that I was home and watched him, he suddenly recalled that the gate to my back yard was locked and he was unable to gain entry.

When I informed him that my gate has no lock and that the gate wasn't even latched, the manager informed me that I shouldn't complain because I had been getting a very good price on my lawn care. I then told the manager that I do not do business with liars and cheats.

Since February Trugreen never did anything about our garden. In May they came when nobody was home and treated the lawn. The bill that they left showed a wrong time of treatment.
Since then they have been sending bills for every two weeks, and now they have transferred it to a collection agency. Is there anything I can do to stop them collecting this money?
Glenn of Perry GA:
I have used the services of TruGreenChemLawn for several years. This year, I noticed many brown spots forming in my lawn but felt the service with TruGreenChemLawn would take care of it.
After seeing no improvement, I called them and reported the problem questioning why they had not caught it. They advised they would send in an inspector.
The next thing I found was an inspection form saying I had Mole Crickets and to call them if I wanted them treated. I was under the impressing that their service should have found the problem and advised me. They asked if I wanted a treatment. I just went ahead and treated it myself. The problem persists.
I was cutting the grass when they appeared for the last treatment. I pointed out all the weeds in the yard and a serviceman said to me, "No problem man, we can take care of this problem".
He took a pump and sprayed about five weeds. There were hundreds remaining in the yard. They left. I paid the bill and asked them, in writing, not to continue any service to my yard.

My brown spots continue.

I have used the services of TruGreenChemLawn for several years. This year, I noticed many brown spots forming in my lawn but felt the service with TruGreenChemLawn would take care of it.
After seeing no improvement, I called them and reported the problem questioning why they had not caught it. They advised they would send in an inspector.
The next thing I found was an inspection form saying I had Mole Crickets and to call them if I wanted them treated. I was under the impressing that their service should have found the problem and advised me. They asked if I wanted a treatment. I just went ahead and treated it myself. The problem persists.
I was cutting the grass when they appeared for the last treatment. I pointed out all the weeds in the yard and a serviceman said to me, "No problem man, we can take care of this problem".
He took a pump and sprayed about five weeds. There were hundreds remaining in the yard. They left. I paid the bill and asked them, in writing, not to continue any service to my yard.

My brown spots continue.

I was a new customer to TruGreen. I was supposed to receive the second of six applications for my lawn. I live on a corner lot, so the front, side, and backyard under contract should have applications. Teh specialist came out, sprayed the front, packed up the hose, left the paperwork in the door and took off. He indicated on the paperwork that he sprayed the front, side, and backyard. What he did not know was I was in the house watching.
After not applying fertilizer to the side and backyard, then he writes helpful hints to improve the lawn. Shame on TruGreen and the management for not believing me.

I have been upset for the past two days. I now have to repay someone to apply fertilizer to my lawn.

We live in a townhome in Laurel. We hired them to treat our front and back yards for this season. We have been here for 3.5 yrs and have always maintained a beautiful green lawn until we had them treat it. Their first treatment was applied in March which was a liquid w/crabgrass preventor & fertilizer. Our lawn was still coming out of the dormant stage and remained this way for weeks.
We left for vacation in April and while away another treatment was applied of another chemical which was unknown because no paperwork was left at our door. We then arrived home to a dead lawn. 98.9% of our front lawn was dead and it ended at the property line on both sides.
After complaining, they came out and aerated and hand tossed seed in May and said in 3-4 weeks we will be mowing. We watered twice a day for a month and very little grass came up. May is not the time to seed. It's too hot. They have since done soil samples and said we have a chemical problem with our soil and someone else called and said we have grubs. I didn't know grubs know where the property lines were?
Because the neighbors on both sides have thriving grass, it is very clear that it was their chemicals and applicators fault. We have clay soil and I was told by another source grubs don't live in clay. And we never saw the japanees beatles in our yards.
They are dragging their feet and trying to make it look like we applied something to our yard that interacted with their chemicals. What we apply in our back yard we also apply to our front yard and our back yard didnt die. We believe they applicator used either the wrong stuff or too high of a concentration or too much of it that killed our sod.

We are tired of dealing with this matter and want our beautiful yard back. We have neighbors who can attest to the thriving green lawn we once had. We are willing to live with the current conditions until the fall. Then we would like either the replacement of sod or have our lawn properly tilled and reseeded. Also, we paid them up front for this seasons services. Can we get reimbursed in any way?


Quantcast