I am the first person to complain — LOUDLY — if a service I’ve contracted for is not up to snuff.

Which is why I try to be just as loud when a service provider exceeds my expectations.

And that’s how I ended up recommending landscaper Josh McLaughlin last May.

My husband and I met Josh at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens spring garden sale in 2011. It was a fortuitous meeting, as a shoulder injury had recently sidelined my husband’s weekend landscaping pursuits.

We gave Josh a try and were very happy with his services. SO happy, in fact, that I wrote a glowing recommendation for Josh McLaughlin’s landscaping services right here on this website.

Everything was fine and dandy until a couple of months ago, when Josh McLaughlin‘s visits to our house became spotty. He became slow to respond to phone calls and emails. One time when he stopped by to talk, his normally friendly demeanor had changed, and he spent every 30 seconds or so spitting tobacco juice onto my lawn, which seemed more than a little unprofessional.

Work was still getting done around our house, but I had definitely lost my warm fuzzy feeling about his services.

Apparently I was not the only one.

Tonight I was contacted by someone who had hired Josh McLaughlin for landscaping services based upon my recommendation, telling me about the problems they’d had with Josh’s services over the last few months.

Things like….

…not showing up….

….not doing what he was paid to do….

And then showing up at their home acting all belligerent to collect for services that were not provided.

To say that I feel like the biggest schmuck on the planet right about now would be an understatement.

I apologized profusely for recommending him at all.

And now I am wondering whether I should put myself on the line in such a public fashion from here on out. Recommending someone who falls down on the job makes me look bad as well.

I certainly will not be recommending Josh McLaughlin’s landscaping services any more. In fact, effective tonight, I will be pulling down my glowing recommendation of his services from my website.

So — to any of you who decided to hire Josh McLaughlin for landscaping services based upon my personal recommendation, I am profoundly sorry.

I will do my best to ensure it doesn’t happen again.