In the fall of 2023, I needed to have a roughly 50FT pine tree cut down and the stump grinded. Like…read moremost homeowners, I started researching tree companies and found several and got quotes from them. One quote was $1,500 (East Coast Tree), another was $1,550 and the highest quote was $1,950. Trying to save my family a little bit of money, I chose East Coast tree to save $50. Boy, this was a big mistake I made.
From the beginning when the receptionist called me, she initially stated that she "could not remember if she had called me" to let me know when the work was going to be happening. This should have been red flag number 1, and I should have said thanks anyway and moved on to the slightly higher priced estimate, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt since no one is perfect. The work was performed with a grapple truck, which when the operator arrived on the morning of 10/19/2023, I could tell he was put into a situation with a vehicle that was too large. He was the only employee from the company who seems to give a d#mn about trying to protect my yard. He spent about half an hour studying the property, looking at the overhead power lines and access to the property before he tried to back the truck into the driveway. He was very careful and used several sheets of plywood to protect the driveway and the lawn. They did a good job cleaning up the debris and cleaning the driveway as well. However, I was not informed of any of the procedures of East Coast Tree prior to the work being performed. Once they were done cutting down the tree and I paid them in full with a check for the work, the truck operator told me someone would be in touch by Monday about coming to grind the stump.
Fast forward to Monday afternoon and I still had not heard anything from them about someone coming to grind the stump, so I called around 4pm when I got off work and spoke with the receptionist. I only told her that I had been informed by the grapple truck operator that someone would be in touch by Monday, and I was following up since I hadn't heard anything. She checked about the stump grinder, but I never heard anything back. This was on Monday, 10/23/2023.
The next morning, I left for work right around 7am (I have video of this as well). Around 9:15am that morning, they showed up with the stump grinder and did nothing for about half an hour (I have video evidence of this as well - multiple videos that show the two guys who showed up blocking our driveway with the truck/trailer, leaning against the trailer, pacing on my yard smoking cigarettes, etc.). This was until 9:46am (per the time stamp on the security video) when my wife and son noticed them outside the house. They went out and talked to them 2 minutes prior to unloading the stump grinder from the trailer. After the stump grinder was unloaded, they proceeded to drive it through not only my yard, but also my neighbor's. I have a video of this as well that is time-stamped around 9:48am as well as a second video my wife took with her cell phone from eye level. The best part about this whole thing is that my wife called me and told me they had shown up. I called and spoke with the receptionist, who tried calling the guys at our house with the stump grinder, but she could not reach them. Then she asked me to ask my wife to ask them to move the truck since she needed to get out soon after that.
When I got home that night and saw the damage, I lost it. They had driven about 30-40FT through the yard with the stump grinder. This was after we had recently had heavy rain, and the ground was very soft. When I called that night to complain to the receptionist about it and ask what they were going to do to fix it, she said she would have someone reach out to me.
Throughout the entire process, not once did East Coast Tree do anything proactive to try to reach out to me. I had to follow up with them multiple times after I had not heard anything in days. They did not even apologize for the damage. They said when I talked with her that the damage was "unavoidable because the ground was wet". I told her this was b$#*hit and that they needed to fix the damage. 90% of the damage that was done to the lawn could have been avoided since the driveway was 100% accessible. Also, since my wife and son were home when they came, she could have easily moved her car if they needed more space to access the tree stump to grind it. The stump itself was less than 6FT away from the edge of the driveway, yet the "geniuses" who showed up to grind it decided to drive the heavy stump grinder 30-40FT through the lawn and crush the lawn. They also did not have any plywood to protect the lawn like the grapple truck that cut the tree down. This whole thing is inexcusable.
I made enough noise that I got the attention of the company owner, Mr. Fitzpatrick. He called me while I was at work, and we talked about the damage done by his employees. I asked him for something in writing, which he did not agree to. We did however