Introduction: Landscape designs for all budgets!
Simple Elegance provides residential landscape design and consulting services to the Sacramento and Bay area.
Our clients dreams, desires and budget are our number one concern.
We have been creating permanent paradises for the mind, body and soul since 2005.
Overview
5 employees
19 years in business
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Featured Projects
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Reviews
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Jonathan L.
Feb 3, 2015
Do not hire Ben Dickerson or Simple Elegance to complete your landscape design! You will be disappointed and waste a lot of time and money. My wife and I contacted Ben in March 2014 to redesign our backyard. Our main focus was to create shade with a concrete pad and pergola surrounded by drought-resistant plants and a small patch of grass. During our first meeting, we discussed ideas and Ben said he would design the backyard and would set up contractors who would do the work. He said he was a designer but he also claimed he would continue to be our point of contact throughout the completion of the project. We would not have hired him if he had not told us that. We were looking for someone who would work with us to the completion of the project. However as soon as issues arose, of which there were many, Ben went back on his word and stated that he was only our designer and not responsible for problems during our renovation.
Overall, there is a total lack of communication that permeates throughout Ben Dickersons work. First of all, Ben was almost never on time to meetings. We understand things happen but the responsible thing to do would be to call and let us know. More often than not, we would have to call him to see if he was still coming to our meeting.
Secondly, it was a nightmare trying to get in touch with him to get updates on the progress of our backyard. He initially told us that the remodel would take weeks to complete but that timeline quickly expanded into months. Stretches of 5-7 days would pass where we were unable to get a hold of him via phone, text, or email. We left countless phone messages and emails that went unanswered. Early in our work relationship, he apologized for these lapses of communication but after several weeks he simply stopped apologizing because they were too frequent to count.
Finally, due to this lack of communication, he purchased different lights and plants than had been discussed in the plans without consulting with us. After the fact, he told us that the changes were made in an effort to remain within the budget. We understand that due to availability and cost-effectiveness, sometimes changes need to be made. However, it would have been nice to know of those changes prior to those plants and lights being dropped on our doorstep for us to inventory without Bens assistance.
Another major problem we dealt with while working with Ben Dickerson was that he was never on site to oversee the work being completed. Ben told us in June that the contractor he hired to complete the work, Luis Pacheco, was unlicensed. He also told us that Luis was able to do all of the work adequately because he and Luis had worked together previously. We were skeptical but Ben assured us that he would be available to answer any questions and address any concerns that developed during the process. The truth is Ben was never available and Luis was unable to complete anything properly. When (and if) Luis would arrive at our house for work, he failed to follow portions of the design that Ben had laid out. However Ben was unaware of that because Ben was never at our house to ensure the job was being done properly.
This led to many failures during the attempted completion of our project. Much of the irrigation Luis put in had to be torn out and redone by my husband and I due to a number of very large leaks. A large crack developed in one portion of a concrete pathway within one week of being poured. The concrete pad, which was poured in JUNE, was so poorly completed that when Ben finally came out to look at it over two months later in AUGUST, he insisted that it be demolished and re-poured. The demolition took more than two weeks to complete and the re-pour never occurred, leaving us with a 12 x 12 pile of rubble in the middle of our backyard.
After months of daily, unanswered phone calls, it was clear by November 2014 that Ben Dickerson had no intention of completing our backyard renovation and was actively avoiding our attempts to contact him. To this day we have not heard back from Ben Dickerson and have no interest in hearing from him. You would think that because he is a designer he would want to see his vision completed, but in reality he wants nothing more than your money and for you to leave him alone. He has no pride in his work and has no interest in customer satisfaction.
In November we searched the Better Business Bureau to see if there were any other frustrated Simple Elegance/Ben Dickerson customers and he had 3 customer complaints in the past 3 years that sounded similar to the problems that we were having. Simple Elegance is not BBB Accredited. We wish we had read more reviews on him and Simple Elegance before we hired him but we didnt. All we are hoping for is that other people get this message so they dont have to go through the same frustrations with this individual.