Chubby Hubby Lawn Care

DO NOT, I repeat: DO NOT hire Chubby Hubby Lawn Care. And I joined Unilocal just to write this review!!!
After paying online I never received an email or phone call confirming an appt. I literally called 20 times over the next two weeks and only got voicemail. After I left about 8 polite messages asking them to return my call to schedule service I left a voicemail asking him to cancel my service and refund my money… 5 more polite messages asking them to refund my money and nothing. Never received any form of communication from Chubby Hubby. Like another Unilocaler listed here I contacted paypal to get a refund and was denied because this is a service which is intangible. Luckily, after contacting my bank I was able to stop payment. It’s super frustrating to see that the owner says to call him and he’ll take care of any problems! Not only is this not a reliable «business» they clearly are not honest and devoid of integrity. If I could have given them negative stars I would have.

S/​B ZERO STARS… These people took our money… do not pay them in advance.
They never keep their word. They never showed up when they said they would. They took money from my 73 year old father. If Unilocal is not enough for you, then search them on BBB. Which is where I’m going next to file a formal complaint and then we are heading to civil court next. I’m sure Mr. Jerry is reading this… maybe you will call me now. Shame on you from taking my fathers money and not holding up your end. If you are of worth, than call me and lets get this resolved.

This guys a crook, don’t give him your money. I put in an order to have my lawn cut on their web site and they never showed up. I complained and he said I’d get a refund. Never happened. Don’t trust them.

I want to make this as clear as I possibly can. If you use this «company» after reading my review, you are a chump. Don’t do it.
Our experience went something like this:
1) Made initial contact, agreed to have them come mow our lawn. Set a day and time (why you specifically need to be home in order for this «company» to mow your lawn is beyond me). The guy came two hours late, but he did an acceptable job for $ 20. Nothing to write home about, so to speak, but acceptable in a you-​get-​what-​you-​pay-​for sort of way.
2) A few weeks later, we went for it again. Contacted them and set a date and time. I went out of my way to be home at this date and time. They were a no-​show. No call. No email. Nothing. We called them back the next day, and they apologized profusely (seems like their M.O.) and promised to be here later that day at a specific time. They came, but they came THREE hours late. Awesome… Thanks… The work done was just as before — my lawn was shorter than before they came.
3) A few weeks later, we were getting desperate for another short-​grass-​fix (we were just having a baby, so I hadn’t found time to replace these jokers). My wife called them and left a message. No return call. She tried back three days later and got an answer this time. We set a date and time. The day comes and the day passes — no Chubby Hubby.
4) Wife calls back with the well deserved WTF questions, and they apologized profusely, gave us a long list of excuses almost as if we were their parents and not their clients, and then PROMISED that we’d get the special treatment by the Hubby himself (yep — just like others here, we were told that we’d be the lucky few who would actually get Hubby — the man — the myth). You can imagine my surprise when Mr. Hubby didn’t show up for HIS appointment. At least this time he called. He then said that he’d go waaay out of his way and send one of his «employees» to come out that evening and do the job for a discount. No show. Again. No call. No lawnmower. No nothing.
5) I fix my lawnmower, do the damn job myself (with much more attention to detail I might add) and calm myself down enough to only post a negative review on Unilocal as opposed to going through with any of the more nasty ideas running through my head at that point…
Don’t even think about calling these people. You’ll remember reading this post and you’ll kick yourself in the ass for being a chump. Trust me.

Is there a ½ star rating? I am very underwhelmed by Chubby Hubby Lawn Care. They were recommended to me by several neighbors who live on my block so I gave them a try. They never mowed on day or time that I was quoted. They never did any sort of cleanup (blowing, etc) of my hard surfaces. The person who mowed my yard mowed over my lavender. I have paid twice by check for two mows each time. My second check has been cashed and my yard mowed once — about three weeks ago. I have called 4 — 5 times and do not get a response at all. Maybe I will now that I have posted a review. I would rather mow my own yard than have to deal with this hassle and headache.

Apparently he gets emails when comments are left about his company. He spoke to Drew and after all the excuses were done he said he was putting us on his personal route and would be by Wednesday or Thursday. This is late Thursday night and our yard still has not been mowed. We paid him for weekly lawn services and the yard hasn’t been mowed in 2 weeks!!! Just and FYI for anyone interested. It only cost $ 31 to file with Williamson county, and after speaking to them you would most likely get that fee back if you win the case. I am beyond frustrated. I’ve even left the lock on the gate unlocked in case he came while I wasn’t home. I’m sure my husband will be getting another excuse filled phone call tomorrow, LOL!!!

I believe in giving second chances. Hell, I will even give third or fourth chances. But after getting screwed over for the fourth or fifth time, it makes me look at myself and realize I am waaaaaaay too nice. That is what happened with Chubby Hubby Lawn Care. SO many broken promises. He would call and say he was on his way and 6 hours later I would still be waiting around. Random late night text messages instead of phone calls to apologize. Now we have an unkempt yard (because he kept pushing back the day he would work on it) and dead bushes that we bought weeks ago, expecting to be planted weeks ago. I checked out the Unilocal reviews after hiring Jerry and just didn’t want to believe what I saw. I know sometimes people get on their high horse on Unilocal and complain just to complain. But sadly, that is not the case with this company. I wanted so badly for things to work out because the work he DID actually do was decent and the price was great (hence the 2 stars), it was just too good to be true. Jerry, you have to learn to be honest with your customers or else your business won’t thrive.

