Red Beard

Same, I have several areas that need a little tweak on the 240

It will be like mega-race that farm truck put on lol

We will see if I can get everything together in time. Hope to be there. If nothing else to spectate for the day.

That is understandable. You have to keep in mind, store bought products while good in their own right are limited strength wise. Professional grade products help to get you past the limitations of the diy treatments. Also frequency and consistency do play a lot into it as well. Most store bought treatments are designed to be reapplied after the previous application has been run out completely. This can cause surge growth and is not good for the root system. With professional service, you are having treatments done a bit more frequently to ensure the lawn has a constant supply of fertilizer. I highly doubt you have bad soil. Ohio is rather forgiving in that aspect as the soil is typically of a neutral quality. Now with that said, we do have a decent amount of clay in the soil so compaction is an issue. That is where aeration comes into play to decompact the soil, and maintain your thatch (dead grass that builds up on top of the lawn). This allows the roots to stretch out and breath. 80% of the grass plant's mass is in the root system. The stronger the roots, the more moisture and nutrients it can pull, and the better the lawn will look. Other factors you have to consider are the type of grass that is in the lawn. If its a shady spot, and you have a type of grass that needs a lot of sun to grow, it is not going to do so well. Tree's also effect the lawn especially the pH level. Trees are naturally acidic, and drive the acid level up in the soil. That can influence how well the grass processes the nutrients being provided as well. I could go on and on about this stuff lol. But I do know you would be pleasantly surprised with what kind of result can be achieved with the proper plan, and a little patience on your part. Like I said before, you want to talk about it, shoot me your info in a pm. We can discuss it further, and I can provide you pricing for what we charge. I am not going to "telemarket sales pitch ya lol", just get you pointed in the right direction.

That is understandable Jake, like I was saying before, we try to communicate when we are running promotions for the other services, and when it is getting to be that time of year for said service. The old system was horrible at updating, and back then the calls were on an automated spin dialer that to be frank sucked. It would not disposition calls the way they were supposed to. So if you answered and said no, and the system didn't update properly it would put you back in the spin. With the new system (started about 6 months ago after the merger) everything is manually dialed. That way we aren't hammering customers like it use to. Now with that said, for various reasons, sometimes there are multiple accounts made for the same property. When that is the case, each individual account would be put in the system to be called for said item. That can attribute to multiple calls in a short time too. We are working on trying to tidy that sort of thing up, and has gotten better but still needs more help. Once again, that is usually not the case, if there is a lack of result on the service, we offer free service calls to come back to the property at any time additional inspection/touch up is needed. It is simply a matter of calling in and asking us to come out. Now results are relative to what services are being done, the current condition of the lawn, cultural practices such as mowing and watering (or lack there of) and A LOT to do with mother nature. A perfect example of this was the summer we had 2 years ago. We had in the month of June 30 days straight of rain. Then for the rest of the summer we had hardly any rain at all. So not only did this put the lawn under stress being water logged, but immediately after that we went into a drought. On top of that, we had a heat wave that hit record highs that we hadn't seen since the 70's. We had a similar situation 2 years before that as well. Needless to say this created a perfect storm of stress for the lawns. Not only where the conditions prime for fungus issues, but also it put the lawns into the summer dormancy much earlier than it usually does. Once the lawn is stressed to the point of dormancy, there really isn't much that can be done to pull it back until the temperatures come back down. What makes matters worse, if the soil is compacted, or if you have a cooler season grass, this only compounds the issue. With that said, I am not saying this was/wasn't the issue. Regardless of what the issue was, proper expectations were not met or kept in your case. It is no excuse for not getting the service you asked for, but 99% of the time, if a customer is dissatisfied with result, it is because improper expectations were not set. As far as the billing is concerned, it could have been a measurement, but a lot of the local branches are willing to undercut us to gain the business. Not bashing them by any means, some companies do use good products, but several of them are buying product in bulk as wholesale. TG (as well as Scotts when they were separate) uses Lesco as our proprietary professional grade. They are the industry leader when it comes to professional grade products. And just like comparing McDonald's to Red Robin, the quality and consistency does make a difference. I am glad that the company you switched to is doing a good job, and was able to cut you a good deal. I just wish I could have been the one to speak with you before you left, to make sure it was done right the first time.

