Fuck You, Tree Service Company! {Long}

Fuck you, fuck the thrice-cursed whore that whelped you, fuck the degenerate cur that sired you, and fuck your execrable siblings. I’d say fuck the miserable slattern you married, but I wouldn’t touch her with yours, dude. May you choke, soon, whilst fellating the 100th syphilitic monkey forced upon you that day.

You came highly recommended. Some people actually were surprised that we’d called a pro instead of their cousin Bubba. We hired you 2 years ago to save the beetle-infested pine tree dying in the front yard. You sold us a year-round service plan that includes fertilizers and pest control for all of the trees. Fair enough, it’s all part of owning a house.

Last Autumn, we called you in to trim the dead limbs off of our trees. It’s only 1/5 of an acre, but there’s a lot of trees and we don’t know how to take care of them. The certifications and degree in tree-ology you tout on your website led us to believe that you do. You quoted us a truly astronomical price and said that the pine tree was at death’s door and would need to be cut down before it destroyed our house or killed somebody. Like Godzilla or something. We granted the tree a temporary stay of execution, based on its much-improved condition. We then agreed to pay you to just remove the dead limbs from the biggest trees, for which you estimated about half the original price.

Your crowd of dipshits showed up while we were at work and proceeded to beat the ever loving fuck out of our plants, which you had assured us they would not do. I thought the place had been vandalized by those damn kids from down the street. In addition to trampling the crap out of everything green and upright, they snapped in half a cholla cactus that was nowhere near the work area, strewed our stakes and trellises (with plants till attached) abso-fucking-lutely everywhere. and took it upon themselves to lop a half-inch thick branch off of our climbing rosebush, (accident my ass, they used fucking shears). The final insult: the stupid fuckers slashed open 8 goddamned bags of shredded leaves that I had just spent the weekend collecting. By the time I found this god-forsaken disaster area, the wind had blown them BACK INTO THE FUCKING YARD. When you saw the mess your employees had made, you assured me that it was normal collateral damage associated with tree trimming operations and offered me replacement shrubs “at cost”. What cost, motherfucker? You grow them yourself, they are practically free. Then to finish the ritual ass-fucking of the customer, you presented me with a bill that was 80% of your quote for the entire job, explaining that it took longer than anticipated. Brilliant strategy! Get people to agree to do only half the job, then charge them for nearly the whole thing. Phase 3 is Profit!

Against our better judgment, we retained your services for the rest of the contract. It was already paid, after all. Which brings us to today. Once again, I came home and had cause to search my property for young vandals. You see, as part of today’s scheduled late Summer fertilization, your Mongol Horde threw in some value-added, in the form of more plant destruction. Why on Earth would they cut off some 6’ tall sunflowers, then fold them in half and throw them into the driveway? Perhaps for the same reason they kicked over some other sunflowers and pulled up the stakes and tape, flinging those into the front pathway. We collected those seeds last Summer during our perambualtions across the Rockies and Northern Plains. They were just starting to flower. The seed heads were not yet mature, so we can’t even replant them next year. At least there’s a few of each type left. Nevertheless, the Mrs. is probably going to mope for the entire weekend once she sees this, she really liked those flowers. Thanks, stupid cocks.

It’s a good thing I used up the last of the leaf mulch recently, or I suppose they would have dumped it directly into my sewer line cleanout or set fire to it inside my air conditioner. What’s up for the Fall service? Do they hide in the alley, then beat me to death with my own shrubbery and leave my mangled corpse on the lawn as a warning to the others? I guess it’s what I deserve for keeping them employed.

Now that I think of it, I’ve never seen these hooligan workers. Is it possible that tree-man has trained up a pack of spastically incompetent, shit-flinging monkeys? I’ve got plenty of bananas and a job I’m sure they’d enjoy…

I Hate It Here

Why would you allow them back on the property? A contract? Fuck that. Get pictures, a lawyer, and go to court. Consider calling in the Better Business Bureau, and see what they can say.

Whatever you do make sure they don’t work on the property again.

We are now officially done with them, they recently sent us a renewal notice and we will decline. The BBB is essentially a toothless merchant’s association. We took pictures, but really there’s nothing to sue over. The cardinal rule of small claims court is “What are the damages?”. In my case they busted up some plants that have a lot of our time invested in them, but really aren’t worth much. I mean, how do you put a value on a fraction of a rose bush or some sunflowers that cost us nothing, or the effort to clean up some leaves. Even if we were to put an hourly rate on clean up, we’d be lucky to make 50 bucks in total. I’m pissed and we will recommend against using them, but that’s about it. It’s probably healthier to bitch loudly anyway. And a valuable lesson was reinforced: Never trust an Okie.

It sounded like the place was trashed. It’s not as bad as I thought then.

The plants were FUBAR and pretty much everywhere, but they just aren’t worth much, legally speaking. If they had busted a window, I’d have a case.

Wow, you really ARE furious!

Just ribbing you - I know plants aren’t worth much, dollar-wise, but nobody steps on MY plants without my wrath, either. If I had professionals in to look after something in my yard and they trashed it, I’d have posted the same rant as you. I spend hours and hours in my yard every week, looking after stuff. It’s not there just for people to wreck.

IANAL, but wouldn’t you be able to place a small claims case on breach of contract? Somewhere in the contract there must be a claus making them responsible for clean up and damage to property?

Just a thought, but then you could not sue them for not only the value of the contract, but for the value of professional reparations by another firm?

Best of luck,
FML

Yes, it’s the Sanity Claus.

Regards,
Shodan

I was with you until you said, “Against our better judgment, we retained your services for the rest of the contract.”

You don’t invite vandals back on your property.

As far as the price for cutting off the dead limbs go, here in Ohio, the final price can only exceed the estimate by 10% before they are required to get a second appropval. There are undoubtedly similar consumer protection laws in your state. So I would have paid the original estimate +10% and told him to pound salt for the rest. Calculating labor time involved is an inherent part of a quote; if he screwed up, then it’s his problem.

You know, it’s a shame that they trampled all over you, both literally and physically. But you let them take advantage of you. Twice. Stand up for yourself.

To give true justice, you leave the mess like it is and put up one of those work done by company signs. :slight_smile:

If your BBB has a website you might be able to post your experience there. Also look for other sites that list local companies where people can rate them or post experiences.

It sounds like he just hires cheap labor that knows nothing about landscaping or plant care and lets them run amok without supervision.

Post a negative review on Angie’s List, and report them to the BBB whether you think it will do you any good or not. The deciding factor in which roofing company we ultimately went with to replace our roof turned out to be the two BBB complaints I found registered against one of the contractors. We went with the other guy. So filing a BBB complaint may not net you any recompense, but may prevent someone else in the future from hiring these schlubs.

Go to small claims court. In many parts of the country, damage to trees and other growing things is automatically tripled to account for the time factor to get them back in shape. It sounds like they have some vandals in their employ and should be held accountable.

Now I’m off to see what my tree trimmers are doing at my house today…