Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/24/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I hired Ash Tree to remove two trees, grind their stumps, and replant two new trees in the same location. Ash Tree came out once to remove the trees, once to grind the stumps, and then once to replant the trees. The trees unfortunately needed to be planted in accordance with city requirements and this was spelled out in the invoice. The trees were not properly planted as the holes needed to be dug deeper so there would not be 6+ of root barrier sticking above the ground. I emailed and asked Ash Tree to come out and properly redo the planting so the trees were meeting the city requirements as stated on the invoice. Ash Tree sent out the same crew and they dug a bit more, but the trees were still not deep enough. I again asked Ash Tree to properly do the planting and it would probably require more ***** grinding to get deep enough to plant. Ash Tree then told me they had gotten down as far as they could due to a rock layer and would need to rent an excavator to dig deeper for another $550. Or they said I could do the planting on my own and they would refund me the $300 I paid for that planting service. I went and dug into the hole and there was no rock layer as stated by Ash Tree, but massive tree roots still existing. I then called Ash Tree and told them there was no rock layer and they needed to properly do the ***** grinding so I could plant and be refunded. Someone came out with a ***** grinder and ground more roots, commented on how they would not be happy with the prior work done either, offered to help replant (which I declined), and then left. I replanted both trees and then contacted Ash Tree about the $300 refund. They claimed they would not refund me the money since they had to come out multiple times and rent another grinder to complete the job. This is bad business practice. My original quote had ***** grinding in it. It is not my fault the original grinding was done poorly and needed to be redone. I should be refunded the $300 as I did the planting.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/25/2023

  We did three separate jobs for this project and a total of 6 visits in total. The original quote was signed by the customer. The terms of our quotes and invoices state two things. One is "No other services are promised other than the ones listed above. Any service performed outside of this contract will be an additional charge on your account. We reserve the right to adjust the quote as needed if unforeseen complications arise." In this particular job there were a few complications with the project." The second being "Receipt of payment customer acknowledges that all work is completed and has been done to full satisfaction. No changes or alterations can be made as a part of this project. Requests can be made for additional work through our office." These terms were agreed to by the customer when the job was originally done. We did note that the planting was not to his satisfaction so we we sent a crew back at two different times to try to fix it for him. After our last visit, the customer unplanted the tree himself and stated that he thought the ***** grinder could go deeper. We went out one last time to see if we could help and in order to help him we had to rent a ***** grinder because in order to get into the gravel and roots that were down there, we did not want to ruin our machine and ours could not reach the angles needed. This resulted in us renting a $309 machine and not charging the customer for any additional labor each of the 3 extra times we went out to service him. Informed the customer that the refund was no longer an option because we had to spend more money to complete the job and that per our terms "We reserve the right to adjust the quote as needed if unforeseen complications arise". We did not charge him for any additional labor we only are charging him for the rental of the machine, which was already covered in his payments as a replacement for the planting payment. Even though we had planted the tree twice and it was unplanted by the customer. I am very sorry that the customer is upset but we have gone out of our way quite a bit to help sort this out for him and with all the extra visits any other company would have needed to charge him more for the labor involved. We did not make any profit off of this job but continued to try to sort it out with him so that he would be satisfied. Unfortunately, we had unforeseen complications arise and charged him for the bare minimum which was to rent the machine.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/26/2023

   
  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.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************