Hi Everyone - first time homebuyer here, and last year I signed a contract with a landscape designer to take on a significant project for me (new fence, stonework, landscaping, tree removal…)

TL:DR his work has been gorgeous in the end, but working with him has been a nightmare. He’s now pressuring my to give him a 5 star review but I don’t think he’s earned it.

He’s gone $20k over budget, he makes me feel guilty for asking questions, and has told me he “expects a 5 star review” on houzz because he “went above and beyond.” In texts with me he has told me to not “go cheap” when asking for an additional $11k, he’s been defensive and rude when I’ve pointed out concerns, etc… overall he’s been very rude and very hard to work with.

He has my cell number and (of course) home address and I am worried about retribution. I left him an overall 5 star review but then gave him 3 stars for communication and 4 stars for value.

He has since emailed me to accuse me of taking punitive action against him, and is clearly trying to guilt me into amending my review. At the same time there’s a tiny bit of work unfinished that he’s trying to get me to pay extra for. This is despite his work being under warranty - he installed irrigation that doesn’t work and so fixing it should be under warranty.

The finished work is so pretty and I am so happy with it - but the feeling of being manipulating into being dishonest with my reviews feels terrible. I want to be honest about my experience with his company but don’t know what to do.

If y’all were me how would you move forward? Cut ties and find someone else to finish the irrigation? Hold him accountable to the warranty and tell him to finish? Rewrite my review with honest feedback?

Check out the reviews on BBB before you even sign up for a free trial with Houzz Pro! It is nearly impossible to cancel your trial or membership. We didn’t get any leads for 8 months and we were paying around $400 a month for the Houzz Pro membership. We finally cancelled the card they were charging after not getting anything out of the membership for so long and having no luck cancelling by contacting multiple people at Houzz. Before this we asked them to stop charging the card but they kept trying to charge it. Then they sent the account to collections. They also suspended our business profile, which before we signed up for Houzz Pro was listed on their site for free without needing to pay for any membership to have it listed.