Gwinnett county GA residents question

Fran--why don't you start with your local Better Business Bureau. If anyone has complained, or had disputes with that company and filed it with the BBB, the info will be there. (Even if the landscaping company isn't a member of the BBB.)

You could also ask the landscaping company for a list of references; ask some of their other customers think about them.

Fran, this company seems to leave a lot of doubt in your mind. I'd say: Keep looking. There must be more than one landscaping company in your area and if you're considering them based on "cheap" rates just remember that you get what you pay for.

Sometimes that nagging intuition we have turns out to be true.

Fran,
I would not consider any landscape contractor unless I could get information on their past customers.

Fran,
Please don't come on here and blanket damn all retired people because you conclude they just run around looking for ways to make your life miserable. I also would caution if you are a manager or or a PM, for your business health you reconsider your conclusions. In addition, a ton of those retired people with too much time on their hands are the very people that answer your questions on this site.

I don't think most retired folks are unaware of the demands of holding a job, and will help more than hinder. It could be that your HOA has some communication problems, at the very least.

Fran - with a little effort, it's not too hard to find some info on this company.

Great American Landscape Company is located in Monroe, GA and is organized as a Georgia Limited Liability Company. They appear to be one of several businesses run by a parent company called Great American Service Companies.

Great American Landscape Company LLC was registered with the Georgia Secretary of State on 01/21/2009 and has renewed it's registration in 2010.

Great American Services, Inc (which may or may not actually be the parent company in question) was a corporation registered in Georgia on 09/09/2009, but was voluntarily dissolved about a month later.

Their website is www.greatamericanserviceco.com which is hosted by AT&T webhosting and is a one page "brochure" site that is the build it yourself type from yellowbook.

Hope that helps.

Hi Fran -

No, I don't work for them. Just a little "internet sleuthing" can get you this type of info in about 10-15 minutes. However, you should also be aware of the limitations of this type of information and not attempt to draw too many conclusions from it.

So, I first went to the Georgia Secretary of State's website where corporations, LLCs, and DBAs are required to register. I just searched for companies starting with "Great American" and found them. The original filing documents are also there, so you can see their "history" by looking at them. However, some limitations could be that the same people may have previously been in business under a different company name, or by the same name as a sole proprietorship or partnership which wouldn't be listed on that website. So, while it's safe to say that this company PER SE has been in business since 2009, it's not possible with this simple a search to get earlier relevant history from different company "forms".

Once, I had their address, just googling the name and city state brought me right to the Yellowbook listing which then took me to their company website. Since it was a one page site with a Yellowbook banner at the bottom, it's pretty easy to figure out how this simple site was created (at least most likely), but just to confirm I checked the URL with one of the "whois" services. This confirmed that the domain name is owned by the Yellowbook folks themselves. Mind you, there's nothing inherently "wrong" with such a simple, one page, "brochure site" - it's just suggestive of a business that doesn't rely on web advertising/services.

I then tried to access their business license in Walton county, but unfortunately that county doesn't have it's business license database online. As such, I couldn't get any additional info there.

The point of this, is just that with a little searching, you CAN get basic info - but beware of both the limitations and how you choose to interpret what you find.