UPDATE 05−05−10:
Shortly after I posted my review I received the following email from Jerry, the owner of Chubby Hubby Lawn Care:
— — — - Forwarded message — — — -
From: Jerry West
Date: Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 2:58 PM
Subject: REMOVE IT OR I WILL HAVE TO FILE AGAINST YOU!
To: [me]
Hello Allie, I would advise you to remove your post on the scam website named Unilocal within 24 hours. If not I will be contacting my lawyer handling the case and add you to the list of customers I am suing due to their post about me. If you don’t remove it by 2:57 pm tomorrow I will proceed with my case against you too. That is not something I want to do and that is why I am giving you 24 hours. Thanks so much for your business.
— — — — — — — –
In spite of this rather threatening (IMO) note, we exchanged emails back and forth where I asked for my money back and he said that he could not give me a refund while the PayPal claim was active, so that was the end of the communication until the claim ended on 05−03−10. PayPal declined to refund my money, saying that the service I was to get was «intangible» and they «are not able to adequately investigate payments for intangible items, services, licenses, or other digital content». I thought that was it, I was out of luck on the refund, but at least I had learned lessons about hiring people without checking Unilocal,the extent of PayPal’s protection policy, and the perils of a trusting nature. I also enjoyed getting to know the Unilocal community a bit, so it wasn’t a total loss for me at all. I was ready to shrug and move on. Then yesterday, quite unexpectedly, Chubby Hubby left another voicemail on my machine, saying that my refund had been sent and I should remove my negative review. However no money was posted to my account. I sent them an email letting them know that and haven’t heard back again. I will gladly update again if I do ever get a refund. Or if I ever hear from their lawyer! But as of now, in spite of the «intangible» benefits of the situation, my experience with Chubby Hubby Lawn Care remains a 1-​star.

I have been pleased with the services provided by Chubby Hubby! For $ 20 you can’t beat it. Its not the most amazing cut you’ll ever get (although it might be the best $ 20 cut) but personally, I don’t care as long as I can keep affording someone else to cut my lawn!

I’ve used these guys about half a dozen times over the last 8 months. They have always done a decent job and they do it fast.

I should have checked Unilocal before I contacted these guys! I went to their website and paid for a bunch of services almost 2 weeks ago-​still no sign of them. They don’t answer the phone and don’t respond to emails. I have the owners cell phone # and endd up calling and talking ot him– he promised that they would show up last Saturday-​no show! He also called back wondering how I got a hold of his cell phone #.
I’ve asked my credit card co to stop payment.

EDIT: since the owner decided he’d call my personal cell phone number to complain about my Unilocal posting, I’ll address the issue he had with my post: while I was posting this review, he was e-​mailing me to say he could do it on Tuesday. so there, Unilocalers, I’ve told you. He offered to do it four days late after I’d already decided to go with another lawn care service.
Dude, I’d already decided that this experience was a 1-​star before you made a second offer. I’m sorry if you feel that small business owners can’t «defend themselves» on Unilocal.I’m just giving my honest experience with your small business, which has been pretty bad. As I said at the end of our last correspondence, good luck out there. And please, don’t call your customers to complain about Unilocal reviews.
Last year my lawnmower broke. Instead of buying a new one my husband and I decided to start hiring someone to do our lawn since we both hate lawn chores. I went to Craigslist and found Chubby Hubby, «The Home Of The $ 20 Cut No Matter What!» They showed up while I wasn’t home and cut all of my yard except for the side by the road (?) and it was a haphazard job, but summer came and killed my grass and I must have forgotten all about my first experience with them because I reached for their phone number again this week. I e-​mailed them through the form on their website on Thursday and was given an estimate of Saturday for service.
Come Saturday, no one shows up. I finally get a message around 7 P.M. from the owner stating that he wasn’t able to make it out to my house and that he would be working today, Easter Sunday. I should have known that he wouldn’t be out today, but I called back and left a message that it would be fine if he came today.
Again he was a no-​show. I don’t begrudge someone their religious holidays, but when a business says they will be open, it’s a bit of a disappointment when they won’t be. When I e-​mailed to politely ask what was up, he wrote back (quite promptly, at least) that he had decided to observe the holiday and that he could be out on Wednesday. I wrote back that Wednesday is a pretty far reach from his original Saturday estimate and that I’d be looking for another lawn care service. Apparently this place is home of the «$ 20 Cut… If I Get Around To It.»

Chubby Hubby can kiss my chubby _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
I hired chubby hubby for the $ 20 cut/​trim/​edge/​blow service and all I got was a 10 minute trim!
The young man got out of his truck and looked at me like I was supposed to tell him exactly what to do. He didn’t even introduce himself. He then quickly mowed my backyard and front yard, well kinda… he only mowed the really tall parts of the grass.
There was no edge, weed eater, blower, bagger, sweeping… hell he didn’t even tell me good bye… I had to stop him before he got back in his truck and at this point I realized there was no use, he didn’t even have anymore tools.
Best part about this was I hadn’t even paid. Being the good citizen I am, I went to the website and paid only $ 15 and wrote an email to the owner explaining my horrible experience
Now I can’t believe I even wasted my time on this Unilocal

My Grandma always said if you can’t say something nice… well Grandma also liked her bourbon.
Hired Chubby Hubby Lawn Care for their «Leaf Bagging
Blow/​Rake and Bag leaves in front and back yard.
Price: $ 20.00»
Chubby Hubby initially failed to explain or state on their website that the cost is actually $ 20 per hour. Not a problem as I expected to pay a little more. Did receive a call from Chubby Hubby after the work had begun that actual cost was $ 20/​hour. Had I known this upfront I would have not used their services.
$ 55 later only a portion of the front yard was blown and bagged. Back yard was not even touched.
I explained to the young man working that the City of Austin will not take leaves in plastic bags (
) and provided him with the brown paper leaf bags. He continued to bag them up in the plastic bags and I spent the evening dumping those bags into the paper bags… Oh vey!
Chubby Hubby Lawn Service left me feeling totally ripped off and taken advantage of.