A-1 Discount Tree Service Inc

It was a nightmare working with this contractor, specifically Jack Paff, the owner. At the time of the sales pitch and estimate, he was very polite and emphasized, I am insured and if you are not satisfied with my job, you don't pay me. The estimate was $1730 for cutting 2 small skinny trees, a couple of limbs from a large tree, and removing 2 bushes and a vine which now I realize was overpriced. I called 811 before any digging and by Monday, March 29 my property was fully flagged. The job started on April 2, 2021. He came in with another employee, his brother Richard. I showed up around 3:30 PM and they were in the middle of the process. By then, the polite salesman turned into a rude person. It turned out, his chainsaw snapped because he got it tangled in my neighbor's old barbwire fence. Obviously he did not assess the area well before cutting. I had to run to Menards and buy a barbwire fence cutter to cut off a segment already on the ground. He rented a huge Barreto RTK Track digger/cultivator to triturate stumps and bushes roots and then he was in a hurry because he needed to return the equipment at a specific time. Then he went to work in the front of the house to remove 2 bushes and a vine I wanted to be replaced. He started doing the job with this huge equipment in a narrow area not more than 7-9 feet long. He broke off my sewer vertical pipe because he was negligent enough not to check for the location first, even though the pipe was marked with HSE flags (sewer company in Fishers, IN). He went ballistic and started raising his voice and accusing me of not letting him know where this pipe was which I had no clue. He raised his voice at me, a 55 year old woman and my 89 yr old mom got really nervous inside the house. Apparently, Jack doesn't know the meaning of the different colored flags all over my patio or he is just too negligent doing his job. I mentioned his insurance must pay for repair and he raised his voice mentioning that the insurance deductible was $1000. I started calling plumbers for estimates and all companies advised to get a camera inspection first to make sure the pipe was not cracked underneath with the impact. I mentioned Jack the service call was $95 and camera inspection was close to $200 without the repair. He left in the middle of this issue, without picking up all tree limbs and other trash because he was late for the machine return. He said he will come the next day to finish up. He called me Sat April 3rd asking where was I, that I needed to be there for payment (the job was in my property in Fishers but my main residence is Columbus, IN). I told him I could not drive as I was ill with COVID vaccine side effects and he started screaming over the phone in a belligerent way, I want my money, I want my money. With a very calm voice, I mentioned I will not pay until I know the final cost for expenses related to the sewer pipe repair. He kept screaming and told me he was going to contact his lawyer. I mentioned again he was going to get his payment after I discounted the amount for all the damage. He kept screaming disrespectfully, stopped the job halfway, left the trash in front of my house and left even though I mentioned my complex has very strict covenants and he should not do that. He told me his lawyer said I could not hold his money so if I didn't pay right away he will take me to court. I said, go ahead Jack, sue me and I will counter sue you. Then he mentioned in a text he was not insured even though his advertisement flyers and his work truck clearly reads FULLY INSURED. When I mentioned this, he sent me the last text of the day saying he was going to show up Monday Apr 5 to finalize the job so I could pay him his money after deducting the cost for repairs. Today is Sun Apr 4, Easter Sunday, and I was lucky enough to get a hold of a very reliable contractor that has done many jobs for me before. He was kind enough to come in today, did the camera inspection and fixed the broken portion of sewer pipe for a very reasonable price. Unfortunalely I have to drive back and forth from Columbus again tomorrow after Jack's work is finalized so I can pay. By the way, he advertises accepting credit cards which is a lie. Only cash or checks, in his own words. My advice to you is, STAY AWAY FROM THIS CONTRACTOR unless you want to go through **** !

Tree trimming went fine as they accomplished what I wanted (however, now I think I was overcharged but it was my first tree trimming). Moreover, I paid Jack some extra money for him to fill my fireplace wood box. He promised to return soon and do that. He has never showed again, even after calling him 3 times to do so. I expect a vendor to keep their word. This vendor did not. I will not use them again

It's seem to start out well with Jack Paff, he came and gave me an estimate and said the work would be done when weather was permitting, I gave him a down payment and waited a couple of months for the work to begin. I called him to inquire and he told me that his tree climber wanted more money, so I agreed to an increase in cost but still no work was performed! Call three weeks later, Mr. Paff gave me a sob story about his truck clutch out for three weeks, I asked for my money back, so far nothing!

