Business Name: Palmieri Nursery

Business Category: Landscaping

Business Zip: 33407

Feedback: False

Date: Thursday, February 26, 2009

User: 1wildhorse

Comments: As a female business woman, I tend to seek out opportunities to support women-owned businesses when making purchasing decisions. Unfortunately, there is often as much contemptible behavior exhibited regardless of gender. Approximately one month ago I contacted the Palmieri Nursery in West Palm Beach, Florida, owned by Josie Palmieri, to clear my front landscape. In the initial telephone conversation, she specifically told me that she would call me the following week to make an appointment. No fee schedule, nor the specific nature of services was discussed. I left my phone number. A week went by, no phone call. Despite the latitude, the days following brought about a cold front delivering temperature below 40 degrees. Upon notice of a possible freeze, in order to protect my landscape material, after arriving home one evening I covered all the plants, bushes and trees up to 12 feet tall with protective fabric to avoid damage. Given that I have serious back injury, working 4 hours in the dark stretching and reaching to complete this process, I was relieved the next morning when I found that not one of my plants exhibited damage. The reports that next morning indicated that the temperature, in consideration of wind gusts, was not expected to rise above 29 degrees until close to noon. So, I went to work, leaving the protective fabric in place. The reports for the coming night indicated that the temperatures would likely dip below 40 degrees again, so, after checking with a local expert, I decided to leave the fabric in place another night. The strongest reason for making this decision was that I had a new tree planted less than one year before that was still vulnerable and it was not meant to be exposed to temperatures below 40 degrees. Knowing that my landscaping was safe, I was able to work late that evening, then run some errands without rushing home to cover my plantings since it was already done the night before. At approximately 9:30 at night, I arrived home only to find that all of the fabric that I had so carefully draped and secured over my landscape material had been stripped off. And, to make matters worse, every bush and flower, as well as the tree I mentioned, had been severely trimmed back, making them even more vulnerable to the pending chill that was forecast. All the material that I had used to cover the landscaping material, which had been purchased the day before for close to $350, was bound together in the garbage. No one scheduled this visit. No one contacted me when they arrived to complete the trimming and clearing to get permission to remove the protective fabric. At nearly 10 p.m. with a back that was aching from the work done the previous night, and a knot of fabric to untangle, I simply did not have the physical wear with all to start unraveling the bundle of material and begin the process all over again. I went to bed that night worried about the outcome of a chilly night. I awoke repeatedly, checking the weather channel and hoping for the best. The next morning I awoke to find that the needles on the young tree were 'burnt' from the cold. By the time I returned home that night I found sections of the tree withered and yellow. Needless to say, I was less than pleased. The following weekend, without so much as a phone call or notice, an employee showed up expecting to get paid. I told him that I was very angry and that I would need to flesh this situation out with Josie Palmieri, the owner. A few days went by - no phone call, no notice, she showed up in the early morning hours while I was getting ready for work. I did not answer the door given that I was showering. A few days later I found an invoice stuck in my exterior door frame. Tonight, having arrived home early in order to meet with someone at my home at 6 p.m., I come to the door to meet him and find Josie Palmieri - no phone call, no notice. I told her that she would have to leave my property until such time as she was prepared to show me and my property the respect that any homeowner and/or customer deserved. Showing up at will without an appointment was not respectful or tolerable. Her response was a tirade of unbridled rage and self-serving, irrelevant accusations. I repeatedly asked her to listen rather than spew objections to statements or assertions never made. In the end, she accused me of "stealing" her services, though I never refused to pay for her services, only that she would have to behave in a professional manner and hear my position and concerns first. I told her, again and again, that I was not refusing to pay, but, then she decided that she 'didn't want my money' and that I needed it more than she because, as she asserted, I was "white trash" and I needed it more than she did. All I ever asked for was respect and to be heard. She disrespected me and my property, yet could not find enough composure to listen to the customer. In the end, she walked away from the remuneration for services rendered out of arrogance and desperation to cling to her own perception of superiority. At one point she actually claimed that she had the right to extend God's blessings on me because she asserted that I "needed it" and continued to sling personal insults that were not relevant, none the less untrue. This women has no sense of healthy boundaries. She doesn't understand that a business owner is expected to keep their word. And, that a property owner has the right to dictate what is and is not done on their property, as well as when and if services are rendered. One just can't show up when they want without notice, without consent and with an agreed-upon price. Business owner also have the responsibility to behave in a professional manner, not show-up at will and launch into a tirade, ending in personal attacks. In the end, she walked away uncompensated by virtue of her own bizarre disposition. If the tree in question survives, I will be donating an amount equal to the fee for services rendered, however untimely, to the local mental health facility in hope that someone get the benefit of much needed mental and emotional recovery - something obviously lacking in Ms. Palmieri.