Devine Landscaping

We hired Divine Landscaping in Miami for general landscaping and weekly maintenance and after two visits they failed to show up again. I had asked them to replace some plants by my front door and talked at length with Angel (the owner) about plant choices and design.

I paid them money for the plants – with the understanding they would return a few days later and plant them! But they never returned and have not refunded my money. I have called and left messages and emails and there is no reply and it has now been over 2 weeks.

Very disappointed. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!

I employed Devine landscaping company (from serviceseeking.com.au) to do my landscaping few months ago. They did not finish the job completely and asked for full payment saying remaining work is very little and they really needed to pay their labourer. And they would come back and finish the job the next day. Been waiting for almost 3 months now and they never came back. I tried making contacts using phone, email and sms. They kept saying they would come and fix it next week and they didn't. They asked me or my wife to stay home many times saying they would come but never did. I was pretty *** trusting and paying them the full amount without them finishing the job. Now they do not even reply phone calls or emails. There are two guys behind this dodgy company. One is responsible to traps the customer with his nice words and once they get paid, he disappears from the scene. Other one, rude and least skilled in communication - mainly does the job (or should I say bad job?).

Work quality wise, they did not put Tuscan topping around my house as required to be enough to cover the base of the house. Slope is also not right so the water goes down and affect the slab and my builder already warned me about this. They did not excavate and level my backyard. It is pretty uneven (which they were supposed to fix). They put some natural grass at my backyard but there are so much gap in between the grasses and even after 3 months of completion of grass, we can see gaps between grass square carpets. At the front, they put some merbau wood border which were not aligned and part of wood already came off. They put different plants and grass than what I asked for. Pavers are not aligned and on diffent levels (due to ground not being levelled).

This is really a very terrible company to go with. Stay away from them. I initially had doubts about their competence as they said they had overseas qualification. But I still go ahead and lost the money. What they left unfinished are going to cost me about $2000 extra. Lesson learnt - better pay a bit more for to someone qualified who will get your job done nicely and hassle free.

I did contact serviceseeking.com.au about this landscapers as I booked them from that website. serviceseeking.com.au confirmed that they got so many complaints about this landscaper that they already blocked them from the website. Note that these guys are now using other service websites like servicecentral.

How do I know they are dodgy:

1. They never provided me any official receipt. After asking them for a while, they sent me a word document just typed saying the amount received. Receipt missing their business address and contact details. They never disclosed their business details. Thus once you paid them and face any issue afterwards, you cannot find them.

2. They got multiple phone numbers. I got phone calls from them from 5 different phone numbers. I think they use different sets to trap different customers. Once they are done with them, they change to different sets. I've been chasing them up for long enough to find about all these other numbers.

3. They are not professional at all. I received very strange personal SMS from their number during the work which they said was sent by one of their teenage kids by mistake!

4. When asked for other works they had completed, they took me to a house in Point Cook and they just took me straight to the back yard without even asking the owner/tenant. I think it was all setup.

5. Work quality clearly tells how bad they are!

6. Finally, they are banned in serviceseeking.com.au due to customer complaints - which signifies that I am not the only one having issue with them.

7. They never turned up in time. Even to start, they delayed it by 4 days. When worked, they turned up in the afternoon. No respect for customers' time. Keeps lying and telling you they would come but they do not turn up.

I have decided to complaint to ACCC on this matter. Businesses like this should not be allowed to operate in Australia. I am also seeking for refund for work they have not completed and a compensation on delay and not turning up. Would not hesitate to take a company (or team of 2 guys) to court if I needed to. It is clearly a robbery when they tell customer to pay the full amount with the promise to finish the job and never come back!

Good luck staying away from Devine Landscaping. Their website is: http://www.devinelandscaping.com.au/.