Lawn Doctor
Reviews and Complaints

This company does not hold its techs or management accountable for wrecking a lawn. I hired them in 2017 and paid in full upfront for 2018 season. The company alternates on techs and each tech does a terrible job. June the company tech over fertilized my lawn and as a result a large portion of it was burnt. I contacted the company to send a manager and the manager that came out when he felt like it, stood by his tech and their machines rather than acknowledge that the lawn has obvious burnt marks when the rest of the lawn is in perfect condition. The machine they had started and stopped due to interruptions and the machine leaked. I had sod put down and this should never have happened.

When the company started we actually did get a nice lawn, we were very happy. Then one morning they applied a chemical and the grass started dyeing . My husband had them come out and the worker said it was dog urine killing it. It kept dying and Lawn Dr. came back out and admitted that the chemical they used had caused problems, he even brought the rep. from the pesticide company to look at it. Lawn Dr. said that new grass was growing over the dead, it didn't! After my husband and LD got in and argument on the phone and stopped the service. Then the manager said he had told my husband he would reseed it before and when he offered again my Husband was feed up. We paid the company a large amount of money to end up with a dead lawn. We would just like our grass back

Wife hired them for a year no improvements to lawn. She thought she cancelled. But billing went on for 6 months. Ended up with an owner showing up at house harassing me at 11:30 am. While trying to take care of sick 4 yr old. Tried to tell him I didn't know anything since my wife handled the bills for them and I was clueless about the situation. Wasn't good enough of an answer. Told him I would have wife call when she got home from business trip. Wasn't a good enough answer again. Got so bad that when I closed the door he was still screaming at me from the other side of the door. Ended up calling the police. Police told owner that that isn't how it should be done. There are legal ways if it's needed. Not going to anyone's house to start a confrontation. They have now been told by police they are not welcome back at this house. And to pursue in that way again will change it from a civil matter. The officer was on phone with the other owner who had no problem with the idea of going to anyone's house to harass anyone. I do not blame them for wanting to get paid. Even a terrible job is still a job done no matter how poorly if they did the job. But to get to the point of harassment and yelling at someone through a door when they are clueless and have no idea is just unprofessional and rude. I'm hoping this isn't a habit they will continue on other customers but when it's the owner and the other owner has no problem with it. It's an absolute future customers will go through it also. But after reading other reviews seams to be the trend.

I called both Trugreen and Lawn Doctor asking for quotes for them to service my lawn. Naturally, I went with the cheaper option. I paid Trugreen in full on July 14th. On July 13th, I did confirm with Lawn Doctor for service. However, after finding that Trugreen was cheaper, I went ahead and paid them in full. Lawn Doctor called within the next few days to set up a date to service my lawn which is when I specifically explained to them the situation: I have proceeded with Trugreen and will not be continuing with services with Lawn Doctor. Nearly 3 weeks later, on July 31st, they came and serviced my lawn, leaving me with the bill. They have no record of the call when I cancelled services with them. They used that as an excuse to say that I must pay this bill. Instead of giving me a full refund, the person I spoke with said she was doing me a favor by only charging me 50%. This is ridiculous, I should not have been charged anything but instead received a bill for service I did not want just because they have no record of me speaking with someone at Lawn Doctor to cancel the services. It became my word against theirs and Lawn Doctor doesn't trust the consumer apparently.

After several years of using Lawn Doctors services and paying the monthly fees, we started to see a decline in the effectiveness of their services. After complaining to them the owner came and looked at our lawn and said that he would fix it and give it a new treatment. Nothing changed and my lawn looks worse than it ever has. We called to cancel their services and the woman answering the phone just said O.K. and hung up. I just go a bill for the month that was canceled.
For all of the money paid I ave a lawn that is covered with crab grass, other weeds, dandelions and clover. The local franchise has done nothing to try to make me a satisfied customer.
I recommend to all to stay away from this most unprofessional company.

A Lawn Doctor technician applied a highly odoriferous herbicide on neighbors lawn within 4 - 5 feet of three young children playing in complainants yard. He took no action to caution or request children to move. Complainant approached technician when leaving the the job site in his van to lodge concern. Lawn Doctor technician speed off at an unsafe speed when asked for his name. Identified him and phoned his supervisor who was courteous, but defensive of company practices and particular technician.

