Note: I tried posting the verbage below on the True Green website. It would not take the message. I'm at a loss of what to do. Here is a company using chemicals in my yard without my knowledge before hand. Never had my permission. Would not have had my permission. And dead air for a response.
To Quality Department:
June 1, 2019 a True Green yard tag was left in my yard along Cleveland Avenue. I contacted the local supplier and explained I was not a customer and was growing product for the local farmers market. I needed to be reassured the tag was an anomaly placed by some hooligan.
June 12, 2019 a service receipt was tucked into my porch door and there were lawn tags on both the 109th and Cleveland Avenue sides of the property. I called the number on the receipt requesting a manager be sent out to my property to discuss what happened. No response so far.
In 3 weeks the plan was to take a remarkably productive crop of currants and black raspberries to the farmers market. To people who ask if I spray or am organic. Do you see where I am going? Your company's lack of quality control may have ruined my market season for 2019.
Pear dwarf trees
What I did:
A- I sent out emails to friends who's perspective I respected.
B- Emails were sent to BBB and the Wisconsin department of Agriculture.
C- Conversations and on site inspections ensued.
D- I kept an eye on my yard and quickly realized either the remarkable permaculture of the soil and/or the full day soaky rain that followed the treatment nullified or washed away the herbicide.
There is a small bed of irises that is not doing well near the lot line in the front yard. It looks like a big dog rolled on top of it. No curled up leaves.
I've not seen anything that I have not seen before on my currant bushes growing near the treatment area. All my weeds are still looking forward to their next mowing.
E- When asked what I wanted, I pulled from my pre-retirement experience in aerospace quality standards. Specifically the 8D process of non-conformance discovery.
1- form a committee to investigate
2- describe the non conformance
3- what caused the non conformance?
4- how to correct the problem?
5- was the correction implemented?
6- did the corrective action work?
7- prove it
8- thank everyone for participating
F- Told my neighbor my lawn was being treated instead of her's. This information had not been shared with her by TruGreen. Angry does not come close to describing her response. They must have come to some agreement because there were lawn treatment tags on her lawn today.
G: Early on Friday morning (June 21, 2019) I noticed the TruGreen truck idling by the 109th street side of my yard. It returned within 5 minutes. Stopped on the South side of the lot. The driver seemed confused and was looking down and stroking his chin. He continued idling by before I could speak with him.
I did call the global TruGreen number. Later when I got to my desk top and notes, I left a phone message for the TruGreen field supervisor and an email for the Wisconsin department of Agriculture. The message was: the TruGreen lawn guy was lost.
TruGreen called later Friday and let me know the office was able to direct the driver to where he needed to go. Also, TruGreen offered me a financial gesture to cover the cost of my crop of berries they sprayed near. They also anticipate providing me with proof of changes to their address identification process at a later date.
I did explain the berries would go to market with a sign calling out the treatment of my lawn. This will allow my customers to make an informed decision on a berry purchase. TruGreen understood this. My plan is to apply this gesture as a reduction in the price I charge this year and next year, my final year selling from the property.
In the middle of my challenge with Trugreen was not a need to cripple. It was to make enough noise to require them to fix an internal problem so they stopped treating lawns accidentally. If their lawn tech has problems with locating addresses, then they must set up a system that helps him.
The photo above was taken today. Note the healthy clover and dandelions growing beneath the red lake currant bush?
The plastic tarp over the pink champagne currant bush is to protect it from the dirty robins that have started sitting on the power line above. I should probably camp out on the upstairs porch for a day or two and knock them off with a garden hose spray.
This is the another side of the same bush. The yellowed leaves are from a fungus that shows up in wet years. The aphids I witnessed a month ago seem to have been eradicated by some beneficial insect in the yard.
Note the first blush of red in the berries. Whooooray!!
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