Toby's Tree Service

A few years ago I was shopping around for quotes before I went on a business trip and Toby’s tree service was the first to give me a quote and I was going to continue the quote process when I returned from my business trip. The price seemed competitive and they were friendly, I told the person giving me a quote that I was still shopping around and I will contact the company that got the job. The next week when I was out of the country, Toby’s tree service showed up at my house and told my wife that they were there to do the job that I hired them for. She had no idea that they were showing up (neither did I because I didn’t hire them), my wife tried to call me but because I was away on business and wasn’t able to call my cell at the time, she wasn’t able to confirm that they weren’t supposed to be there so she believed them and let them continue. The quote was for $350 to trim tall shrubs on the front yard, prune a pear tree, two cherry trees, a small plum tree with a variety of different plums (which I informed the person giving the quote and to take it easy on pruning it) and remove a small dead Japanese maple. After they were finished the job that they weren’t hired for, one cherry tree wasn’t pruned and the dead Japanese maple was still there and the small plum tree was missing 2 branches that carried 2 different varieties of plums. When I arrived home and called Toby’s tree service to inquire why the job was performed when I was just getting quotes the secretary stated that my wife gave them permission to do the job. I claimed that my wife wasn’t informed of the job because I didn’t hire them, and she assumed I forgot to tell her and took Toby’s employees for their word. I informed the secretary that they forgot to prune one cherry tree and the small Japanese maple wasn’t removed and the small plum tree had 2 major fruiting branches removed. She apologized and took $50 off for the inconvenience, we set up an appointment that was convenient for me to be home when they are doing the job, so I went with 4pm so I could be there a half hour before them. The guy shows up at 3 because he finished his other job early and asked my wife what needed to be done, she pointed to the small Japanese maple that needed to be removed and the cherry tree pruned. So the “expert” arborist proceeds to walk past the small dead Japanese maple and cuts down the tall large pear tree (which they pruned on 1st visit). I asked what happened why did he cut the pear tree down and he stated that my wife pointed to it. He also explained that the stump of the pear tree is still alive and it will start to produce shoots and start to regrow. OK...?!?! I got over the pear tree and explained that since they mistakingly cut it down I wanted the stump removed. He stated that they do stump grinding on Saturdays and they will be there that Saturday to do it. I told him that I would pay for the whole job once the stump is removed and he gave me a sob story that the money from the job was supposed to be his pay for the week. I felt kinda bad for the guy because I believed him so I decided to give him half in cash and the other half in cash when the stump was ground down that Saturday. Saturday came and went, no show. On Sunday I get a call from Toby himself! His first words to me were, “I hear you have a problem with the job that was done?”, I started to explain the situation from the beginning and he cuts me off and says, “so you don’t like paying for work that is done for you, you need to pay up” I told him the job wasn’t finished because the stump needs to be removed. He started yelling at me stating that he was going to show up now and get his money. I lost my mind!!!! I started yelling back at him to show up and get his money, I’m glad he didn’t. On Monday I called the office and the secretary answered (i was calm) and asked why they didn’t show up to remove the stump and she stated “we have never had a customer as difficult to deal with as you.” 3 years later I have a dead stump and a plum tree that doesn’t produce fruit anymore. Stay away!!!!!