Destroyed new lawn. 8500 square feet of new sod. I hired lawn doctor to totaly take care of my new lawn. The reason that i hired lawn doctor was that i am a colorado native and wanted to hire a company that has been in business here in colorado since 1972. I thought that i had made the right choice but as it turned out it was the absolute worse choice that i could have made. After several treatments to my new lawn i started noticing dead spots in the lawn. I called on two different occasions to report that there was a problem. Both calls were totaly ignored. My calls were never returned. Lawn doctor came out to apply another treatment on the lawn and refused to put any more chemicals on the lawn because of its condition. Lawn doctors finally sent someone out to see what the problem was. The supervisor that came out admitted to lawn doctors dropping the ball on the misdiagnosed treatment of my new lawn and so their mistake killed my new lawn. I thought that since this was their mistake they would replace my new lawn. Wrong! I was told by justin, the general manager, that after i replaced my own lawn that lawn doctors would give me one free treatment on my second new lawn but would not replace any of my new lawn that they killed. I told justin that i was very disappointed in lawn doctor. Justin did refund the balance of the money prepaid to them not the full amount only the unused portion so therefore i paid lawn doctor to destroy my new lawn. Do not use lawn doctor. They very politely will tell you your screwed. This is a legitimate complaint not just an old ugly guy complaining. Do not trust lawn doctor if something goes wrong with your lawn it's your fault even though they are the ones that was hired to take care of it. They assumed no liability for their admitted mistake. I am very sorry to have made this complaint public, justin, but you should have made lawn doctor do the right thing and replace my lawn and you know it.

I contacted this company numerous times to tell them about my dissatisfaction with their service. They are so careless that one of their employees actually broke down about a dozen of newly planted shrubs, even though we were there right next to him telling him to be careful. Yes they gave me a $50 credit FOR THAT, but when I last called to ask them to cancel my service and adjust my outstanding bill since my lawn was nothing better than a disaster, the lady threatened me, told me she did not care, and hung up on me. So I emailed them reiterating the same situation, and asking them for an adjusted bill so I could pay my dues and finalize all ties with this company, and in return I received a harassing, threatening, and intimidating email from the PRESIDENT/CEO of the franchise - Ted Kramer. It is appalling that there are still people who use threatening techniques to justify their short comings.NOT ONCE did I say that I did not want to pay my dues, I just asked for what I believe was right and just. I have also opened a complaint with BBB and a couple of other places against this franchise and Mr Kramer. PLEASE BE AWARE, be very careful what business you do with this particular franchise, because they are ruthless!

I used the lawn doctor based on their guarantee service, but when I called to complain they gave every excuse as to why it may not have worked. They then refused to provide the guarantee to refund or come back. I called the corporate office and they offered no help because each location is individually owned. Will never use them again.

Be very careful with this company. They skipped the granular fertilization part of an application, but charged me full price. When confronted, they refused to to make the necessary application or to refund my money.Be there in person to watch every application to be sure they do what they are charging you for...otherwise you may be short changed. Word to the wise.

lawn doctor is a terrible company to deal with. I contracted with my local rep. for a complete lawn program they were very unprofessional example (the person I was dealing with about one of my many complaints was using profound language about me when she thought she had put me on hold). but the straw to break the camel's back was when I contacted them to power seed my lawn after the service provided had put bad burn spots in my lawn of course they said it was caused by the weather an excuse they use for everything. After weeks of delay due to guess what THE WEATHER i called and canceled the seeding to my surprise and without any notice they showed up the next day and tore up my entire lawn with the machine used.I paid half the balance due against my better judgment and told them i would pay the balance after corrections were made they told me they only guarantee their work if I contract with them next year like that may happen.corporate office sent the local dealer a letter on my behalf but they have no power over the local rep's so don't expect any help from them.

I paid the Lawn Doctor franchise office that was servicing my area in advance for an annual service. They only did part of the promised treatments. Then they promised that they would make up in the following year for the missed treatments. Again, I foolishly paid in advance. The local office lost its franchise after doing only 2 treatment and would not return my calls. The Lawn Doctor headquarters said they were not responsible and that the dispute was between me and the people who operated their former franchise office. So much for the integrity of Lawn Doctor.

I chose Lawn Doctor this year to service two connected yards that I own. I was very specific when I signed up that I wanted advance notice before they came so that I could make sure that my outdoor pets were in the house when they came. On the first trip, no advance notice was given and they only did one yard. I got home to find my cat sitting next to the Danger flag on my front yard. I called to complain and ask about when they would service the second yard and the owner of the franchise promised that they would be back out the following Monday. Monday came and went with no service. I left a voicemail to follow up and heard nothing back for two weeks. Called today and was told that they had come out after my last call, although not on the Monday as had been promised - again without letting me know and without leaving a flag or anything to indicate that they had serviced the yard. The customer service rep scolded me for being uphappy with their lask of customer responsiveness - telling me that she got over 200 calls a week and couldn't be expected to call me back. I canceled the service for the rest of the summer. Why would anyone do business with that company?

