Wow, where to start?
... and his company did a good job removing two large trees from our backyard.
That being said, he and his crew badly damaged an arbor in our backyard in the process.
When he finished the job, he did not tell us the arbor was damaged, he simply left it bent and listing severely to the side.
I sent a text message to .. thanking him for the tree removal, however expressed my concern about the arbor. He said it'd be an easy fix and that he'd be out the next day. No problem.
When I got home later that day I saw that he managed to straighten the bent metal mostly but the arbor was still leaning heavily to one side, supported only by the attached vine.
I called Ed and left a message saying that it was still broken, and what is the next step? Later that day we saw him in our yard using zip-ties and rebar to support the arbor. Our neighbor commented on his body language and how angry he seemed.
He left an annoyed message shortly after, stating he was back out there "AGAIN", explained what he did, mentioned that the arbor was "flimsy and rusted to begin with" and that we should "upgrade."
I spoke with some friends of mine who work in construction and asked them if this was an appropriate fix. To a man they all said no, that he should have offered to replace the arbor or reimburse us.
I texted Ed, told him that this was unprofessional, that he should have at the very least told us that they'd damaged our arbor when it happened and offered us a solution. I told him that saying the arbor was "flimsy and rusted to begin with" and that we needed to "upgrade" was petty and mean spirited. I told him that we would not recommend his services to anybody in the future.
Shortly after I received a very irate phone call. I won't summarize the entire conversation but I will provide direct quotes from Ed below:
"We did not bend your arbor, it was already bent when we started working" (This is a lie. I am in our backyard with our dog every afternoon and evening, including the night before he removed our trees, and the arbor has never been bent)
"That arbor was there when you moved in, you didn't even put that up" (This one is just bizarre. We had the house built and I installed it myself years ago)
"It's a piece of junk anyway, you probably paid $15 dollars for it (We got it at TJ Max for $100. It's nothing special by any means, but I don't think that's the point)
"I want to see you face to face" (I received this as a threat due to his anger and volatility. When I told my wife about this interaction she recommend that I call the sheriff, she was that concerned)
"You're just a puppet for your wife, I've seen it a thousand times" (At this point I think he is grasping at straws, I have no idea what he was going for here)
I told him that I would pay him, but to understand that I would not recommend him to anybody. He replied "I don't give a @&$%". He said that if he didn't receive his money "by the end of the week", he would return the trees, shavings, etc. to our yard.
So, I'm going to pay ... his money because, frankly, I don't want to deal with him any longer. Please consider this if you are considering his services. There are many tree removal companies in the area and we wished we would have made a different decision.
Please keep in mind that if anything were to happen to anything in your yard, this man will lie to avoid responsibility and probably insult you in the process.
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