Design Tree Maintenance, Inc.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.[redacted] From Design Tree Maintenance (Previously, he told me he is the owner of the business) called me on February 13, 2015.  He made an appointment to visit my property on Tuesday, February 17, 2015. [redacted] showed up on the Tuesday, February 17, 2015.  [redacted] apologized for the mis-communication involving my problems.  1.  The front light was fixed – the bulb had burned out – L.E.D. bulbs usually do not burn out.2.  The broken sprinkler was repaired.3.  The leak was not fixed – the pipe was capped.  [redacted] told me a sleeve should have been put on the pipe when it was installed.  He also said the Tuff shed I had placed on my property probably caused the leak.  I reported the leak to him in December.  The shed was not installed until February.  The shed did not cause the leak. [redacted] told me the pipe needed a sleeve.  He said another person would call me on that.  Another person called me on Wednesday evening, February 18, 2015, and gave a verbal estimate of $350.00.  He wanted my e-mail to send me the quote.  I explained to him that [redacted] installed the pipe and I thought he was going to fix it.  The caller did not receive my e-mail address – he said he would talk to [redacted]. Friday, February 19, a lady from Design Tree Maintenance called in me in the morning and wanted my e-mail address to send me a quote.  I explained to her that [redacted] had installed the broken pipe and I was under the impression he was going to fix it.  She asked me to wait on hold while she got someone to assist me.  I was on hold for a while so I hung up and I thought when the correct person was found the office would call me back.  Since the lady never returned to the call, she did not receive my e-mail address. I did not receive a call back on Friday, or Saturday (perhaps the office is closed on Saturday) – It is 10AM on Monday and I have not received a return call. Since the original installation of the sprinkler system I have laid down pavers on the west side of my home. [redacted] indicated that the pavers would need to be removed to correctly place the water line. The water line serves a large tree in my back yard.  The tree provides a very large amount of shade for my home in the Summer time.  I do not want to loose this tree. I am not sure if there is another communication problem or if [redacted] does not want to correctly repair my sprinkler system. So to answer your question: Yes, I have been contacted by Design Tree Maintenance. Yes Design Tree Maintenance did return to my property and repair two of the issues.  However, a third issue still remains unresolved. I will tell you if I hear from Design Tree Maintenance in the next day or so. Regards,[redacted]

We are sorry to hear of Mrs [redacted] frustration in this matter. Mrs [redacted] paid to have her stump ground, which consists of taking the tree stump below the surface for aesthetic purposes. In 99 percent of cases the tree will not survive grinding procedure, however a tree is a living organism,...

and a particular hardy specimen will sometimes produce sprouts from the remnants of the stump in a last ditch effort to survive. The stump grinding WAS properly completed as per the contract, however we offered to regrind Mrs [redacted] stump at no charge once she complained of sprouting growth(we cannot guarantee that the stump will not grow back, we offered this simply to appease Mrs [redacted]), We requested that she put some sort of stump killer on the stump prior to the regrind, as a simple re-grind will not prevent the sprouts from returning yet again. Let me bring to point that Design Tree Maintenance is NOT a licensed applicator and CANNOT apply pesticides of any sort at a customers property. At this point we are unable to provide further assistance, as short of breaking the law and applying the chemical ourselves, any further grinding will be a very temporary solution without assistance from the customer in applying over the counter chemicals. We were contracted to grind the stump, which has been completed as per the contract, we feel that any further services at the customers property will be outside of the range of the contract and will be billed accordingly.

To whom it may concern, 
The $850.00 in that has been continuously referenced was the original charge for a portion of work that the customer originally stated dissatisfaction with. (I.E. the portion that involved the compost mulch) We also  I have attached a copy of the contract that the customer signed prior to us doing any work on their property. It clearly states the charges for each portion of work as well as the deposit and grand total due at the completion of the job. The work order was paid as outlined on the attached contract and there was NO duplicate payment, and/or over payment.
Design Tree Maintenance
###-###-####

Design Tree Maintenance quoted the customers Sissoo trees to be cut at base and the stumps ground in March 2013. At time of sell the Arborist informed the customer of the resilient nature of Sissoos and warned them of the potential chance in the Sissioos growing back even...

after the stumps were ground. The customer then inquired as to any suggestions we could give to counter the risk in shoots growing back. At that point the Arborist did consent to our crew cutting grooves into all the stumps so the customer could apply chemicals to them before we did the grinding. Please note, by law Design Tree Maintenance is not a licensed applicator for any form of chemical or pesticides, therefore we were unable to assist in any function of the chemical treatment process. It was agreed and we followed up with the customer over a period 1 1/2 months after the removals to insure plenty of time was allotted for the chemicals to be applied. We then ground the stumps May 18th. It is not within Design Tree Maintenance overall policies to guarantee ‘no grow back’ on any tree removed. We were hired to cut the Sissoos at the base and grind the stumps, the contract was entirely fulfilled. We are not responsible for any matters outside the contact.