Last year I hired the local lawn care service known as “Lawn Doctor”. They told me that they will treat my lawn in a total of 6 services. They also explained that there will be a change after the second service. Now it has been approximately one year and all the services have been applied and there has been absolutely no change at all. When I called them to complain, the employee/owner told me that their owner had recently changed and they can’t help us. After I called again the next day to customer service, the same man told me, “This is not a hamburger that we can refund; if you call me again I will call the police”. The service was terrible and they would only spend about ten minutes to treat my lawn every service. I was appalled after talking to them over the phone. The fact that I spent $432.10 on this lawn service only to receive rude and disrespectful service in return disgusts me.

I paid the Lawn Doctor franchise office that was servicing my area in advance for an annual service. They only did part of the promised treatments. Then they promised that they would make up in the following year for the missed treatments. Again, I foolishly paid in advance. The local office lost its franchise after doing only 2 treatment and would not return my calls. The Lawn Doctor headquarters said they were not responsible and that the dispute was between me an the peopole who operated their former franchise offiice. So much for the integrity of Lawn Doctor.

In 2010 I decided to go with the local Lawn Doctor. I signed up for their 6-step process. I also ordered the additional Aeration at the beginning of the season in April. After the aeration and step one were complete things were looking good. The lawn was new sod laid down the prior year, however we didn't move into the home until November so unfortunately the lawn went without a winter fertilizer. Everything appeared to fine until step 2 in mid-May. 4 - 5 days after application I started getting bright yellow streaks across my yard that followed the exact path their machine ran across the yard. Also a large patch appx. 10feet in diameter turned bright yellow. Days later it was equal to hay and all the yellowed areas were breaking off. I immediately called for assistance. Basically I was told it was heat stress. What!?!?! It's the middle of May. LD technician took a bag of seed from his truck and sprinkled it by hand over the bad areas and said to saturate the area. Over the course of May-September I had steps 3-5 I believe. Each visit my lawn was worse. I had more dandelions, clovers, crab grass and other wildflower weeds all across my yard than the bare lot across the street from my property. The areas that burned out earlier, that seed was sprinkled on, were now solid weed/crabgrass. Each visit as well did more bright yellow streaks/paths appear.

I questioned each time whether or not they were chemically burning my yard. I was told no way, our stuff can lay in a pile on grass for weeks and never burn the grass. I asked are they putting too much down. My lot is 100x100 which is 10, 000 sq. ft. but there's a house and driveway and other areas that aren't grass so it really works out to just about 6000 sq. ft. Tech told me, nope it's by the lot size to which I said you aren't fertilizing my house just the grass. Unfortunately, I could see I was getting no where. I called about 2 times a week documenting all the problems I was having and requested they send a different tech. to my yard (it was the same guy each time so far) and said look I need a second opinion, because obviously this guy is doing something wrong. By late August a new guy showed up to LOOK at the yard. His reply was WOW this is bad and that he would report this to his manager and get this fixed, unfortunately though it being HOT SUMMER I would basically have to wait until next year for it to come back.

I am beyond frustrated with this by now. By the time September rolls around and it gets somewhat cooler what grass I have left is looking decent and weeds are subdued mostly. Mid-Sept I get a spot power seed to seed over all the areas that died. Within a week I had grass growing in those spots where grass wasn't all year. By the end of September and into October my yard wasn't so patchy. So I paid for a service to kill my yard, make it full of weeds and dirt, and then seed it late to then give me not even a month of decency? Step 6 was just around the corner which was the winter step. Guess what? 3-4 days after they left, large yellow streaks and the grass died AGAIN.

I called for the manager and was told himself personally would be down to inspect my yard. That was Late October, early November... I have yet to see this manager.

So a six step process was contracted. I checked my records and I had 10 additional service calls for complaints. Unacceptable for them to be here more for (supposed) fixes and redo's than for actual contracted services. I decided 2010 was in the bag and was now time to look elsewhere.

In February 2011 I get a letter in the mail saying I have been renewed for 2011 and instead of the 8 payment plan I had for 2010 I was now in a monthly plan for 2011 and since it was Feb I had 2 months due. I was livid. I called LD and said I never renewed, which I was told if you say nothing you automatically get renewed (which I did find on my original contract) so I asked for my account to be terminated with a brief explanation as to why. I received confirmation my account was closed by LD via a letter in the mail. Since then I have been flooded with mailers and phone calls offering me all these discounts and promotions to get me back as a customer and all these sorry you left notices. WHATEVER.

Fast forward to yesterday 3/23/2011 over a month since my account was closed. Guess who was outside? LAWN DOCTOR. I ran outside and said shut your machines off! The tech (different guy from last year) showed me the work order for my property dated a few days prior. I stated I closed/terminated this account last month. Please pack up and leave because you are not touching my lawn and I am not getting billed for this. I immediately called the LD office and asked for the status of my account. I was told CLOSED. So then why is there two techs waiting outside with a truck full off equipment? I got no real answer other than the computer must not have deleted the work load after I canceled but I was assured my account was closed. I went so far as to log in to my account and it also showed closed.

