Soulscape / Landscaping Services

The positive responses on this website must be from his friends or family, can't imagine how he would be able to give an excellent service ever!!

Here is the story following purchase of grabone voucher:

2 Feb purchased the coupon, texted the supplier with the address details and work required.
3 Feb supplier called to make a time to view the garden, this was going to happen on 6 feb - Waitangi day - but confirmed it would be inspected.
Late Feb I returned… from work one day at c. 6pm, Jeff was coming down our drive having inspected our garden, at our home, not the rental address as detailed.

No contact from Jeff later that day when he may or may not have inspected the correct garden.

No consultation process happened at all

Day was booked for the work to be complete 8 March and I was advised there would be some green rubbish removed and verbally was I happy to pay another $195 for this. I confirmed verbally that this was OK. The booking and extra charge was completed during various telephone conversations with his 'PA', never once did Jeff or another landscaper who was actually going to be completing the work call to discuss what was required or what I would like to be completed.

The work on 8 March was delayed and was informed this would happen on the 10th, confirmed this was OK but bear in mind the 6 week delay from first contact with the supplier.

So on 10 March I called first thing and talked to Jeff and asked when someone would be on site - still no discussion about what work I wanted done. And when I suggested that they would get there at 9am and that they had 8 hours work on site, I was told this was actually 6 hours, because of travel, the address is in Torbay, and also the consultation time. This is not as stated in the voucher and was specifically asked of another potential purchaser, and was to be on top of the 8 hours landscaping work.

So I arrived on site at midday on the 10th March to find that they had spent 3 hours dealing with my neighbours trees, with no prior consultation with me, no phone call first thing to tell me that this was going to take 3 hours, they had also dealt with the neighbours plumbing and I was told they had had to go offsite for parts to fix my neighbours pipe.

I get there to find them clearing a garden bed, and ready to plant the 6 plants and 4 bags of bark I have set out for them, so far so good, but then I am told I haven't bought the right plants, or the right bark or enough of it, I didn't have any weedmat and also I need to put some edging in so the bark won't wash away etc etc....

So then I got talking with Jeff, showed him what I would like to be done, could he also clear a tree stump, could he trim some over grown tree and cut the hedge. This was all Ok but would be another $1,000 or more, he wouldn't give me a firm quote, and wasn’t really interested in any discussion or consultation.

Whilst on site Jeff still was not interested in completing any consultation process, any suggestions I made about what was to be completed would incur additional time, products and of course money, the discussion got to the point where I went inside to calm down, my painter who was also on site could not believe the way he was talking to me. As much as I wanted the work completed I did not want what he was suggesting but I needed what I had described to be completed. Who knows what work they would have done if I hadn't turned up on site. And now he tells me I refused to turn up to site for consultation.

Jeff then left site, without consulting with me any further, I instructed his landscaper, Anthony I think, to complete the work as I would like it, plant the bed with the products I have supplied, and then trim the tree over the driveway, and cut back the others that Jeff suggested if they have time. I called to speak to the office once I had left site, left a message that I did not want to deal with Jeff but needed to get this matter resolved. Jeff called me back and was very difficult to deal with, I left the matter as I was not prepared to deal with him any further.

Bear in mind at this point that my professional life consists of dealing with contractors on a daily basis, as a commercial property manager, and I have worked in this capacity in NZ for over 15 years, this sort of work is not new to me, I was clear in my instructions and I have been treated very poorly by this supplier. I have not got full value for the voucher and I am not prepared to pay additional costs as per this invoice.

I have a planted bed, that I am very happy with, that would have taken maximum 2 hours of my time so a professional should have been much quicker. The lawn wasn't moved, the privet was not removed, the tree is still overgrown, the hedge still untidy and I still have a tobacco tree as he calls it, the rest of NZ would know it as wooly nightshade. Limited green waste was removed from my garden."

Expensive trees arrived with badly damaged trunks from careless transporting (almost ring barked) and planted at strange leans, not staked (had to ask later after several failed attempts to tie them myself). I don't know what mulch he uses but within weeks the garden bed was FULL of new weird and wonderful weeds. One of the trees… instantly snapped in the first storm. The list goes on and on.

To give him credit he tried to make things right but at the end of the day this job turned out to be the most stressful and unsatisfactory of any tradesman's work I have ever had done in my life. I know he feels I am probably his worst client ever too but at the end of the day all I am trying to do is complete a vision I had for my garden.

Lesson learnt - never use a voucher from a service company. Ask yourself why they need to discount their services to get new clients. (strange when the job they will end up doing will not result in repeat biz or referrals)

Jeff I would't have wasted my life on this review but your last abusive text tipped me over the edge. All I am asking for is the name of who supplied the trees because I don't ever want to use them again either. Constantly telling someone to "have a nice day" is not a reply to a genuine question even if you don't wish to answer the question..."

