My partner and I experienced the most rude service and attitude by a business owner either of us…read morehad ever received, (dis)courtesy of the elderly woman behind the counter. I assume she's the owner. Over the course of our visit, she also asked us about three times how we found them, where we're from, etc. It was weird and uncomfortable.
Some consumer advice: first, theres like 10 places in a five-mile radius that have healthy trees ready to go. We saw plenty in the 4 to 6 foot range from $20 to $30. One place even throws in five pounds of apples when you buy a tree. Go elsewhere.
Second, despite the fact that you must cut your own tree (an aspect I personally enjoy), they have the gall to charge $6 a foot. Sounds like a good deal, right? That's what we thought. However, she has the gall to charge for the parts no other tree hawkers would, and dish out some cloying attitude while she does it. A gangly branch at the top that can't even hold a strand a tinsel? Pony up, pal, because you're paying for every inch.
Our tree of choice happened to have a gangly, 8-inch top branch that brought the total height to nearly 4 feet. I trimmed this top part off. Again, acting on the assumption that they could not conceivably charge for what others would call trimmings. I didn't think that would be an issue. The woman charged us $24 for this little tree that would make Charlie Brown barf, and when I questioned the measurement, she said: "oh, you think because you trimmed the top part it's not four feet?" She laughs in an exasperated way. "Well I'm certainly glad no other customers think that." Her bitterness floored me, not just for it's execrable delivery, but for how misplaced it was. Clearly she hasn't been up to see her product, which is a short walk up the hill behind her.
A considerable amount of the trees we saw would be deemed unsalable by vendors. We saw quite a few trees that were cut halfway up, with people only taking the best part of a tree. Regrettable, but sensible; if you're charging people by the inch after they cut it themselves, why would they want the unsightly, or even diseased, parts? Naturally some trees were plagued by dead and dying branches, but a few we're infested with mushrooms and other fungi. This led us to the impression that the owners couldn't care less, and judging from the example of past customers who understood how cheap these people were, took it upon themselves to insure they wouldn't get hosed.
We, however, did get hosed. And like Charlie Brown, I feel like a blockhead.
