My S.O. and I were shopping around for prices on having a couple of pine trees removed as well as stump-grinding. The owner, Bryan, was very eager for our business as he persistently called us daily after initially coming out and giving us an estimate for the work we needed done, which he GUARANTEED could all be done and would only take half a day. He sent us the estimate via email at our request and we called him back a couple of days later to schedule a date for the job to be done. The scheduled date was for a Friday, meaning that we were truly hoping that they could get all of what Bryan had guaranteed done completed before the weekend arrived considering Hurricane Florence was expected to bring rain and storms over the weekend into the next week.
Friday, 3 of his employees came out with their truck and wood-chipper and proceeded to get the trees taken care of. Now, we were told that Bryan would be on-site, especially for one of the trees that was very close to our house, so that he could supervise (being the owner of the company, this should be an absolute in any case like this). Fortunately, some extra help came in (more crew with another piece of equipment), but Bryan NEVER showed up. It wasn't very easy to get in contact with him whatsoever whenever we tried to call him. Ironic how eager he was to call day after day to get our business, but then was practically impossible to get on the phone or in person afterwards.
After all the trees were knocked down, we had expected the stump-grinder to already be on its way so that the job could be finished within that day. Not only did they leave on Friday with only finishing part of the work, but they left our yard a mess with all of the tree trunks (10-15 feet long) lying in it as well as the fork from one of their pieces of machinery. The only thing accomplished that day was the trees actually being cut down and the crew taking away large branches to be chipped away. The crew had informed us, per Bryan, that the rest of the job would be finished the following Monday (again, not what we were originally told).
Monday came and we were waiting until the afternoon for an answer as to when the stump-grinding was going to occur and when all of the tree trunks were going to be taken away. The crew showed up in the early afternoon to come and take the tree trunks, but still no stump grinder. Delayed, yet again another day, to have the "half-day job" completed. Managed to get in touch with Bryan only to find out that the guy who does the stump-grinding for them wasn't able to come out until Tuesday (today), which was another disappointment considering that we were guaranteed a "half-day job".
Tuesday came and we were awoken by the sound of the stump-grinder at about 8AM, with no courtesy call or knock on the door. We were happy that he was finally there finishing the job off, but once again we were given some unfortunate news. The "guaranteed" work that Bryan essentially sold us was actually not able to be completed because the man operating the stump grinder (10+ years of experience) informed us that he couldn't get to 2 our of the 6 stumps that were to be grinded down; another disappointment considering we were expecting the job to be done in its entirety like originally discussed. This gentleman finished the last of his work and left, and shortly after, Bryan finally showed up (to collect his money, one out of the only 2 times we saw him...).***During the job done on Friday, the chipper was ricocheting pieces of wood all over including windows on the house, the siding, as well as the windshield of a car we have parked in the yard (sentimental to my S.O., Bryan was told this as well). Well, one of these pieces hit the windshield and caused a crack that spidered along the windshield. We notified Bryan as soon as we noticed it to notify him what had happened during the time of his crew being here.***
Obviously we had expected some sort of discount for the damage caused to the windshield as well as taking some of the cost off the price for the 2 stumps that couldn't be grinded down. He verbally agreed to $200 off the original estimate price for the windshield and only another $50 more for the other 2 unfinished stumps. When he did come by to inspect the windshield damage, he basically called my S.O. a liar and told him that the wood chips didn't do that damage (it was NOT there before then) but he would still discount as long as there was a document signed voiding them of all responsibility for it after the fact. On top of this, we were upset with his service overall, so we had expected a total of $300 off the initial estimate, but instead of trying to discuss things further, Bryan raised his voice and threatened to put a lien on our home if we couldn't settle. There was no question on paying the man, only as to the amount.
AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. I would have paid a bit more to another company who would have met their guarantee... read more
