Diary of a yard care "situation" - Drake Termite and Pest Control (Tampa: sales)

[ntfeldman]

In the spring of 2011 I had all the plants torn out of my yard and all the "grass" removed and started "fresh" with farm grown sod (if anyone cares there is a hysterical story about that) and new plants in the flower beds. I have St. Augustine in the front (required by HOA) and have Zoysia on the sides and part of the rear yard, and then beyond the reach of the irrigation there's bahia (and weeds darn it) to the forest line.

After installing the new yard of sod, I hired Scott's to feed and treat my lawn and up until July of this year they were doing just that for $48/month. Great service in the beginning, gradually declining but always responsive (they called back and they came out to "treat" the yard if I called to complain). I always paid my bill on time infact I had over paid them when I cancelled. I had put them on notice this past spring that if the weeds I was paying them to keep at bay didn't get under control, I was going to make a change in vendors. Gave them 90 days to improve the situation and began interviewing alternatives.

I interviewed a number of companies one firm was servicing a neighbor's yard and the sales rep walked me over and showed me their yard and it looked really good. He gave me their marketing material (guarantee to replace my grass if bugs damage it) and told me give them two weeks and the weed situation will improve dramatically (their agreement even says "Guarantee - get a thicker greener lawn in Two Weeks".) They were also less money than Scott's - Sounded good to me! I wanted my grass to remain green I just wanted it more reasonably weed free (I'm not as picky as this post may suggest I just think I should get what I pay for and am promised)

So on July 22nd I agreed to hire Drake Termite and Pest Control (licensing to manage and dispense the chemicals for yard / bug treatment is why a pest company would be in the lawn care business) to take over caring for my grass. Because I will not allow any vendor to deduct their fees from my bank account (and because they require that but also guarantee their services) I opted to pay them in advance for six months of service.

So some time has gone by... clearly more than two weeks. A few brown patches have begun appearing in my front yard and frankly I've not seen a dramatic improvement in the weeds. I called the sales rep, Saturday he came out to my house, I showed him the issues - he called the manager. Today the manager came out to my house/yard and left a note on the door about what they treated - the note said the yard is "drought stressed" and I need to water it (that's what they are claiming is the cause of the brown spots).

Am I missing something here? Has EVERYONE else in the Tampa Bay area had record rain fall in the last 6 weeks? It has rained EVERY day for the last three months - it rained AGAIN today at my house (I live inland 25 miles from the shore). I turned the sprinkers off on Sunday when they came on automatically because the area has been saturated for the better part of the last five days...

I am getting a bad feeling about this decision. Has anyone else used Drake Termite and Pest Control for their yard care needs?

1. Water my yard???? Are they crazy???
2. Weeds - still lots of them, too many - six weeks not two weeks and still, weeds. Guaranteed?
3. The toll free phone number on their marketing material is a phone number that does not ring to a voicemail box after hours "no mailbox has been set up for this number" the recording states. Fortunately I saved the sales reps number into my phone so I'm making the promise makers take ownership of the promise keeper's role within the firm...
4. I'll use this post to share my experience with this firm for the benefit of the rest of you considering yard care services. I've started reading their contract a little closer and although I have no long term obligation with them I did pay for 6 mos of service up front... maybe regretting that now.

I want to be equitable - I just want my lawn treated!!

I live in East Pasco - if anyone has a company that services that area that they want to recommend I'm open to suggestions...

[Tim Tim Tim]

I havent had drake but see that several of my neighbors do. I have scotts and honestly am not too happy, Im glad I read this because it reminding me I need to call and see what hte deal is. Half of my back yard looks dead (its all zoysia). the front is decently green but has a fair amount of weeds, the back is terrible. I tried watering more and dont seem to have any results. My nieghbor who doesnt even treat his yard has a nicer yard than I do.. I was considering calling drake since I see they treat neighbors, I guess ill wait and see what happens with yours.

[Trigger-f]

If your lawn is not in partial shade, it will be drought stressed (sun is too intense), especially if it has not established deep roots. Also, the soil is porous down here, most water does not stay on top where the root system is. The brown patches could be chinch bugs or simply a fungus from too much humidity and water(from the rains).

I have a neighbor he's been telling me lawns/grass are not native to FL, neither palm trees. Weeds are. Personally I would not spend $ on any company/horticulturalist. I have in the past and caught them doing a spot treatment (not treating the entire yard) for weeds/bugz.

Also, apply Milorganite 2-3 times a year (works miracles). You basically need to promote the culture and suffocate the weeds.

[Pragmaticus]

OP, did you ever try to do this by yourself? I did for some time and outsourced when financially didn't make sense. I have somewhere posted about it.

