Bartlett Tree Experts - 21114

Truly horrendous customer service - There was an accident on my property in February with the Bartlett crew crashing a remote-operated stump grinder into a series of mature arborvitae and damaging both the trees and a wood lattice fence surrounding my pool equipment (no one was injured, thankfully). At the time, my Bartlett representative indicated that they "put an accident report through…so everyone internally is aware of what happened" and that "some items will require an outside contractor that [he] will obviously take care of." Six months later, there has been no material progress in remedying the damage to my property despite a written assurance that Bartlett "will absolutely replace and repair the items" that I had laid out explicitly via email following the incident. Given the reputation and national scale of Bartlett, I had assumed that the company would make things right but clearly that did not happen. I suppose each Bartlett franchisee approaches customer service differently, but I expected more from the Stamford CT head office. I will be taking my business elsewhere where I believe safety and customer service will be prioritized.

Bartlett tree is a fabulous company to work with. I spoke to two other large "tree" companies and they paled in comparison to Bartlett. Michael, Bartlett's aborist has incredible knowledge and cares deeply about trees and satisfying clients. The workers are neat and clean as well as knowledgeable. The office staff as well as Michael communicates very well. I would not use any other company.

All work was performed expertly and as specified.

We thought that the initial consultation was done by a knowledgeable person. We liked that. They were careful with the property, and we liked that. They showed up when they said and were professional. We liked it. We thought the price was very high compared to other services. That we did not like.

Bartlett is very professional and did a good job. Removed a large tree from my backyard and prune the other one. They cleaned up and removed all dead branches and debris. I thought the price was reasonable for the amount of work.

They are terrific and I would, and have, recommend their service. If there is a problem it is dealt with and resolved.

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It went very good.

We have had this fertilizing done every spring for several years and are very happy with the results. We have also used Bartlett for tree pruning and tree removal. They are very professional and we are quite happy with their service.

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The representative came out first very quickly (day or two if after my call if i remember correctly) and went over the project. He then sent me an email detailing the requested work, and a quote for each part of the project in case I wanted to do some now and some later. I decided the price was fair, and went with the entire job about $1300 or a little less. I scheduled the job for the next week and the crew showed up at 8am with the foreman and the representative to go over the work one more time. Very professional.  The limbs overhanging the house were large, I'm not talking about something you can take down yourself, basically 2/3 of the tree. They managed this between two houses and two fences without causing any damage to anything . They cleaned up and were gone in just a few hours. I paid the bill, and that was that. Very easy to deal with, and I was happy with the price and the results and would use them again.

Bartlett removed an old stump in front of my house near the street and they removed a very old tree that fell in Hurricane Sandy that was close to the house.  They were very punctual, considerate, fair, and professional.  I was very pleased with the services.

They were very professional, very responsive and I would highly recommend them!

We have been using them for 3 years now. They have been excellent. Our representative it absolutely responsive and comes out to my home very quickly if I have any issues with the trees.  Their cost was not the least expensive but I felt they were the best company out of all three bids I had received. They look at every thing as a big picture and pay attention to the details.

We have been using them for about 20 years now.  They get the job done quickly and they are always very thorough and professional. There is always a crew that comes out and their price is reasonable.

They were there on time for the appointment. They were pleasant and they did a good job. Three people came out to do the work and it took a couple hours to complete. They were also very knowledgeable in their field.

The problem was lack of supervision.  We met with the supposed supervisor once at our home when we were describing the work to be done, after that it became clear that he just, literally, "phoned" it in.  The crew cut the wrong tree, we repeatedly said that the supporting wire that we were charged for had not been installed, and he claimed that it had, but was too thin to be seen.  When we challenged him to show us where, he admitted he had not been to the site.  When we asked him to come out to go over the work, he kept saying he would do so, but never showed up. Finally, they told us that he was no longer working there.  I would never ever use them again.

We have used Bartlett since 1997 when hemlock wooly adelgen came into the area.  This pest started to quickly kill our hemlocks and other shrubs.  Research with the Connecticut state agriculture department (BEFORE THE INTERNET!) led us to this company.  We have been nothing but pleased, and are contracted with Bartlett to spray, fertilize, and  prune when necessary.  They removed the stump and bottom half of a large tree on our front lawn that had gotten beaten by hurricane Sandy.  They have cabled a huge maple in our backyard so that it has not split and fallen into the house.  Our next door neighbor began to use them as well after seeing the work done on our property.

