Michigan - 7/02 (TGCL-17). The following was posted on AOL’s ServiceMaster message board:

Subject: ServiceMaster is a BS company
Date:      7/9/02 12:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:      USA4907

This note is in reference to Chem-Lawn branch in Rochester Hills, MI They always expect workers to do more than first told to do...changing goals on Fridays just so that everyone will have to work Saturday, and they have stupid rules, and they have crappy equipment that never works. As a former employee, I would just fill my tank up with water instead of the needed materials so I wouldn’t have to wait in line so long. The managers knew but wouldn’t do anything about it.  Their phone jockeys are insane too. All they do is bug and bug and bug the clients until the clients are pretty much saying okay, I’ll sign up as long as you shut up.  Their business is dishonest, and when I worked there some four years ago, I cheated all the time with my work; because if I didn’t cheat, there was no way I could succeed.  So I suggest all customers in the Rochester Hills area to cancel their service and sign up with a less expensive company (Chem-Lawn is most expensive).

I sent his posting to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and sent him an e-mail note stating, “Thank you for helping to expose the real ServiceMaster! I thought you might like to see the letter I sent to the MI AG after reading your post.”  He responded with, “I wish to remain anonymous. Do not identify me. You also did not have my expressed permission to forward anything I wrote in the message box, which is required by law. If you continue to forward my post, I will not be happy.”  He then posted the following on AOL:

Subject: Re:  ServiceMaster is a BS company
Date:      7/10/02 1:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:      USA4907

Dudes, it wasn’t anything to condemn anyone. I was just sharing an experience, for entertainment purposes only... also as a lesson to teach everyone not to read what they read on the internet, because its all flubber, even that first message. When I did work for Chem-Lawn, everything was great and no one got cheated.  There are way too many backchecks to cheat a customer if you wanted to. In addition, you sue-happy people need to get a real job like at Chemlawn.

An attempt to respond to his last e-mail to me came back as undeliverable - account closed.

TGCL-16 (6/02).  I have been a customer of TruGreen Chemlawn for about three years.  At the end of last fall, I noted about one-third of my front lawn was dying; and there did not seem to be any explanation. Early in the year, TruGreen called to make sure I planned to continue with the yearly lawn service (fertilizer, etc.); and I told them I was not because of the loss of grass in my front lawn.  They scheduled me for a power raking and power seeding for the spring at a price of $600, which I again thought was too high; but since I am alone and have no one to do this kind of work for me, I said okay.  About April 19, they came and did their service.  When I got home from work, it looked as though something had been done; but I did not feel there was enough of the dead dried grass which they supposedly left on top to protect the seed. The weather in Michigan has not been really conducive to germination, so I waited and watered and saw little happening.  About the middle of May, I received a call from the service to ask about my satisfaction; and at that time, I related to the person my dissatisfaction and that because I could see very little grass growing, I would not pay the bill.  She said she would make a notation. Nothing happened.  A week ago, I received a reminder for payment of the bill. I called the company to express my dissatisfaction and arranged for someone to come out this past Monday to inspect the job.  Jim came out and agreed with me that the results were not acceptable and that he someone else would return to reseed.  He did not feel the equipment used to power rake had been set deep enough nor wa the seeder.  I informed him that I would not pay the bill until I had grass.  I thought my problem had been solved. Last evening, I received a call from the company regarding non-payment of the bill.  I then spoke to a supervisor who said there had been no notations on my records about any of the above.  I relayed the conversation Jim and I had and was told a reseeding would be scheduled.  It concerns me that the only attention this company pays to their clients is whether or not they pay.

Update:  I received another bill for the service, and no reseeding yet.  I am frustrated.  When I call, all things are promised but nothing happens except they send me another bill.

