St. Albert resident Sandra McGillivray returned home to an unwelcome surprise last week.
McGillivray and her husband were running errands on Thursday afternoon before coming home to their Deer Ridge home to find a Canadian Property Stars employee aerating their lawn.
"Neither one of us had requested aeration done because we'd been discussing having the front yard xeriscaped," she said. "There's no point aerating a yard that you're going to rip the grass up on."
When asked why he was working on their lawn, the man responded that they had pre-arranged to have their lawn aerated, although McGillivray said this is certainly not the case. They asked him to stop what he was doing.
The pair headed inside and "didn't think anything of it," until noticing a $45 invoice in their mailbox later that evening.
"Maybe the rest of the folks in St. Albert should be aware that this company is out there and potentially getting business or trying to drum up business without getting permission," she said.
McGillivray attempted to contact Canadian Property Stars, but said she could not get through as it was after business hours. Calls to the company were not returned to the St. Albert Gazette.
Local RCMP is aware of the incident, although Const. Janice Schoepp said they are not investigating at this time.
The federal government's Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has also been notified and Staff Sgt. Paul Proulx, manager of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, said there are a handful of complaints about the company to date.
He said any occurrence like this should be reported to local authorities, as well as the Competition Bureau of Canada.
"They have a fair business practice branch that takes care of these things and they should be very much aware of this complaint because there are ways to do business in Canada and that's not one of them," he said.
Future concerns
On top of being billed for the unsolicited work, McGillivray said the work wasn't even worth the price they were charged.
"I don't know how much time this guy had spent on our lawn, but it looks like I can count maybe 10 cores on the entire lawn," she said, adding this is much less than past aerations. "Even if he did do the job, he didn't do a good job."
She worries that the less-than-par work to her yard could cause future problems, leaving her with an even bigger mess to clean up.
"Maybe he's given my lawn fairy ring because he hasn't cleaned the (spikes) of the aeration machine," she said. "It's really not just, he did something but potentially that he's wrecked the lawn even more."
A fairy ring is caused by fungus rooted in the soil that leaves a visible pattern in the grass and is often difficult to get rid of.
Not a better business
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) gives Canadian Property Stars a failing grade and alerts users that the company has been using the BBB trademarks and claiming to be accredited even though it is not.
More than 70 complaints about the company have been submitted to the bureau in the last three years, prompting its 'F' grade, which is the lowest possible grade in the BBB grading system.
The business is also known as Springmasters Canada, according to the BBB.
