Let me begin by saying I am not a customer of this company. I am the direct neighbor of the people who hired this company to remove a 30-40 foot tree off their property.
Now I'll start from the beginning. On Friday morning, we found three men in our front yard staring at the tree against my neighbor's house. This was right after we saw one of them pee onto the siding of said house. I asked if they were going to cut it down, they said yes, and asked if I could move my car from my driveway, so I did. When the arborist arrived, I confronted him, asking him if he knew what type of tree it was. He did not. He had no clue he said. I was noticeably becoming upset because the only shade we have on our entire property was being removed & at no point did he, a representative of this company, nor our neighbors, decide to give us a heads up. Seeing that I was upset, he refused to speak with me & said he would only speak with our neighbors. One of my neighbors came out, & I went inside because I was growing more upset & my boyfriend stayed out to talk to them.
Shortly thereafter, the tree begins to come down, & I find that the arborist has left the scene & his crew of three to remove the tree alone. They had taken over my yard at this point, laying all the massive limbs out, & were chain-sawing them in my yard, already beginning the damage on my lawn. So I went outside and told them they needed to do that in our neighbors' yard, not ours. Shortly thereafter, one of the crew members injured himself & had to go to the hospital so work halted. I hope he is alright. We noticed they had cut a hole into the siding of our neighbors' house by this point.
A day passed with nothing, & then they arrived back at 9am Sunday morning. Still frustrated that the arborist had not come to speak with us at any point even though he felt entitled to be on my property as he pleased, we decided to leave the house so we wouldn't have to spend the morning listening to their chainsaws. When we came back home a couple hours later, the entire job site had moved back into our yard. There were branches, large limbs & sawdust everywhere, again the chain sawing happening in my front yard. I was blown away by the arborist's utter disregard for our request to keep that part of the job off our lawn. I angrily went out & began to photograph the unnecessary damages being done to my yard, & the arborist told me, & I quote, to "Get a life!"
At this point, I became very angry, & here's why. You did not ask to be on my property at any point. I did not say you could. In fact, I told you that you needed to keep the unnecessary work off my lawn since you refused to speak with me as a homeowner whose property you were on, & that you could do it in the yard of the person paying you since you refused to speak with me. If at any point you simply knocked on my door & told me you would need to be in my yard, sorry for the inconvenience, but you really had no choice, & would that be alright, I would have grumbled likely but said yes, thanks for the heads up. BUT NO. You insulted me instead, laughed in my face more than one, including when I asked if you even had a permit to remove that tree since I'm aware of the tree laws here in Austin once they reach a certain size. I'm also aware that you have no right to be on my property as an employee of a company I did not hire unless I say you can be. In fact, you were technically trespassing & I could have called the cops, however I wouldn't waste their time with my entitled phone call because at the end of the day, you're just a prick. I'm not being difficult for the sake of being difficult. I'm utterly appalled that someone representing his or her company would so blatantly just not give a damn for the person whose property you are on. Also, how can you call yourself an arborist and not even care enough to find out what kind of 40-year-old tree you're cutting down? Isn't there at least paperwork you have to fill out that asks that? I don't get it.
The crew finally departs, & leaves behind damages & debris everywhere. There are several inches of sawdust all over the job site, which can kill grass. However the "arborist" told our neighbors he was going to leave it because it was GOOD for grass. He also left tree grommets all over the place, left SEVERAL giant chain saw scars in our lawn, & the grass in the job site is near dead from all of the traffic. Again, they made 75% of the job site my front yard. He also left a gallon of chain saw oil and took our neighbors broom to boot. WOW.
This entire mess would have been avoided had he had the courtesy or decency to have a conversation with me at any point instead of laughing in my face, telling me to get a life, and making himself at home on my property. I cannot stress that enough. read more