I used to sell outdoor power tools and it always amazed me when people were surprised that our quality equipment was 'so much dearer' than the chain store brands. Suffice we were never surprised when they brought their chain store brand in for repairing.

You don't stand over a computer… repair man or a dentist telling them how to do their job. You simply admit that they know what they're doing and pay accordingly.

Soulscape have done various jobs for me over the years and I have always found the staff courteous, fast and hardworking. They also landscaped the business entrance of a company I worked for. Some people questioned the plan when the plants went in, but today they simply remark on how good it looks.

Sadly for Soulscape their customers who are happy with the thousands of dollars worth of work they've had done by them are no0t the type of people who frequent websites like this.

Yes, there are cowboys out there but Jeff's not one of them."

Grabone ended up refunding us for the rest of the unused hours after Soulscape literally just up and left with no explanation before completing the hours we had paid for. And I can assure you, I… never thanked the landscaper (Jeff seems to think I did) after he spoke to me so rudely before instantly leaving - not the type of behaviour I usually thank people for.

It became very clear to me that when we chose not to purchase any additional services or plants through them (we got our plants for almost half the price from one of the most reputable nurseries in Auckland!), that they really had no interest in completing the work. We spent a whole weekend replanting and tidying our garden after the mess they left it in but now looks great (no thanks to them). He did comment we "changed jobs" on them, but I didn't think planting trees at the FRONT of our property instead of the BACK was really that complicated or hard to understand.

If Soulscape were wanting to attract new business through offering discounted hours, turning around and telling new clients they are penny pinching, when Soulscape have advertised their services on a website where people purchase deals, is quite ironic."

I had purchased Jeffery Poole services via the website Groupy - which is $245.00 valid for 8hours work by a professional landscaper from Soulscape.

In my personal experience and opinion Jeffery Poole is the most unprofessional landscaping service available currently.

Essentially we had an assessment on August 26th and he was dealing with my wife who communicated that he kept on trying to upsell his services like $650.00 to clean up the whole garden and once he knew we weren't… interested in the upsell he seemed not interested and insincere, Jeffery then told my wife he would email us with when he would book us in.

So follow up email on September 2nd - no reply, come September 17th I had to email and leave a voice message which said

"Hi All,

I am not sure what is going on but I have had no response from anyone regarding the services I have purchased through Groupy for 1 person for 8hours.

I have had the assessment and now would like to know when we can organise together for someone to come in and complete the work.

I appreciate any assistance necessary.

If this isn't resolved soon I will take further actions."

This was then followed by a phone call immediately saying Bobby whats going on very casually....

We were then booked for September 27th starting at 9am. I had booked half a day off and my wife would be going to work at 2:30 so we were content with 5 1/2hours work - just to get it done and over with. I waited untill 9:45am till I rang and rang - voice message all the time. Untill 11am when I received a call back saying my guy said the gate was locked - I can tell you I was watching the gate from 9am to 9:45 and there was no one there. Essentially their 1 gardener came at 11:30am and according to my wifes instruction which was to prune the tree's did it in 1 and a half hours then said he was done. He did not want to do the lawns and said he was told to only prune the tree so therefore could not do anything.

Now I rang Jeffery - disgruntled after my wife communicated to me what had transpired. We were never communicated this list - his excuse was it was my wife's fault for not providing a list with all the necessary works and not communicating it when he was onsite. He also communicated that I had only paid for 4hours when he knew better. He has taken away 1 truck load of green waste and there is still a reasonable amount left over now.

I have never ever been so upset and unhappy with any service or product I have purchased from Groupy and Nocowboys and I intend on taking this further as unfortunately it seems this individual is not improving their service.

I sincerely hope everyone else here finds better landscaping services as this was my first and the old mantra you get what you pay for...."

I never realized my palm tress could look like they do now.

I would recommend Soulscape to anyone looking for a job well done."

As always I found Jeff to be clear and precise about what would be required and what it would cost to get the results we were looking for.

The great Thing About using Soulscape is the Pleasant nature of the work teams sent in to do the work, their efficiency and politeness and… that we didn't have to clean up after they had done their job. They took care of this as well.

As a company they are always ready to go the extra mile to ensure a customers reasonable requests are met.

As in the past I am once again satisfied with the timely delivery of all materials at the stated prices and the completion of the work which has always been done in a tradesman like and proficient manner.

Thanks Once Again To The Team at Soulscape."

Due to the work… not being completed as specified I withheld payment until we could discuss remedials and to see what was going to happen to my citrus that immediately started dropping their leaves.

Jeff did get someone to come back a day or two later and remove the stumps that were part of the original quote.

Payment was made, as he was assured it would be, when we were confident that the citrus were not going to die from Jeff\'s over spraying. Just prior to this Jeff came to visit and threatened us with \"I\'ll be back\" if it was not paid immediately.

I was also a little bemused that I received the invoice via email for the completed work an hour or so after the work commenced.

All in all, I would not recommend Soulscape as a reasonable, reliable and trustworthy company."