I had an absolutely abysmal experience with Premium Tree Care that ended up costing me hundreds of…read moredollars more than I planned because I had to hire someone else to fix their terrible irrigation work and they will not give me a refund.
Hired them based on a referral from another tree company that didn't work in my area, and their stellar Google reviews. Somehow I'm the outlier that had a less-than-one-star experience.
Contacted them for an estimate. They came out quickly and seemed professional. My citrus trees have been struggling, so we came up with a plan to trim and fertilize them and put them on a new irrigation system of their own. Estimate was about $1500, so not a small amount of money. They booked me for 11 am on a Friday.
The morning of the work they moved me a 12-2 window. 1:30 rolls around and I haven't heard anything so I messaged them. I was told they will be by at 2:45. They show up, do the work we agreed to in a few hours, including a new irrigation line. At the end, they tell me that they couldn't fertilize the trees because it's too hot and there is too much direct sun. They tell me multiple times they will be back on Monday right at 7. I'm irritated that they didn't factor the time and sun into the project, but accept that the work will be done on Monday.
Over the weekend I receive a reminder text that they will be at my house promptly at 7 on Monday. Come Monday morning at 7, they are nowhere to be found. No communication. I texted them and they told me that they had a client who needed additional work that morning so they can't make it until Wednesday. So far, they are late, no communication, and apparently other clients are more important than I am.
On Tuesday I discovered that they set up my irrigation incorrectly, and it's watering the citrus trees with other parts of my yard, not separately (which is what I paid for). They assure me it's likely just a short in the electrical and not a big deal. I tell them they need to come out ASAP to fix it and we agree to 6 am on Wednesday.
They show up Wednesday at 6 am and discover that it's a much larger problem than anticipated, and they have to pull up my less-than-a-year old pavers to run a new cable to the clock. None of this was discussed ahead of time. There was no mention that the irrigation might be challenging. It was completely minimized as an easy job but somehow they managed to screw it up twice.
At this point I'm tempted to cancel the project but decide to move forward. They pull up my patio, work on the irrigation and assure me it's fixed. We test the citrus trees with the bushes to make sure they are now running separately. Seems like things are working as expected so I pay them and am glad to be done.
A week later I discover from the Hydrawise app on my phone that one of my grass zones hasn't been watered in a week due to a low electrical current. The alerts started the same day and right after Premium Tree Care rewired my irrigation. I text Premium Tree Care and they assure me they didn't touch the sprinklers and offer to send out someone else to take a look at it. Instead of trusting them again, I had a friend who does landscaping come and take a look at it. He and his crew had to rework ALL of the irrigation that Premium Tree care touched. Sure enough, the disconnect was under the pavers, where the wires had been bundled together incorrectly. The new landscaper also found barely buried lines to the timer that had been bound with duct tape and not capped.
I called the head of Premium Tree Care and told him that the work was unacceptable and that I would like a refund on the irrigation since I had to hire someone else to fix it after Premium worked on it twice and it was still wrong. Even though he wasn't present for the actual work that his crew did, he assured me that they didn't touch the sprinkler wiring and refused to discuss a refund. I'm unclear how he would know that they didn't touch the sprinkler wiring since he wasn't present. Additionally, they tried to make it work twice and both times they broke it. I ended up having to pay someone else to fix the "work" that they did that they were clearly not qualified to do.
Please do not hire this company.