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| Ease Of Navigation | 9/10  |
|---|---|
| Value for Money | 3/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 5/10 |
| Overall Rating | 4.5/10  |
Full review by
Elricardo
on 18th May 2006
User Rating : 5
Respect :
0
Good Points: Well designed web site. Full portfolio of previous work including before, during and after shots. Professional staff.
Bad Points: Extremely expensive - my quote was 3 times more expensive than the others.
General comments: We had recently decided to do something with our garden and began to collate various quotes from local landscapers in Essex and the South East.
Our garden is a basic rectangle, about 15m long by aroung 5m wide. We had planned two areas of decking and some re-turfing. Initially we began getting quotes around 2-3k, which seemed fair as I used to work in a timber yard and had priced materials myself.
I then went onto the APL (association of professional landscapers) site and found Holland Landscapes. They claim to do excellent work and to have won various prestigious awards.
Their site is excellent. Very slickly put together with a full portfolio including before, during and after photography of sites they have worked on. The completed works did indeed look very impressive. I proceeded to invite them round to look at the garden.
Their rep arrived and was very polite, refusing to walk through the house in boots and immediately got out a pad and tape measure....very promising I thought having seen cowboys pace around the gardens amid sharp intakes of breath.
He went on to tell me that the garden would take 10 working days to complete with two men on the job. Everyone else quoted for 2-3 days work! When asked to justify this he informed me that to build the deck below the air brick required much excavation of earth.....this was a topic already covered by previous landscapers who all stated this was not required as air can still circulate below decks. Oh dear.
It got worse. A few days later I received a quote via telephone for 7 thousand pounds. A written quote followed for £6,800. Three and a half times more than any other quote. When I mentioned this I was informed rather smugly that they were used to being the most expensive, but the final job would be worth it. Er, no. Quote filed appropriately.
The next company that quoted us saw Hollands quote and were thinking about reporting them to the APL.
Elricardo's review and ratings | 365 words | 4 comments added.
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