Anyways, the reason I am asking this is if you tried to do it yourself, you won't buy guaranteed in 2 weeks we control a weed BS. Nobody control a weed in 2 weeks. Some weed controls are called pre-emergent where you put chemical BEFORE they emerge, at the beginning of the season. Post emergent weeds are very difficult to control, especially dollar weed. There are thousand type of weeds.

I will say this for others who are looking into this: there is no way you are going to tell the effectiveness of a company without giving them at least a year, the whole cycle. At diffferent time of the year they apply different type of chemicals to get the lawn under control. There is nothing "garanteed in two weeks" we will make your lawn great kind of thing. If a company pulls that crap, not just walk, run.

My suggestion: get a reputable company and check their work over a season (whole year), then you can really say they are good or not.

[Pragmaticus]

Originally Posted by Trigger-f

If your lawn is not in partial shade, it will be drought stressed (sun is too intense), especially if it has not established deep roots. Also, the soil is porous down here, most water does not stay on top where the root system is. The brown patches could be chinch bugs or simply a fungus from too much humidity and water(from the rains).

I have a neighbor he's been telling me lawns/grass are not native to FL, neither palm trees. Weeds are. Personally I would not spend $ on any company/horticulturalist. I have in the past and caught them doing a spot treatment (not treating the entire yard) for weeds/bugz.

Also, apply Milorganite 2-3 times a year (works miracles). You basically need to promote the culture and suffocate the weeds.

You can tell if it is because of bugs or water stress by simply trying to pull part of the grass out. If it pulls easily, it is eaten by bugs. Otherwise, it might be a spot where the sprinkler doesn't reach. Most people (including me) have sprinkleer set up at 3 or 4 am and don't see if it really covers all the yard. I do test run at the begniging of the season to check if all sprinkler heads are working properly and all the lawn is covered.

[ntfeldman]

Originally Posted by MeInDenudinFL

Nobody control a weed in 2 weeks. Some weed controls are called pre-emergent where you put chemical BEFORE they emerge, at the beginning of the season. Post emergent weeds are very difficult to control, especially dollar weed. There are thousand type of weeds.

I agree but there is always some result over time - no matter what - something is happening - it's either getting better or it's getting worse. In this case, it's been two months (not two weeks) and things are not getting better. So I'm not inclined to let them continue to get worse.

On the 16th of September they came out and put plugs in the bare areas. I've not seen any other efforts from them since (I work from home and most days I'm home all day). The weeds in the front are still there. They came to my house (the day they installed the plugs?) and rang the bell/knocked on the door, I was home but working - I was on a conference call and could not stop to talk to them. I couldn't just "chat" about the lawn because they dropped in. I answered the door and quickly explained that I could not talk at the moment. The sales rep and the guy he was with (manager?) left, but they didn't call to reschedule or attempt to discuss whatever it was they wanted to tell me at that moment. I didn't even realize the plugs were there until I saw a notice on my door later. I haven't heard anything from them since.

I pre-paid them for 6 months of service to avoid the whole auto bill requirement. Thank goodness they can't keep billing me. Regrettable that I won't be getting what I paid for but in the "bad ideas" category not a huge loss. I am going to find another firm to take over - clearly I will not renew with Drake.

I'm not going to demand my money back, it will just be a fight to get it and because it takes time for them to deliver, they will just make promises (like they already have) and drag out justifying why I should keep paying them. So, they can keep what money they got from me up front - but there won't be any more and I'm also not going to be silent about it, it's the reason I'm posting the facts of my experience here.

I live for the day that promise makers and promise keepers within a company talk to each other and DELIVER on what they "sell".

My experience with Drake is that they don't.

My neighbor's lawn looks nice and he doesn't have a ton of weeds - he uses a small local company for just weed/feed. I got their name and number from him and my next step is to call them.

The outcome/experience of this is a big reason some companies grow and some spend a lot of money on sales and don't grow. The cost to capture a client is much higher than the cost to keep one. This firm could have had a fair shot at the whole neighborhood (I love to refer businesses that give me good service don't you?!) and who knows what kind of other referrals I could have sent them if I had been a happy customer. I'm in real estate, they maintain real estate... I'm not a typical lead - I'm a power lead because I align with the vectors of their firm's growth. Keep a power lead happy and your business grows. Don't, and you have a hard win for each additional client; especially in an age where information is so easily shared.

Based solely on the facts of my personal experience, my conclusion thus far is that Drake Termite and Pest Control does not deliver / provide the services they sell. Perhaps based on what others have said about how long it really takes to see results - with Drake's "2 weeks and you'll see results" pitch, maybe they never intended to?