DISASTER OF THE THE WORST KIND!!!!

Work was begun on June 10, 2015 and tree was completely down on June 11, 2015. Jack asked for payment in full so he could pay his crew and I gave him a check for the balance, even though all the wood was still laying through out the yard. Wood was left for another neighbor to pick up, which was not part of my original contract with the owner.  Contacted Jack on June 27 to ask what the plan was.  He came by on the morning of J une 28. Said he would  go by the mans house and see if he could get him to come by or he himself would come back with a crew later on that day to get the wood but that it would be gone by the end of that day.  It was not.  Contacted Jack again on June 30. Told him I needed him to either come and get the wood or come and cut it up so I could haul it out myself.  He said he couldn't do that but that he would contact the neighbor to see when they could come and get the wood. The neighbor did come and get the most of the wood but didn't understand why Jack didn't just complete the job himself.  He left two large pieces for Jack.  Contacted Jack again on July 1, telling him of the large pieces that were left as well as about the damage done to my yard from the wood being there for so long and from the tree being taken down.  There were several deep ridges.  Grass was killed.  Plants and bushes were ripped and torn. Mulch was blown from around plants. There was no response.  Texted again on July 8  telling him I had wood still needing to be removed and asking what the plan was to fix the damage.  I included pictures.  Again, no response.  On July 31, I contacted again stating I hadn't heard from him in a while and it was time to start talking partial refund and he needed to remove the remaining two pieces of wood.  He replied he would be there Saturday, the next day.  Again, he did not show.  On August 21 I texted him again informing him I had contacted a lawyer who believed I am entitled to half my money back by filing a claim against his insurance.  Told him I needed the tree gone by Saturday and $250.  I didn't hear anything until 7:01 on Saturday evening, when he texted me, "I Will take Care of Sun. Sorry" He did not show on Sunday.  I got a text on Monday saying he was removing the wood at 11, but that he didn't owe me any money.  The remaining texts were rude and not worth repeating. I believe waiting over 10 weeks for completion of a 1 week contract is being more than patient and not deserving of the way I was treated.  Jack is a smooth talking salesman with lots of excuses who doesn't follow through with his promises.

This has been a NIGHTMARE.  Jack would promise to come and not show up - day after day after day.  Finally, after the trees were cut down, the wood was stacked in the wrong area and the debris from the last tree was not cleaned up.  It took over two weeks to get them to come back and finish the job. Our new asphalt driveway was damaged in the process! Jack has promised for WEEKS to get it fixed.  It has taken numerous phone calls and our driveway is STILL not fixed - it's been almost two months since it was damaged!!  When I called him this morning, his response was,"Well, I'm really busy" - I've ALREADY paid for the job and I'm still waiting for the driveway repair! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!

It did not go well.  We agreed to have A-1 take down trees, with an open date to perform the service and gave Mr. Paff a deposit.  Our only request was that they not cut down tress during 4 days in June while we had company with young children who needed to play in the yard.   Very early on the 1st day of our guests visit, the crew started sawing.  They said those were the only days available.  Each day the crew left plastic bottles & litter on our property as well as one of our neighbor's.  On the 3rd day, they left without completing agreed upon work.  Mr Paff promised if we'd pay him so he could pay his workers at the end of the day, they would come back the next morning to finish splitting & moving wood.  It's been over two weeks and he has not returned our calls nor sent anyone to complete the work for which we have paid.  If they do show up to finish the job, I will be happy to update this review.

They removed all the brush and left anything larger than 8 inches, cut into 16-20 inch logs. Of course this was cheaper for me and I had friends that wanted the wood.  I found then honest as I had to leave and left the garage door open for them as it rained a little bit. They clean up exceeded my expectations. Of course there were small depressions in  the yard due to the limbs falling as they were cut, but that was expected. The climber, Gabriel, was a source of spectator excitement. His Spanish singing while in the trees was superb. He said that he only sang when he was nervous. One tree was leaning over my garage and was taken down without a scratch to the garage roof or siding.  I would hire them again if opportunity would present itself.

Trees put in last August 2013, Substituted a tree we had ordered at the last minute. Brought out the wrong color of bark to match the rest of our trees. Promised he would be out to "make it right", several phone calls, he never came. In march of 14', 3 out of 4 trees had died. Called and his response was "we had a bad winter". I explained we were told we had a 1 year guarantee, then he attempted to say it was our fault. Then he agreed to come look at the trees never showed up. Next call said he'd replace the trees but we would have to pay for the labor and he would come the next weekend, never showed up. .

