ComplaintsforGood Guys Tree Service

• Initial Complaint

  12/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired Good Guys Tree Service to cut back branches around my home. They were more expensive than other companies, but becasue they had good reviews, I thought they would do a good job. They came out on September 11, 2023. I was advised that the lead representative that came by to discuss my needs would be there on the day of service to communicate my concerns and oversee the job. I was advised the job would be scheduled at a convenient time that met my needs. Instead, the lead never showed up. My concerns were not conveyed. A time and day was picked for me. I had to move two other existing appointments to make it work. I had several dead limbs fall after their service. They did not clean up all the small debris that was scattered in my yard. However, the biggest issue is that they were allowing the tree limbs to fall on my house and slide down my steep and very visible sloped roof. This led to damage to my roof along the front and both sides of my home, shingles missing and frayed along both sides. I also have some fence damage. A hole in my fence and misalignment of the fence, making it difficult to lock. Also, a result of improper management of falling limbs.

  Business response

  12/11/2023

  Since our customer's initial complaint soon after the work was completed, we have been in direct communication with the customer to address concerns. Our scheduling process is always flexible to meet the needs of our customers. We schedule a day and time, inform the customer, and then adjust if the time doesn't work for the customer. After scheduling a date for the work, we were not informed that this was not a good day for the customer's schedule.

  Our operations manager, estimator, and a crew member visited her property immediately in response to her concerns about roof damage. We inspected for damage and let her know that we did not see any signs of damage on the roof. We acknowledged at the time that it was possible that the minimal damage to a few overhanging shingles could have occurred in the course of tree work. We perform work on customer's roofs every day and our highly trained crews know how to exercise caution to prevent any damage. As with any kind of work activity on a roof, it can be very noisy and leave the impression that proper care hasn't been taken. But we did inspect at her request and were confident in our assessment that there was no roof damage. The customer was free to make an independent assessment for damage and let us know of results. This was not done at the time and has not been done to date. She informed us at the first meeting that she was talking to her insurance about roof replacement in connection with significant weather events. We left at that time with the expectation that she would contact us if anything further was needed after insurance or another independent assessment was made.

  We did not hear back from the customer until over two months after work completion and our initial meeting. We received an email from her at that time, on 11/30/23, again claiming roof damage, and additionally claiming damage to her fence. Until that time there had been no mention of fence damage. In this email, her expectation for resolution seemed to be full reimbursement for the cost of work we performed. We considered this highly disproportionate, given the facts and our assessment. We again responded immediately to her complaint. Our operations manager called to discuss. On that call, it was again unclear what the customer expected as a fair resolution. In the intervening time between our work completion and her current claim, there have been significant weather events involving strong wind and hail. Our assessment continues to be that the only possible damage connected to our work was minimal shingle damage along the roof edge. We have contacted the customer directly by phone again in response to this BBB complaint, on 12/11/23. We had a conversation in which we stated what we thought was a fair resolution given the facts. We asked the customer to let us know what her expectations were for a fair resolution. She agreed that she would consider this and contact us to let us know. We are currently waiting for her response.

• Initial Complaint

  05/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  We had Good Guys Tree Service out in mid-February to trim our trees off the roof and clean up dead wood from the ice storm of last year. We have used them once before and found they are quite expensive. They are supposed to be trained arborist, so we felt secure in they would know what they were doing. Now that the trees have leaves it is quite clear that they missed many dead branches. When we called them for the service, they said it was the right time to have the oaks trimmed. They never told us the trees would look horrible after they grew leaves. Also **** came out to quote and said the oak in question would need fertilization and injections. I had to call them back out for this and they still didn't do the injections. Somehow they were claiming the injections would be extra from the $1044.92 I had already paid. I expressed my dissatisfaction and they gave me discount to get to the $1044.92. I have escalated to the manager ****** and spoken to several people on the phone. They are willing to come out and give a quote to fix the sorry job they did in the first place but they will not get any more of my money.

  Business response

  05/11/2022

  There was a miscommunication regarding the scheduling of ******************** touch-up work that he had requested. We have since corresponded with him by phone and email to resolve the issue. Today, 5/11/22, we completed the requested touch-up to his tree work and **************** has indicated that he is very satisfied with the resolution. We respectfully request that **************** close this complaint as successfully resolved. 

  Customer response

  05/12/2022

  Better Business Bureau:

  
  

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. This was not a miscommunication and should not be portrayed as such. Only after I contacted the BBB did they agree to come out and do a touch up on the tree. Their last email prior to me contacting the BBB said that the only thing they could do was to send out someone to do a new estimate to trim the tree. Pretty clear that they would not take care of their poor workmanship if they didn't get more money.

  
  Regards,
  
  *********************

• Initial Complaint

  01/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Tree service was requested for dead-wood removal after the freeze in 2021 and overall trim for the health of the trees ... and work was scheduled for 11/17/21. Work was grossly incomplete and/or not completed. Customer called immediately to the office to complain (2:30P 11/17/21) as the crew had left the site after working approximately one hour and prior to customer review of status. On 12/08/21 *********************** received an e-mail with notice of invoice attached. It was a link to a "single ops" invoice system which showed Invoice #*****, a line item 3) reading "Management Approved Discount" of $2,013.00 and a total due of $0.00 On 12/23/21 *********************** received an e-mail with notice of "Lien filing for unpaid invoice" and an attached affidavit of Mechanic's Lien under the amount of $1,743.26. *********************** called ************************* to contest the issue and sent pictures of incomplete work. ***** stated he would send a representative to the site to review and discuss the proportion of work completed, remaining and discuss any other issues, upon which time a separate/new invoice would be presented for the proportional amount of work which may have been done.On 1/3/22 ***** visited the site as arranged, ***** asked ***** to show him ANY work completed, branches cut or evidence of work done. ***** was not able to identify any cuts but said "our contract is only for branches over 2.5" in diameter" for which ***** stated, that size should be obvious, then show me ANY cut made on ANY tree. ***** was not able to indicate where any work had been performed or limbs cut.***** acknowledged the crew was on site for a very short time. ***** reported crews arriving about 12:30p and ***** arrived home at 2:30p to find no crews at the site.***** departed after making a statement of "we will see you in court".This is a gross default, where very little to no work was performed, an invoice was received showing no balance due, and yet an ongoing threat of a Lien continues.