The rep from Bartlett, Doug Williams, came out and did a walk-through and listened to my concerns.  Doug is knowledgeable, coolly assured and extremely professional.  My primary concerns were a very large maple that I wanted to make sure survived any storms, a large walnut that seemed to be faltering, and a birch that had anthracnose.  Bartlett technicians came out subsequently and added and tightened crown cables on the maple, fertilized it, cut back deadwood on the walnut and fertilized it, cut back some of the birch (though, in fairness, I was warned the anthracnose could still return) and they also fertilized and cut back dead branches on some dogwoods as well.  
Hurricane Sandy came and the maple split right down the middle to the root; the cabling kept the disconnected half from falling, so after the storm the tree stood oddly poised with one vertical half rooted and the other attached via the cables at the crown, yet severed from the ground (I'd never seen anything quite like it).  I called Doug within ten minutes of the tree splitting, and was early (if not first) on his list for cleanup, in part because I'd called so soon.  I was disappointed that the tightening and adding of cables didn't save the tree, especially since I'd spent nearly $1000 on that tree's care only three weeks earlier; and I wondered, too, if the reinforcement had actually compromised the "give" of the tree in high winds.  I"m sure Bartlett could convincingly argue that Sandy was just too great a force and that, if anything, the added and tightened cables prevented the tree from falling into my driveway or onto the street (though, ironically, the fact that it didn't fall meant insurance would not cover any of the cleanup).  But I was disappointed that, given my having spent so much only three weeks before it fell, the company would not give me any break on price for cleanup -- even if that only meant waving the 10% "emergency surcharge."  Furthermore, this year I have new dead branches on the walnut and the birch is still shedding leaves (though, as I said, I was warned about that recurring).
Let me put it this way:  people like Doug are arguably the best in the business.  But Bartlett is a very large company, and Doug doesn't set the company's policies or pricing, the company does.  Furthermore, as with all large gardening companies, Doug supervises work but is not present for many of the procedures (how could he be, with so many clients to service?)  I would say that, considering it is among the most expensive tree maintenance companies in this area (Fairfield County), Bartlett is best suited to the very wealthy.  For a middle- or upper middle-class homeowner, it probably makes more sense to deal with a smaller (but reputable) arborist who will have a less corporate relationship with the client.

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Their price is fair.  We don't have anything to compare their price to because they are the only ones we have dealt with.  Their quality of work is great.

Contacted them by phone and received a call back promptly. Worked with Doug Williams who walked our property with me. My husband is very opposed to taking a tree down so Doug proposed ways we could save the trees which were in jeopardy. I got a full written estimate noting each service to be performed and could pick and choose as I opted for a service. We chose all services and are completely happy with all the work (lots of pruning which required lots of cleanup). I will use Bartlett from now on. I had estimates from two other tree companies and even though Bartlett's was the highest, they were well worth the money.

I would recommend them without hesitation.  It's a big company.  They are terrific.  They've done major tree work for us.  We trust them completely.  They had to come back again to do some more after we had the winter storm because we had some more branches that had come down, but they didn't charge us anything.  They did some other things as well.  They came to take care of the problems that we had from the storms.  I had paid them $478 on the 30th of September for the tree damage from the storms.  I had them do the spraying and the October payment was $209.  They do a spring and a fall insect spray.  They also do deep-root-feeding in the spring for us and that one is about $300.  They get around my property and deep- root-feed all my shrubs and trees.  In my mind, they are reasonable because I haven't gone to other tree companies for years.  I don't have a way of direct comparing, but I have a next door neighbor who did use other people and has now started to use Bartlett.  They are obviously within reason, otherwise they wouldn't have switched.  They have to be within the ballpark of the norm.  I haven't felt like anything was outrageous and I have no way of knowing differently.  They are fair according to me.  They had someone assigned to me that I did not feel was so great and he didn't stay very long.  The actual work that they did for us didn't change, but it was simply the communication.  It happens in companies and that's the way it goes, but I had been dealing with them not being long enough before and I knew nothing as far as quality or whatever had changed.  One lives with these things sometimes. 

I liked that they seemed very knowledgable, and they did a very good job.   They showed up when they said they would, and did a good job cleaning up after themselves.  They were very professional and easy to work with, and I would use them again.