Tim I'm sorry to hear you had such a rough go at it. Unfortunately that was rather common back then when It was under Service Master. I have came across some horror stories like yours in the past. I hate seeing people being treated like that. It sounds like whomever set you up did not provide proper expectations on the following year. Same with the run around on the call list removal. That is usually just a matter of pulling up the account info, and labeling it "do not telemarket" so the random calls would stop. The sad thing is if you called corporate (with the current telecommunication laws) the account is required to be listed as DNT at your request, but a lot of the Chemlawn/Service Master managers back then would tell you to call it regardless of what it says on the account. Then use that excuse of "sorry, it was never updated" bs. They were also part of the reason the company ended up with such a bad reputation. Keep in mind that was also 10 years ago, with the way the contact laws are, as well as our current system, It is much easier to fix this sort of thing. I know that doesn't make up for what happened back then, but moving forward it would not be the nightmare you dealt with. It is night and day comparatively. Between the new ownership, and the merger with Scotts, the company is much more satisfaction oriented. Back in the Service master/Chemlawn days, it was a turn and burn oriented operation. Didn't matter what the issue was, what the needs of the lawn were, it was a dump and pump service. Nowadays it is completely different. We focus on the satisfaction guarantee to ensure that the customer is happy with the service and the result. As that is what keeps us coming back. They just didn't get that back in the day.

I can understand that when TruGreen was ran by Service Master. They separated and sold TG back in 2011 (they were the main issue with the whole "we are a telemarketing company" bit). Both companies have now been purchased by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and are two independent companies. This has changed the mind set of it being a marketing company completely, and has since been focused on customer service and retention. Here is a link for more info on that http://www.lawnandlandscape.com/article/ll0514-top-100-trugreen-comeback/ On top of that, as of last year, TG merged with Scotts lawn service. This merger not only improved the overall functionality of the company, but also shows, that we are not just a marketing company any more. As TG and Scotts are the two largest, competing companies in the industry. It says a lot about the future of the industry there as well. Now I am not just tooting TG's horn because I work for the company. I was originally with Scotts, and have had the opportunity to listen and speak with Jim Hagedorn (CEO of Scotts) and that man is smart, sincere, and would not be willing to put his name in association with just a marketing company. He takes a lot of time to ensure his reputation is upheld.

Not trying to start an argument, nor discredit your opinion on TG, but I am curious as to what your thoughts are on them?

I work at TruGreen, We could get you going. Shoot me a pm with your info and I can get you a quote. Of course you would get the CR hook up.

Very nice! Looks like a blast man, glad you guys had fun. Will have to check it out some time even though I don't have a vette lol.

I lol'd at this more than I should have. I concur, doc has my vote for sure.

Sure! why not?

Looking good sir. I'll bet that was fun shoehorning that in there. Are you planning for natural aspiration or turbo set up in the future?

Nice! Can't wait to try some of your bbq! I'll put your name in here at the office too, see if we can get them talked into a catered lunch day.

Damn Tim those turned out great! Love the color.

That hardwood looks amazing considering the condition of the carpet before. Gotta love a little sweat equity saving you some money!

Best Thing I can suggest is buy a can of map gass (yellow can right next to hand held propane (blue)) It will get hotter than propane and should get it hot enough to get them to break loose. I see you are spraying them with pb/wd. Best to heat then spray, then heat then spray again. Continue this process a few times then try removing them right after the last heat cycle. That "should" get them to break loose.

Nice! I have to stop there and drop $100 on filling up every time I am down that way just for shits and giggles. :dumb:

Sunoco is the only place that have 94+ and they are few and far in-between. However, there is one south of Columbus just before you get to lancaster on old 33 that still runs the 100 octane race fuel, but that shit is like $7 a gallon. I have been running across some BP stations using the new vpower Ultimate Unleaded with ACTIVE technology yada yada bs that is in a 95 octane option too. But still hard to come by.

Same in the 240 lol, just makes it that much better imo :gabe:

Interesting. I run premium in my jalopy any way so that would be nice to at least have the option of 95 vs 93.

Now that would be interesting. I would be all over something like that. Same here, haven't been to a CR drag day since we went to Norwalk back in 2007. It would be a good opportunity to shake the rust off. Doubtful I would be able to make it to this one unfortunately, but still tempting....

Beats the hell out of replacing apex seals all the time lol. I am confident that Mike will be able to keep his stallion controlled.