Reviews of McKay's Landscaping (Gardener)

DC Baillie

I know Mark McKay and of his reputation of being arrogant and rude. I was surprised to read all the negative reviews on here about Mckay's lack of professionalism of being shady rude obnoxious unreasonable unreliable etc. I've been in business in this industry before for over ten years I've never had any unhappy coustomers landscaping is not rocket science or brain surgery so I don't understand why or how a guy can't satisfy and meet the expectations of his clients. Unless you just don't care about other people including him self. If you truly care about your name and reputation in the public's eyes then at least fake it till you make it. Mark McKay you should check your altitude and false ego it's destroying your business and harming you personally. A little more humility would do you good. Try to learn empathy for others. People don't remember what you say to them they remember how you made them feel how you treat people is how you want to be treated. That go's for how you treat and relate to your clients your employees your peers in the industry including your competition. If I were you I'd be making things rite with all the people on here who've given you 1 star. They all can't be wrong!

Landon Mechalchuk

We made the error of hiring McKay Landscaping to add a section of pavers to an existing driveway and along the side of our home. Comparing prices with other quotes they were the same cost however he supposedly could start sooner so we went that direction. The price did not reflect the work. Shortcuts were taken everywhere. Additionally, some of the pavers need to be lifted and repaired as there are low spots that collect water and the company refused to adjust adjacent existing bricks. I could have and would have done a better job myself for less than a ¼ of the cost had I know how long the process would have taken. There is less than 4” gravel placed in the majority of the driveway area that they did work on. By contrast the other company had quoted a 10-12” gravel base with a drainage pit at the same price point. The work that was done was by the slowest moving and least motivated workers I’ve ever come across and took WEEKS to complete. If we’re talking from the moment we received the quote, MONTHS in total. The backyard was excavated down approximately 5” for a period of weeks, well after the job was intended to be completed. This put us in the awkward position to allow them to complete that section of the job as I work out of country and wouldn’t be able to complete before ground freeze. It seemed the only time we could get Mark or his crew over to complete any work was by phoning and expressing how disappointed we were in the lack of progress, or attempting to fire him in and have the bill settled for the hole dug. After he was asked to leave and give a bill for the current work the excuses began to fly and the crew rushed the job to get it ‘finished’. With all of that said, I think it’s important to note that I had to do a substantial amount of the labour myself, including excavation renting a chain saw to remove roots, part of a stump, doing the entire front walkway portion and no less than 10% of the driveway project myself. It seems ridiculous to me that a company that’s been in business for so long needed to be babysat every step of the way, and that a bill of this size for such a small project required my own work, ever. The work was being done incorrectly, the wrong color of bricks were being used, and while it was obvious it didn’t seem there was any care given to get the project correct unless I began doing it on my own. In the end, we cancelled a substantial portion of the project and was given an unrealistic discount on the work that was removed from the invoice. The excuse at that parts was A, B, C etc, he was going to do for free, but isn’t going to now… So in actuality the work that was refunded didn’t include the rest of the work that was not completed, including irrigation, and leveling existing paving stones. They left behind irrigation lines sticking out of the ground, some cut off below surface that needed to be dug up, cut bricks and building materials that were not disposed of and to my surprise a retaining wall that was placed over a foot from where it should have been so they didn’t need to lay another row of paving stones. So, I write this review after beginning the removal of this 14’ long 1’ high “wall’, to again complete the job myself. Aside from the poor work ethic and quality, considerable safety was ignored. I personally gave Mark a copy of the BC OneCall paperwork, excavated by hand to expose, cover, and mark where the natural gas line to my property was. This I would have expected the contractor to do himself. Regardless, a few days into digging there is a worker in the yard trying to bust up a piece of root directly on the gas line with a sledge/axe. I quickly stopped him and with one scoop of soil in my hand showed him they were beating on the gas line. Luckily it wasn’t damaged aside from scrapes on the sheathing. I highly recommend excluding McKay Landscaping from your list of who to hire.

