Hardee Tree

To understand this problem you must understand the neighborhood. In this particular neighborhood the civil engineer/ landscape engineer for the neighborhood had no understanding as to how large these trees would get every yard has two (2) red maples which are medium growth trees that grow 35 ft tall with a spread of 20ft or so diameter. The yards in this neighborhood are very small many are 20ft by 60 ft for front yards. To make matters worse they planted Pin oaks which get 65ft tall in a small 3ft wide grass buffer between the sidewalk and the street. Currently the trees are starting to uproot the sidewalk.

So in short the landscape design of this specific community was not thought out in it's entirety which is why *** called me out. He wanted to remove two red maples and possibly some leyland cypresses that had also been planted way too close to the house. Again with the poor landscape design.

Leyland cypresses get to be about 35 to 40ft tall and 4-6 ft wide they were about 3 feet from the house and were growing up on the house. *** asked me if I could remove them as well, I told him my price, he didn't accept because of the price. I then recommended trimming the tree 2ft back off the house for 25 dollars. All of the prices I gave him and this community were lower because this is a senior neighborhood. I do not over charge the elderly and for this reason I believe *** is trying to take advantage of my good will.

My employee/sub-contract climber that was working with me that day trimmed the leyland cypress way too hard back to the base of the tree. and this tree like most conifers do not regrow limbs they just grow more limbs as they grow up. So because of this mistake I removed a 300 dollar tree for 25 dollars, a tree he wanted gone but didn't want to pay the full price to do so. So at this point it is a win-win situation for him, and a loss of time and disposal fees to myself.

I was happy to do this despite being down 275 dollars profit. *** then asked if I was going to replace the tree, and I told him no I would not because he originally wanted it down. He agreed and paid me that day. He was happy and a satisfied customer for a day or two. Later probably 2-3 days he calls me asking me to replace the tree with another tree, a dogwood with a cost of 75-100 dollars, he had left me an aggressive message telling me that he was going to take action against me, not violent but it seemed foreboding in nature.

I called *** back and told him that he was threatening the wrong person, and that I would not be hassled into doing any extra work when I was already down in profit. I do this for a living to support my family, it is not a charity but this is not a lot of money we are talking about for me or for ***. The neighborhood *** lives in seemed to be upper middle class in my estimation 250k to 350k. We are not talking about poverty level. What is more valuable to me is my time over 50-100 dollars, and the fact that he was happy enough to pay me then decides he is going to call and threaten, but out of my kindness I told him I would plant it and pay half of the new tree with these two stipulations:
1. That *** call me as soon as the stump grinder contractor (That I supplied so they could get a better than average deal) was done and that he leave the shavings outside the hole and not push them back in. ( No reason to dig a hole that is already dug)
2. That I meet *** at Pike's nursery to help him choose a good stalk tree that wouldn't die ( Even though Pike guarantee's their trees for 1 year, I was not going to put in another, because my time is more valuable than to do jobs for free. I need to provide for my family).

*** contacted me for two weeks and I was very busy at the time, and couldn't make it, my Sundays were spent catching up on house work and so on. I am a small business so I wear many hats and it requires a lot of time and energy.

After the two weeks things cleared up and I contacted *** for about a week asking him every other day to send me information on when we could meet up to put the tree in. *** did not respond, I found out a few days later he had been in an car accident and a tree in the side of the yard was not his priority. Even though, this could have been done with some finger pointing considering I was doing the manual labor of all this.

So a month rolls by, I at this point, am putting him on the lowest priority, because... I am down 225 dollars on the job, he wants me to take more time and 50 dollars to do this for him, it obviously is not important to him, nor is my schedule because I could have done this for him, but didn't want it when I was free.

This man at this point is being selfish and entitled, does not care for anyone but himself so I in turn have no desire to help him, because out of my good will I gave these seniors better prices than market. I was not making a killing but I did have many referrals and everyone was happy with my work about 5 or 6 houses.

*** then calls me every week, then every day, put letters on my house in red marker stating that "your time has expired". *** slandered my name to previous customers who were happy telling me "to make things right" only to hear my side of the story and drop what they were asking. I turned down many jobs in that neighborhood because I no longer want to work for these seniors where I do not make a high profit margin, it is on the other side of town and my name to be slandered, my home where my family is to be littered with red letters.

I have not wronged anyone, I will not me hassled into doing any work for anyone. It is my choice who I work for, that is why I am self-employed. And *** will be getting a restraining order if he comes to my residence again leaving notes on my door not going through the proper channels of the U.S. mail system.

The whole thing about this is, I NEVER STATED THAT I WOULD PAY FOR ANOTHER TREE EVER. *** is lying about this. IT IS A 100 DOLLAR TREE.

Not my problem, never was my problem, but him calling me on the phone and threatening me will not get me to do anything, him leaving notes on my door in red letters will not get me to do anything, and him slandering my name and reporting me to the Revdex.com will certainly not get me to do anything either.

This was an act of good will and I will not serve him.

He can plant his 100 dollar tree himself, there is not middle ground.