March 2019 by Greg Goudreau
1 year ago, in September 2017, I had new england mulching come and do my 3/4 of an acre yard for about 3500 dollars. From the beginning I was unhappy. When the project manager and I had talked about what I wanted done, I clearly stated that I had large holes that needed to be filled with top soil before they were filled with their mulch mixture because as the mulch settled it would sink leaving the existing holes there. He said sure no problem. That was never done and just like I said the mulch settled and the holes are still there. The first day they were there they went able to finish because they said they had to reload their truck. That's fine, no problem, the project manager said they would be back tomorrow. So the next day I had gotten out of work early and showed up at my house and they aren't there, I figured they were at lunch but they never showed up. I would like to think they would finish a job before starting another one especially considering I just spent thousands with them. Also, before applying the mulch I hired them to aerate the lawn first allowing the mulch mixture to fall in the holes and incorporate its self with the existing soil. Aeroating the lawn should be done 2 times, 1 time in either direction, talk to any landscaping company or even Google how to aeroate your lawn. They did it once. Now it really shows especially in the front yard where I wanted it to look the best. Its back to its original clay and hard type soil. Total waste. They said this would be a 1 time service and would last forever, well it should for that kind of money. I had called a month after it was done and stated my concerns and asked them how they would fix it, he said, well I need to talk to my boss first and ill get back to you, I felt like I was being blown off. About a half of a month later I wrote a review on why I was unhappy, just like this one. Within 2 days I had the project manager call me and ask me why I wrote the review and I told him I felt like I was being blown off. Its sad that it took me writing a bad review to get such a quick response. He asked me to remove it and they would come and try to fix it. Well how are they going to aeroate through 3 inches of mulch? Its impossible, the prongs on an aeroateor don't go deep enough to aeroate the soil underneith the mulch. On top of that it was late October and it was too late to be laying down grass seed. I just didn't want them to come through again and me still be unhappy because it couldn't be fixed. And as for the existing holes, the damage was already done, putting another layer of much down wouldn't help, it would continue to sink, the top soil NEEDED to be done first AND the guy told me he would do it when I asked!! So frustrating. And above all, my lawn is just bumpy, and uneven, I had them there to try to solve that problem and they said it would but it didn't. They said this was a one time thing. I didn't want them coming to my house when I wasn't there especially after writing the original review. Every time I cut my grass I'm reminded how unhappy I am and will always be because it was just a complete wast of thousands of dollars. Look, don't be like me and be reminded of how you made a bad choice of going with newengland mulching. I think that if you take the day out of work and lose the money for the day and they are supervised and you make sure they are doing what you asked them to do, it will come out good. But really? Supervise the pros? I shouldn't have to. I could keep going but I think I've made it loud and clear not to use this company unless you want to supervise them. Either that or have them put everything you asked for in writing because I obviously couldn't trust their word. Don't do it. I can't be any more clear about that.
