Allen's Tree Service Inc

He called our office on 9/26/16 for the estimate and our estimator looked at his tree on 10/5, he signed to have the work done on 10/14/16 and never inquired or asked anything about what was going to be done on his tree. At the time of the scheduling, our crews were running out at about 6-8 weeks,...

which put his job at approx. mid to end Dec. During which the end of Nov and Dec around all the holidays, there was a very bad virus going around. All of our 30 + employees got it not only 1 time, but maybe had it 2xs or more. Myself got the virus 3xs. So in the scheduling of work the crews did get a little bit behind. Some years we do get 4-5 months behind like most professional tree care companies. We are not working day to day. We've been in business for almost 40 years. Mr. [redacted] has written, called, emailed several times over the course of his tree pruning was done, I remember calling him the day before to tell him the crew was coming out to do it. He states I never called, but I did. I called the # on his contract. We keep track and enter all calls into our system. When a customer calls, we make notes in the computer system on every detail about what happens. And this is what he called about. After the work was done and the invoice was sent to him, he calls on 1/30/17 to complain about this:He stated: He "thought" that the job was put on hold. But in his response, he said he called to ask questions and we never returned the call--we return EVERY call that comes into our office every day and after hours and by email inquiries.We have NO record of him calling us, perhaps another company, we don't know. He never called us after signing his contract until 1/30/17 to complain about his bill.  We have nothing in his system that says to "hold" off on doing his work. What we do note in our system is this--He wants (1) of the main trunk of the tree cut which hangs over the house. We tried to explain to him, that this type of work is not and never recommended due to the size of the limb to be cut was too large. We called, we emailed about his invoice, which he just recently started returning our calls and emailing us back and forth to dispute the allegations of him saying he called to put the work on hold and then changed his story to say that he thought that our estimate wasn't HIGH enough for the work he wanted done. After Myself and Mr. [redacted] talked on the phone, sent emails back and forth for a couple of weeks, I was finally able to arrange a time that he would agree to meet [redacted], the man who given the estimate (when the homeowner was not at home at the time of the bid) and now can meet him to explain what was done and what he wanted done. I made that arrangement as soon as Mr [redacted] gave me his available date and time. We have responded to every email and call. Every time he says the problem is this, then the problem is another reason. He keeps changing his reason why there is a problem. And by the way, I am one of the owners.I didn't make any threats. I only informed him that if we don't receive payment or come to an agreement, then we send the account to collections, because it has already been 3 months and he hadn't done anything about paying his bill.When [redacted] met with him, [redacted] did not tell him we didn't do the work. He told Mr. [redacted] that he didn't recommend taking the large limb off. The work stated on the contract says this:Take off 1 limb over neighbors yard at bottom of tree, prune-raise over house ( this means--prune limbs that are touching the shingles-the roof--there are pruning cuts on the tree--over the roof) and prune off neighbors house 3-4 ft more. We did exactly what said on the contract. So when [redacted] met with Mr. [redacted], Mr. [redacted] showed [redacted] this LARGE diameter limb that extends over the house. He wanted the whole limb removed. [redacted] explained to him again that it is not normal practice to remove that size diameter limb. It is too large and would do damage to the tree, later down the road. The next day [redacted] and I talked about what we could do for Mr. [redacted] and I emailed Mr. [redacted] to let him know that if he would sign a waiver that would not hold us liable if that caused death to the tree or if the tree failed, such as it broke in a storm or anything. This is what I offered Mr. [redacted] to do. 1). He pay for what work we already did and we do nothing more2). We could come back and remove that very large limb, him sign the waiver to release us from all liability--for a price of 175.00 if he clean up the debris or 225.00 if we did limb and chipped the brush, in addition to what he owed us3). Remove the entire tree and grind stump for 1800.00 and we would reduce the amount he owed down to 325.00 and he would then owe us 2125.00 total for everything I think we have explained our scenario multiple times by phone, email and in person. We have tried to come to an agreement to try to satisfy him numerous times but he just wants to keep changing his reasons and excuses about the call that he says he made to put the job on hold, (he never called here to inform us of that ) that the office didn't call before services, we did call. etc.  We/I have done everything in my power to work this out with him. He called and paid his bill what he owed over the phone by credit card said that he didn't want the limb off or the tree removed.  There is no reason for a refund. I have explained my offer already in the above.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/09) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]; VP
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@allenstreeservice.com
In regards to the accusation that our contract was misleading: Allen's fulfills hundreds of plant health care contracts per year,...

