ComplaintsforTip Top Tree Service of Midlands, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  11/16/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I moved to this address a year ago. In spring of 2021, I was looking for a tree trimming business. Preferably a small business and within or near my community. A local small business was recommended by another small business. Based on the recommendation, I contacted Tip Top Tree Service some time in March 26, 2021. Company representative, Rachel Reeves, came one afternoon to look at what I wanted done and sent me a quote via email. Of the quoted work, I decided to have the sweet gum tree trimmed and six bushes removed first, and asked for an appointment. I was told it would be in April. I sent emails and text messages and would hear back things like "we are looking at our schedules, we have equipment issues, yes ma'am we will get to you, etc...". I sent an email saying "if you can do the service, can you recommend another company?". Finally, in June they came and "removed" 6 bushes for $75 each. However, the bushes were not "removed" form the roots, just trimmed. I could have trimmed those bushes my self and save $450!! Also, during the trimming of the sweet gum tree, it started raining decently. Joseph, the owner of the company was doing the work. As the rain continued and Joseph told me he can't continue because the tree was too wet and that he would come soon to finish removing the two limbs hanging over my roof. They never came back. I kept texting and email the company asking when they will finish the incomplete work. Sometimes it would be weeks before I would hear anything back, that after texting them saying I am still waiting to hear back from them. Company now is telling me that removing bushes means cutting them down not removing the roots, and they have finished trimming the sweet gum tree. I have asked them to refund me the $450 for bushes and another portion for the unfinished trimming of the sweet gum. I've been given the run around for 8 months!! I am very really disappointed! I would appreciate your help. Thank you!

  Business response

  12/07/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/11/16) */ We have never given this client the run-around. When I quoted the job, I specifically told her it would be 6-8 weeks. Which tracks end of March to June. In terms of the job completed, this is not how any of this happened. First of all, she did not want the stumps ground for the shrub trees. I specifically asked when quoting. She said no, and there the quote does not reflect that. Not to mention, we even removed MORE than originally quoted but did not charge her more. We honored what was quoted. As for the trimming of the sweet gum, this is also not how the conversation went. Joseph trimmed as much as possible SAFELY. She said she wanted more done, but he said it was not safe to remove more or it would be dangerous (too heavy - potentially fall on neighbors home). So he refused to do more. The remainder of the "run around" was for phase two that she wanted completed. Much like the rest of America right now, we have had employee issues, part shortages, etc. Therefore, it has taken longer than expected for us to go back out. When we finally told her we were just trying our best or we would happily help her find another reputable company that can come quicker, this is when she mentioned she wants her money back (5 months after the first phase was completed)! She had no issues with what she paid or the job completed in phase one until we told her we were not going to do phase two as quickly as we wanted to. Additionally, she wanted to pay with Credit Card which is through ******. They have a processing fee that we usually have the customer pay, but in this instance we paid that as well. So she got more than a fair deal. Attached is the invoice that she paid. Clearly as you can see on this invoice, there is no mention of stump grinding. Additionally attached is another quote she received the same day, this clearly shows stump grinding. So she was very well aware of the removal not including stump grinding. Please understand we are a small business going through an extremely rough time. We had no intentions of wrong during or inflation of job prices. If you have any questions, please call me at 803-351-1399. She has also blasted us all over social media in regards to the TIME issues nothing about this money. