They did take down the two trees I had engaged with them to remove and they did it in the agreed upon time frame. If that's all you care about, consider it a 5-star review.
Jose is, I believe, the owner. He came out to inspect and to do the bid.
1st concern: We needed the job done quickly because we have poison ivy which had grown all over one of the two mature Ailanthus trees. I explained that to him, and we both said that the workers need to be protected. (We couldn't complete the eradication of the poison ivy until the trees were removed.)
--- When the crew arrived, no one, including the foreman, Herman, had been informed of the poison ivy. Hello? Protect your workers??
2nd concern: Jose said that they would be careful to cut the trees in small pieces and take them down with ropes, to avoid falling hunks of tree which could do damage. These trees were in between my next door neighbor's backyard and mine. He specifically said that the work would be done so that the only access required would be these two backyards. I paraphrased that to be sure we were on the same page and he readily confirmed.
Another tree, which was not in our job was removed - a maple tree. The maple was (clearly) rooted on land owned by someone else who they did not contact. Don't you think the company should have made a quick phone call to check? Their contract was with me and they never bothered to check with me before changing the plan. Jose and I had reiterated over and over and over "just these two Ailanthus trees."
3rd concern: I pointedly asked Jose if he would personally be present during the job (because we had discussed several details -- see below). He said that he would definitely be there in the beginning, but might be coming and going during the job and would be there at the end of the job to be sure everything was done as planned. Jose did not show up at all. So, Herman (who was very polite), who knew exactly zero about the job, had to plow ahead without the benefit of job details from Jose.
4th concern: Jose said they would need to move my patio furniture. Fine, but I expressed a concern about returning everything to the exact places where each item was before moving. He assured me not to worry, that they do this all the time, and that "all" his clients are "always" so happy to see everything returned exactly in place. Reality -- Nothing was returned to its proper position, nothing. I am older, have weak bones, and the furniture is heavy.
5th concern: I had specifically asked Jose to be sure not to trample just 3-4 plants -- my lilies, my Lilies of the Valley, and my Elephant Ear plant which I had grown from a bulb. The lilies (which were almost 3 feet tall) were trampled onto their sides right onto the poison ivy. So, I cannot keep them -- and they look pretty dead anyway. The Lilies of the Valley are gone, all gone -- and the Elephant Ears plant was gone gone gone. In fact every single living thing in my backyard was GONE except for the two small dogwoods and the small magnolia bush (all three with broken off branches now). It was a lush garden and now I just have bare dirt.
I am unhappy about how this job went down. read more