Design Tree Maintenance has patiently extended a professional

outlook during our attempts in bringing a satisfactory resolution with our

client. Therefore we will be taking the appropriate measures necessary to bring

closer to this matter. To conclude, we are scheduling a meeting with the Register

of Contractors to further solidify our position and to successfully propose a resolution

with our client.

To Whom It May Concern,   Design Tree Maintenance has been a finalist and a winner of the Revdex.com Ethics award. We take great pride & diligence in providing all of our customers an honest service withquality and integrity....

We appreciate feedback from our customers, however it is unfortunate that such drastic and unnecessary measures were taken in concluding thisaccount.    Our customer had signed an invoice including various tree trimming, fertilizer products and also soil treatments to be done that totaled $2,390.00. Shortly after that, ourcustomer conveyed her interest in revising the work order thus reducing the amount to $1,360.00. The revised work order included less trimming, soil treatment andfertilizer product.     When the first technicians, being the soil treating crew, had done the job there was a concern that the crew had not completed the job. This was confirmed by our office. Due to a misunderstanding of the crew, only a small portion of the soil treatments were done. We immediately rectified the situation with the customer and revisited the property to completethe treatments. This initial point in communication occurred within less than one business day.             Our customer confirmed with the estimator that she was pleased with the work that was done and understands her revised invoice. Although she is not going to reschedule the rest of thecanceled work she agreed to contact the Revdex.com to rectify her complaint.                Sincerely,       Design Tree Maintenance Management

First let us acknowledge that our estimator did botch the original quote given to the customer, however, as soon as we discovered our mistake she was immediately informed that we had overlooked a large expense...

and we would refund her deposit if she was not OK with the extra cost. She was irate and we immediately refunded her 100.00 deposit (as anyone with business knowledge knows, once we refund on our card machine, it is in the credit card companies hands to re-credit her account).We apologize for her daughter taking the day off, however this was of her own doing and was not required or requested by us for someone to be home at the time of service.To date we have refunded all money to the customer,and ask the Revdex.com to close this complaint. 
 
Design Tree Maintenance

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I can go back and forth until the end of time and it will be my word against Design Tree Maintenance's that we WERE NOT told that there would be offshoots after the chemical application and grinding.

Initially, prior to hiring Design Tree Maintenance, I received two other estimates.  I had one estimate that was considerably lower than Desing Tree's.  I told this to our estimator and his response was, "what can we do to get your business.  We will match what your lowest bid is".  He told me they were certified arborists and the other place was a landscaping operation.  He convinced me that they were the better choice.  We eventually ended up paying $500.00 more than my lowest bid because of the assurances we received from Design Tree personnel.  UNFORTUNATELY, I trusted that this was a reputable business and did not get every word of what was discussed in writing.  Had I known that this company would not stand behind their work, they never would have been hired.  I am beyond disappointed.

Regards,

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I am not satisfied with their response because it was a LIE!  The vendor did not fulfill his obligation to me, nor has the Revdex.com done anything at all.  I have since had a stroke and am not in physical condition to continue this back and forth game.  Meanwhile another person has tried to remedy the problem and we are waiting to see if it has been solved, no thanks or effort from the people who created it.  I described in detail the original problem and you should have that info in your files, unless you have deleted it.  In any case I have no confidence that you would do anything more so forget it.  That does not mean I have agreed that Design Tree Maintenance was not at fault.

Regards,

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

To whom it may concern,        It is not ourendeavor to get in a battle of words with Mrs. [redacted], we will simply try to tell the story from our perspective and will attach a copy of the contract/workorder to support our reasoning for making...