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2021/11/20) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Ms. Reeves: "We have never given this client the run-around. When I quoted the job, I specifically told her it would be 6-8 weeks. Which tracks the end of March to June." Response: I disagree with Ms. Reeves, I was given the runaround and discriminated against due to the size of the job. After I agreed to remove the shrubs and to trimming of the sweet gum tree, I received an email indicating that it would be the end of April, not 6 to 8 weeks as claimed Ms. Reeves wrote: "In terms of the job completed, this is not how any of this happened. First of all, she did not want the stumps ground for the shrub trees. I specifically asked when quoting. She said no, and there the quote does not reflect that. Not to mention, we even removed MORE than originally quoted but did not charge her more. We honored what was quoted. My response: Ms. Reeves is correct, I didn't want to pay additional hundreds of dollars for the stump grinding of the shrubs. I recently requested an estimate for the trees in my backyard from another company. While talking with the arborist, I mentioned to him that the shrubs "removed" by another company (didn't mention which company) were sprouting again. He told me that an herbicide should have been applied to the stumps after cutting them down. Clearly, that is not the case since they have all sprouted. This is the reason why I would like a refund: Since the job was not done correctly, the shrubbery will need to be cut back again and an herbicide applied to prevent further sprouting. As far as doing more than what they originally quoted, no one asked me for my consent to do the "extra" whatever it was done. Additionally, I was not told of the additional work that was done. Had I known it, I would have paid for the extra. When Mr. Thomas and the other gentleman came to do the work, my next door neighbor spoke with Mr. Thomas. When the crew was wrapping up, Mr. Thomas left to get the truck to load the debris. While he was gone, I saw the other gentleman trimming some limbs from my neighbors front yard. When I asked him why he was trimming the trees of my neighbor, he said "Joseph asked me to do it". While Mr. Thomas was being kind, that additional work was being done on my dime. Perhaps that is the extra work Ms. Reeves mentioned. Ms. Reeves wrote: "As for the trimming of the sweet gum, this is also not how the conversation went. Joseph trimmed as much as possible SAFELY. She said she wanted more done, but he said it was not safe to remove more or it would be dangerous (too heavy - potentially fall on neighbors home). So he refused to do more." My response: Ms. Reeves was not present when I was talking to the owner, Mr. Joseph Thomas, who was doing the trimming. Therefore, she cannot claim to know what the course of the conversation was or how it went. While the tree was being trimmed, it started raining. I asked Mr. Thomas if he needed to stop due to precipitation, and come back when it is not raining. He told me "We do this all the time". I did tell him I was worried for the safety of the crew but since he is a professional with knowledge, it was for him to decide. The rain continued and Mr. Thomas told me that they need to stop because the limbs were getting heavier and that it was dangerous. Mr. Thomas showed me a few limbs hanging over my roof and said those will need to be removed as well and he will come soon to finish trimming those limbs. Furthermore, when I brought up the incomplete trimming of the sweet gum, Ms. Reeves could have disputed my claim on numerous occasions. In one of her recent emails, Ms. Reeves wrote that the tree was at the end of it's life. If that was the case, Mr. Thomas would have spoken with me and told me the tree would need to be removed, not trimmed. When Mr. Thomas was here, I did ask him about the health of the tree. He told that it was healthy, but the canopy needed to be raised. If I were given the wrong information regarding the health of the tree and the tree caused damage, would that not affect the company's liability insurance? Ms. Reeves wrote: "The remainder of the "run around" was for phase two that she wanted completed. Much like the rest of America right now, we have had employee issues, part shortages, etc. Therefore, it has taken longer than expected for us to go back out. When we finally told her we were just trying our best or we would happily help her find another reputable company that can come quicker, this is when she mentioned she wants her money back (5 months after the first phase was completed)! She had no issues with what she paid or the job completed in phase one until we told her we were not going to do phase two as quickly as we wanted to." My response: I am not a fan of Facebook and do not check it regularly at all. I think it was either September or October, I was checking Facebook and decided to check Tip Top Tree's Facebook page to see if they posted anything regarding any difficulties they may be having with equipment, labor, etc. On the company's page, I read a post by a lady. She was gushing about getting a quote from Tip Top Tree and they were even able to cut the tree down the same day! Imagine my surprise, while I have been given the run around for months, somebody else in the neighborhood was able to get her tree cut down. Ms. Reeves, in her November 4th email, admitted to being selective about who they can service. This means to me, whichever job is going to bring in larger revenue would be moved to the #1 slot in the work order. Ms. Reeves never told me