Doerler Landscaping
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PostPosted: Fri, Jan 14 2011, 9:55 am EST    Post subject: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Just a friendly warning so others can avoid our bad luck...

We ended up hiring Doerler Landscaping to do a design for us based on recommendations from local Cranbury people we trusted and we've seen their signs elsewhere so they seem popular around here.

On that basis I thought I would offer fair warning that, however great they may have once been, clearly something is going on at the firm now. We hired them at the start of November for what was supposed to be 2 weeks of work on a design they said we would get sometime before the Thanksgiving holiday. We have to pay $1,000 up-front which could be off-set if we later used them for the actual landscape work at a rate of 10% (i.e. if we spent $10,000 we would have worked off the full design cost).

Thanksgiving came and went with no word or even seeing them show up at the house to take measurements which they said they would do within days of signing. I had to call a bunch of times with no reply before I finally got an answer and a promise they would come out to measure. When they did they sent a new person (I went from Steven Doerler for the sales meeting, saying he would work on it personally, to someone who “assisted him” saying he would come out to someone who described himself as “assisting” the person who assists Steven and hadn’t heard anything about the design) who said he didn’t have any of the surveying equipment so he couldn’t do much work other than note where the planter beds were.

And that was the last I ever saw of them about 6 weeks ago. I have called repeatedly since and left messages, none of which are ever returned. I finally took to calling every hour or so and a couple times got a woman who answers their phones once in a while. She keeps promising call backs that I never get. At this point I would be lucky to just get my cashed $1,000’s back and have to start over with someone else, having lost two months on my project timeline. I can only assume that there must be either issues about the solvency of the business or personal issues with the principles going on, which is exactly the thing I thought I was avoiding with a company that has been around for 45 years supposedly. But what can you do.
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PostPosted: Fri, Jan 14 2011, 10:53 am EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Sorry to hear of your frustrating experience. I don't profess to know the reasons for this poor customer service - a lot of contractors would be jumping at the opportunity for work these days.

Have you considered a complaint to the BBB, with a copy sent to the contractor?
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jan 14 2011, 11:13 am EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Do you have a copy of the plans? If so, in a strange way you may be better off. If you have the plans, you can hire any landscaper to implement them. The plans themselves would easily be worth the thousand dollars you paid and you can hire landscapers that use essentially day laborers to do the planting. While you are still out the time and hassle of the last few months and you missed the fall planting season, you might be able to save some money and implement the same plan.

Doerler does pretty standard suburban landscaping that any landscaper can pull off. I hope you have a copy of the drawings. Good luck.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jan 14 2011, 12:02 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
Do you have a copy of the plans? If so, in a strange way you may be better off. If you have the plans, you can hire any landscaper to implement them. The plans themselves would easily be worth the thousand dollars you paid and you can hire landscapers that use essentially day laborers to do the planting. While you are still out the time and hassle of the last few months and you missed the fall planting season, you might be able to save some money and implement the same plan.

Doerler does pretty standard suburban landscaping that any landscaper can pull off. I hope you have a copy of the drawings. Good luck.


That's the problem -- I paid them to create plans and they never did a thing. There are no plans.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jan 14 2011, 12:35 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Wow, sorry. That is really strange. You only need one guy to create the plans. Everyone in the firm could have been laid off and Steve could still create the drawings. I have a feeling this is a really bad story. Sorry again.
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Steve
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PostPosted: Tue, Jan 18 2011, 3:05 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

This is Steve Doerler. I was informed of this blog by a long term client who was shocked by its contents and offered graciously to defend me. I declined her offer; and I have to admit my reticence to even reply to such a posting, considering that the people who post them can hide under the thin shroud of anonymity without repercussion or consequence. In any event the posting is so full of hyperbole and exaggeration that I feel compelled to reply. There are many salient points that seem to be conveniently left out and some of the statements are out right lies.

The first point that should be made is that I met with this client on AUGUST 16th. I remember the day well because there was a severe thunderstorm at the end of the meeting, which I should have taken as an omen. I explained our process and encouraged them to learn more about our family business as well as garner some design ideas, by visiting the design center at our farm. The client said that the meeting had to be Wednesday night, August 18th. My youngest son had a baseball game on the day that they wanted to meet so my assistant Brian offered to meet with them. Brian is a certified Landscape Designer with a degree from Purdue, has worked for our firm for 12 years and has contact with 100% of our residential clients. He is a nice, hard working young man who we often receive complements about. They met, reviewed pictures and discussed the design proposal. The clients left without making a commitment to procure our services.

We didn't hear from them for THREE months until November 16th when I was on vacation. Since Brian had contact with the client he called and scheduled a site meeting for Wednesday November 24th to once again review the design proposal and planning program. November 24th was the day before Thanksgiving. Obviously they were never promised a plan by Thanksgiving. That statement is an outright lie.

On December 1st, two days after the Thanksgiving Holiday, Mark, from our planning department: (whom I should add is a graduate Landscape Architect who attended Clemson), stopped out to take field measurements and verify some grades. He was having problems with the laser level that day so he couldn't get all the information that he needed, but he certainly was able to collect enough data for me to start the design process. I never promised to personally handle anything although I do involve myself in all of our projects from a design standpoint.