the decisions we have made. Our crew went to Mrs. [redacted] property on 6/10/2015 tostart order# 82571 and completed a very large portion of the job, the rest ofthe contract was completed within a couple of weeks of the start date. As Mrs.[redacted] mentioned, the paperwork stated for 4, 24” box trees to be planted,and the field superintendent mistakenly picked up 4, 15 gallon trees of thesame species.  Our arborist Nick talkedto Mrs. [redacted] while the crew was still at the property and offered toeither give a $100.00 discount for each of the 4 trees totaling $400.00, ortake the 15 gallon trees back to our grower and pick up the larger 24inch Boxtrees as per the work order. Mrs. [redacted] chose to accept the smaller 15gallon trees and the $400.00 reduction from her bill. Mrs. [redacted] is correctin saying she did not receive this refund, and as this was only an oversight,we have, at the writing of this letter certified mailed her a refund check inthe amount of $400.00. That is where our agreement of her complaint stops. Wehave, since June, on warranty, replaced one of the trees that was dug up andkilled by her dog. Let me stop to point out that our warranty covers bad treespecimens and helps alleviate the risk to the customer that their tree will notrecover from the shock of being transplanted, and does NOT cover a customer’s dogdigging up a newly planted tree.  In aneffort to appease Mrs. [redacted], we replaced her tree at no charge. Theattached contract shows that we charged her $200.00 to install ½ ton of ¼’’minus Madison Gold around the base of the 4 Ash trees and apply 4-5 gallons ofpathway stabilizer.  This was completedper the contract on 6/16/2015 however, we have been back to the property onmultiple occasions ( no charge to Mrs. [redacted]) under “warranty” to place avariety of different materials around her ash trees in an effort to prevent herdogs from digging up or damaging the trees…again, not really our problem, orcovered by any sort of warranty but we were trying to appease the customer. Mrs[redacted] also stated that we were hired (in her words) to remove 4 sissootrees and all the root systems from the back yard. This is clearly not what thecontract states. We were only contracted to remove the 4 Sissoos at the base andto GRIND the stumps and exposed roots only. We were also contracted and paid onlyto lift the artificial grass and grind the exposed roots underneath. This wasall completed per the contract. There was no mention of grading the area orrepairing the turf as she is asking us to do complimentary. We gave her areferral to an artificial grass company that we have referred in the past andSHE hired them to repair and place the grass back in its previous location. Letme repeat, to that we were ONLY contracted to lift the grass and grind theexposed roots, which is precisely what was done.  In response to Mrs. [redacted] desired settlement, I will respondto each line individually. 1.“ I would Like allthe tree roots taken out as promised” Per the attached contract, wewere only contracted to GRIND the EXPOSED roots. there is no possible way toremove all the roots without completely destroying her yard. This would be ahuge expense for the customer and was never contracted with our firm. This workwas completed as written on the contract 2. “I would like thefake grass put back down after the dirt is pressed and even once more”. Asyou can see on the contract, we were never contracted or paid to do anything ofthis nature. 3. “I would like 24inch box trees planted and warranted”. PerMrs. [redacted] admission in the complaint, she agreed to keep the 15 gallontrees with a $400.00 discount to the original contract. We acknowledge thatthis unintentionally slipped through the cracks and at the writing of thisresponse, a refund check in the amount of $400.00 has been mailed via certifiedmail to the customer. 4. “I would like the tree wells to becompleted as promised with red brick around the edge and the rock buried halfwas and the dirt sealed.” Again, look at the contract, there is nomention of anything of this nature. We have re-done this work with differentproducts at our expense to try to appease her. There has been a couple of fixesrecommended and attempted all at Design Tree Maintenance’s expense to no avail. 5. “Or a complete refund includingthe $850.00 I gave his friend Peter to put the grass back down.” Asstated previously, the entire contract has been fulfilled with multiplenon-warranteed items being replaced under warranty. We do not feel obligated toreturn money for a completed contract. The Peter mentioned here, is the ownerof Evergreen Synthetic Lawns & Putting Green, he was hired by Mrs [redacted]to completed the $850.00 job mentioned and has absolutely no connection of anykind with our company. It would not be a refund, It would be a donation as Mrs.[redacted] never paid us for this service.     We feel that wehave gone above and beyond to try and make Mrs. [redacted] happy and are unableto do so without great expense to our firm. We are at this point, willing, andhave offered to replace the 4, 15 Gallon Ash trees under warranty (even thoughone has already been warrantied, and there are external factors contributing tothe death of her trees, not faulty workmanship) with the understanding that wehave more than fulfilled our contract and will not do any more work at thisproperty, warranty or otherwise. Mrs. [redacted] is unwilling to accept and signoff on these terms, which is why her trees have not been replaced and the Revdex.comwas contacted. I would be happy to further discuss this with a Revdex.comrepresentative if so desired.  Design Tree MaintenanceROBERT L. K[redacted] 602-312-7900

I filed a complaint with the Revdex.com, Complaint ID # [redacted], but I cannot request a resolution as I agreed to hire this company at the estimated price. I received the estimate from an Arborist who checked out with the ISA, but the guys who show up to do the work are not, and can barely speak English. I should have sent them away, but I had waited all day for them to arrive. I had requested the trees be reduced in size and dead wood removed from the inside, and that was all. The crew removed about 60% of the canopy during 110 degree temperatures. When I complained about the work I was told this was their "usual", which is the type of trimming you see in parking lots. I had received four estimates so I called back the contractor that I first spoke with to make certain he had understood my instructions. He confirmed that I was very specific, so I know that it was not my mistake.