that it would take longer than expected the phase 2. Instead, she would respond to my emails as shown below. Additionally, Mr. Thomas had told me that a bucket truck would not be able to enter my backyard and he would trim the tree like he did the tree in the front. Therefore, I was told that the major issue was the bucket truck being broken down or needing parts is a moot point, when in fact the owner, Mr. Thomas told me otherwise. Lastly, Ms. Reeves's claim of offering me to find another reputable company is beyond ridiculous! I have asked her repeatedly whether they wanted my business, will they be able to service my trees, asked them for recommendations, etc. Ms. Reeves wrote: "Additionally, she wanted to pay with Credit Card which is through ******. They have a processing fee that we usually have the customer pay, but in this instance we paid that as well. So she got more than a fair deal." My response: I am allowed to pay with any method acceptable to the business and yes I choose to pay with my credit card. That being said, Ms. Reeve is not correct. When I called her to pay the bill by phone using my credit card, she told me there would be an additional fee charged by ****** and before I could say anything she said, "I'll split the fee and you'll pay half and I'll pay the other half". I didn't ask for it, she offered it. As you'll see in the receipt below, I paid $965, which is the same one Ms. Reeves has submitted. I can also provide a copy of my credit card statement. I am not sure what she means that I got a fair deal where I covered half the fee charged by ****** and an unfinished job. If you'll look at what I paid, middle left side of the image below, you'll note that the fee split in half, not paid by the company as Ms. Reeves claims. I paid in full, before the job was completed. Instead, I should have paid only a portion of the bill until the job was finalized. Ms. Reeves wrote: "Please understand we are a small business going through an extremely rough time. We had no intentions of wrong during or inflation of job prices." My response: I am aware that this is a small business which is the reason I wanted to hire them for the needed tree work, and we live in the same neighborhood. I do my best to give business to small, local businesses. I know how hard it is to run a small company, having own one before. But, being a small business does not mean existing customers should be ignored in favor of a higher revenue job. Ms. Reeves wrote: "If you have any questions, please call me at 803-351-1399. She has also blasted us all over social media in regards to the TIME issues nothing about this money." My response: I did not blast this company "all over social media". I wrote a post on their business's Facebook page & ********** **** ****" Facebook page. Ms. Reeves is taking this personally when in fact it's a business matter. She wrote "Now she made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau & we have to deal with this headache". I haven't changed my mind regarding a refund. Additionally, if Ms. Reeves's claim of the sweet gum tree not needing any more trimming because it can cause damage, I would like Mr. Thomas to write me a letter on the company letterhead and explain this. I have a lot of examples from emails I would like to share, if you'll send me your email address. Thank you! Regards, Business Response /* (4000, 12, 2021/11/22) */ ***Document Attached*** Fourth matter continued: **** response: I am not a fan of Facebook and do not check it regularly at all. I think it was either September or October, I was checking Facebook and decided to check Tip Top Tree's Facebook page to see if they posted anything regarding any difficulties they may be having with equipment, labor, etc. On the company's page, I read a post by a lady. She was gushing about getting a quote from Tip Top Tree and they were even able to cut the tree down the same day! Imagine my surprise, while I have been given the run around for months, somebody else in the neighborhood was able to get her tree cut down. Ms. Reeves, in her November 4th email, admitted to being selective about who they can service. This means to me, whichever job is going to bring in larger revenue would be moved to the #1 slot in the work order. Ms. Reeves never told me that it would take longer than expected the phase 2. Instead, she would respond to my emails as shown below. Additionally, Mr. Thomas had told me that a bucket truck would not be able to enter my backyard and he would trim the tree like he did the tree in the front. Therefore, I was told that the major issue was the bucket truck being broken down or needing parts is a moot point, when in fact the owner, Mr. Thomas told me otherwise. Lastly, Ms. Reeves's claim of offering me to find another reputable company is beyond ridiculous! I have asked her repeatedly whether they wanted my business, will they be able to service my trees, asked them for recommendations, etc. Our response: Again, you have only a part of the information and are