BEWARE! One tree; one stump; one widow. Here's what happened.
Didn't finish the job (had to hire another tree service to finish)
Didn't make appointments (several of them)
Changed his price per hour after the estimate
Charged me for more hours than he actually did work for
Asked for advanced pay
Refused to pay my money back for work not completed
I received a recommendation for Mr. Ellison, owner and operator of The Artisan Arborist for stump grinding and to have a dead tree cut down. I will try to sum it up. He asked me to pay in advance $550 ($350 for the stump and $200 for the tree). I paid him in cash. He didn't show up to his scheduled appointments several times over the corse of a month even after being paid and when he did come he only ground the stump. He then asked me for more money. I told him I already paid you the $550 he said, "no you paid me $350 for the stump and it was a big stump the $200 was for the tree." I replied "yes, but you didn't cut the tree down." He said, "but I'm going to come back in a few day and cut the tree." At this point he said he had worked for 8 hours and that he wanted another 700 dollars. I agreed to giving him another $400, because honestly, I felt intimidated and didn't feel like I had any choice. He then texted me the next day and asked me to pay him another $50 in labor and $35 for the maintenance on the machine he rented upon removal of the tree. After paying him $950 and still didn't have the job done I checked my security cameras and found out that he was only here for 6 hours not 8 and that he was on the phone for the first 2 hours and then left abruptly on day one in the middle of the project; so he only worked for about 4 hours thats $237.5 per hour!!! He never returned to cut the tree down. I ended up getting someone else to cut it down after a few more weeks of waiting and two more missed appointments on his end. He ghosted me on the $200 and steeply over-charged me on the stump. Way to take advantage. I would never recommend him. read more