Poor performance & customer unfriendly support
My TruGreen service experience this past year (2025) was a challenging experience.. This customer unfriendly experience convinced me it was time for a change. The problem we had encountered was a high level of crabgrass infestation. TruGreen’s sub-par support last year was well below the experience I had during my near 20 years of lawn support I had with them.
During a site visit in August (2025) to review lawn problems the service manager asked why I canceled my 1st scheduled visit which was the ‘pre-emergent’ treatment for crabgrass and other weeds. I commented that I had been a customer for nearly 20 years and had never canceled my pre-emergent visit and had never made a change to my scheduled treatments. After reviewing my records the rep apologized when he discovered the cancellation was caused by TruGreen’s scheduling department.
Within a couple of weeks of the service reps visit I received a new proposal for my service program for 2026 which included a price increase of 250%. When hearing this news I checked with my neighbors that used TG and had similar sized lawns and was told they had not received similar increases. I then called TG and inquired as to why I had such a notable increase. I was told that my lawn size had been previously under estimated. I explained that the size of my lawn had not increased (if anything it decreased due to expanded planting areas) and that their size calculation was greater than the entire size of my lot as recorded by the county tax assessor.
To clarify . . . the TG calculation of my lawn was greater than the total size of my lot which included the square footage occupied by our house, shrubs and driveway.
I called TG 8 times in the following months to understand and rectify the sizing issue. On 3 of those occasions the customer service reps I spoke with calculated the correct size of the lawn area (which I had validated using an on-line aerial sizing app). During these conversations I noted that they did not have the correct lot lines for my property and that they did not account most of my planting areas, the patio and my deck. I was promised by all 3 of the customer service reps that they would send me a copy of their revised sizing estimate along with a new quote. These 3 quotes were never received.
The final time I called TruGreen (early 2026) I was told that my account had been canceled by TG so I asked to speak to the General Manager of the location that services our lawn. The rep was not able to connect me with this local office or give me a direct telephone contact numbers for this location or its GM . . . but promised that I would receive a call back from the GM or the local Sales Manager within 3 – 5 days. No return call from the GM or the Sales Manager was ever received.
Needless to say my efforts did not resolve the pricing issue.
After this experience I did some research on lawn weed control and fertilization on the University of IL Extension that makes recommendations for lawns. The information I collected helped me understand how much, how often and when to apply fertilizers and weed control chemicals to our lawn. With that information I found that maintaining a beautiful lawn was much easier than dealing with the inexperienced and customer unfriendly personnel at TruGreen.
Should you like more information on the recommendations visit the U of I extension website specializing in lawns & fertilization.
UPDATE . . . 6/15/26
I received a follow up call from TG. There's no resolution to be had here as they continue to refuse to answer my basic questions . . . and . . . their records by their Service Reps do not accurately capture the conversations I have had with them but they support the narrative that they've answered my questions.
Disappointed with this outcome, but on a positive note . . . I've chalked this on up as a 'Lesson Learned'. I've got my DIY pre-emergent and first of 2 or 3 applications down and my lawn looks better than my neighbors who is serviced by TruGreen. Let us see if they goes through the same Lesson Learned experience.
Reply from TruGreen - Lake Forest
Hi Richard, we are sorry to hear this has been your experience with us. Thank you for reaching out and for taking the time to speak with our care team so we can work toward a resolution.