speculating. The lady that was able to get the tree down in one day was a dead tree about to fall on her home. I apologize that her tree in fact took more importance than trimming your backyard. I hope you can understand that. The bucket truck being broken delayed jobs that were on the list BEFORE you were for phase two. So with it being broken it dramatically affected our schedule. Throughout every single one of your responses it is evident that you do not have all the information before you continue to make remarks. We cannot explain our every single move to every single customer. But I ensure you that we are and have done the best we possible can of a small business with on a good day three employees (one of which is disabled). Fifth matter: Ms. Reeves wrote: "Additionally, she wanted to pay with Credit Card which is through ******. They have a processing fee that we usually have the customer pay, but in this instance we paid that as well. So she got more than a fair deal." **** response: I am allowed to pay with any method acceptable to the business and yes I choose to pay with my credit card. That being said, Ms. Reeve is not correct. When I called her to pay the bill by phone using my credit card, she told me there would be an additional fee charged by ****** and before I could say anything she said, "I'll split the fee and you'll pay half and I'll pay the other half". I didn't ask for it, she offered it. As you'll see in the receipt below, I paid $965, which is the same one Ms. Reeves has submitted. I can also provide a copy of my credit card statement. I am not sure what she means that I got a fair deal where I covered half the fee charged by ****** and an unfinished job. If you'll look at what I paid, middle left side of the image below, you'll note that the fee split in half, not paid by the company as Ms. Reeves claims. I paid in full, before the job was completed. Instead, I should have paid only a portion of the bill until the job was finalized. Our response: On your emailed quote, it states that credit card fees are 3%. I offered to pay half because you kept mentioning you were disabled and money was tight. So once again, we went out of our way to be polite to you. And yes, I am equally confused why if the job was "incomplete" why you paid in full. This goes to show it was truly complete day of. Sixth matter: Ms. Reeves wrote: "Please understand we are a small business going through an extremely rough time. We had no intentions of wrong during or inflation of job prices." **** response: I am aware that this is a small business which is the reason I wanted to hire them for the needed tree work, and we live in the same neighborhood. I do my best to give business to small, local businesses. I know how hard it is to run a small company, having own one before. But, being a small business does not mean existing customers should be ignored in favor of a higher revenue job. Our response: Not once did we ignore you for a higher revenue job. You simply made that assumption. Seventh matter: Ms. ****** wrote: "If you have any questions, please call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX. She has also blasted us all over social media in regards to the TIME issues nothing about this money." **** response: I did not blast this company "all over social media". I wrote a post on their business's Facebook page & "Rosewood Riff Raff" Facebook page. Ms. Reeves is taking this personally when in fact it's a business matter. She wrote "Now she made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau & we have to deal with this headache". I haven't changed my mind regarding a refund. Additionally, if Ms. Reeves's claim of the sweet gum tree not needing any more trimming because it can cause damage, I would like Mr. Thomas to write me a letter on the company letterhead and explain this. I have a lot of examples from emails I would like to share, if you'll send me your email address. Our response: So you didn't blast it on social media, yet you posted it on two (that I know of) social media pages. That is very contradictory. I do not care in the slightest of your negative posts on Facebook. What confuses me is that what you posted on social media is not what you are presenting to BBB. Therefore, it is clear you are strictly just trying to attack our business in any revenue you believe you can cause harm. Again, the job was completed and refund us denied. We certainly can write a letter of recommendation about the health of the tree. But this will serve as official notice and therefore, you will need to remove the tree ASAP. If you do not remove the tree, and it falls on your neighbor's home it will be your insurances responsibility because you were notified. I will be also notify your neighbor of this so he can send a certified letter as well for completion of the process and he does not end up being liable for your negligence. So want to make you aware of that before you receive it in the mail. Lastly: Attached are before pictures and after photos I took today. You