Lawn Love: Do homeowners hate it or find it helpful?

Lawn Love: Do homeowners hate it or find it helpful?GreenPal and Lawn Love provide lawn care services by connecting homeowners with lawn care professionals. So, what's the difference? GreenPal was built for homeowners and lawn care professionals by lawn care professionals, which makes all the difference.

Lawn Love was acquired by LawnStarter (see our comparison with LawnStarter) in 2021 with leadership with no prior experience in the lawn care industry. Every item mentioned in this post circles back to that fact — Lawn Love is an app built by tech enthusiasts with little understanding of the lawn care industry.

Their priorities: catch a wave and make money off of it.

GreenPal's team is the exact opposite of Lawn Love's leadership team. GreenPal's leadership started in lawn care. They've spent decades helping homeowners care for their lawns; they learned through blood, sweat, and grass-stained clothes how hard it can be to make a living in the lawn care industry.

GreenPal knows what homeowners and vendors need in an app because they know what homeowners need when it comes to lawn care.
Key Takeaways

Lawn Love's Process Does Not Help Homeowners

Here's how homeowners order services on Lawn Love:

 Step 1:  On Lawn Love, homeowners put their address, name, phone number, and email into the search bar and click "Get Your Quote." 

 Step 2:  From a menu, homeowners select the service(s) they need to complete. Then, redundantly, they click "Get Free Quotes" again.

 Step 3:  Lawn Love then pairs a homeowner with a professional from their area based on needs (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly mowing) and price range.

 Step 4:  Pay.

Step 3 is where Lawn Love poses a problem. Notice the language: "Lawn Love then pairs a homeowner with a professional ... " Homeowners have no choice in who completes their service. It's like the lottery — you could land a great professional. Most likely, you won't. Homeowners have no clue who will complete their service and are entirely cut out of the decision-making process.

GreenPal understands the importance of allowing homeowners to select their professional lawn care company. All companies listed on the GreenPal app have been pre-vetted by a set of standards, but the process puts the homeowner in the driver's seat. This approach allows for more transparent communication between vendor and homeowner and adds a strong layer of trust that the Lawn Love team can't provide.

With the Lawn Love process, a homeowner may come into contact with several different companies that have been divided out to complete the work. One could cancel, and another could swoop and get paid — even with subpar results. All of this results in homeowners not knowing who is coming on any given day and whether they actually exhibit any level of professionalism when caring for a lawn.

One respondent from Redondo Beach, California wrote, "Last dude they sent was super sketchy and kept hanging around after the mow. The last mow I was scheduled for, the guy never showed up and when I called to complain they told me to refer to an email. And then hung up on me."

Lawn Love Pricing Is Not Transparent

Lawn Love has stated that "it's difficult to provide an exact price for mowing services because there are so many variables."

Clear as mud, right?

They claim a quarter-acre yard will cost somewhere between $29 to $65. They also state that Lawn Love customers can "sometimes take advantage of a $19 first-time mowing special."

Sometimes.

This is the problem with Lawn Love. Algorithms and "sometimes" specials confuse homeowners, and several reviews show the frustrations. But, unfortunately, there's more wrong with Lawn Love's pricing.

According to the company, Lawn Love lawn care pros don't bag clippings. They may if you request it, but you should expect to pay slightly more.

More vague generalities on the Lawn Love website attempt to explain what homeowners can expect to pay for some of the following services:

GreenPal places pricing in the hands of homeowners and lawn care professionals. It's simple: list a lawn, receive lawn care service bids, read company reviews, and select a local lawn service provider — all free.

There are no hidden fees, either. The pricing quoted by the community of lawn vendors is what homeowners pay. This process eliminates the guesswork. Vendors and homeowners win. No one is placed into a process they don't control.