We'll pursue this by other means.

The experience was awful, trees were cut down that were supposed to stay that were previously discussed. If my wife and I hadn't been there to supervise the job; God only knows what our property would have looked like.  Trying to discuss things with the owner was like talking to a wall (he had his own ideas on what needed to be done). He kept talking about his 30 years of experience, and he knew how to do the job right. Part of the estimate was to do some rototilling and sowing grass seed. He acted like he didn't want to do the work because we were "putting him in the hole" financially, so it didn't get done. During the estimate we were promised mulch from our trees and limbs that were removed. Jack (owner) said that it wouldn't be a problem as he just installed new blades in his chipper / shredder. After he started the job he claimed that his chipper / shredder wasn't working properly, so we couldn't have the mulch. Jack also stated that he was going to bring a boom out to trim our mature spruce trees (some are at least 30' tall). During the job we noticed he was using a pole pruner with an extension that couldn't reach the top, so Jack went and bought a tall step ladder so he could get to the top to trim. Needless to say our trees look like crap. Jack's excuse about not bringing out a boom was it would tear up the yard. Again during the estimate we were told that the stumps of the trees that were cut down would be ground down below ground level. They did a very poor job on trimming our blueberry bushes / trees also. We constantly had to point out work promised that was being overlooked, so it would get done. There were several trees that he didn't grind the stumps. I should have known there was a problem when almost all the equipment he used had to be rented. He owned very little of his own equipment. The truck and chipper he did own were very old and out dated. As a matter of fact; his truck or chipper leaked gas on my asphalt driveway and ate a crater in it. He used some oil dry to try and hide it, but when I blew off my driveway after cutting grass I noticed it. I feel he should have said something and worked out some additional discount. His crew also damaged our privacy fence when they dropped a limb on it. I had the materials on hand to make the repair. Jack did offer to do the repair, but as bad as they had botched up the job I didn't want him touching it.  
We negotiated the pricing to $6,700.00 ($1,700 up front and $5,000 upon job completion). I held up my end of the deal but received no discounting for the work he didn't complete or for the damage to out driveway and fence. We wasted an entire week on this job, because we had to be here to supervise.The job was supposed to go Monday through Thursday they were a no show on Monday and ended up working until Friday. The job would have carried over into the following week, but I stated that was unacceptable as I had commitments the following week, so they worked late on Friday to finish. Overall we were very disappointed with the work and never so glad to see anyone leave.

We did not get all the trees we ordered, were told one of them was not available when he arrived and he substituted one tree. He replaced the mulch, but it was the wrong color. He told me he'd be back the next week to replace the mulch with the correct color. The next week came and went, upon calling him he confessed that he had been busy and just got a new truck and would be over the next Monday. Monday came and went, called again, he apologized again, said he knew they should have asked about the mulch ahead of time and he'd be over by the end of the week. Again a no show, we did this again and more promises still did not show. The last two calls have gone un-answered, left messages and we don't hear back anymore.

Very timely and responsive.  Did a great job and cleaned up well afterwards.

They were great.

The owner actually came in and done the work himself. He was very knowledgeable about the trees in our yard. He did miss his first appointment with us and didn't call to let us know. 

We paid him in full to perform the services. He cut down a tree at our rental property and then only removed half of it from the yard. He keeps making excuses of why he hasn't come out and finished the job. He still hasn't finished the job we paid him for.

They came and did a great job despite the rain

They were punctual and got right to work. There were three guys plus the owner all working at the same time. They completed all the work the same day and complete clean up.  I am very happy with all the work done. 

The company performed something that they have not corrected yet. The owner said he would come back and fix it, which he hasn't. They cleaned up and hauled everything away. The trees look good.

THEY PAID PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO DETAIL. THEY WERE PROFESSIONAL AND RESPECTFUL OF NOT ONLY MY PROPERTY BUT SURROUNDING PROPERTIES AS WELL.

THE OWNER JEFF PATT WAS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL. HE TOLD ME HE WOULD BE HERE AND WAS NOT. THEY WERE NOT PUNCTUAL AT ALL