can see that we trimmed a good bit off the tree and there is not much left to trim (even if we could trim, which we cannot). Honestly, you can't even see the largest lead we removed in either of the pictures. Which was why **** was so concerned and wanted it trimmed - the neighbors made the request when she moved in if I am not mistaken. From street view said shrub trees have barely grown (with exception of one.) Be sure when looking at the picture you aren't including the rose tree on the front corner of the house she asked us to keep. Again, you can see a dramatic difference between before and afters. Therefore, we respectfully decline any refund for this service. Regardless, if any matters presented, we completed everything listed per our agreed upon contract. If said services, were not completed or completed to your standards, then why did you pay us? I hate to be this way and never want to take anyones money if they do not feel like things were complete. We truly go above and beyond for every single one of our customers. Our goal is to leave every yard looking better than we started - including blowing leaves, going above and beyond on non-quoted items, fair prices, etc. Hints why we were nominated for Best of Columbia Metropolitan the past two years (even being these were our first years in business). Consumer Response /* (4200, 14, 2021/11/26) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I would have like to hear that you cannot do the job at my schedule. I had mentioned in one of my emails and perhaps in a text message that limbs had fell over my powerline and it was sagging. Had I been told at that point that Tip Top cannot do the job, I would have contacted another company. Of course I am not going to write every minutiae! As for your allegation of attacking your company is not true at all! You do not know my values, so you cannot talk about what I want. Again, you are making this a personal matter. After you crew left that day, Mr. Alison asked me if the job was completed? I told him what Mr. Thomas told me which was because of the rain, the job couldn't be completed and that he will return to finish it. Additionally, I also told him what Mr. Thomas told me which was he had removed the large limb over their roof. The health of the sweet gum tree is being brought up by you: If the tree was at the end of it's life as you claim, why was it trimmed?? Why was I not told that trimming the sweet gum would not be advisable and you refuse to do it?? So now you are asking me to repay for a trimmed tree, to be cut down which will cost me around $4,000. Why?? I asked Mr. Thomas while they were wrapping up if the tree was healthy. He told me it was and will be even better when he comes back for the remaining few limbs. It is Tip Top's responsibility to inform their clients of the health of the tree and the recommended course of action. I have not questioned Mr. Thomas's expertise so far, and perhaps he should be the one doing the quoting rather than Ms. Reeves. By trimming the tree and Mr. Thomas telling me that it is healthy, and now claiming that it needs to be cut is causing me a lot more anxiety and will cost me a lot of money because I was led to believe everything is fine. First of all, being nominated does not mean the company being nominated is the best. It can be done by nominating themselves, and if that is not allowed, then simply by asking a relative, friend, etc. to nominate the company. While I applaud your nomination, for a company that is relatively new, with documented equipment and personnel problems, I would think that would be overreaching. I have been praying for both Ms. Reeves and Mr. Thomas and their company's fortunes to change for the better, for them to be successful small business owners. Yes, I did proceed and gave my business to Tip Top. Because I wanted my money to support small business who were suffering because of the pandemic and because I was told "will contact ASAP, etc.". As I don't think I would have told you money was tight. Additionally, you wrote that I was walking just find in both instances and that I told you that I was disabled. In January, I had just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. My doctor followed the recommended course of action, I have tried over 8 medicines, used a cane when I had to walk, lived in extreme pain. I saw my doctor last week and he said, "what a difference since June!!". I have plenty of evidence and witnesses who can collaborate my story. For you to tell me in one breath that "you were walking just fine" and in another to say that "you said you were disabled" doesn't make sense, because you can see it yourself. Also, that remaining bush that I asked not to be cut down is not a "rose bush" as you keep referring to but an azalea bush that is very common here. Looks like the app you were using that they is not very accurate, and your knowledge of vegetation is limited. I had sent a text message Mrs. ****** that morning and alerted them Tip Top will be coming. I asked them