and on every contract our services are itemized with a separate price to allow the customer to choose which services they would like performed. In this particular instance, the customer was offered 2 services, each with a different description along with their corresponding price. The customer has indicated that because the services had the same price, they assumed it was the total, despite the cost for each service being listed separately with no explicit wording indicating that there was a total. It is unfortunate that the customer felt mislead as it is our intention to satisfy every customer, but over the years we have written thousands of plant health care contracts in this manner and this is the first time we have had a complaint about the contract being misleading. We at Allen's feel that the customer simply made an improper assumption.
In regards to being treated fairly: Allen's performed all of the treatments as described and agreed upon on the contract at a fair market value. We did not charge the customer any more for each service than we would have charged anyone else, therefore, we feel that the customer leaving negative feedback indicating that they were treated unfairly is not only inappropriate, but slanderous.
Kevin contacted the customer as soon as we received the email and offered them a discount as a gesture of good faith, but the customer refused our assistance as they felt the charges should be dropped completely. Most of our customers are willing to make an appointment to meet with the estimators, but this customer opted not to be there at the time of the estimate. We will not waive the fee as charged.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/06/17) */
First, I would like to state that we have been in business for over 36 year. We work for numerous older customers/citizens and we do NOT take advantage of them. It would be like taking advantage of our parents. You hear of that stuff on the...

news, and we don't do that and I do not want it to happen to my relatives. We do not appreciate that comment. We know older citizens are on fixed incomes. We are not "pushy" sales people. We do not make anyone sign a contract if they do not wish to. We do not call them and bug them over the phone as some companies do to try and make that sale. We have never done that and we did not do this with her father. We can and have offered them to make monthly payments, if it's something they need done and cannot afford to pay all at once. But this was not the circumstance, that we knew of. Mr. [redacted] called us on 5/5/15 for an estimate and informed the office staff that he had received a Money Mailer advertisement in the mail and that is how he contacted us for the estimate. We made an appointment with him for an
estimator and certified arborist to go talk to him about his tree on 5/15/15, which he did. Our estimator given Mr. [redacted] the bid and Mr. [redacted] signed the contract right there on the spot to agree to have his tree removed by our company. Again, our salesman are not pushy sales people, nor do they attempt to make anyone agree to anything if they don't want to have the work done, we do operate that way. The scheduling department called Mr.[redacted] the day before it was scheduled and informed him that the crew would arrive the day of 5/26 to remove his tree and he said it was okay with him. The crew arrived as stated and removed the tree and completed the work. The office sent him an invoice on 5/27 and it was paid on 5/29. Now we are receiving this complaint. Along with the invoice, we sent a copy of his signed contract in the mail. The daughter states that she saw the "unsigned" contract in his house. That can't be true. He signed the day the bid was given to him. I have the original copy if she would like to come by our office and see that he signed it in pen ink that day and it is an original copy. I will not give it to her, but can email her a copy of it as well. They were getting bids and had a bid for 1800.00. We didn't know anything about that bid, how were we suppose to know. But that wasn't our price and we couldn't have done it for that price either. We don't know if after he signed our contract if they were still getting bids or how all that took place. All we know is that he called for the bid, we gave him the bid, he signed the contract and we performed the work. We never made a "follow-up" call to him. We do not do that.As far as cancelling the work, upon arriving to his home. Yes there would have been a 250.000 trip charge fee (that is stated on the back of the contract), because there were 4 men on that crew, 2 trucks, a chipper, and a lift. All totaling about 268,000.00 worth of equipment sitting in front of his house, so we have to be paid something for taking all that equipment to his house and not being able to do the work and a 20% cancellation charge of the contracted amount of the work order. So both fees would have applied in the instance. But he agreed to let the crew go ahead and do the job since they were there, I assume. As far as an adjustment, there is no adjustment. We did what we were suppose to do and the amount we had given to him. As far as her being upset with us, maybe she should have been the person that met with the tree companies and received the bids from the different companies. As far as her being the POA for him, maybe she should make sure she knows what her dad is signing before he agrees to sign something. Maybe she should tell her father he can't sign anything for anyone if he is the person to seek the bids, and she should retrieve those bids from him and make the decision on who she will hire. I think that she owes our company an apology for this complaint and accusations she is making about how we operate. She does not work for us and knows nothing about our company. Because this complaint will stay on our record now for 3 years. Resolved or not.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: That explanation is inaccurate and complete nonsense.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

