Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/13/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Topers Lawncare Plus LLC performed grass cutting at our current home *** ********* ** ********** ** for a reasonable $85/cut. My wife asked them to do fall leaf cleanup & put the leaves in the back woods on our property.
  
  Topers LLC cleaned the leaves & provided a. $2158.91 invoice # ****** dated 12.1. 23.
  
  I immediately called them & during 3 calls indicated it was not reasonable to charge 25 times the normal grass cutting price to clean leaves. They mentioned high business costs i.e, expensive equip., recent $9000. repair, & $30+ labor cost. They took the leaves to the dump, included a $500 charge as they felt that was faster. The Colchester website indicates no charge for bringing leaves to the dump. The $500 charge seems unreasonable.
  
  They said if we want lower cost in the future from them, we should cut our trees down.
  
  For reference, we have about 20 years’ experience with lawn care companies @ our previous house **** ****** ** ******* *** close to *********** with similar landscaped area (verified on ****** earth), At ******* we were paying $80/cut for grass & $300-$400 for fall cleanup with one outlier at $600.
  
  I indicated they should have alerted us in advance; we never would have agreed to such a high cost. I offered to immediately pay $1000 (still high) to close this. They refused, offered a minimal $100-$200 reduction which is not acceptable. I asked for a revised invoice (not yet provided) with detailed cost breakdown.
  
  I checked with 2 neighbors. One indicated several companies offered to do his fall cleanup in the $300 range. Our other neighbor introduced me to his lawn care provider with experience on my property (previous owners) . He offered to do grass for $75/cut & do leaves for $350 to $400 (plus $100 if we wanted leaves taken to the dump). He previously put leaves in the back; I agreed to that & hired him for our lawn/leaves next yr.
  
  As senior citizens we request help; we feel Toper LLC is gouging us on the price of this fall cleanup.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/28/2023

  When hired we were told to perform a fall cleanup without requesting an estimate at our customers property located at *** ********* **** in ********** **. We were told that if it would be quicker or cheaper to bring the leaves to the back yard that we could do so. As it turns out it was not quicker to put the leaves into the woods in the back yard. The reason being is because of the size of the yard and the amount of leaves in the yard it would have taken longer to complete the job. The front yard has around 20 mature oak trees that dropped a lot of leaves and the back yard wood line is around 400 feet from the front of the property road side. We blew all the leaves to the driveway as it was closer and made a long pile that was about ten feet wide five feet high 125 feet long that was along side the driveway so we could easily drive our dump truck with the leaf loader past the pile to suck it up and remove the leaves. We ended up removing about one and a half truck loads of leaves that I did not take to the dump. No one on my team told *** we were taking the leaves to the dump because the dump is only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and not all towns take leaves from commercial businesses. We have a place nearby where I drop our leaves off any time as needed and I pay a fee to do so . We do not go to the dump because it is inconvenient seeing how they are hardly ever open during working hours which are Monday thru Friday. I charged *** 500 dollars to bring our leaf loader and dump truck to his property twice in order to suck up and remove about a truck load and a half of leaves . While speaking with *** ******** I was explaining to him that we charge 95.00 dollars per laborer per hour while we performed his fall cleanup and he thought that was too much money. I explained to *** that all of our equipment runs on fuel and that my company has a lot of over head expense and I explained to him all of the other factors that go into why we charge what we do. After I explained to *** why we charged what we did he was still unhappy so I asked *** what he thinks is fair to ask per hour per laborer and he said he researched and the going rate is around 80 dollars per hour . I told *** I would charge the 80 per hour per laborer instead of the 95 per hour and he said to send him a new bill to his email explaining the charges and I did. I charged *** for 16 hours of labor that it took 5 guys to complete his cleanup . that came to 1280.00 dollars and we charged 500 dollars to remove the leaves. With sales tax the new bill was brought down to 1893.03 . I do want to also take this time to explain as I already did to *** that the cost of mowing was 85 dollars per cut and it takes a crew of three crew members 20 minutes to cut the lawn . If you do the math that charge would be 95 dollars per cut but I charge *** 85 dollars because there is less equipment used to mow his lawn compared to doing a fall cleanup. In The complaint I can see that *** said we charged 25 times more to do the cleanup. It wasn't 25 times more but it was close to that because we weren't there mowing the lawn for 20 minutes with three crew members, however we were there for about three and a half hours (about 210 minutes) with a crew of five working very hard not at just mowing the lawn but removing all the oak leaves from the lawn first so we could do one final cut on the lawn for the season. 
  I would also like to add that I have never received one complaint from any of our new or existing customers about our rates we charge . At 95 dollars per hour per laborer it is cheap compared to what other industries charge per hour of labor . I don't think I know of any other industry that charges cheaper then that price.
  Going forward I will expect payment asap . If that does not happen I will take *** ******** to small claims court for the full original price of the fall cleanup service that he received at his property of *** ********* **** ********** * **.
  Bryan Toper.
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/29/2023

  
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because the bill is excessive.
  