  Business response

  01/10/2022

  On 11/6/2021,a Good Guys Tree Service estimator provided an onsite evaluation and proposal for requested tree work for the customer, at the customers request.
  On 11/10/21, the customer accepted the proposal for tree work totaling $1,743.26, due and payable upon completion of work and receipt of invoice.
  On 11/17/21,Good Guys Tree Service crew performed the requested tree work per the details of the proposal that had been accepted by the customer. The customer was present at the property at the time of the work being completed, and confirmed that our crew was there and performed work. We received a call later that afternoon from the customer stating that work had not been completed to his satisfaction. The customer could not provide details of what had or had not been completed, but repeatedly stated that our crew had not been on site long enough. We explained to the customer that our approach is to send large,professional crews that can do a large amount of work in a relatively short amount of time.
  On 12/8/21, an invoice for the work totaling $1,743.26 was sent to the customer since the work had been completed and the customer would not respond to further attempts to resolve his complaints. Upon receiving the invoice, the customer called the office to state that no payment would be made for work that had been completed. He stated that a crew would need to return in the spring to complete the work, and only then would payment be made. Our director of operations called and discussed with the customer and was told the same. He responded that we would be happy to return in the spring, but that we needed to come to an agreement regarding what work had been completed and what payment was due. The customer made clear to our director of operations that he did not intend to pay anything even though he acknowledged that our crew had been to his property and performed work.
  On 12/21/21,our estimator visited the customer to review the work and address the customers complaints. The estimator was told by the customer that she would not discuss the work and to come back when her husband was present, but did give him permission to walk the property and review the work. The estimator was able to confirm at that time that the work had been completed per the proposal.
  On 12/23/21,in a further attempt to resolve the issue and receive payment for work performed, the office emailed the customer with a notice of intent to file a Mechanics Lien to collect the balance due of $1,743.26. The customer called the office and an agreement was made that the estimator would return again to the property to review the work with the customer on 1/3/22. The customer was told at that time that no action had been taken regarding the Mechanics Lien other than paperwork having been prepared. No lien was filed at this time or afterwards, so no release is required.
  On 1/3/22, the estimator met with the customer at his property to review the work and again confirmed that the work had been completed per the proposal. The customer continued to insist that the work had not been completed and demanded that the estimator show him specific cuts that had been made. The estimator informed the customer that he was not equipped to climb the trees and locate the cuts that had been made six weeks prior. The customer made it clear that he was still not interested in approaching the matter reasonably and arriving at an agreement regarding what work had or had not been completed. He again stated that he would not pay anything for the work that had been performed on his property.
  On 1/4/22,after careful consideration, management made the decision to write off the customers balance to bad debt and to not pursue collections further. It is our belief based on what we have observed that work was performed per contract, but the customer is simply unwilling to pay. Multiple conversations with the customer have confirmed that he is not interested in coming to an agreement regarding a reasonable amount he is willing to pay based on what work was or was not completed. We have made the decision to relinquish our claim on the balance due simply due to the cost in time and money of pursuing the matter further.
  Regarding the customers Desired Settlement, (1) A billing adjustment was already made on 1/4/22 as a result of the decision to avoid the additional expense of collection. The customer was already in possession of the adjusted invoice showing $0 due prior to filing this complaint. An additional copy is attached. (2) As previously communicated to the customer, no Mechanics Lien was ever filed against his property, so there is no release of lien that needs to be issued. This had been communicated to the customer prior to his filing this complaint.

  Customer response

  01/10/2022

  Complaint: 16426850
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  The statement is in error:  "The customer was present at the property at the time of the work being completed, and confirmed that our crew was there and performed work. We received a call later that afternoon from the customer stating that work had not been completed to his satisfaction."   Neither my wife or I was at the site during said work.  I called when I arrived home and nobody was there.

  The statement is in error:  "The customer could not provide details of what had or had not been completed ..."  I provided a verbal list of:  not all deadwood removed, not canopy laced out for health, unclear what work was done.  and followed by e-mailing example pictures.

  The statement is in error:  "the customer called the office to state that no payment would be made for work that had been completed."   I stated it looked like no work had been completed, thus the job not completed.

  The statement is in error:  "the estimator met with the customer at his property to review the work and again confirmed that the work had been completed per the proposal."   I asked the estimator to show me ANY branch on ANY tree which had been cut by his crew.  He was not able to point to ANY example.

  This is new information:  "On 1/4/22, after careful consideration, management made the decision to write off the customers balance to bad debt and to not pursue collections further."  Invoice ***** was received showing no balance due prior to the threat of lien.  Thus the complaint.

  Summary:  Good Guys Tree service sent a qualified representative to the site after reported work who could not point to one example of a cut limb on any tree.  This is gross misrepresentation of "work completed."

  Regards,
  
  ***********************

*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. ↩