Madden Brothers: Landscape Supplies Review

This follow up review was requested by Brian Madden for resolving the unseasoned firewood he sold me that has grown mold and resulted in my one-star Google review.

Brian did immediately reply to my review promoting his five-star Google reviews and writing that something must have gone wrong. I understand that mistakes happen and but it s how you resolve the issue that matters. Any business selling a commodity product for a premium price has to provide an exceptional customer experience to remain competitive. I had three interactions with Madden Brother I d like to share.

1). I ordered the wood on 11/6/20 with delivery scheduled for the second week of December. Later that day I got a thank you email from them with a nice video of Brian and his family. Later I got a second email asking for a Google review for my purchase. I ignored it since the wood had not yet been delivered. Then over the next couple of days, several more emails were received for a Google review. I finally called the office and asked them to stop the emails and take me off their marketing lists. I gave them my email expecting my receipt, which was on paper when the wood was delivered not an inbox full of google review requests.

2). The wood was delivered on 12/4/20 and would not burn. I called the office and Tina explained the kiln drying process of first removing all the oak because it was too hard to dry and then the mostly maple and ash are run through the kiln three times. Later that day, Bobby Madden came to the house to probe the wood with a moisture meter with most logs in the high teen/low 20 s with some as high as 37% moisture. Bobby left the decision up to me and I agreed to keep the wood thinking I d just get more bad wood from them or it may dry in my garage and I would run short season with a refund. I lived with my decision and it burnt by adding other seasoned wood and did not complain until it started growing mold. If Google ratings are so important, Bobby should have insisted on removing or replacing the wood rather than leaving a problem with a customer that eventually resulted in the low review.

3). My third interaction was my phone call with Brian Madden which was the most unusual approach to resolving a customer issue I ve ever seen. He never once apologized for selling unseasoned wood, instead, he played the victim for receiving a bad Google review! He started the call by aggressively asking me WHY WOULD YOU POST A ONE-STAR REVIEW WITHOUT CONTACTING ME FIRST ? (If they have a CRM system and had he checked my record before the call, he would have seen he already had the chance to make this right). He went on to say: WE ARE A SMALL FAMILY RUN BUSINESS! WE EMPLOY 20 PEOPLE! HOW COULD YOU TELL THE WORLD WITH YOUR LOW REVIEW WITHOUT CONTACTING ME? After about four minutes of hearing about his problem, we finally got around to discussing the issue that caused the low review. At the end of the day, I got a text just saying they would refund my money with no apology.

The impression I will always have of Madden Bros. is that they are so obsessed with their Google rating that they have lost the personal touch and concern for their customers that had gotten them high ratings in the past.

I have used Madden Brothers for years while living in Brunswick. Always great service and materials. The area we have at our new home in Hinckley is much smaller as we have yet to build up the landscape so for the past few years I resorted to buying bags from the store for my mulch. This year I bought mulch and soil delivered from Madden Brothers and it is a world of difference. The all bark mulch looks amazing and the soil is of high quality to build back up the beds and fix some bare spots in the lawn and settling from the newly built house. I would advise anyone I know to put their trust in this company for their landscaping material needs.

I ordered mulch in the morning. They said it would be delivered between 11-2. Well it never showed. I was busy working. They closed at 4:30. I stopped up there about 4:40 to see if anyone was still there to discuss it. A guy was getting in his truck heading home for the day. I asked if anyone from the office was around to find out what happened. Long story short, this guy made a bunch of calls but nobody answered. Finally he asked for my address. Loaded up the mulch and delivered it. Yea it sucks it was late. But really awesome that he made it right.

From ordering to delivery as always has been perfect!. The team at Madden Brothers goes beyond expectations. The care with customers is absolutely outstanding!..
I received my delivery 12/4/2020 The driver had called my cell which I was unable to answer at the time. Bobby took notice the area that was cleared out and where the firewood racks are located, he ensured to do the best he could to off load the wood exactly where it needed to be placed. (Perfect placement). I appreciate Madden Brothers dedication to the service provided.
Will be chatting soon when I need additional wood.

Thank you again
Steve

I cannot say enough about Madden Brothers both for their product quality and service. We ordered a chord of wood this year after finally exhausting the chord we bought FOUR years ago. We were told the air dried was of equivalent quality as the kiln dried and $200 cheaper so we went ahead and bought the air dried. Jason delivered our wood and couldn t have been more gracious or pleasant. That weekend we organized it neatly on the side of our garage almost to the very top, put up some tarps for cover and brought some inside. Unfortunately it was not dry at all and we could not get a fire going despite all the kindling, paper, constant turning etc. We were deeply disappointed but planned to make it work. We got an e-mail shortly after delivery from Brian Madden asking for a review to which I replied that we were so dissatisfied we could not write a positive review and therefor would simply opt out. Within minutes of sending the e-mail we got a phone call from Brian asking for some feedback and stating unequivocally that he would make it right, would pick up the wood and replace with kiln dried at no charge. We would have happily paid for the difference for the kiln dried vs air but he wouldn t hear of it. Within a week or so Brian and his colleague, also Brian, drove up apologized profusely asked where the wood was and got to work. They picked up most of the air dried wood, replaced, neatly and thoughtfully exactly where we d laid out our wood and cleaned up so there was no trace of their very laborious task. On their way out they knocked, apologized again and said they d left some of the air dried at the bottom of our pile bc by the time we got to use it it would be perfectly dry. We have a chord+ of beautifully dry wood and couldn t be more impressed. Madden Brothers will remain our go to for firewood and MULCH as we ve ordered several years in a row and that has also been excellent. Happy to recommend this awesome Cleveland small business.

Great product and service. We ordered 7 yards of the Super Soil. It was top quality Soil and did not contain any trash or junk. We were very happy with this purchase and will buy from them again in the future!

Switched hands as of 2021. Very unorganized and slow. Nobody really running the yard....at least for the 30 mins i waited to get 2 yards of mulch with no other customer in sight. And then i got a "light" 2 scoops/yards....

Sometimes you find GREAT service in unexpected places!! I never expected a mulch company to be so friendly and reliable! I have ordered mulch and wood chips from Madden Brothers for years and have always found them to be easy to deal with, priced competitively, and very dependable. I'll keep coming back year after year!

Very professional, website is organized easy to navigate and prices are listed upfront. Contact and follow up was first rate delivery was as scheduled and the driver was very accommodating on my narrow driveway... I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND MADDEN BROTHERS!!!!!!!

I purchased a 1/5 chord of camping fire wood. The wood burns like a dream and splits well. I plan on purchasing more wood when the kiln dried wood is available if I run out of wood. The price was very fair and service was great! It was worth the 40 minute drive to pick up the wood.