Celtic Landscape showed up at my front door in late December, unbidden, to offer their services for…read morethe removal of a large stump lying on it's side in the center of my front yard. According to the proprietor, he had been referred to me by the tree service that had removed the tree itself in the aftermath of Sandy. I politely told him that we had already made arrangements with another firm, but that it had been weeks, and they still hadn't shown up or called. So I asked him for an estimate, and let him know that if we needed him, we would give him a ring.
About ten days later, I called. He did not call me back that day or the next, which pissed me off, so against my better judgment, I tried again. This time, I was able to get someone on the phone, and in their favor, they did have him get in touch with me promptly. The gentleman remembered me, and we made arrangements for him to come the following Sunday, which he actually did. Things were starting to look promising.
I'm not going to get into all the details of what transpired, because I'm trying to watch my blood pressure, but here's the short version. The tree service that had removed the actual tree had left about three feet of wood on the stump so whoever would be removing it would be able to wrap a chain around it and winch it out. The first thing this fellow did was have his assistant cut that piece off in two large sections. Then, being obvious geniuses, they tried to chainsaw through the dirt and the roots, dulling the chain. Then they left without a word - presumably to get something with which to resharpen it. They were gone for over an hour. Upon their return, using the Bobcat they had brought with them, they proceeded to push the stump around in the yard for approximately two hours, to absolutely no effect other than laying waste to my lawn. At that point, the fellow jumped out of the machine, knocked on my door, and asked what I wanted him to do with the two giant rounds he had cut off the stump. I told him I wanted him to take them, as they had been part of the stump. He said he was not going to. I replied that he definitely would if he wanted to get paid, and that so far he had succeeded in doing thousands of dollars in damage without accomplishing anything. His response to that was essentially 'fuck this shit' (though he used no profanity), and so he got in his little backhoe, and drove it up onto his flatbed. My yard looked like the trenches of World War I. I went around taking pictures to prove what had been done and by whom.
Then, I buckled. It had taken a very long time to get someone out, and the job really needed to be completed. I walked out and coaxed him into coming back to work. Another three hours in, and he had finally managed to roll the stump up onto his trailer. He did not take the two gigantic chunks of wood, and he basically stole from Peter to pay Paul, in that he plowed dirt from an already low area of adjacent ground to sort of fill the hole left by the stump. I paid him in cash, he left, and came back later for the Bobcat. When he did, I remembered that he had not given me a receipt, and so asked for one. Mr. Professional wrote out an invoice which had no company information printed or stamped on it, and handed me that useless piece of paper as proof of completion. I took it, shook my head, and walked off. I wasn't about to have another argument.
In summary, Celtic Landscape showed up with too little manpower, the wrong equipment, and no knowledge of how to actually do the job they solicited from me. The stump is gone, but the battle to restore any semblance of proper drainage or ground cover has just begun. Let's just say that I'm happy to have washed my hands of them, and that I would recommend using any other service but theirs.
