Reviews of VI OUTDOOR - Nanaimo (Gardener)

Mel Southorn

Thank you for our beautiful pool and hot tub!

Nicole Hindman

The team at VI Outdoor helped bring my vision of my front yard redo to fruition! They had the tough task of building a rock retaining wall from the top down and did an amazing job! Everyone stopped to admire the work as it was being built and we get compliments from everyone walking or driving by on how great it looks. We have them now booked for more work this summer!

Canadian

I would not recommend this company on the basis that their communication with us was very poor and they repeatedly missed deadlines. Despite having telephone conversations where deadlines were set. This company missed the deadline in every instance. They attended our property for our 89-year-old grandmother. As a family, we were hoping for somebody more reliable, with better communication standards. On August 26 we set up an appointment for the first service to be completed for our grandmother on September 2. Nobody turned out for the appointment, and eventually was told that nobody could attend until the following day. When the following day finally arrived, nobody confirmed the appointment time, and multiple calls place to the office went to a voicemail box that was full. On October 5, we had a discussion with the company and was assured a quote would be sent over by October 8th. The company missed the deadline. We followed up again on October 20, and no quote was still received. We followed up a third time on October 26 and was promised the estimate would be sent over the same day. We waited all weekend and still no response. Eventually, we got an abrupt email reply, explaining that they would not help. On October 27, a message was left with the manager Director requesting a phone call back. I never received that contact. We sent a follow up email, and once again, there was no follow up by the company. This is not a service that I would expect from a company that we trusted with an elderly client. There was no follow through, nobody at the office took responsibility or ownership over our request, and eventually we were forced to take our business elsewhere. After many attempts we gave up and will select another company.

Yumi W

We needed to have both front and back yard almost completely redone. They came to check on the condition and talked about all the things we want and they can do for us. I got email back from him in about few weeks later saying the quote is almost ready to send. And we waited, waited, waited.....NEVER heard from him again. We don’t bother going after him. We can’t imagine good experience but stress and trouble if we hired them so we stay away.

Michael Dunn

If we could take away a star we would!!! We paid $8000.00 for work to be done on our yard. It took several months not weeks to complete, many phone calls, over 40 emails, not showing up on arranged days, terrible customer service, issues not addressed, damage done to existing irrigation system and overall a poor quality of work. Subsequently we have had to hire another company, spending approximately another $1000.00, to repair and rebuild our irrigation system and also fix a number of other issues including the unsightly edging.

Trevor Kempner

My wife and I contacted VI OUTDOOR to help us with our backyard. Our backyard was over grown and an overwhelming mess. During the quote process we were able to brainstorm and dream of what our mess could look like. We agreed on a plan and it turned out better than we could hope for! We HIGHLY recommend VI OUTDOOR to you. They transformed our space to be useable and we love having people over to our backyard. Everyone who comes over talks about how awesome everything looks. I've added pictures so you can see what a great job they did. Also, they levelled out the side of our house and put in these solid stairs. They do good quality work. All the workers were friendly and hard working. The owner was super easy to get along with.

Shelley K

Huge shout out to VI Outdoor from all the residents on Doreen Place! After a heavy snowfall, many of us were stranded and couldn't get up the street because it was so slippery and snowy. Out of nowhere, VI Outdoor shows up with their snow plow and clears a path down the street and around the cul-de-sac. Now we can all get back to work, school or wherever we need to be! So awesome....thanks guys!!

Ron Deschambault

What a great experience. Fantastic all around, from sales to delivery. ????

Teigan Scott

VI Outdoor's craftsmanship and quality of service is the best I've seen in Nanaimo. Both the owner and the workers are very focused on providing a professional, high-quality product, no matter what they're doing for you.

Susan Coker

Great job on replacing our driveway. Very happy with the way it now drains and knowing there is roadbase now underneath.

Jason Minter

Stay Away! We hired them over a few other companies solely because they said they could meet our timeline which they failed by 3 months. Many missed renewed deadlines and non-stop excuses which most of the time he just kept blaming his workers as it was never his fault. Between final inspection and final payment, many issues were found and we were told they would be covered by warranty once the weather got better. Two days after we paid the final payment of over $25,000 he notified us he would not be fixing any of the agreed to warranty issues. We had to spend a lot of money to bring in other contractors for the repairs. We then talked to a lawyer and decided to sue for the cost of those repairs. Then it took almost 2 years to reach a settlement out of court (for less than our repair costs) as we were worried that court dates would get cancelled due to covid as the courts were backing up with more important stuff and we needed to cut our loses as lawyer fees were also adding up over the years. We would recommend you look for another company for your needs but if you do feel you want to use them, we'd recommend you get every word in writing because he has a way of twisting words and not following through with what he says. We just don't want to see what happened to us happen to anyone else. Side note, once he got served with the court documents, he then added a bunch of stuff that pertained to our situation to his warranty terms and conditions on his website, if you take a read through them you'll see what I can only assume are many issues they've had with other people as well. *****Update to Company response below****** Here's some context to the accusations from Mr. Southorn. After paying the final payment of over $25,000 we realized that in the heat of the moment that we never got a receipt. Those 39 calls in 2 hours he speaks of should also include emails and texts and messages left that all went un-responded when all we wanted was a receipt and our firepit cover that he was holding hostage. The following day we went to the address on his Nanaimo Business License (as they didn't have an office at that time) to ask for the receipt and the firepit cover, he said he'd get us a receipt and the cover was at their yard. We went to the yard and they said they didn't have it and called 911 on us. The 911 officer called and chatted to us and when we explained our story he recommended we talk to a lawyer as the RCMP couldn't do anything so we agreed to not go over there anymore and the officer deemed that we were harmless and that was that. The client bullying and harassing that he accused us of came after those 39 calls. We have been nothing but nice to his workers and shared quite a few laughs, we only ever expressed our frustration to Mr. Southorn and the project manager every time they missed many deadlines as a 1 month project turned into 4 months. Think about it, If we were in any way bullying or harassing anyone, wouldn't they have left the project earlier? As far as "Legal threats", there were no threats, we filed a claim to sue with the courts to recoup the extra money we had to spend on actual professionals to repair the agreed to warranty issues. The company reply to this review is a perfect example as to why you should get anything they say in writing if you are going to hire them however we still recommend you look for other options. We have never left a negative review before however our experience with VI Outdoor should be a learning experience for anyone thinking of hiring them. **** Mr. Southorn, As for your "Client Damaging Private Property" accusation, I would ask that you either provide proof of this or remove that part from your reply as this could be seen as "Libel" as we have not damaged any property. Everything that we have written here can be proven, your lawyer should have given you a large binder of all our evidence against your company. Funny how we never received a shred of evidence from your lawyer to dispute any of it. (I will remove this paragraph once you make that change)

