Outback Lawncare Inc

The owner of the company is very very unprofessional. Every email is full of 5-7 excuses. He sent 3 months of past invoices in one single email because he is so poor at bookkeeping (his words). I have sent multiple pictures about the poor lawn service I am getting and every complaint is met with an excuse and not corrected. I have TREES growing from my shrubs for the 2nd time in 4 months. Unacceptable lawn care company.

No call No show Was supposed to come to our home in Oviedo for a sod installation quote. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME as my mother did. Unreliable "company"

We have had an ongoing issue with the owner and primary service provider of Outback Lawn Care, Steven R. Downey, who was hired to perform basic lawn services on our yard in June 2016. In addition to ongoing failures to control weeds, a lawn turning browner and dryer every day (currently being replaced for the second time in 4 months since hiring Steve), and endless excuses, we ultimately learned that despite being charged for monthly spray services (weed control, pesticide, fertilizer), they were not being completed at all. I currently have a BBB complaint and Police Report pending as I believe he intentionally sprayed my newly installed lawn and landscaping with GroundClear, killing all of it. Adding to my frustration, I have also learned Steven R. Downey is a convicted registered child sex offender/predator with a criminal record that I unknowingly allowed on my property in a neighborhood filled with families and children: http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/flyer.do?personId=37760 (Use Internet To Solicit/attempt Solicit Etc. A Child For Sex/lewdness Etc; F.s. 847.0135(3) (Principal).

BEWARE! It took 2 destroyed lawns over 5 months to figure out Steven R. Downey is a fraud and convicted registered sexual offender/predator with a criminal record in the state of Florida http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/flyer.do?personId=37760 (Use Internet To Solicit/attempt Solicit Etc. A Child For Sex/lewdness Etc; F.s. 847.0135(3) (Principal). Had I known he was a convicted sexual predator with a criminal record I never would have hired him in the first place since my neighborhood is filled with children. My total lawn is 600 sf at most. In the first 2 months (June - July 2016), my front lawn went from semi-green to complete brown dead. I asked Steven how this could happen when he charged monthly fees for weekly mowing/hedge trimming and spraying fertilizer, weed control, and pesticide. His initial excuse was that it was raining too much (hmmm, summer in central FL = rains every day). Eventually he admitted he hadn't sprayed any fertilizer, weed control, or pesticide in 2 months despite charging me $30/month for the so-called "spray program." His follow up excuse was that most of his employees were calling in sick or with sudden deaths in the family (found it odd that he shared that). He assured me that he is the only lawn care company owner that shows up to personally service his customer’s lawns. To which I replied, who cares if my lawn is dead and the business owner makes every pathetic excuse in the book to avoid taking responsibility? That was episode one in Steven’s delusional inflated opinion about his reputation, knowledge, skills, and capabilities. I asked him what it would take to fix my front lawn and he suggested new sod install would be the best option. He installed very thin, unhealthy sod and literally dumped it directly on top of the existing grass without doing any proper soil preparation (mid-September 2016). He didn’t even bother cutting out holes for the sprinkler heads to pop up. When I brought the lack of soil preparation and sprinkler head holds to his attention, he assured me that, despite the facts indicating otherwise, careless oversights like that never happen on his watch because he always pays close attention to detail. To which I replied, great to know Steven, perhaps the holes for the pop up sprinkler heads will cut themselves and the new sod will magically grow on top of old grass. That was episode two in Steven’s delusional inflated opinion about his reputation, knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Several weeks later the new unhealthy sod only got thinner and browner at which point I fired Steven due to his complete incompetence (mid-November 2016) and lack of accountability. A week or two later, Steven took the opportunity to spray my entire front lawn and brand new front yard landscape installation with GroundClear thus killing all of it. I have since filed a police report with City of Orlando Police Department and a formal complaint with the BBB of Central Florida. Steven R. Downey, owner of Outback Lawn Care is a registered sexual offender/predator with a criminal record and no education, training, or track record in proper lawn maintenance that instinctively resorts to criminal activity when held accountable for poor results. In hindsight, I should’ve Google’ d Steven’s name from the outset to learn he was a convicted criminal/sexual predator and noticed that Outback Lawn Care has not one positive online review other than one 5-star review Steven posted on the company Facebook page (classy).