Nashville, Tennessee - 3/02 (TGCL-15). I worked for the Nashville, TN branch for three years. Until the beginning of this year when they brought in a new branch manager, and he decided he didn’t need me anymore.  He said the reason was because I was just a part-time worker and would be graduating from college this year.  He decided for me that I didn’t need the job. I was very upset with his decision, but I didn’t let it bother me too much until the manager began to make up excuses to fire others in the office who had the same complexion as mine.  That’s right. In 2002, we still have ignorant racist people in the work place.  This man came up with all kinds of excuses to get rid of every person in the office that wasn’t white. Now, there is only one brown person working in the office, and he called her in the office yesterday and told her that because a salesman wanted to work in the office, someone in the office was going to get fired, and it was between her and a WHITE girl who had only been at this branch for about two months.  In his speech to this girl, he says oh, and the other girl came from a customer-oriented branch. Aren’t all Trugreen branches supposed to be customer oriented?  This is ludicrous, and we hope to file a complaint with someone else also.

TGCL-14 (2/02).  I have been an employee of Trugreen-Chemlawn for several years. Trugreen only wants your money. They are not at all concerned with customer service or a thicker, healthier lawn.  They want your money and that is it.  The only time Trugreen cares about customer service is when a customer wishes to cancel or refuses to pay a bill. They customer service becomes a priority.  I has seen the branch manager actually go in to individual customer accounts and add extra treatments to customers accounts in order to get more revenue. It is  nothing for a customer in the spring to get started on the service with six applications and get eight applications by the end of the growing season.  This is done regularly, especially when revenue is lacking. I questioned the branch manager about this practice, and he told me “customers are stupid and do not pay attention to what we do. I am doing this for your job security.”  So, the moral of the story is: if you want Trugreen to care for your lawn, keep any and all paperwork you get in the mail.  Keep all invoices left behind by the technicians and copies of all canceled checks. Do not ever call the local branch. Always use the 1-800-TRUGREEN (which should actually be 1-800-WEWANTYOURMONEY). Branch managers respond better to calls made to the corporate number.

TGCL-13 (4/01).  I was a former Chemlawn then Trugreen/Chemlawn employee for over 12 years. I too walked away for much of the same reasons I have read on this web site.

Connecticut - 1/02 (TGCL-12). I was sprayed in the state of Connecticut. Chemlawn sprayed me over a hedge, wetting my clothing with tree spray.  They frequently tree sprayed and made many applications with Dursban -- the chemical probably used when they sprayed me -- although they refused to tell me what they actually sprayed me with. Following the ChemLawn spraying, I had cholinesterase inhibition. I drooled, had nausea, dry heaves, and began to become petroleum sensitive following the accident.  I have been sick from any pesticide odors since that time.  In addition to my health problems, I saw dead songbirds, dogs, and rabbits who died following the spraying.  I called ChemLawn and was told that had never happened before, no one had ever gotten sick from their spray.  They were lying.

Now Dursban is being removed from the market, and this is one of the chemicals used; and I learned there was a class action lawsuit against them. When the cases went to court, a judge divided the cases into individual ones, ending the class action. At the time Chemlawn told me they had never heard of anyone getting sick from Dursban, for example, there was a class action lawsuit against them.  Eventually, the cases became individual ones through Goldstein Welchek and Associates out of Pennsylvania.  This did happen, and plenty of people would have been able to sue ChemLawn at that time, but the judge (probably went to the judge school set up for judges by the chemical industry) said each single person had to fight ChemLawn ALONE.  To this day, ChemLawn denies any harm to anyone. But then so does Dow, and they lost ten million dollars in a case involving Joshua Herb.  There was a significant class of people injured by their products to prompt a class action. The judge did not let the action go to court as a class action. This does not eliminate the damages to individuals.

When I moved to Texas, I continued to be sick near their products. I very politely asked them to not spray near me, and their response was that if I tried to stop them from spraying, they would sue me.  I was too sick to get out of bed, let alone stop anyone from doing anything.  ChemLawn lies to its customers, it lied to me, and they probably cost me my health. Their products have not been and are not “safe.”