The Design Tree Maintenance team takes pride in serving our community with exceptional customer service, a prompt response and most of all integrity. For over 20 years our team has been building D.T.M. from a foundation of honorable ethics. We will endeavor to do so in the future and in regarding...

this current situation. [redacted] (owner of D.T.M.) talked with our customer shortly after he installed the irrigation system. [redacted] said he had called him about a possible leak during our winter rain season. [redacted] told our customer to wait and see if there was any indication of a leak after things have dried out. We do not show records of any contact from the customer since that point, the job was finished approximately 4 months ago. In conclusion, we are now aware that issues with the irrigation system have occurred since our last contact with our customer. I have contacted the customer and confirmed [redacted] and his crew will be out Tuesday 17th next week to assess and repair this latest issue.We look forward in resolving this matter entirely as our customer has consented completely to our offer. Sincerely,[redacted] - Office Manager

To Whom it may concern, 
    We are more than willing to offer some sort of resolution to ANY customer that feels like they have been slighted. Unfortunately Mrs [redacted] NEVER contacted us requesting any sort of refund, and we were unaware that that she was unhappy or there was a problem of any sort. We would have very much appreciated the opportunity to resolve the issue prior to the Revdex.com being contacted.  The purpose of the Revdex.com is to step in as a third party intervention when there is a conflict that is unable to be resolved between a company and a client, we feel it extremely unfair that we would get a ding on our coveted Revdex.com record over a small grievance that we were not even informed of. Mrs. [redacted] was charged $850.00 for building the tree wells, root berms, filling a small sinkhole, installing scalloped border, cutting out plastic from under the trees, and installing the 900 pounds of mulch. We did not refund the money for the additional mulch, as she did not request any money back, not did she offer to return the extra product to our company. The 8 bags of mulch in question have a value of approximately $100.00 and we will mail a re-fund check to the customer in that amount.

To whom it may concern, 
    The $850.00 in that has been continuously referenced was the original charge for a portion of work that the customer originally stated dissatisfaction with. (I.E. the portion that involved the compost mulch) We also  I have attached a copy of the contract that the customer signed prior to us doing any work on their property. It clearly states the charges for each portion of work as well as the deposit and grand total due at the completion of the job. The work order was paid as outlined on the attached contract and there was NO duplicate payment, and/or over payment.
 
Design Tree Maintenance

The owner of Design Tree Maintenance, [redacted] went out to the property after the initial complaint was filed by Mr [redacted]. We made a conscious effort to appease the customer, and feel that we are not at fault and under no obligation to perform any further free repairs for Mr. [redacted].  While we apologize for any communication problems, all work that was contracted by our firm has been completed. Any further work performed by Design Tree Maintenance will be billed at the normal rate.

DO NOT USE DESIGN TREE MAINTENANCE! My trees died and they would not honor the warranty. In 2 responses to my complaint they did not even address what happened, which you can read more about on the Revdex.com section of this site soon. They said my trees were overwatered in the summer. I told them no one had touched the sprinkler control except their employees. They made up a tall tale about the sprinkler control defaulting to tree killing mode after a power outage. Oh, and they consider negative reviews to be "blackmail". Seriously, they took my money, their product failed and died due to the negligence of their arborist, they refuse to refund my money, and somehow a negative review = blackmail? Do you really want to do business with someone like that? Better call the cops Mr. K cuz I'm just getting started.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

 We were NEVER told that there was a possibility of the trees growing back.    We were told that they could not apply the chemicals and that is something we had to do, which we did.  Again, we were not told that there was a possibility that there would be offshoots.  We were told if we applied the chemicals and they came back and ground the stumps, that would kill the root system.  We were told that is the reason the chemicals were applied and the stumps were ground down. 

Regards,

To Whom It May Concern, 

   

      In response to the complaint submitted by [redacted], we will agree to refund her the $250.00 that was charged by our firm. It will refund it within the next 5 business days to the card that it was originally charged...

to. This will conclude our business dealings with the customer in regards to contract #[redacted].

Review: [redacted]

