Seven months ago Marty Mows came to plant our privacy trees (six Arbor Vitae.) Pretty chaotic. Instead of the one day it turned into two because the trees and roots were 1,200 pounds each and they had not brought equipment so had to be moved off the truck and dragged into the holes by hand.
They cut our fios cable in two places - difficult for us because we work from home. And we're in the middle of a pandemic.
It's now been seven months, and we've still never heard a word from them.
I'm including below the letter we sent Marty Mows after not hearing from them for a month and a half after the day of planting.
We hadn't paid them when we finally got so frustrated we sent the letter below - the non-payment got their attention. A week later the owner, Don Fletcher, came out, said he'd have their certified arborist come immediately to examine the trees and let us know how to take care of them properly. He left, telling us he wished all his angry customers were as nice as us. We were flattered, and ... I'm embarrassed to say ... gullible and trusting again. We paid the full price - just paid for the doubled charge, giving them the benefit of the doubt, deciding life is too short to carry a grudge. Of course no one ever came out. No arborist. No one ever called, emailed, nothing. Almost seven months later, nothing from them.
To this day we have not had a single call, email, ho help or follow up whatsoever. You can see from the pictures that the trees are dying - one is already gone.
We called a few weeks ago (my husband said drop it, give up, but I called anyway) to let them know one tree was dead and the rest are turning brown fast. The woman who answered the phone said "we'll be getting right back to you" about it. Of course they never did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is now the fifth time Jeff has made an appointment and not shown up.
"We don't know who to talk to there to get some help.
"It's now been a month and a half. We have tried repeatedly to get some customer service. We've made five appointments with Jeff, your project manager, and five times he has not shown up. The first three times he didn't even contact us to apologize or reschedule. Last week he said he'd be here Monday at 2pm. He didn't come. He emailed saying he'd be here the next day, at 2pm. He didn't come. We waited all day, having cancelled work plans to be home. We are reasonable people. We've given him the benefit of the doubt, assuming he's busy. But we are now unwilling to continue being strung along like this, a full month and a half later. No one will respond to repeated calls and emails. This is not the way customers should be treated.
"We have had so many unanswered questions. Someone should have contacted us, or stopped by to see if the trees are ok, if we have any questions, and just to provide follow up. We don't understand why that has not happened, six weeks later.
"The original ropes that were tied to the trees to drag them into place are still left there, now cutting into the branches and the trunks. Are we supposed to remove them? The ties that are holding the stakes in place are cutting into the trunks, leaving brown spots and damaged areas. Is that supposed to be happening? The roots of two trees are above ground, completely exposed, and now turning brown - not only does this look awful, but we are afraid the tree won't be able to survive with bare roots. The trunks and branches that were hacked and broken during the planting are now turning brown and are clearly dying.
"There are large empty branchless areas directly facing the house - the trees were not placed so that the full parts faced forward.
"The first two trees are six feet apart, not three as they were supposed to be, leaving an unsightly empty space in the worst possible spot, right at the front of the garden. The other five are not spaced evenly and look sloppy and unprofessionally planted.
"The sixth tree is planted *behind* a large pine where we cannot see it and where we had said we are about to put a fence.
"Why was the front lawn dug up, and left unseeded, leaving a mud slide, for six weeks?
"Where is the mulch included in the estimate? Are the bare piles of dirt at the base of each tree supposed to be left as they are?
"Where was the back-loader that was included in the estimate? Why were the workers left here with no equipment? To dig the holes by hand? And to drag the trees off a truck and down the driveway with ropes?
"Why did the crew arrive here with seven trees instead of the six we had ordered? Why were their instructions to distribute them around the yard? You were here to plant a privacy screen. We had guys running around the yard spraying orange paint marks all around where seven trees could be accommodated. It was total chaos. Someone from Marty Mows should have been here.- The estimate included the price of a front-loader. Why was there no front-loader? Why were 1,200 pound trees as Jeff said, with giant root bags in burlap bags, dragged read more