Confusion Plagues the Lawn Love Application

The two problems highlighted above circle back to the fact that Lawn Love has no background in lawn care. Because they don't know that transparent pricing and trustworthy, consistent service by the same lawn care professional are hallmarks of any thriving lawn care business, their users and their vendors constantly heads; for example, one user in Kansas City, Missouri, had this to say:

"I requested lawn mowing and trimming through Lawn Love Lawn Care. The first two pros they set me up with had to cancel. The third pro did two successful mows. By the time the next scheduled date came up, my yard was looking bad. I was notified by email that the pro canceled because my yard didn't need servicing.”

Due to issues with their website, my next mow date wasn't scheduled for yet another two weeks. I tried, unsuccessfully, to change my mow date and/or my pro via their website, by email, and by phone. There were always "reasons" why these could not be changed. The one thing that was handled promptly and correctly by Lawn Love was my cancellation of their services. Please learn what I have learned: Do lots of research before hiring a new service."

Lawn care shouldn't be another headache in your life. Lawn Love offers up plenty of those.

GreenPal makes the process simple. The vendor a homeowner chooses is the one that stays with them. And homeowners don't pay until the job is done to their liking. If a homeowner is unsatisfied with their lawn care provider, they can choose another. 

Easy.

Here's one more Lawn Love review that shows it's anything but easy to have their lawn cared for:

"A friend in the neighborhood told me she was going to give (Lawn Love) a try, so I requested a quote. The price was ridiculously high for a yard that takes 15 minutes tops with a push mower--it was actually the same price quoted to my friend, whose yard is 5x larger than mine. I have no idea what they're basing their pricing on. I told them the quote was much too high, and I wasn't interested, but they have continued to send me frequent texts. After reading the reviews, I'm pretty sure I made the right decision. (And be sure to read the fine print about their "tall grass policy"--my unfortunate friend was charged double after her first mow because of tall grass.)"

Lawn Love Scam? Some homeowners Complain About Tall Grass Fees

Is Lawn Love a scam? No.

But the long-grass fee, many are saying, feels like a scam. Again, it's a confusing issue caused by a lack of communication on Lawn Love's part that leaves many homeowners dissatisfied with the process.

While it's not designed intentionally this way, Lawn Love's vendors — who are on the platform to complete services for homeowners — have received consistent complaints against them about rescheduling.

Several homeowners have noted they are then charged a fee for their overgrown yard because, guess what, the original contractors rescheduled. Their grass grew. No one from Lawn Love showed up to mow it.

How can homeowners be on the line for an issue caused by Lawn Love's vendors?

From the reviews we've read, this hasn't been considered for many homeowners who have unexpectedly received a long-grass fee due to the slow remediation provided by Lawn Love.

It's a recurring problem. Again, it shows that Lawn Love never had boots on the ground in the industry.

The Lawn Love app isn't half bad

The Lawn Love app isn't terrible. Some love it. Some hate it. Several noted that the app seems clunky. Many pointed out that the interface is cumbersome and that some features, like the calendar, break from time to time and make booking services difficult. For others, it works fine.

However, several have noted one outstanding problem on the Apple Store and Google Play: the app is "buggy" for many, which compounds issues when contractors constantly reschedule and the services are not completed.

It makes sense the app isn't half bad. All the Lawn Love team knows is technology. The problem most of the time is everything that happens outside of the app. Homeowners constantly face rescheduling, vague pricing and upcharges, and no way of knowing who is actually coming to complete their services.

Quick Summary

Lawn Love is a lawn care app built by tech enthusiasts who do not understand the lawn care industry. GreenPal's leadership built software that considers the homeowner at every step and helps vendors with demand generation, which has helped many grow their businesses by $100,000 as soon as one season.

Lawn Love's vagueness around pricing based on their algorithm is confusing for users. GreenPal lets vendors bid on a lawn, and homeowners choose the professional.

Lawn Love's inability to rein in its system leads to confused homeowners paying for fees caused by vendors not completing their service. With GreenPal, homeowners don't pay until they are satisfied. GreenPal makes lawn care easy. Lawn Love causes headaches.