Comments on: Garden and GreenThumb http://phillsacre.me.uk/2008/09/07/garden-and-greenthumb/ Personal Blog Tue, 22 May 2012 08:39:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Phill http://phillsacre.me.uk/2008/09/07/garden-and-greenthumb/#comment-573 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:06:09 +0000 http://phillsacre.me.uk/?p=1170#comment-573 Sorry to hear about your experience Roger :(

I think with one of these “Franchise” organisations, customer care can be quite variable. But our experience has been OK so far – perhaps we will be lucky and not have these experiences!

]]> By: Roger http://phillsacre.me.uk/2008/09/07/garden-and-greenthumb/#comment-572 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:59:49 +0000 http://phillsacre.me.uk/?p=1170#comment-572 You were lucky and hope you are still having a good experiences with them. I will relate a very bad experience with the firm Greenthumb. They treated my lawn for one year and I was very pleased with the results and actually recommended them to others. However, last March, Greenthumb arrived in an unmarked van (not good for security) and caused chemical damage to 2/3rd of my lawn. They came up with a number of inconsistent excuses (but never their fault) they blamed the lawn mower (unseen) stating it must be blunt and have chips out of the blade. The mower had just been serviced and as you may guess, this did not please the local service engineer who voiced his opinion about this organisation. Later they realised that this was not a very clever move on their part and then stated that it wasn’t the mower but the grass had been cut too long! Previously it had been cut too short!! Dead grass proved this could not have been the case. Three local experts confirmed that chemical(s) caused the damage to my grass and the explanations by Greenthumb were ‘pure waffle’. Many photos were taken which confirmed the chemical damage.
Now any organisation can make mistakes and the knack is to accept this fact – put it right and keep a customer. This was not to be the case with Greenthumb.
They actually wanted to charge me £60 to rectify their own faults!! Their customer care was abysmal. They knew that I was holding a garden party in May for my wedding and how important it was for the grass and garden to look good for the 90 + guests. This made little difference. The local franchisee even incorrectly blamed me for all the delays “by me informing his head office” of the problem!!! In fact HE was the one that introduced his head office and unfortunaely didn’t have the business acumen to solve the problem quickly and locally and avoid any bad publicity.
They did eventually return to treat the lawn but could not even agree among themselves just what treatment had been given and in fact made the lawn worse. I will have to reseed many areas next month. I could get no refund for the treatment given in March.
It is a pity that a good concept can be spoilt by a poor franchisee and lack of good business and management skills at their head office. Instead of me recommending Greenthumb (as I was in the past) I am now no longer discussing this firm in a positive light. I have spoken to many people on this subject and it now seems I am not alone in the Devon area who have complaints about this firm.
I’m sorry this is not a positive experience but perhaps it will illustrate the importance that good customer care is paramount no matter how good your product might be.

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