here's a new one for you,
the director no less, of a well known artificial grass company came to provide samples of their wares for a customer who's project i'm in the middle of working on - these were meant to have been posted weeks ago, but a phone call yesterday by my customer, got action from the top man (we're only talking about 12msq of grass here) they had already made noises about preferring to supply and install rather than just supply, now this man has flat out told my customer that they won't guarantee the product if they don't fit it - blatant stealing of work right?
let me put it another way - does the guy supplying your paving walk in and make your customer an offer to lay it? does your turf supplier? no, so why do artificial grass companies? lets face it, it's about the easiest thing there is to do in landscaping, i get perfect results every time with no call backs - and i don't try to sell people 'special sand' either
this is now the second time i have had an artificial lawn company poach work from me, the first time was because they were available earlier than i was - annoying, but that's life i suppose, the second is just plain dishonest - they fail to point out to my customer that they still have to guarantee the product, and that i as the installer will have to guarantee the installation.
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I wouldn't have thought there would be much to go wrong with artificial grass though could be wrong there. 12msq can't cost much so is it worth even worrying about a guarantee? I'm amazed the director came over for such a small area..... times must be hard.
yeah, i'll find out what they are thinking of charging for it.
i'm a little miffed as you might gather. i'm also doing a 21msq sedum roof, which i notice from their website that they install as well, i expect he would have gone for that as well if the subject had come up.
have no problems with mine, they are more than happy to supply at good discounts as well.
at the end of the day they are just importing the stuff from china like anyone else - who are you using thermo? i normally use witchgrass myself, but the customer was recommended these other people by a friend
they don't all import it from china. Apparently a lot of the stuff imported from china uses various metals in the turf, which can lead to expansion and contraction on the turf. I assume its in the backing material from what I've been told
i was reading an article the other day on chinese manufacturing - fake eggs, fake rice - if they can manufacture it and sell it as food (even if it's toxic) they'll do it, so who knows what ends up in astroturf
I stumbled across this discussion while doing some online research. I run an artificial grass company, Evermore, in Scotland and although I know of at least one of our competitors that is disreputable I do think it's a bit harsh to tar us all with the same brush. Your supplier does sound like one of the bad ones.
The guarantee thing is rubbish, we obviously don't guarantee any problems due to installation (lumpy base, poor joins etc) but if there is a manufacturing defect then of course it's still covered.
Poaching of work seems a bit short sighted if you ask me, I'd rather have a repeat trade customer than steal one small installation job!
As for some of the other comments, not everyone imports from China, all of our products are either EU or UK manufactured, Chinese grass is cheap but too much of a risk if you ask me, there is no guarantee of it's safety if you ask me due to lead poisoning etc.
Cheers, Matt.
'Sources'
Safety Fears
I have always used Namgrass or Easigrass and can honestly say that you can not fault either company.