Please do yourself a favor and find another arborist with good ratings.
I have a beautiful old valley oak tree in my yard, and one Saturday night two large branches just broke off. I was frantic because I didn't know if the whole tree was going to come down on our house. So I messaged several tree companies on Yelp, and John was the only one who was willing to come out on a Sunday. That was amazing, and I was happy. He cleaned up some of the wood and said he'd be back on Monday.
On Monday he called and said he couldn't make it, but he'd come back on Tuesday. I was ok with that, and on Tuesday he came and did some trimming. I was happy when he left because I no longer feared the tree would come down on my house. That happiness lasted until my pool maintenance guy discovered that a pipe on my pool pump had been broken completely off. I called John and told him, and he said it couldn't have been him because he would have noticed if he dropped a branch on my pump and broke it. But he couldn't come up with any other reason that a 4-inch pipe suddenly broke off the pump after his visit. In addition, one of the branches that he cut off was right above the pool equipment, the gutter on the roof was bent right above the pool equipment, he left several large (sawed, not broken) branches in the backyard by the pool equipment, and the guys who were doing some roofing across the street said he never roped anything off. He was just letting the branches fall. If you believe it was just a coincidence that my pool pump happened to break completely after his visit, then feel free to hire him.
But if you hop over to Google reviews, you'll find another person who had a similar experience with him dropping large branches and damaging their property. If you read these Yelp reviews, you'll see there's someone who gave him a one-star review because he got irate after being asked about his license. I WISH I had asked that question. I started researching the company after he broke the pool pump and refused to pay. I discovered that Pacific Crest Arborist USED to have a license in the City of Folsom under another guy's name. Apparently Pacific Crest Arborist used to be run by two guys, John Cole and David Powell. Powell seems to have broken away to start his own company, and he has good reviews here on Yelp. If you look at the reviews here and on Facebook, you'll also see the name David mentioned in the positive reviews. But if you look at the recent negative reviews, you'll notice that John is singled out as the person that is neither reliable nor professional. Apparently he is trying to skate by on the positive reviews left by people who hired Pacific Crest Arborist when there were two people in the company. Powell is the one who is a certified arborist and is good at his job. Cole (at least at the time of this writing) is not a certified arborist at all, which you can verify here: https://www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist
I sent Cole the estimate to repair the pump before it was fixed. I sent him the bill after it was fixed. I sent him photos and videos of the damage and of the large tree branches he left in my backyard. I asked him to pay for the damage. He kept putting me off and saying he'd do something, but he never did anything. After more than a month of being put off, I've decided the only way to recoup my loss is to take him to small claims court. I've never had to sue anyone, and I really don't want the hassle of going to court. But this is no way to run a business. Everyone makes mistakes, and if he accidentally dropped a tree on my pool pump, and broke it, I wouldn't have written a bad review if he had taken responsibility and paid for it. Instead, he has avoided me and avoided responsibility.
Please do yourself a favor and don't hire this guy. read more