We got a message about this recently, and now Cobb County government is getting out the word warning about pine straw scammers who are coming to neighborhoods.
A reader told us that earlier this month an incident happened to a neighbor in East Cobb, after three men in a pickup truck were driving a utility trailer full of pine straw, promising to lay it down for $5 a bale.
The reader said the workers did the job, but then wanted much more money than the agreed-upon price. After an argument, the resident gave them some of the money they demanded for them to go away, afraid of retaliation.
The reader said there may have been a similar incident in the Providence Walk subdivision but with a different vehicle.
Here’s the message the county is getting out to the public:
Workers approach homeowners and explain they are in the area working and have extra pine straw and offer to sell and spread the pine straw for approximately $4 per bale. Depending on the size of the yard the agreement is to spread approximately 10-50 bales of pine straw.
At some point, the workers re-contact the homeowner and say that it will take more pine straw than anticipated to complete the job and the homeowner agrees with the assumption it will only take a few more bales to complete the job. When the workers finish the job they advise the homeowner they installed approximately 4 times the bales the homeowner anticipated.
The workers then try to collect several thousands of dollars for the work they claim they did. In most of the cases, the homeowners start negotiating a rate higher than agreed upon initially but lower than the workers are asking simply to get them to leave.
What to do:
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Use extreme caution when dealing with walk-up salespeople.
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Ask them for a business card or website so that you can research the business before they start the work.
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If possible obtain the business name, employee names, phone numbers, and tag numbers.
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Check for a Cobb County Business License and Better Business Bureau review.
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If it is a verbal agreement, record the conversation, agree on the specific work that you want to be done, and agree on a specific final price. Before any work starts.
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Trying to save a few dollars is not worth it. Use a local reputable company that is established, licensed, and insured.
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If you feel that you are being scammed or intimidated to pay a higher amount immediately call 911 to have the issue reported and hopefully resolved.
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