Clear and courteous to a fault.
The landscaping business in Annapolis is divided between an old guard and a new. The new guard are Latino entrepreneurs who undercut the entrenched white establishment with lower prices. It's not exactly a race division because the work crews of both are Latino, and in my experience it's the Latino boots on the ground that actually figure out what needs doing on site and do it. Even seeing that, I still paid Brady for years through the nose to have the clean-cut American supervisor come out to buddy me up in clear and courteous English, and to answer my texts and emails with class comraderie and humor, and to give me the feeling that, at that price, these professionals will surely stand behind their work. Sure, the initial sticker price was always a shock, and somehow some complication was always discovered on site to add more to that, but you get what you pay for, right? I figured I was paying for good ole American reliability. Well, I just got woke up. Five years ago I gave over to Brady my whole summer teaching salary of some $4000 for a complete solution to all the rain drain problems in my backyard. However, one part of the Brady design has never worked, and now my easement floods, and Brady wants to charge me another $2700 to get it right, having charged me $2600 for this part in the first place: "I would rather phase one address things and you never have to move to phase two rather than me asking you to pay for three phases at once when one phase would have sufficed. However, there are times when additional work needs to be done." What? My $3K was only buying me phase 1 of a complete solution? And besides this phase 2, there may have to be a phase 3? It's like a variation on planned obselescence where it's obselete from the start. I keep saying that Andrew's design didn't work from the start and he keeps saying it did. If it's working as he intended, then why does it need a $2700 upgrade now? "The materials that are in the easement move and wash." That's why? Because rain pooling from the poor drainage design pools the dirt too I need to give you yet another $3K to get the rain to run down the easement to the street rather than flood my easement? We're talking about a townhouse garden and easement, not a mansion. "You're welcome to see if there is someone else out there with a cheaper option." That sounds to me like blowing me off in clear and courteous English. So, if Brady is satisfied with its work and you're not, maybe that's what you'll get too. Maybe check with the Latino entrepreneur from the start for a competitive bid.
