Caroline S.
Yelp
Single most disorganized, unprofessional, and downright infuriating business I've ever interfaced with. I live in the Midwest and designed a small flower garden for my mom in northern VA as a gift. Merrifield is the most expensive landscaper in the area, but I decided to go with them because I thought I could trust them with the job since I wasn't going to be physically present during install. Boy, was I wrong.
I flew to VA to meet with the landscaper in May and we discussed how it was going to work. We looked at the property, agreed to finalize a contract, then get it installed a few weeks later. Fast forward to the present moment while I'm writing this review: tomorrow is September 1, and we still don't have a finalized contract. The several-hundred dollar's worth of rhizomes I bought in April need to be planted in the next week in order to develop roots strong enough to withstand the first frost, or else they'll go bad and all that money is wasted.
For the life of me, I can't get the designer to return my phone calls. The job is very simple: plant three different things, add fertilizer, take a bush out. $1500. Over and over again I have written emails correcting the faulty contract and the designer simply isn't taking the feedback. He takes weeks and countless voicemails to get back to me. I made it a weekly practice a couple of months ago to call the flagship every Friday to bother Merrifield about the job. I probably sound insane for not just finding someone else, but I had already put money into the project with them and because we met in person, it has felt like if we can just get over this edge, it will be easier than flying to VA to make another appt with someone else.
I decided to make a last-ditch effort today, and I called this morning around 11am. A woman took my name and phone number and promised to call back within an hour. Do we think she followed through? No, of course not. Now it's 5 pm, and I called back again. I got someone else who interrupted me mid-sentence and transferred me to someone's voicemail. It's always dead ends with a woman named Arianna's voicemail with this place. You call and everyone wants to send you to Arianna but Arianna is never around and when she is, she indicates vaguely that the problem will be fixed but look at this...it's September, I'm begging these people to take my money, and I can't get them to plant my flowers.
I called back two more times and the guy took the phone off the hook and hung up. I kept calling and after a while, I got him to pick up again. I asked why he kept hanging up on me, he played dumb, and then got the General Manager. Within 30 seconds of talking to the GM, he found my file and all the info about the job. Voila! I have a week to get this done and will update my review then.