GTA Landscaping

My wife and I hired GTA landscaping to build a wood deck, complete a stone patio and rebuild a fence in our back yard last spring prior to COVID hitting. We’ve had a really terrible experience with Vlad and GTA landscaping. Please take this review as a cautionary tale; I would strongly discourage you from hiring this company. Buyer beware.

Initially we were quite happy with how things were progressing; the guys on the jobsite were great and Vlad was very responsive. Later in the job we noticed some issues with the quality of the work. A high-pressure nail gun was used to build the fence which led to over half of the boards chipping leaving it quite unsightly. We brought this up after the fence was partially completed and we were assured that any chipped boards would be quickly replaced. Instead, the rest of the fence was completed and over half of the boards had obvious deformities and quickly developed rust stains from cheap nails.

We made a good faith agreement with Vlad and paid for the entire project prior to the final walk through. This was done in the height of the COVID pandemic, and as my wife and I are both health care workers (and I work in a COVID testing center), we felt it would be safer for Vlad's crew and us to regroup when things had settled down. This was done before the various government subsidies were rolled out, and I also felt it was done in good faith to ensure his employees were paid prior to the first lockdown. This was a huge mistake.

After we paid Vlad, even with our agreement, it became nearly impossible to get a hold of him. Previously Vlad would respond in minutes day or night, now messages and voicemails were left with no response. I became suspicious that Vlad was screening his calls, and called him from my wife’s phone to ask about the status of our job. Vlad always made excuses about how he was working on a larger more lucrative job, or that he responded to texts or emails when he clearly didn’t. On the phone he would act like we were crazy and that he had responded with one excuse after another, but strangely he was never able to provide evidence he had responded. He would say that such chipping was normal – I’m no carpentry expert but I know pilot holes will prevent cracking boards. And I welcomed him to see one of the many fences in the neighborhood that looked great.

This went on for months. At times we’d have a plan to have a meeting to go over the remaining work. Either he wouldn’t show, or once he’d be nearly an hour late and I’d have to cancel the meeting to go to work. During that meeting he took pictures which I later noticed he had the gall to post them on his company’s facebook page and advertised our project as a completed job.

Below is a partial log of our communication with Vlad. This is only one month.

June 4th - meeting - didn’t show
June 5th - meeting - showed up 50 minutes late, posted photos on facebook
June 19th - email - no response
June 24th - email - no response
June 27th - call - Vlad asked for dates and times of availability over the next two weeks
June 28th - wife emailed with dates/times - no response
July 4th - text - no response
July 5th - email from wife - no response
July 6th - text and voicemail - response with plan to have someone inspect deficiencies same evening
July 6th - didn’t show
July 8th – send email with request for availability to repair fence – no response

Later in the summer he sent a worker to mark boards with a plan to show up the following day to replace the boards, he didn’t show up and I haven’t heard from Vlad or anyone else from his company since. We decided to give up. I took care of the fence myself.

Vlad, you did a terrible job. You know this, and you had plenty of opportunities to make things right, and you chose not to. Look at the photos. Are you proud of this work? We paid your company before the work was done to ensure your guys got paid prior to the first COVID lockdown. Why didn’t you hold your end of the bargain?

Buyer beware.