Customers Complain About Lawn Aeration Company

Flowers are blooming ... lawns are booming, but who's going to aerate your yard this year?

Consumer champ Bill Clarke's has been hearing from irate customers.

Damage, threats, and poor customer service. Those are the complaints metro area consumers have with an aerating service.

Tracie and Dave Shepard are battling an aerating company named Mile Hi Services.

"Dave, my husband, asked if they were going to flag the sprinkler head they said, 'Oh we do this all the time we don't need to flag 'em,'" said Tracie Shepard.

Skeptical, Dave Shepard (pictured left) said he watched the technician from the window.

"I saw this sprinkler head pop off. It was off to the side. When the tech was all finished, I saw him pick this up and place it right back down on there. Like nothing happened," said Dave Shepard.

Unable to get repairs or reimbursement, the Shepards turned to Call 7 For Help. And that's when we uncovered a trend of complaints.

Ruth Wagner of Lakewood called Mile Hi Services on a Tuesday to set up an appointment for Friday.

"So I called back, and I said, 'Can you rake my yard?' (They said.) 'We don't rake yards.' I said, 'Cancel me for now,'" Wagner said.

That night, Tuesday night, Ruth got a message from the company.

"It said, 'We were out and aerated your lawn but you didn't pay your bill and we've turned you over to collections.'"

Ruth's lawn clearly has not been aerated. So Call 7 For Help made a personal visit to Mile Hi Services' office, a non-descript building in Denver.

They told us any customer who's complaining about being sent to collections is the result of an error, or that the customer is lying to get out of paying their bill.

As for damage, like the Shepard's case, Mile Hi told us it never guarantees it won't damage sprinklers and any damage done is not Mile Hi's problem.

"They've lied to me, they've avoided my phone calls, they've put me off, they were rude to me, and I knew if I didn't do something," said Tracie Shepard. "They could care less. So it's one of those things other people need to know about."

Mile Hi Services is now working with Call 7 For Help to resolve issues that come through our office. However, more than 70 consumers have complained to the Better Business Bureau.

Mile Hi tells us that's an "acceptable" number. As for getting those complaints resolved, Mile Hi Services also told us it doesn't "kiss up" to its customers.