  I did not receive the revised invoice yet. 
  
  This is the first time we have ever submitted a complaint to BBB, but we did so because were not able to reach a reasonable resolution with the business.  
  
  The $1893 bill is not reasonable but it is clear that we are not going to resolve this. Since we always pay our bills we will pay this one to. 
  
  We again request the business to please send the $1893 revised invoice and detailed cost breakdown so that we can reluctantly pay it. 

  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ***** ********

  Business Response

  Date: 01/03/2024

  Good afternoon , I have received a complaint from BBB for the first since being in business since 2004 . The complaint number is ********.
  When hired we were told to perform a fall cleanup without requesting an estimate at our customers property located at *** ********* **** in ********** **. We were told that if it would be quicker or cheaper to bring the leaves to the back yard that we could do so. As it turns out it was not quicker to put the leaves into the woods in the back yard. The reason being is because of the size of the yard and the amount of leaves in the yard it would have taken longer to complete the job. The front yard has around 20 mature oak trees that dropped a lot of leaves and the back yard wood line is around 400 feet from the front of the property road side. We blew all the leaves to the driveway as it was closer and made a long pile that was about ten feet wide five feet high 125 feet long that was along side the driveway so we could easily drive our dump truck with the leaf loader past the pile to suck it up and remove the leaves. We ended up removing about one and a half truck loads of leaves that I did not take to the dump. No one on my team told *** we were taking the leaves to the dump because the dump is only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and not all towns take leaves from commercial businesses. We have a place nearby where I drop our leaves off any time as needed and I pay a fee to do so . We do not go to the dump because it is inconvenient seeing how they are hardly ever open during working hours which are Monday thru Friday. I charged *** 500 dollars to bring our leaf loader and dump truck to his property twice in order to suck up and remove about a truck load and a half of leaves . While speaking with *** ******** I was explaining to him that we charge 95.00 dollars per laborer per hour while we performed his fall cleanup and he thought that was too much money. I explained to *** that all of our equipment runs on fuel and that my company has a lot of over head expense and I explained to him all of the other factors that go into why we charge what we do. After I explained to *** why we charged what we did he was still unhappy so I asked *** what he thinks is fair to ask per hour per laborer and he said he researched and the going rate is around 80 dollars per hour . I told *** I would charge the 80 per hour per laborer instead of the 95 per hour and he said to send him a new bill to his email explaining the charges and I did. I charged *** for 16 hours of labor that it took 5 guys to complete his cleanup . that came to 1280.00 dollars and we charged 500 dollars to remove the leaves. With sales tax the new bill was brought down to 1893.03 . I do want to also take this time to explain as I already did to *** that the cost of mowing was 85 dollars per cut and it takes a crew of three crew members 20 minutes to cut the lawn . If you do the math that charge would be 95 dollars per cut but I charge *** 85 dollars because there is less equipment used to mow his lawn compared to doing a fall cleanup. In The complaint I can see that *** said we charged 25 times more to do the cleanup. It wasn't 25 times more but it was close to that because we weren't there mowing the lawn for 20 minutes with three crew members, however we were there for about three and a half hours (about 210 minutes) with a crew of five working very hard not at just mowing the lawn but removing all the oak leaves from the lawn first so we could do one final cut on the lawn for the season. 
  I would also like to add that I have never received one complaint from any of our new or existing customers about our rates we charge . At 95 dollars per hour per laborer it is cheap compared to what other industries charge per hour of labor . I don't think I know of any other industry that charges cheaper then that price.
  Going forward I will expect payment asap . If that does not happen I will take *** ******** to small claims court for the full original price of the fall cleanup service that he received at his property of *** ********* **** ********** * **.
  Bryan Toper.
  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/08/2024

  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, appreciate the small adjustment but are still frustrated that the bill is so high. With that said, we always pay our bills and previously sent the  check via our bank bill pay bank mailed it on Jan 1.  The they should receive the check  beginning of this week if they have not already received it.     Please close out this BBB complaint. 
  
  Sincerely, 
  
  ***** ********