I hired Design Tree Maintenance after meeting [redacted], an employee who represented the company and came to give me a bid. [redacted] wore an arborist uniform and seemed to be very professional. I hired them to remove 4 large trees and all the root systems from my backyard as they were causing trip hazards for the children in my care. They were to also put tree wells in that neither the children nor the dogs could dig into and replace the old trees with 24-inch box majestic ash trees. What I got was 15-gallon trees they tried to convince me were 24-gallon box trees. They finally confessed and said these 15-gallon trees looked better at the nursery. I agreed to the new trees if they gave me a discount on the smaller trees. I did not receive the discount and I have paid them in full 4.5 months ago after telling [redacted] I didn't want to pay because the work wasn't complete and he emphatically promised me he would not do that to me. That they needed the money for their small business for payroll. I said I understood that because I am a small business who has payroll. But I have been forgotten, the work is not complete. I own Small Wonders, LLC, a small child group home for 10 children under the age of 5, many whom have special needs. I was guaranteed this work to be completed in one week. We are now going on 5 months and the work is not complete. The latest date I had for the work to be completed was today at noon. It is now 1:25 and none has shown up to work and I received a fax stating if I didn't sign the fax that they wouldn't come. The fax wants me to give up my rights to warranties that I received with the initial contract. When I refused to sign the owner, [redacted], told me then they would not come. This is after months of promises to come and do the work. I have many text messages between [redacted] and I about finishing the work but nobody comes. There has only been two times they showed up to supposedly fix the yard and I was so excited they came but then they changed my FRONT yard! I never had a contract to do anything to the front! The other time they came they put jagged rock in my back yard! I called immediately and told them this was not safe for the children and that I am required to have the children in the backyard a minimum of one hour per day. The staff and I have struggled to keep the children safe for almost 5 months now, we are exhausted. Some of our children have orthotics on their feet or legs and are unstable when they walk. This is unacceptable to not come and complete the work. I am state licensed and if DTM doesn't show up to complete this work I could get fined. I was also not informed that I would be held responsible for the evening out of the dirt under the fake grass after the roots are taken out. I incurred additional costs for this of 850.00 for some roots that were taken out...but then found they did not remove all the roots. Currently I am out almost 5000.00 It is a huge sum of money for such a small business. We are highly regarded in the community and we hold a level 4 star with Quality First, one of only 5 in the state of Arizona. I have been nothing but professional with this company so you can imagine how I felt today when [redacted] told me his "girls" who answer the phone are sick of me. I called them to inquire about this and they say they said no such thing...I have only spoken to them about 3 times in the 5 months until today.Desired Settlement: I would like all the tree roots taken out as promised. I would like the fake grass put back down after the dirt is pressed and even once more. I would like 24 inch trees planted and warranted, I would like the tree wells to be completed as promised with red brick around the edge and the rock buried half way and the dirt sealed.

Or a complete refund including the 850.00 I gave his friend Peter to put the grass back down.

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern, It is not ourendeavor to get in a battle of words with Mrs. [redacted], we will simply try to tell the story from our perspective and will attach a copy of the contract/workorder to support our reasoning for making the decisions we have made. Our crew went to Mrs. [redacted] property on 6/10/2015 tostart order# 82571 and completed a very large portion of the job, the rest ofthe contract was completed within a couple of weeks of the start date. As Mrs.