I can't believe this. When I wanted service I got lazy service or dead end promises. Now that I cancel they wanna be attentive with offers and calls and to not even remove the work order. Good thing I was home yesterday morning to catch them.

I thought it was all over then. I go upstairs and get my cell phone and see a voicemail. It was the LD tech stating he was on the way to my house to do my CORE AERATION service! The core aeration is an ADDITIONAL service paid separately than the 6 step program and has to be ordered separately. So who ordered this? I sure didn't. So not only did they have a work order for my lawn, it was for a service other than the program that gets renewed each year. What Nerve this company has.

My account is closed, confirmed by their office as well as my online access. We will see if yesterday is the last time I have any interaction with LAWN DOCTOR of Millville/Vineland NJ.

Alan Moore

I made the mistake of hiring Lawn Doctor to treat my lawn. After Lawn Doctor got my money, the company stopped treating my lawn. I would advise people to avoid hiring Lawn Doctor and not waste their money. In February 2007 I hired Lawn Doctor (in Montgomery, Alabama) to treat my lawn. I paid in advance with my credit card for the entire year. Lawn Doctor agreed to come every two months to treat my lawn--and more often if necessary--such as if the weeds didn't die or diminish. After Lawn Doctor received my payment, they stopped treating my lawn. The company missed both the April and June treatments. When I called in August to say that my lawn had not been treated in 6 months and that the company had broken its agreement, Lawn Doctor started treating my lawn again but declined to refund the money for the April and June treatments they missed. Meanwhile, the weeds on my lawn have greatly increased and have taken over my lawn, and Lawn Doctor seems unwilling to make an effort to reduce the weeds on my property. My lawn is an embarrassment because of Lawn Doctor. I paid in advance this year (2008), paying $648 to Lawn Doctor. I have the credit card receipt. I agreed to try Lawn Doctor for another year because when I called the company, the person I spoke to promised and guaranteed that he would make sure that the amount of weeds would be greatly reduced this year and they would make up for the previous year, and that he would make sure that the Dallis grass weeds would be spot sprayed. Lawn Doctor failed to keep its promise. He said that Lawn Doctor would return again and again (in addition to the treatments every other month). That never happened. He said that Dallis grass had to be sprayed and then resprayed two weeks later, but Lawn Doctor didn't come back and spray the weeds in the way he had promised. Although I was promised that Lawn Doctor would keep treating the weeds until the weeds were gone, the company failed to keep its promise, and it seems to have stopped treating my lawn. The weeds on my lawn are completely out of control and have taken over the lawn, and Lawn Doctor has made little or no effort to fix the situation. Although I paid for the entire lawn to be treated, the person who comes from Lawn Doctor did not treat the whole lawn; when I watched him, I noticed that he only treated part of it. Lawn Doctor has also not honored their satisfaction guarantee. After watching my lawn get worse and worse--and the indifference from Lawn Doctor--I canceled my service in June by mailing a letter to Lawn Doctor, asking for a refund for the second half of 2008 (for which I prepaid). Lawn Doctor never responded. I called, but again Lawn Doctor never responded. I wrote to the corporate office, but I still didn't receive a refund. I want a refund for the two missed treatments (April and June 2007) and a refund for the second half of this year--July-December 2008, a total of $540. I am not asking for a refund for work that Lawn Doctor has done (even though it has been poor and ineffective), only for the work that Lawn Doctor never did. Lawn Doctor is one of the biggest lawn treatment companies in the country, so it's a shame when its work and its customer service are so disappointing. I have been very disappointed in Lawn Doctor.

I decided to go with Lawn Doctor this year for because I thought if the service cost $350 dollars a year, surely it is a good investment and I would be the proud owner of the greenest, healthiest lawn on the block. Well, sixty five days later, I have the worse looking yard on the block, and my wallet is one hundred seventeen dollars lighter.
Naturally the lawn service blamed it all on me.
You can’t treat Saint Augustine lawns with heavy fertilizer.
We are not treating for the rescue grass {Crab grass} ? Uh, really? For $350 dollars a year I still have to go physically pulled up all of this rescue grass?
We are not treating for fire ants, or bugs. Again, $350 dollars a year service.
You have a fungus problem. By now you can guess what they said.
I can go to home depot and treat for the ants and bugs for ten dollars. And I have always used Lesco for about twenty two dollars, and have gotten much better results. What was I thinking?
Stay away from:
Lawn Doctor, they are crooks.