We/[redacted] our Plant Health Care Mngr has called and left messages multiple times. There are 4 women receptionist in our office and 3 of them which have heard him leave her messages on different occasions on her answering machine or voice mail in the mornings when he arrives in our...

office. We spoke to [redacted] this morning on 8/17 and he said he resent her a new bid and mailed it out to her. We informed her of this on today 8/17/16 and she just kept insisting that we were not listening to her. Yes, we also informed her if she was not happy with our answers or responses and what we have been trying to accommodate her needs,  then yes, she should seek another company to do the work. We were only being honest with her, we have not lied to her, we have returned her calls many times, but are never able to reach her, and have left numerous messages. She kept saying she needs lawn services, which she needs landscaping services. I am sorry for this individual but I  believe this woman is confused and not sure what she really wants or needs. She sounds elderly on the phone and we try to explain what we have done to help her. Maybe a family member should step in, call us and do the scheduling of the work for her. She has not signed a contract or given any permission to do any work for her.

Initially on 3/21/16 Mr.[redacted] contacted our office for an estimate concerning a tree struck by lightning. Our estimator bid his work on 3/23/16 which 1 tree was bid 3 different ways, so he could choose which price he wanted to get done. He chose to cut into 5ft sections and leave in the woods-where...

the tree was located. That is what our estimator written and Mr.[redacted] also typed that on the contract as well. The estimator also given a bid to remove and haul 2 fallen trees behind a gazebo. Mr.[redacted] had our crew cut those 2 trees up as well and throw that debris in the woods, without the estimator or office or owners knowing that which we just recently found out. And we feel we should be paid 1/2 of that portion which was a total of 1250.00 but we are wanting to be paid 625.00 for cutting that up and throwing that debris in the woods. When we mentioned it to him on the phone, he just laughs at us.On this complaint, this is what occurred. Mr [redacted] called on 4/29/16 after high winds blew over another tree that fell and it was lodged in another tree. He requested service for a crew to come and take it down. He did not ask for an estimate, he just asked to send a crew. We normally will keep the time and bill accordingly. When the crew arrived at his house on 5/5/16, driving 19 miles away he demanded the laborers give him an estimate and they do not do estimates, they are not estimators, they are laborers. They gave him a price, but which was 800.00 too cheap. The crew was equipped with a specialty lift because it was a hazardous situation and the lift help minimize the situation. The lift had to be on site to get the tree down safely. It was not lodged in 1 other tree, but hung up in 4 other trees. The crew did what they and Mr. [redacted] agreed upon. They did it the same way as the first tree in the above paragraph-they cut it up into approx. 5 ft lengths and left everything in the woods. Approx 2-3 weeks later the office accounting department contacted Mr.[redacted] about his account that it was past due. He then sent back an email that he was not happy with the services because much of the debris was not cut into sections. He wanted a phone call, so the owner called him and they spoke. The owner told Mr.[redacted] that he would send the crew back out within the next few days. Another job was scheduled nearby and the owner called Mr.[redacted] and left a message at 7:00AM that the crew would be there the next day, which was the day after the day the owner talked to him on 6/10. 3 days later on 6/13, Mr.[redacted] sent another email that he was still unsatisfied and requesting a call from the owner. So the owner called him and left a message that the owner wanted to come out and meet with him on a Tuesday eve @ 5-7  PM with 2 of the crew that was on the job, and we never received any verification to meet with Mr. [redacted]. We emailed and called him 2 weeks in a row to meet with him asking to meet on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday eve at 5:00, 6:00 or 7:00PM at his availability, making it as convenient for him as possible and Mr. [redacted] never replied to any email or phone call messages about meeting with anyone.The crew did the job exactly like they did the first job and what Mr. [redacted] and crew agreed on and completed it that day. We feel that we should be paid for the extra work on the 2 previously fallen trees when Mr.[redacted] had the crew cut up & throw that debris in the woods that the estimator bid on, without our knowledge of Mr. [redacted] having them do extra work.  It was 1250.00, but we fell he should be paying 1/2 of that. Which was not added to his invoice.Mr. [redacted] offered to pay us 1500.00, and we will not accept that offer. He also stated that he wants to hire someone else to come and cut more debris up and take that amount off what he owes us and we will not accept that either. We did exactly what was agreed upon and the job is completed as discussed. We tried multiple times by phone an email to take a crew there to met with him, but he never replied back to us.