[redacted] mentioned, the paperwork stated for 4, 24” box trees to be planted,and the field superintendent mistakenly picked up 4, 15 gallon trees of thesame species. Our arborist Nick talkedto Mrs. [redacted] while the crew was still at the property and offered toeither give a $100.00 discount for each of the 4 trees totaling $400.00, ortake the 15 gallon trees back to our grower and pick up the larger 24inch Boxtrees as per the work order. Mrs. [redacted] chose to accept the smaller 15gallon trees and the $400.00 reduction from her bill. Mrs. [redacted] is correctin saying she did not receive this refund, and as this was only an oversight,we have, at the writing of this letter certified mailed her a refund check inthe amount of $400.00. That is where our agreement of her complaint stops. Wehave, since June, on warranty, replaced one of the trees that was dug up andkilled by her dog. Let me stop to point out that our warranty covers bad treespecimens and helps alleviate the risk to the customer that their tree will notrecover from the shock of being transplanted, and does NOT cover a customer’s dogdigging up a newly planted tree. In aneffort to appease Mrs. [redacted], we replaced her tree at no charge. Theattached contract shows that we charged her $200.00 to install ½ ton of ¼’’minus Madison Gold around the base of the 4 Ash trees and apply 4-5 gallons ofpathway stabilizer. This was completedper the contract on 6/16/2015 however, we have been back to the property onmultiple occasions ( no charge to Mrs. [redacted]) under “warranty” to place avariety of different materials around her ash trees in an effort to prevent herdogs from digging up or damaging the trees…again, not really our problem, orcovered by any sort of warranty but we were trying to appease the customer. Mrs[redacted] also stated that we were hired (in her words) to remove 4 sissootrees and all the root systems from the back yard. This is clearly not what thecontract states. We were only contracted to remove the 4 Sissoos at the base andto GRIND the stumps and exposed roots only. We were also contracted and paid onlyto lift the artificial grass and grind the exposed roots underneath. This wasall completed per the contract. There was no mention of grading the area orrepairing the turf as she is asking us to do complimentary. We gave her areferral to an artificial grass company that we have referred in the past andSHE hired them to repair and place the grass back in its previous location. Letme repeat, to that we were ONLY contracted to lift the grass and grind theexposed roots, which is precisely what was done. In response to Mrs. [redacted] desired settlement, I will respondto each line individually. 1.“ I would Like allthe tree roots taken out as promised” Per the attached contract, wewere only contracted to GRIND the EXPOSED roots. there is no possible way toremove all the roots without completely destroying her yard. This would be ahuge expense for the customer and was never contracted with our firm. This workwas completed as written on the contract 2. “I would like thefake grass put back down after the dirt is pressed and even once more”. Asyou can see on the contract, we were never contracted or paid to do anything ofthis nature. 3. “I would like 24inch box trees planted and warranted”. PerMrs. [redacted] admission in the complaint, she agreed to keep the 15 gallontrees with a $400.00 discount to the original contract. We acknowledge thatthis unintentionally slipped through the cracks and at the writing of thisresponse, a refund check in the amount of $400.00 has been mailed via certifiedmail to the customer. 4. “I would like the tree wells to becompleted as promised with red brick around the edge and the rock buried halfwas and the dirt sealed.” Again, look at the contract, there is nomention of anything of this nature. We have re-done this work with differentproducts at our expense to try to appease her. There has been a couple of fixesrecommended and attempted all at Design Tree Maintenance’s expense to no avail. 5. “Or a complete refund includingthe $850.00 I gave his friend Peter to put the grass back down.” Asstated previously, the entire contract has been fulfilled with multiplenon-warranteed items being replaced under warranty. We do not feel obligated toreturn money for a completed contract. The Peter mentioned here, is the ownerof Evergreen Synthetic Lawns & Putting Green, he was hired by Mrs [redacted]to completed the $850.00 job mentioned and has absolutely no connection of anykind with our company. It would not be a refund, It would be a donation as Mrs.[redacted] never paid us for this service. We feel that wehave gone above and beyond to try and make Mrs. [redacted] happy and are unableto do so without great expense to our firm. We are at this point, willing, andhave offered to replace the 4, 15 Gallon Ash trees under warranty (even thoughone has already been warrantied, and there are external factors contributing tothe death of her trees, not faulty workmanship) with the understanding that wehave more than fulfilled our contract and will not do any more work at thisproperty, warranty or otherwise. Mrs. [redacted] is unwilling to accept and signoff on these terms, which is why her trees have not been replaced and the Revdex.comwas contacted. I would be happy to further discuss this with a Revdex.comrepresentative if so desired. Design Tree MaintenanceROBERT L. K[redacted] 602-312-7900

