Complaint Review: Metro-Green Landscapes

I searched for a long time to find a honest and reputable company to help me redesign and change the appeal of my front and back yard.  Last year I first contacted Keene Landscaping of Dallas who seemed happy to accept my business and made an appointment to come by and discuss my thoughts.  Two times I was stood up by them, I made an appointment to meet and nobody showed up, nobody called either.  That was all the info I needed to move on to another company.

The next company I called and contracted with was Metro-Green Landscaping owned by Jeff Payne.  Although I did not know about his past history until after meeting with and contracting with him.  By doing more online research I found that Jeff Payne has been in the landscaping business for 10 years or so but has changed the name of his company three times and has moved his company from California to some state in the upper midwest and then most recently in Dallas.  I have read numerous reviews about the swindling/dishonest tricks of Jeff Payne but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and cautiously try his services.  He is a talented and knowledgeable person but only hires hispanics to do his work.  None of which have any formal training in landscaping, planting, soils, etc.  None of them speak English, and perhaps none are actually legal residents.  I paid a large sum of money for Jeff Payne to start the design and work on my yards.  He charges $300 for a "detailed color drawing of plans" prior to any work being done.  I never saw anything of this sort but got a whole lot of verbal ideas come from Jeff's mouth.  Later, I found on an itemized bill that I was charged for the drawing and plan but I was never given anything.  The work on my yard was started the beginning of June 2015 when we had nearly an entire month of rain, very rare for a Texas spring.  Jeff worked part days a little at a time and I really liked the changes he was making.  At this point I was really encouraged.  I liked the plants he was choosing and using but most have died since because they were planted in too small of pots, planted during a torential rain month and are drought loving plants, etc.  

Jeff Payne asked me for more money which I also gave to him to purchase more supplies.  I started to get a bit leary at this point because it did not seem to me that there were $5000 worth of plants and supplies used up to that point.  After another week or so, towards the end of June 2015 the rain started to stop and I noticed that Jeff stopped coming but a few hours each week.  One time while there he mentioned that they were about 90% complete with the project.  I was in shock. I questioned him and told him I diagreed, and at that point told him the things I wanted to be done differently.  He was offended when I told him that his work, if truly 90% complete, looked "half-assed."  It was not complete by any means.  He told me that he had never been told that his work was anything but wonderful.  He wanted me to apologize but I kindly told him that he had forgotten that I was the customer and got to call the shots, not him.  Very rarely did I see him after this.  I talked to him by phone to try to get him to come back and finish the project and he said he now had very little time in his schedule because he had started other projects, corporate projects which yielded greater profits for him than my project.  Long story but short, Jeff Payne never did come back to finish the project but left the plants and flowers all over the yard, left to die or be planted by myself.  

I ended up hiring another landscaper to help finish the project but I ended up being cheated after paying $13000 for my yard renovation which was never completed.  During his time that he was working on my yard Jeff mentioned that he was in the process of changing the name of his company "for marketing reasons."  I know now that he moves and changes the name of his company and he swindles his way all over the country robbing people of things he has planned and promised.  Changing the name and location of his company every so often allows him to avoid legal traps.  He will be caught and prosecuted at some point.  My purpose here is to share my experience with others to hopefully help them avoid the same scam and dishonesty with Jeff Payne and Metro-Green Landscapes.