Bryan Christensen (Massacre049)

Unprofessional representation of the company. Driver of company truck with the plow on the front, turned onto Hwy5 from River St, you know where all those bad accidents happen at the overpass bridge, right in front of my vehicle in snowing conditions. Driver did not stop at the stop sign and because of the distance he merged, I had to lock my brakes to try and avoid a collision. I drive a 2016 Fusion. Absolutly unacceptable because of the conditions and my car was fully lit with functioning lights. Driver has 0 regard to others on the road and almost caused a serious incident on a major highway.

Adam Robertson

This landscape company built a retaining wall at a neighboring property by my home. They ended up piling up approx 10" or dirt betwenn my fence and the retaining instead of laying 1 more row of bricks at ground level. This would eventually cause my fence to rot and there would be no way I could re do my fence down the road because of the dirt pushing against my fence. I called the general contractor about this and he came out and took a look and we agreed that the wall was not constructed correctly. After this discussion the Owner of McKay's showed up and was very rude and didn't want to fix the wall correctly. He basically told me to F*&K off. In the end they did fix it correctly but only after I told him that I was going to call the city building inspector to get involved. I would not recommend using McKays because the owner seems to be okay with cutting corners and not wanting to fix mistakes the right way.

Arjun Singh

Got landscaping done, did good work all done how I wanted

Selma Dupras

Worst people to deal with,very rude and bad manners,take your money and run.Nasty,rude and crude cokers!

A

BEWARE! I don't even know where to start with Mark McKay and his so called landscaping business. We were quoted and told that if we paid a large deposit, we would receive a discount and that our start and completion date would be secured. We provided the deposit and when spring came...it was like pulling teeth to get them started. This company is great for over-promising and under-delivering. They will con you into thinking you're getting a discount by paying up front then sporatically disappear while doing the same to others. You will have to harass the owner to come work on your job! If you even get a call back, expect to hear every single excuse in the book: "The weather isn't good; we're just finishing another job; we'll be there tomorrow; materials are back-ordered; we're getting materials delivered tomorrow". To this day, our job is not completed and they have disappeared again. The owner is extremely unprofessional, rude, unreliable and SHADY. Not to mention, they take every short-cut possible to save a dime. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND GOING ELSEWHERE.

Keith Stewart

Nice guys easy to deal with, would use again.

brian joseph

Recently had a large project done with McKay’s. The work was great. Well done and very efficient. Mark is great to deal with and gives a very fair price. Any problem or questions that came up were handled effectively. The time frame was bang on and couldn’t be happier. Will be using in the future for sure!

Anthony Richards

McKay’s put in a retaining wall for me. The crew was great and the job was done on time and for a reasonable price. Very happy with the work done

Rob Hayden

We hired McKay’s to replace a fence, the fence panels and installation seemed ok, the price was on the higher end of a reasonable quote. but after 2 weeks all the posts were twisted and fence panels have warped, I tried to contact the owner numerous times over 6 months to come and make some repairs to an otherwise satisfactory job, however the owner has since stopped responding to phone calls and messages. I originally hired this company to save myself a job, however, due to this company’s bad customer service I am now out of pocket extra money for materials and labour. Having paid over 3000 dollars I would expect this company to warranty and stand behind their work. As soon as they got paid they disappeared. I would strongly recommend you go elsewhere.

Laurette Boose

Im sure they do good work but flying down our street faster than our 10km speed limit. Mountainview estates

Sanjay Blaj

Did good work for us. Retaining whall looks good.

AJ Bachhal

Mark did some decent work originally. When I moved into my new place, he started my place. I recommended him to my brother, and he had to chase after him for 6 months. My landscaping is still unfinished. Does not answer his phone, does not finish. Takes your money and runs. STAY AWAY FROM MARK MCKAY.

Dan McTavish

We had great experience with McKays

Jim Lombart

Mark and his crew did some landscape work for me, there were a few small things I wanted changed/fixed and when the job was done, but Mark was accommodating and made the changes quickly. Highly recommend!