Daily ponderable

I bought my home in April of 2007. As a new homeowner, I of course, did not have all the tools available for things like yard work and such. So I hired a company called Green Thumb Landscape out of Fort Worth to take care of everything for me, and they did really good work. I actually met them when they did the commercial work for the apartment complex I lived in prior to buying the house. In October of 2007, I cancelled their services for the Winter, obviously I won't be needing them full time and anything that does come up, I could handle by that time.

One day in November, I came home to find that they had stopped by and took care of my lawn. Work that I DID NOT authorize. It looked good and I was going to let it go that I didn't request this work, UNTIL I went to go into the backyard through the gate. That was when I noticed that they had managed to rip the gate off the hinges and had just leaned it back up against the fence before they left. I was angry beyond belief... No note, no phone call, NOTHING.

I called the office and spoke with the secretary and advised her of the problem. She assured me the crew supervisor would call me right back. That was November of 2007. I called repeatedly over the next six months and spoke with various individuals in the office with no luck. I even emailed the company "president" to no avail. After 6 months I had the gate fixed myself and just decided that, this battle I didn't pick and to let it ride. Then I got a bill in the mail. A BILL! A bill for services rendered, 32.87. REALLY????

It is on now....

Included with the bill is a postage paid envelope to mail the payment in. Every month I wrote on the bill and mailed it right back to them. I wouldn't hear from them for a month or so then another bill would arrive. Same story. Then one day I got a call from an attorney... really? You were retained on behalf of Green Thumb for a 32.87 bill? I let him have it... I absolutely unloaded on him about the gate, the unauthorized work, and the continuous billing for the unauthorized work??? OMGD, lol he stuttered and stammered and said that he would "check into this" and hung up. I didn't hear a thing for almost 6 months.

About a month ago I got another bill. It had been one of "THOSE" days and I had reached my limit. I logged onto the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and filed a complaint. I found that Green Thumb WAS NOT BBB associated but had other complaints filed and resolved via the BBB. Good... here goes.

I received a phone call yesterday from the BBB. A wonderfully nice young lady asking if I had received the email with the results of their investigation. I had not. She emailed it again and stayed on the line with me until I received it. WOW! Customer service at its finest. The result of their investigation was a letter from the owner of the company. Long story short: He claims this was the first he had heard of this problem and as a result in the downturned economy, he had let all his office staff go. He was happy to remove me from his books and assured that I would hear nothing more from them.

I can live with that. Sometimes it pays to be the squeaky wheel...