Bever Landscape Design Group

In our experience with David, professionalism, attention to detail, proactive communication about missed timelines, and courteous follow-​up were absent.
We were excited about the preliminary design, but it was a challenge to get a finished product with labels of plant names and shrub names etc. David agreed in our initial meeting that we would do the planting while they focused on the grading issues that were part of our project. I followed up multiple times to get specific names of trees, shrubs, plants that had been suggested in our initial meeting. Ultimately, David asked for a copy of my notes from our initial meeting in order to finish the design and it came weeks later.
The contractors addressing the grading issues didn’t start within the timeline David had given us. I followed up the night before they were supposed to arrive to learn that they would not be coming the next day. This was the pattern throughout our project. I would follow up on missing items only to learn that there had been a change. When materials were delivered, they were ordered same day and we were asked to be home to accept the delivery later in the day. We were constantly rearranging our schedule to accommodate the project. The entire project felt very disorganized and lacked proactive communication. When I discussed this with David, his response to me was that he does projects three times our size all the time, and I needed to just let him do what he was going to do! Unbelievable, since we have still not seen a completed design or a detailed project plan.
After specifically asking David if he would be on site to direct the contractors and being told he would, he was not available the day they started. My husband and I did our best to explain the project to them, showing them the draft of the plan. The contractors told us parts of it were very different than what they had been told by David. We texted and called David and eventually he came over to straighten things out.
Finally, the contractors didn’t work full days when we were told they would. We called David to advise him of their hours and I kept notes on their arrival and departure times. When we were billed for the full days of the project, I reminded David. He asked that we pay half the cost because it was our word against the contractors! He had the gall to call twice for payment in one week, after we experienced multiple delays throughout the entire project! At this point my husband told me to just pay him and make it very clear we were severing our relationship with Bever.

David provided a great design that met the priorities provided. However, he provided a design that was 3x my budget with no phased plan, or material alternatives. I ended up shopping his non-​detailed invoice to choose what I wanted completed to hit my budget. He had promised a 1 week timeline to complete the project. The project was completed in 4 weeks. I spent personal time waiting for contractors that didn’t show up, or show up and not do any work. His contractors did not detect for electrical work prior to starting to dig, and ended up digging up and destroying all the electricity to the garage. I had to hire my own electrician to rerun the electricity out to the garage, because David’s contractors left a live line under ground with no plan to fix it. I was also asked to pay for a third of the electrical costs since it was out of budget even though I was told the quote included incidentals, and the contract covered underground work. That means David was scraping for a profit. One contractor left two grease stains on the driveway which were immediately reported but not cleaned up until two weeks later. Finally, the last payment was run on the incorrect credit card.
I do enjoy the final result. However, after spending what some people spend for weddings, I expected a higher level of professionalism and accountability. The project manager should have given a realistic timeline, and show some level of empathy for the poor management of his people. When I complained about how poorly the project was preceding, David told me that I need to reset my expectations and understand that I shouldn’t hold him accountable to his timeline since house projects never go to plan. Weather was only the cause for three days delay. He also left numerous voicemails on my phone complaining about how poor of a customer I was for not approving payment, which I had approved three weeks earlier. He also lost record of all payments he had received and ask me to submit proof of payment. He ran the last payment on the incorrect credit card, and refuses to correct the payment to the correct card.
I’ve got the name of his cement guys and that’s all I need. They were awesome. Graley Concrete Construction — you won’t regret hiring them. Bever Landscape — give your money to someone else who cares where the money is going.