Allen’s Tree Service Inc

After sending the following email to Allen’s tree service, Kevin Gallagher called and said he is unwilling to work with me on pricing charged, in spite of the way the contract is misleading. I informed him that I asked three seperate people prior to my email and all read the contract the same way I did, which is to say the charges would be $ 375. The following is the email I sent in an attempt to avoid taking this matter to a third party:
«I’d like to ask that this be forwarded to a manager please. I’m very dissatisfied with the way this contract reads. As someone who was referred to your company and someone who has referred others since, I feel mislead, whether intentional or not.
It reads „Fertilizing 3 pin oaks to improve vigor“ and „system insecticide 3 Pin Oak for prevention of new stem galls“ each for $ 375 exactly, with no total at the bottom to indicate that these are separate, but coincidentally the same, charge. I was under the impression that they were both included in the one charge of $ 375. No one contacted me to go over the proposal, but just left a copy on my front porch.
Had I believed the fee was $ 750 to perform this service, I would have gotten other competitive bids.
We are not cheap people, nor are we without means to pay the bill; however, we believe very much in being treated fairly. In this case, we have not been treated fairly and do not believe we should be charged for the service we were not aware we were agreeing to because of the way the contract reads.
Please advise ASAP so we can put this matter to rest.»

Terrible customer service. I would not recommend. I was told to mail in the contract. Two weeks later, I never heard back from Allen’s Tree Service, so I called. I was told that it would be 6 weeks. So, had I not called, I would have been waiting for 8 weeks to receive my service. I cancelled and now have to pay $ 75. I think a response before 8 weeks is a reasonable expectation of a company you are doing business with.
I was treated like a pest by the receptionist and she would not answer my questions.
Please do not patronize this company.

Very, very satisfied with the work. I had a dead tree removed from my front yard. I think it took Allen’s Tree Service all of 15 minutes to remove the tree and grind the stump. The work was excellent. The crew cleaned up all of the small twigs that fell from the tree when they ground it up. They left my yard in prestine shape.
Excellent work, really great price, and super nice folks to deal with. I’ll use them again for all of my tree service needs. Also, they have an excellent BBB rating — I looked them up before calling.

I needed front landscaping in a very bad kinda way, after five heartfelt years of trying to coax a beautiful English garden out my clay soil in a loving manner that proved entirely useless and fruitless and ugly.
I had used Allen Tree Service for tree removal and tree trimming earlier in 2012. Then I noticed on their flyer that they do landscaping.
So – known merchant — I called them, having been extremely satisfied with their earlier work.
Mike came out, and we reviewed the area to be considered, including a discussion of mulch vs. rock vs. other ground covering, light, sun, drainage, likes, dislikes, desires re evergreen vs. vacant shrubs during winter.
Mike had immediate ideas and suggestions, including keeping one of the shrubs I already had. I thought they’d all go, so this was a nice surprise.
He had a book of all the landscaping materials he was suggesting, showed me the pictures of the shrubs, drew a map, walked around and around. He was satisfied.
So was I. Within a week, I got the paperwork. We were verging on October, so Mike’s suggestion was get it moving. THAT I understood.
I gotta say this in here: I’m versatile. I am not an expert on shrubs or landscaping. I know there are people who are SET on what they want and where they want it. I let Mike take the lead, and that expedited our process.
I do not want to make a career out of selecting shrubs and accoutrements for my front yard. Because I have no knowledge. I will always leave that to the experts. And I have friends who want to hand-​pick the shrubs, their size and their placement. You can do that. I’m relying on the experts.
It took me a couple weeks to get half of the cost to them to solidify the contract. Then I was sweating the time. ‘Cause I know they’re not just sitting around waiting for me to send them money to get the job going.
Mike called in early November, saying they were coming.
What would have taken me five or six weekends to do (or more, even if I was getting the same shrubs), they did in ONE day, including the mulch, reaming out all the other shrubs I’d left after trying to get them out, and perfect placement of the new shrubs.
I came home to a beautiful front yard. Major curb appeal. Magically.
Now, for those of you who remember my orbital blowout from a yard accident — that was from trying to remove the shrubs in the front to make way for new landscaping. I thought that would be helpful and a big cost-​savings.
Well, that accident cost me more than $ 500 in medical expenses, lost work, surgery, pain and suffering.
Itemized on my proposal from Allen’s was shrub removal for $ 75.
I’ve taken a BIG lesson on this one. And that is: Call first.