Business

Response:

Design Tree Maintenance has patiently extended a professional

outlook during our attempts in bringing a satisfactory resolution with our

client. Therefore we will be taking the appropriate measures necessary to bring

closer to this matter. To conclude, we are scheduling a meeting with the Register

of Contractors to further solidify our position and to successfully propose a resolution

with our client.

Consumer

Response:

Regarding ID # 10835350I apologize I did not receive the response from Design Tree Maintenance until this morning. Please do not close the case yet. I will include my rebuttal in this email as well as additional documentation from the ROC in regards to their upcoming investigation appointment next week. I will also include a notarized affidavit from my lead employee who handled many of the conversations in the beginning for me when Design Tree Maintenance in fact did not complete the work as promised before I was going to be out of town. Rebuttal Response:Our crew went to Mrs. [redacted] property on 6/10/2015 tostart order# 82571 and completed a very large portion of the job, the rest ofthe contract was completed within a couple of weeks of the start date. The work is still not completed as of October 27,2015. Nov 10, 2015 will be the 5-month mark from when the work was promised to be complete. As Mrs.[redacted] mentioned, the paperwork stated for 4, 24” box trees to be planted,and the field superintendent mistakenly picked up 4, 15 gallon trees of thesame species. They were not mistakenly picked up. The crewman tried in earnest to convince me they were in fact 24-inch box trees. I told him I knew they weren’t. He argued with me until I got Nick on the phone and the crewman finally admitted they were in fact 15-gallon trees. It’s never ok to lie to a client like that. I asked for a discount on the 15-gallon trees because the crewman finally said the 24 inch boxed trees just didn’t look as nice. I believed him but you can see how this looked like a scam. The discount was not given to me until I filed with the Revdex.com. Our arborist Nick talkedto Mrs. [redacted] while the crew was still at the property and offered toeither give a $100.00 discount for each of the 4 trees totaling $400.00, ortake the 15 gallon trees back to our grower and pick up the larger 24inch Boxtrees as per the work order. They never offered to get me 24 inch boxed trees. I would have said yes. I need shade fast and they knew that. Mrs. [redacted] chose to accept the smaller 15gallon trees and the $400.00 reduction from her bill. Mrs. [redacted] is correctin saying she did not receive this refund, and as this was only an oversight,we have, at the writing of this letter certified mailed her a refund check inthe amount of $400.00. Yes I received this discount after I filed with the Revdex.com. Before that Mr. L[redacted] told me over and over that I had already received the refund. That is where our agreement of her complaint stops. Wehave, since June, on warranty, replaced one of the trees that was dug up andkilled by her dog. In three different ways the crew, Nick and the office secretaries and Mr. L[redacted] were all told by the Lead Teacher and separately by me in text and phone calls interrupting my trip yet again that if they left with the tree in the back yard not completely planted on a Friday afternoon and with me out of town, the business closed and the dogs unattended using a dog door for potty, that the dog would eat the tree. I pleaded with them to finish the work to not risk the tree. They in fact suggested my employee leave my dogs on the side yard with no indoor access, no water, and food or shade access all weekend instead of finishing. She told them she would not. It was 112 degrees those days and they are indoor dogs. I told them if they left I would insist they replace the tree if it was chewed. They said the dogs would not bother it. I said they would. The dogs did, but only the one tree that wasn’t finished, not all four like Mr. L[redacted] has told various people. I still have 3 original trees, two dead and two alive with zero bite marks or scratches on them from the dogs. Let me stop to point out that our warranty covers bad treespecimens and helps alleviate the risk to the customer that their tree will notrecover from the shock of being transplanted, and does NOT cover a customer’s dogdigging up a newly planted tree. In aneffort to appease Mrs. [redacted], we replaced her tree at no charge. Theattached contract shows that we charged her $200.00 to install ½ ton of ¼’’minus Madison Gold around the base of the 4 Ash trees and apply 4-5 gallons ofpathway stabilizer. This was completed When I hired them I spoke with Nick, he assured me he could put quarter minus down around the tree wells and make it HARD so neither children nor dogs could dig in it (for a clean house) and for safety reasons for the children in my care (I cant have small rocks children can choke on). They did put it down but the stabilizer did NOT make the ground hard. The lead teacher and I both called Nick and told him, he asked us to give it 3 days to set. We did and called back when it still was not hard. He asked us to give it a week, we did, and when it still wasn’t hard Nick began suggesting different things to do with the tree wells instead. I was open to trying other things if it reached the original objective and was safe for kids and dogs and if the kids and dogs couldn’t dig in it. They came back and installed riprap. I immediately said this will not be ok! They are large, medium and small jagged rocks; children can fall on them and throw them at each other. I have several children in our group home that have special needs and fall easily. He said they would come and take it out. They never have. Mr. L[redacted] called me at 8:30 at night to tell me I could have dogs or trees but not both. For some reason he is fixated on my dogs ruining everything but they in fact have only bothered the one tree that we clearly warned him they would if left unfinished. He then came up with the idea to install a border around the wells of red brick. He said he would install them scallop side down then bury smooth river rock halfway down inside the tree wells and put mortar around them to solve the choking hazard of the small loose rocks and the digging issue for the children and dogs. Since Mr. L[redacted] is now saying he didn’t say that then I have no choice but to follow the original contract which means he needs to install quarter minus and make it hard ground around my wells, replace the two dead trees that died because of shock. I also have one tree well continually full of water for some reason. per the contract on 6/16/2015 however, we have been back to the property onmultiple occasions ( no charge to Mrs. [redacted]) under “warranty” to place avariety of different materials around her ash trees in an effort to prevent herdogs from digging up or damaging the trees… Again, they only tried ‘one thing’, not a variety, and they didn’t finish installing that ‘one thing’, the riprap. It’s still loose; only one tree well has half buried riprap and no edge. again, not really our problem, orcovered by any sort of warranty but we were trying to appease the customer. Design Tree Maintenance hasn’t provided what was asked for. Not once have my tree wells been stable or hard as requested. Mrs[redacted] also stated that we were hired (in her words) to remove 4 sissootrees and all the root systems from the back yard. This is clearly not what thecontract states. We were only contracted to remove the 4 Sissoos at the base andto GRIND the stumps