to please move their cars and fragile items from their front yard. I saw Mr. Thomas speaking to Mr. ****** before the job started, which I guess when he asked for permission to enter their yard. The trimming of my neighbors trees right over the sidewalk was done by the other gentleman working that day while Mr. Thomas had left to retrieve a truck to load the debris. Regarding herbicides and pesticides in general, I am sorry to say that I do not believe you at all. I am going to make some assumptions here and give some examples. If you are against pesticides in general, that means you would not have a termite bond for your house, you won't use antibacterial soaps containing triclosan or other bactericides, nor Lysol, nor does Mr. Thomas use a pesticide to protect himself and his clothing when he goes hunting, nor do you use topical flee medicine for your dogs, etc. It would be very concerning if you are not using insect repellents to prevent mosquito bites considering they are vectors for Zika, West Nile, and Chikungunya viruses, in addition to dengue, and malaria, for ticks to prevent Lyme disease, etc. I am a scientist with two advance post graduate degrees. For the first part of my career, I worked as a toxicologist performing EPA mandated tests to determine toxicity of heavy metals, pesticides, crude oil and synthetic fibers and their effects on fecundity and lethal dose to a portion of the population. In addition, I have over 20 years of experience working in a regulatory capacity as a water quality expert. When I use pesticides, I apply and use them correctly to insure minimal impact to the environment that I am trying my best to protect and improve the quality of our environment. I apologize but I do not believe your stance on using pesticides. This is the first time you are indicating "the tree wasn't as healthy as you thought". An expert would have known that from the start and would have informed me. If Mr. Thomas has the experiences you have listed, he should be the one giving advice about the nature of work, i.e., whether to trim a tree or cut it down and the quote. To me that means, Ms. Reeves, who is not an expert, has provided me with wrong information regarding the health of the tree and course of action. I recently learned while talking to the arborist I had mentioned that what Mr. Thomas called a live oak and junk tree are in fact a water oak and hackberry trees, respectively. I am not wasting Better Business Bureau's time since they are the experts in these kind of situations. Rather, I have wasted a lot of time and money. Because of these new revelations, I would like to request a full refund. After 5 months, the bushes trimmed by Tip Top have sprouted. I would be curious to know what they would look like after another 7 months. Looks like you took pictures of my home and the surrounding area last Monday. As you'll see in the pictures you have presented, there is a pile of yard debris and two very big bushes missing. On Sunday, I saw someone cutting down bushes in my neighbor's yard. I asked the gentleman if he could at two bushes I wanted removed. One was next to my patio. The other was an oleander bush with two water oak trees growing within the oleander. While the gentleman I had spoken to was wrapping up, I saw young boy in my yard. He was cutting the oleander bush. I walked and spoke to him. I asked him what grade he was in, what he wanted to study in college, etc. Turns out, this 13 year old young man had his landscaping business since he was ten years old and older gentleman was his father, who has a day job working at city of Columbia, and was just helping out his son, *******. ******* removed both bushes himself in 35 minutes. I told ******* if he could cut down a sapling that I trimmed and that I would pay him for that as well. He did that in a few seconds and didn't even want to discuss payment. While ******* was doing his job, I told his dad of the approximately 12 feet tall tree on the other side of my porch. He asked if I want it cut down and replied yes. Later, father and son blew the leaves you see in the pictures taken by you. They asked for $75 dollars for all the work they did, which was completed beautifully under 45 minutes. I told the dad that this didn't sound like it was enough money for their work but he insisted that was the rate and told me to look it up online. Before they left ******* said if I didn't want bushes to grow back to apply an herbicide to prevent regrowth. Later, I did look up pricing for cutting down bushes. I realize prices will differ from one place to another, size of the bushes, accessibility, etc. The website below indicates $6 to $15 per bush, or $50 to $75 per hour. Having paid $75/bush & based on the information given on the web site below, I paid for 6 hours of work. (https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/cost/bush-trimming-price/). Based on this information, I could have probably gotten a lot more bushes removed by Tip Top.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