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★☆☆☆☆
The picture I added has nothing to do with my review. Landscaping, under Lisa McDonald and crew was fabulous. Plants are still starters! Long post detailing my unhappy time with the rest of Top Choice. Potential customers, take it as it is. You might experience the same thing as I did March/April 2025.
It’s the rest of my experience with Top Choice that causes a negative review. I don’t do that unless warranted. This one is.
—Communication is very poor. Conflicting information, phone people who didn’t recognize me as a client etc. Frustrating and time wasting.
—Vanessa, Customer Service Manager emphasizes company over customers. Not service. Everything from generating emails confirming request (that Top Choice asked me for) to digging in her heels when those approved requests weren’t honored. I’ve saved enails/texts that document it all. Very frustrating to work with. This will be clarified later down.
—Scott, irrigation manager. He started out 5 stars. Confirmed that my existing irrigation systems were in perfect working order. Came out after plant installation to fix one tiny tubing issue and set my system. That’s where it went downhill.
Without telling me that Austin had just entered Stage 3 drought restrictions, he set system to run 5 days a week, using >50,000 gallons a week. Easily documented through AustinWater.org monitoring. On a 6900 square ft lot mostly consumed by a house, concrete driveway and rock beds.
I called Top Choice to get him out quickly to adjust settings. The woman who answered said she’d let Vanessa know and advised me to turn off all my water. Spoken like someone who hadn’t just spent > $6,500 on plants and labor. Who apparently didn’t know that clients get an email after planting reminding us that plants aren’t guaranteed, extra water is needed. Who obviously didn’t care that she was advising me to turn off all irrigation when temps wee at mid 90, climbing quickly to 100.
Vanessa called, told me Scott couldn’t come out for 2 weeks, and advised me to shut off irrigation. I asked her to check back with Scott, see if he could swing by for a 5 minute job to adjust settings. Got a text from her stating that Scott said since he set the system to my specs, he considered the matter closed.
Caused me to go back to my previous company who came out the next day to satisfy a customer who was left with unprofessional advice and poor follow through. Provided. me with a PDF of my settings as they were and now sit currently.Advised me to work with AustinWater.org. I did, and got a partial rebate for the bills incurred during my with Top Choice.
— Top Choice sent me an email after estimates were approved, asking if I had any special requests. I asked for a piece of plywood for wheelbarrows and lawn mowing services. I wanted to avoid further damage to my 5 concrete stairs down to my backyard. Damage done by ABC. I also asked that crews close my gate using the correct hole. Got a quick email back, confirming all three requests and that they’d be honored. They were not.
Back to Vanessa. I asked if the lawn mowing crew would please carry their standard mower down the stairs like the crew they were replacing did. Told her I had pictures of the previous damage. Didn’t accuse Too Choice of doing it, unjust that I’d noted it as previous damage.
Didn’t hear back for a day or two. Called my previous mowers, hired them back since they do actually carry lawn mower down and up and have real edging tools that can follow my existing metal edging. Before I cancelled Top Choice, Vanessa texted me that they had made the “difficult decision to cancel my lawn services since their crews couldn’t do what I needed. A mutual decision!
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★☆☆☆☆
Had to cancel Top Choice Lawn Care bi-weekly mowing and maintenance service because of poor outcomes.
* Would show up between 7:30 and 8:00 AM
* Mowed our lawn in the rain, leaving ruts, mud everywhere
* Ruined the entire front lawn (only 10 square feet of grass) because they insisted on mowing this incredibly small part of the lawn with a tractor mower. Had to be replaced with Xeriscape.
* Had to ask to please blow leaves around the house perimeter after this was skipped several weeks in a row
* Average time spent on our tiny lawn and house perimeter: 4 minutes. They basically would drive a huge tractor mower around a tiny lawn, briefly walk the perimeter with a weed wacker, Blow leaves near the front and back door, and leave. This all happened in 3-4 minutes.
I see my neighbors' lawn services that do a much better job and we'll be switching to one of them.
Price assessment
Overpriced
Services
Lawn care, Lawn mowing & maintenance
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★★☆☆☆
This review is for a 1 time mulch service installation
The initial contact at Top Choice was pleasant as well as their estimator who came out. After that the rest of the service went down hill and was dissapointing and unprofessional installation
I hired Top Choice to refresh/turn over the mulch in some beds, add new mulch in other beds beds and create tree wells around the trees in the garden beds.
The communication was efficient and I received a text that the job was completed and they collected payment. Though when I got home to inspect the work I found not a single tree well was made, instead they piled mulch high up against every tree, suffocating tree roots and increases risk of pests hurting the trees. They also sliced the drip line and just left it there without saying anything. (Of course drip line can get cut during mulch installation but as you can see in the picture, they knew they cut it and said nothing, hoping I somehow wouldn't notice...?)
I called and they sent someone out to remedy the mistakes. The one area of drip line was repaired but the mulch guys came out and just piled more mulch up against the trees as can be seen int he attached photos. At this point I informed the manager that I was disappointed they could not get the job right even the 2nd time around and I ended up creating all the tree wells myself. They gave me a discount for the labor for creating the tree wells and apologized.
I have been traveling a lot lately and finally went out and inspected the drip line and sprinklers before winter and now found puncture holes in the drip line, likely from the mulch installation.
In summary: I would not consider this company to be the "Top Choice" for yard services. I was trying them out to consider for weekly lawn maintenance, I'm glad a did this test run with a 1 time service before signing on with them for reoccurring service, I would not trust them to take care of my yard.
I completely understand mistakes happen and things get missed. But in this case, their installers knowingly cut drip line and just left it and said nothing to anyone until I noticed a week later. Then they tried twice to create tree wells but did the opposite, just piling mulch up against the trees.
Now I just need to make a trip to home depot to buy some drip line tubing and connectors to repair the other areas of drip line punctured.
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★★★★★
We love TopChoice and have been using them for everything under the sun for years! Landscaping, maintenance, holiday lights, etc. They always do a great job and are wonderful to work with! Thanks to the TopChoice team for making our yard look great and our lives easier!!
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★★★★★
Top Choice Lawn Care was fantastic! Nolan’s customer service was 10/10, and they left my lawn looking absolutely pristine. Highly recommend!
Price assessment
Great price
Services
Irrigation system repair & maintenance, Lawn landscaping, Landscaping maintenance, Landscape management, Yard work
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★★★★★
I just had Top Choice Lawn Care Aerate and Topdress my lawn and they did an amazing job. I've used other companies over the years and none of them came close to the time, effort, and quality of work that these guys did.
By far the best aeration I've ever had as they covered every area and even went back over a lot of the yard twice. For the Topdressing, they used a top quality mix and applied everything by hand using far more mix than any other company I've used. They were even able to build up a low area I have had issues with and after they were done, they cleaned up the area.
I would highly recommend Top Choice Lawn Care for your Aeration and Topdressing needs. I will definitely use them again next year.
Positive
Quality, Professionalism, Value
Services
Service not listed