We then received a call on December 13,( for all practical purposes, two weeks after receiving a signed proposal and check) the client was informed of our normal timeline. This project includes locating a spot for a swimming pool, amongst other proposed improvements. Not the sort of plan you just slap together. We would never rush a plan for the sake of meeting an unrealistic deadline. We wouldn’t be doing ourselves or our client any favors. He demanded that the plan be completed by the Christmas Holidays. Brian informed him that we would be unable to complete the plan by then. We were winding down for the season; we had a lot of ongoing projects to complete, and we would be closed from December 17th to January 3rd. As a seasonal business we like to give our employees a break at the end of the year to spend time with their families at the holidays. I guess that makes me a bad person. The client was displeased with the fact that we would be unable to drop everything else that we were doing to work on his project. The same project that could wait 3 months for us to start on, suddenly had to be done in 3 weeks. Brian, sensing that the client was frustrated, offered him his money back. He refused the offer and said that he would wait until after the Holidays.


We then received a call on January 12 checking on the status of the project. This message was left on our answering service. It should be noted that we documented only 7 calls TOTAL from this client over the past several weeks. Our Chief Operating Officer, Michele, is here on a daily basis, during the winter from 7am- 3 pm. Every single day. She may occasionally have the audacity to go to lunch, or the bank, but by and large she is here to answer the phones. The comment about phone calls every hour is ludicrous. Another fabrication.


Brian, whom, like many people in a small business, wears many hats; does double duty managing the snow removal for one of our long time clients. Obviously we have had an unusual amount of snow so Brian has been kept uncharacteristically busy outside of the office. The client called back on the morning of January 14th and was frustrated (this time rightly so) by the fact that Brian had not been in contact with him. Michele explained to him that Brian had been out of the office but would be sure to have him get in touch with him ASAP. Brian called the client within an hour of his conversation with Michele, to schedule an appointment to review the plan. The client never once asked to speak to me to express his concerns about Brian (I didn’t know he had any until the blog) or to complain about the timing of the planning process. Brian did admit to me that the client sounded short on the phone but otherwise appeared content to meet on Wednesday.

I quite frankly was blindsided by this blog. I think it stands to reason that you would certainly reach out to the owner of a company and exhaust all avenues of remediation, before you anonymously and maliciously trash a company. I am a hard working , honest businessman, whom has spent a lifetime serving the local community in many positive charitable ways ; so to see this sort of posting, with lies, half-truths, and conjecture ( that borders on slander), is particularly offensive. I guess that it is more a comment on our society than anything else. Our instant gratification and self entitlement world has led to conflict resolution becoming public thrashing under the thinly veiled auspices of anonymity. I seriously feel sorry for my children.

In any event, the client mentioned that he would be lucky to have his $1000 back. Well, today is his lucky day. I will HAPPILY refund his money, which he neglected to mention that we offered to do previously. We have some great ideas and a very nice computer rendering of a plan, which he will never see. We are extremely busy with a lot of really exciting commissions, so there really isn’t any reason to pursue this relationship. I guess at the end of the day I consider myself blessed that I saw the blog. It prevented me from wasting any more of my time dealing with this client. I can only pray for the company that ends up working on this job.

I doubt that anyone will read my response or that it will do any good since the damage is already done. I doubt that it will lead to any sort of mea culpa or retraction on the part of the client. I would just encourage anyone who reads these sorts of things to think twice before you blindly believe anonymous postings.
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Guest






PostPosted: Tue, Jan 18 2011, 3:48 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Wacko client + Internet anonymity = Public Smear Campaign
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Guest






PostPosted: Tue, Jan 18 2011, 4:16 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

The truth is always some place in between. Probably the best thing now would be for the home owner from Cranbury to let us know who they are since it would add credibility to their story.
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Guest






PostPosted: Tue, Jan 18 2011, 4:20 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

The best thing is not to have this discussion in a public forum.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 2:24 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

Thanks for the heads up. We were researching local landscape architects for our backyard landscape project (patio, outdoor kitchen and fireplace) and in reading your complaint and then the owners RUDE response, we will definitely scratch this company off of our list.
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Guest






PostPosted: Mon, Jun 6 2011, 1:21 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

I don't feel that the owner's response was rude at all! He was merely defending himself and, since I have had to deal with my fair share of wacko clients in my various jobs, I can completely understand his frustration. It sounds like he has presented his side of the story pretty accurately considering he had dates and recollections of days to back it up. Although I am in agreement that this type of conversation SHOULD have taken place directly between the client and the owner as opposed to on a public forum, the client really left the owner no choice. I personally feel that the fact that the owner took time out of his busy schedule (I'm sure this is one THE busiest times of year for landscapers) to respond means that he is dedicated to his business. I, for one, WOULD hire this company based on this response.
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Shadow Oaks
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PostPosted: Mon, Jun 6 2011, 2:29 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

My neighbor converted their deck to a raised patio using Doerler Landscaping.

I think the owner's response was not rude at all.

I just don't understand the urgency of doing a landscaping project in winter during holidays...
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Guest






PostPosted: Thu, Jun 16 2011, 3:54 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: Doerler Landscaping Reply with quote

I agree that the owners response is not only rude, but arrogant as well. It sounds to me that if the owner had returned the calls to begin with then this discussion wouldn't have had to take place on this public forum. Obviously, the customers must have felt they had no other choice.
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