Nila Fisher

VI Outdoors came to our new development and told us all the wonderful things they can do with our property. Needing a lot of work done and feeling overwhelmed, we were very excited to receive our quote and get started. Contractor said he would email us in 3-5 days but we didn't receive anything. I called to follow up and no one answered. I emailed to confirm our interest but no one wrote back. Gave them the benefit of the doubt and emailed and called them over a 3 week period but they must have screened my calls and avoided my emails. Worst customer service! Now they are doing an easy fence build on our neighbours, I get it, easy jobs easy money, but have the decency to let people struggling know you can't help them out!

Bill Norris

Dave and Paul lead a great team of professionals. They took our vision and made it a reality! Our new front patio and garden are a delight in which to sit, relax and enjoy. They all worked hard and always left the site clean when they left. You could tell they took pride in their work.

Ryan McNair

Creating your backyard oasis to be the envy of the neighborhood

Sidney Hutton

I find that any job done by VI Outdoor is to extremely professional standards. Well done, VIOM.

Gordon Robertshaw

It has been our pleasure to hire V.I. Outdoor Our landscaping needed a re-do, we have lived in this house for over 40 years and have taken on many landscaping projects ourselves but a large number of gardens decks and the lawn itself needed a do over and the project was just too large to tackle on my own. After contacting V.I. Teigan got back to me and arranged to come over and have a look at the property we discussed at length what projects needed to be done, she then spent quite a bit of time measuring the property looking at the decks and gardens that needed to be replaced, trees that need to be removed or trimmed made a few suggestions as to what other changes could be made and listened very carefully and recorded what in those changes were important to us. After about a week we were emailed a very detailed quote with a payment schedule and an approximate starting date if we decided to go ahead. The project took about 3-4 weeks to complete they weren’t here every day but most of them. Austin and his crew were amazing! Polite, courteous and touched base with me often to make sure what was being done was to our satisfaction and when a few design changes were required Austin contacted Teigan or Dave and when approved they were done immediately. We only had a couple of changes when things didn’t quite look the same in reality as they did on paper. After the job was done both Dave and Teigan visited and walked the property with me to make sure I was happy with the work competed and if I was happy with their crew, if you have managed to read this review so far you know I am. As part of this contract, it is noted that VI will return to over seed also I have contracted them for a couple more things that I would like done that weren’t in the original contract and as of the writing this review, I am confident this will happen. I hope this review is helpful to the reader it’s not easy to commit large amounts of money to projects without knowing the company you are about to get involved with.

bill wilson

We needed a quick quote and the General Mgr arrived promptly and on time. We sure appreciated the great service.

Lesley Neufeld

VI Outdoor were simply great to work with at every phase of our patio renovation -- right from first meeting and estimating through prompt work phases and on to final clean-up. We loved their enthusiasm for our project, their creative ideas, their professionalism, courtesy and reliability, as well as the beautiful quality of work they did for us, the crew's friendly and helpful work ethic, their compliance with distancing and masks when we were consulting with them, and their attention to every detail. We so appreciated that they took care to make sure our yard and garden were tidy when they were done. Thanks, VI -- high recommendation from us here in North Nanaimo! We are going to enjoy our new patio very much!

Anita L

Had Dave come to our home last July to provide a quote - he took pictures and left. We never heard back from him. I emailed a few weeks later enquiring about the quote and got no response. I’m assuming the job was too small? Some sort of response would have been the professional thing to do. I would not recommend wasting your time with this company. Far more professional and courteous companies out there.

Clarke Gris

Landscaped my whole backyard. Looks amazing and Dave, Kyle and their crew were professional and designed a beautiful space that enhances my family's outdoor experience. Would highly recommend.

Ben Wagler

Awesome work you guys did! Everything looks Great!

Julie Lamb

We had a lot of work done, and I was expecting service disruptions with our clients. Even in the midst of moving large machines around in our tiny parking lot the guys were directing clients and happily answering their questions. The landscaping looks amazing, we saw no service disruptions, and their staff were extremely professional and hard working. Thanks VI Outdoor for the amazing job and the top notch customer service.

Marlene Jeffreys

Very pleasant and polite staff. Did a wonderful job of cleaning up my garden. It looks great. Thanks very much.