and exposed roots only. This is not true; there were never exposed roots as I have fake grass so none could be exposed. They knew which roots to grind, the ones that are a trip hazard for the kids, under the fake grass but sticking up. They realized they forgot to remove them and did remove one large one after I called Nick back and showed him, but they still left the other large root. It is still there. These are the roots Nick told me would go into my house and cause 35,000 worth of damage so I hired them to remove them. We were also contracted and paid onlyto lift the artificial grass and grind the exposed roots underneath. This wasall completed per the contract. There was no mention of grading the area orrepairing the turf as she is asking us to do complimentary. I have never heard of someone being hired to do a job and then not put things back the way they were to begin with. I assumed they would pull back the fake grass, take the roots and then lay it back in place. Instead they ripped sections out… even cutting large areas around my tree wells!! So that now my tree wells are HUGE! I never asked for them to cut my artificial grass and when I caught their crewman doing so I rushed out and stopped them but it was too late. I had just spent 10,000 on that grass the year before; I did not want it ruined. I did pay their referred man Peter to fix the grass at a large expense I was not warned about of 850.00. We gave her areferral to an artificial grass company that we have referred in the past andSHE hired them to repair and place the grass back in its previous location. Letme repeat, to that we were ONLY contracted to lift the grass and grind theexposed roots, which is precisely what was done. Nowhere on their contract does it state that they were only to lift the grass and not replace it. In response to Mrs. [redacted] desired settlement, I will respondto each line individually. 1.“ I would Like allthe tree roots taken out as promised” Per the attached contract, wewere only contracted to GRIND the EXPOSED roots. there is no possible way toremove all the roots without completely destroying her yard. This would be ahuge expense for the customer and was never contracted with our firm. This workwas completed as written on the contract Let me clarify, all large trip hazard roots were to be removed which is exactly what Nick knew I asked for because of state licensing and the children’s safety. There is still one very large root. 2. “I would like thefake grass put back down after the dirt is pressed and even once more”. Asyou can see on the contract, we were never contracted or paid to do anything ofthis nature. 3. “I would like 24inch box trees planted and warranted”. PerMrs. [redacted] admission in the complaint, she agreed to keep the 15 gallontrees with a $400.00 discount to the original contract. We acknowledge thatthis unintentionally slipped through the cracks and at the writing of thisresponse, a refund check in the amount of $400.00 has been mailed via certifiedmail to the customer. I don’t have 4-24 inch boxed trees, Mr. L[redacted] can have his 400 back when that is complete since he never offered to follow the contract and plant the size I asked for. 4. “I would like the tree wells to becompleted as promised with red brick around the edge and the rock buried halfwas and the dirt sealed.” Again, look at the contract, there is nomention of anything of this nature. We have re-done this work with differentproducts at our expense to try to appease her. There has been a couple of fixesrecommended and attempted all at Design Tree Maintenance’s expense to no avail. Considering Mr. L[redacted] is not telling the truth about what he agreed to do to fix my current yards condition because I don’t have it in writing I will accept the original contract to be completed, it is not. I have no quarter minus that is hard around the tree wells, I have two dead trees, I have a large root that was contracted to be removed, I have a flood in one tree well since their work that he was told about, it’s still there as well. 5. “Or a complete refund includingthe $850.00 I gave his friend Peter to put the grass back down.” Asstated previously, the entire contract has been fulfilled with multiplenon-warranteed items being replaced under warranty. We do not feel obligated toreturn money for a completed contract. The Peter mentioned here, is the ownerof Evergreen Synthetic Lawns & Putting Green, he was hired by Mrs [redacted]to completed the $850.00 job mentioned and has absolutely no connection of anykind with our company. It would not be a refund, It would be a donation as Mrs.[redacted] never paid us for this service. I would like to know what “multiple non-warrantied items being replaced” are? This hasn’t occurred. The contract is not complete. I will seek whatever means are lawfully mine to have my funds returned to me so I may have another company finish the work. I have consulted with one company and the owner is appalled at how long this is taking and at the state of my yard. He is concerned for the safety of the children and the undue stress this has caused for my staff and myself because of the limited use of our yard. The ROC began to believe the statements from Mr. L[redacted] too until they Google mapped my backyard and saw that in fact I do not have the elements purchased through contract in my yard. Now they are coming to investigate next week. We feel that wehave gone above and beyond to try and make Mrs. [redacted] happy and are unableto do so without great expense to our firm. We are at this point, willing, andhave offered to replace the 4, 15 Gallon Ash trees under warranty (even thoughone has already been warrantied, and there are external factors contributing tothe death of her trees, not faulty workmanship) They only agreed to replace the trees IF I sign away my rights to all the rest of the work that still needs completed and if I sign away rights to any warranty. I must point out yet again, only two trees are dead, and the dogs have not touched them because they were properly planted and not left exposed by crewmen. Again, only one tree was the fault of the dogs because as we warned them multiple times it would be if they chose to leave the tree exposed in the same yard as the dogs for a weekend while I was out of town. with the understanding that wehave more than fulfilled our contract and will not do any more work at thisproperty, warranty or otherwise. Mrs. [redacted] is unwilling to accept and signoff on these terms, which is why her trees have not been replaced and the Revdex.comwas contacted. I would be happy to further discuss this with a Revdex.comrepresentative if so desired. I would love anyone from the Revdex.com or any other organization to come and inspect the “completed work” It will speak for itself. I am in the process of having 3 landscaping companies give affidavits about what they see in my back yard for court. Since the amount I paid for the work is over 2500 I have no choice but to enter into a civil lawsuit. I no longer feel comfortable with their work especially now that they are being investigated and I am seeking the full amount to be refunded as well as attorneys fees, time from work, the stress of my staff, children and myself and whatever else is legally due considering they know exactly what they are doing and it is abundantly clear the work is unfinished. It is not okay to treat good paying customers like this. I have been more than nice and easy going while trying to brainstorm ways to fix the wells when Design Trees idea didn’t work. I have faith in the justice system. The truth will come out in court.