I have to admit that I'm surprised by all the positive reviews of Curbz. They are very nice people, but the ongoing maintenance for our garden was disappointing. The garden was always full of weeds and I found them to be very expensive when I asked them to fill large empty spots with some plants. I sent pictures of areas that were overrun by weeds after many requests for attention, I often didn't hear anything, and very little got done. They were fine with the very basic maintenance (i.e. grass cutting and edging once a week), and when they were doing projects (which were very expensive, I think, in the thousands, for planting plants in empty areas). I wish they had been a lot more proactive and much more responsive. Also, one time, they sent me an invoice for another customer. They were charging me much more for disposing of trim/weeds etc. and the bags than they were the other customer. I felt that the location of my house (north toronto) caused them to charge me higher prices. The only thing I would say is that Jude is a lovely person, for sure. I just wish they had put in more time and effort. My sense is they strongly prefer the margins on big landscaping jobs to simple garden maintenance.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $5,000.00
- Company Response
To clarify things for our loyal customers and those seeking small garden design and renovation services:
The maintenance portion of our business was shut down in May of 2013 for two primary business reasons:
- we were unable to attract the skilled talent needed to keep the standards we had set
- we were unable to make a profitWhen I built the business 5 years ago it was to address a niche for garden care, not lawn maintenance. This required that we hire gardeners, not labourers, and that we pay them as skilled tradespeople are supposed to be paid, and as set out by Landscape Ontario.
The cost of providing this service exceeded the income we were achieving. We felt the best thing we could do was to shut it down before we received any further complaints.
We have since moved on to specialize in garden design and renovation, and the reviews we have received more closely reflect that expertise.