We need a little more information to be of much help.

Where are you?

What kind of grass do you have?

How much water do you get in 20 minutes of watering?

Do you adjust your watering if it rains?

Is the starter fertilizer that you just put down the only fertilizer you've used this year?

When you say the lawn was seeded late this spring, how late was it seeded?

What did you do to keep it growing through the summer? The summer is usually pretty tough on lawns that were seeded in the spring, especially late spring. However, if you have a warm season grass, late spring is one of the best times to seed.

I can say a few things on your current watering. If you can only get the screwdriver to penetrate to 1-2 inches, you're ensuring that your grass has a root system that only penetrates 1-2 inches. Daily watering increases weed growth and encourages shallow roots. Even if you water deeply, if the top few inches of soil never dry out, the grass roots will never go any deeper.

With 17 zones, you may need to split the watering up into a couple of different cycles. Maybe water zones 1-6 one day, zones 7-12 another day and the rest a third day. Since you've been watering so frequently and shallowly, you may need to first split it in half and water 3x/week, then split into thirds and water twice a week for a while, then go to once a week.

i will try what you said. here are some answers to the question. hope they will allow you to help me some more.

Where are you?
-wisconsin

What kind of grass do you have?
-a mix of KBG,PRG, and fescue

How much water do you get in 20 minutes of watering?
-i have not calibrated yet. i know i should do this.

Do you adjust your watering if it rains?
-yes. i turn it off an arbitrary # of days. not scientific at all. i really don't have an established pattern of watering at all. my landscaper ditched my job and never instructed me on how to care for my lawn so i was trial and erroring throughout the summer. going by what people would tell me..."water every day" "water every 2 days" "water once a week" etc. i'm at the point where i'm convinced whatever i'm doing, it's not optimal.

Is the starter fertilizer that you just put down the only fertilizer you've used this year?
-except for what was in the hydroseed mix, that was the starter was the only fertilizer i put. and i did it this week.

When you say the lawn was seeded late this spring, how late was it seeded? it was at the end of april.

Unfortunately, spring is not a good time to seed cool season grasses. Late spring is even worse.

Depending on how thin and how big the thin spots are and how much of the grass is KBG, it may fill in on its own. If not, you'll want to overseed. I was going to ask if the company offered any kind of guarantee, but it sounds like they took off on you anyway, so it's probably moot.

I'm afraid you might be too late for a fall seeding in your area. Do you know the date of the average first frost where you are? Wisconsin is a pretty big state, and there is probably a huge difference from one part to another. If you're in southern Wisconsin you might have time for an overseeding, but you want about 6 weeks before frost to do it. If you have time to seed now, you want to cut the grass as short as you can, and either core aerate or slit seed.

You want to keep the surface moist until the seeds germinate, so if you're not getting any rain, you'll need to water a couple of times a day. Once the seed germinates, slowly increase the amount of water you apply each time you water and decrease the frequency. The ultimate goal is to apply an inch a week all on the same day. If it rains, you need to adjust the amount you water to take the rain into account.

If it's too late for a fall seeding, your next best option is a dormant seeding. For that, you wait until it's too cold for the seed to germinate and overseed. The freeze/thaw cycles and the melting snow will bring the seed into good contact with the soil. When it warms up enough, the seed will germinate. You won't get as much germination as with a fall seeding because you'll lose some seed to birds and insects, some may germinate then die in a freeze, some may wash away, etc. You'll probably still fare better than trying to seed in the spring and keep it alive through the heat of the summer. If you're far enough north and the summers are mild, spring seeding may not be as bad, but from the description of what happened this year, I think you're better off not trying a spring seeding.