First off, I support local and small businesses whenever possible, but I have to WARN everybody about a local business who responded very poorly to an issue his business created.
We had a tree in our front yard that we wanted to remove so we could replace it with a different one. Our neighbors told us of a local tree company who was coming into the neighborhood to remove some of her trees and thought since they were in the neighborhood that it would be easy to have them do work for us as well. We figured since the company was licensed, bonded and insured it was a good company and asked for him to remove our tree. The business, Jon's Tree Service here in Pelham, contacted me and we set a date and price to have it removed.
The work was done and we paid for the removal. Fast forward to today. I turned on my sprinkler system and found a pipe had been severed from where the tree was removed. I was not worried, as I knew he was licensed, insured and bonded. Boy was I wrong!
I contacted Jon, the owner, and explained the situation and sent him a pic. His response shocked me. He said...
'At $400 for the tree I can't handle the sprinkler line, it's just a risk that happens when removing a tree with roots everywhere'
'There's nothing I can do about lines that are not more than 2 inches deep'
'At the 850 minimum, I would be there tomorrow to fix the line'
'PVC is a easy five minute fix'
I was dumbfounded! I told him I had recently had back and shoulder surgery and was not able to fix the system and would now need to hire somebody to fix an issue he created. He begrudgingly said he would come on Saturday and do the 5-minute fix, which I declined given his dismissive attitude. He continued to make excuses wnd made more shocking statements...
'No need to be an ass, I told u I would handle it, it's literally a 5 min repair'
'U got a tree basically for free amd then expect me to fix a sprinkler line for free
Not my fault your builder didn't do anything correctly and put the tree too shallow and u end up with roots over the entire yard and then the sprinklers
Are put too shallow, none of that is my fault, I only tried to rectify the problem by removing the tree amd roots'
'Get your builder to fix the line, it's his fault it got hit'
I ended our conversation telling him his FIRST response should have been that he would fix the issue, knowing it was a quick 5-minute fix and NOT that it wasn't worth his time to fix. Yes, I paid $400 to have a tree removed instead of his $850 minimum (saved $$ due to him already being in the neighborhood). My takeaway from this experience is two fold...1) even if a company advertises they are licensed, bonded and insured that may only apply to what the company deems worth their time and 2) if you EVER deal with or hire Jon's Tree Service in Pelham...buyer beware and set your expectations very low! read more