McAdam Landscaping

Called a few times and then they finally called back.
We made an appointment and they didn’t show up. I called up asking to what happened to them and they said they apologize and can reschedule.
We rescheduled for Saturday and then again they didn’t show up.
The appointment was on a Saturday from 1−3pm. They called at 2:45 to tell me that they can’t make it and they will call back on Monday to reschedule.
No more phone calls.

I’d like to post a negative star rating. They don’t deserve even one star. We actually had some jerk show up in his old caddy and was sleeping in front of our house. When I went out there to wake his ass up to give us an estimate, he had the audacity to say we can’t afford them. As if they know what we can or can’t afford. Another company obviously got the job and made a killing. Shame on you McAdam. Horrendous people. Don’t waste your time or energy on them.

McAdam redid the landscaping at our home in Oak Park yesterday and did a FANTASTIC job! Scott was extremely responsive and the work was completed in a timely and professional manner. My husband and I are first time home owners and their company made this a seamless experience. Highly recommend.

I want to like these folks, they participate in community activities. But I live too close to homes and businesses that over the years have hired them to provide winter and summer services (and then dump them). Ex., in the winter, they sometimes get contracts to clear snow from condo/​townhome properties, and are chronically a day or two late, and they then do a very poor job, only do part of sidewalks/​lots. How they select what to shovel or plow is incomprehsible, a walk may have ten yards cleared, and then they simply stop. A running joke among neighbors is that you can tell who hired McAdam because you can count on the snow not being cleared, you will have to cross the street. Neighbors complain, McAdam then returns and dumps huge amounts of rock salt to melt the snow that they did not bother to shovel. Resulting in icewater, puddles and blue runoff. Neighbors in a nearby townhome complex were particularly furious when they had to shovel out after each snow this year when McAdam repeatedly «no showed». Spring and summer lawn services are even worse, they seem to do half hearted lawn care, rip up perennials, «cure everything» with «not fully composted» (cheap) manure. Quality of services and products appears to be completely lacking. Unfortunate in a family owned business

I am kicking myself for not reading post two years ago. Maybe they weren’t posted two years ago. But notice all the one and two star ratings McAdams receives… I don’t have the time or desire to bore you with the details of with the McAdams soap opera. I will just say they deserve no more than a one rating. They have had two years to make a project right. I recently moved on to another company.
If you deal with them be prepared for calling them many times to make contact and when you do they have great stall tactics.

Requested a quote almost a month ago. No call, no email, nothing. Currently with one of their competitors, spending about $ 3000 per year. You would think they would want the business. They’re making my current service look great.

I’ve called 4 times to get a quote from them but no one has returned my call. I have a feeling that this business is too big and doesn’t care about residential work.

Major kudos to the McAdams team. We’ve had a brutal winter and have been so impressed with the snow removal services we’ve received at our small town home association in Forest Park. We have always been happy with the summer work and the planning assistance offered by Scott, but this year’s winter –so far-​has tested everyone’s resources. As I drove into our driveway this evening and saw the plow and the guys shoveling I was once again pleased and impressed.

I’ve been a customer for years but no longer! Slipping through the cracks is the name of the game here. We’ve used McAdam for our regular spring clean-​ups and more involved landscaping projects. For two years in row now I’ve had to pester them to complete the spring clean-​up (they always neglect to do the aeration). I let it go last year but this year was too much. I called 3 times and always got reassurances that they’d be by.. . and then nothing. On the 4^th call, I detailed the issue and followed-​up w/​a personal letter to Rob McAdam explaining my disappointment and indicating that we would likely no longer be customers. Still no response! It’s clear that they don’t care about my business.
Bottom line — they don’t care!

I have seen McAdam trucks around town doing commercial work and expected good service. I was willing to pay their premium prices for quality and responsiveness. I was very disappointed. I wanted them to come to prepare my garden beds in the spring and to mulch the beds. A week after I contacted them they gave me a bid. It was higher than others but I thought «you get what you pay for» and signed their contract. Took a month and three visits for them to start the bed preparation. Weeks later I checked into when they would mulch the beds. Oops, it slipped through the cracks they acknowledged. Did I still want the work done? I confirmed that I did but it has been three weeks with no contact and no mulch. Not even an apology. My gardens are now full of weeds. My hostas were «weeded» so I replaced them. Quality is average, service sucks.

I had two business experiences with McAdam. First, i bought grass seed and, although I carefully planted it and tended it, hardly any of the seed sprouted. A neighbor of mine also bought seed from McAdam and her experience was the same. Dud seed. I ended up using Contractor-​Grade Scotts, and it is doing beautifully.
The other experience was that I bought two trees from McAdam and paid to have them professionally planted. The trees were fine. The planting service, however, was a complete travesty. The laborers tried to leave the wire baskets around the trunks; installed the trees before the yard had the utility lines marked (planting one tree right over a gas line); tried to leave the grounds messy, etc. I had to lend them tools and supervise continuously.
Letters and calls to McAdam were unsatisfactory. I recommend people seek other landscaping service providers.

I had ordered stuff from them a few times, a small selection but very helpful staff can be found if you go there.
They earned the two stars and a loss of my business due to the second to last interchange I had with them.
Back in September I had them come out to core my soil. They said they’d be there that week… a few weeks later I gave up on them and started to look for someone else. I came home and my yard had those plugs everywhere… mission accomplished… except they cored my gas cap.
A few months later (6 to be exact) I received a past due notice for the core they did. Oddly enough, this was my first bill… I had prepaid for the service on my credit card. After doing research, they seemed to have lost my credit card slip and finally got around to billing me. Since I got a bill, I felt it was reasonable to have them fix my gas cap.
After straightening out the bill issue, I asked them to repair the gas cap. I was told «someone would be there in an hour.» They are basically a mile away so this was believable. Nothing happened, I wait a week and call again… same story, call again… same story… on my fifth call I escalated to Rob McAdam (owner) who never returned my call.
I later called the gas company who will be out shortly to fix it. It is a shame that they don’t understand that customer service can make or break a relationship with a customer. Maybe they won’t miss my couple hundred a year… who knows.

As far as garden center goes, this one may be limited, but is very sweet.
From what I can tell, McAdam focuses mainly on landscaping and has opened a small garden center to the public. What they do have is a selection of some really great plants and a handful of unique garden art pieces. I’ve only been here once, but something about its charming setup makes me want to go back. How clever, luring suckers like me back by creating a quaint atmosphere when there are tons of garden centers around. I like the charm, though, and am happy to go back and pick things out in a dreamy fashion (they almost suggest visual ideas that you can create in your yard by the way they arrange their plant stock) rather than scour through picked-​over rows of misplaced items in a garden section of a major mogul. I appreciate the visual help. :)
They also run sales on garden décor, so it’s worth taking a stroll through.