SMITH'S TREE & FIREWOOD SERVICE

First, Ronnie misrepresented himself by me that he did the work for us before and it actually wasn't his company which he lied about. He asked me to pay upfront. I told him I couldn't do that so I gave him a check for 700. I then didn't hear from him for several days. He finally did come and he removed some limbs and he said that he couldn't finish the service until he paid his climber. I went ahead and paid him the rest of what I owed him. He then left for lunch and took all of his equipment with him. When I realized he took his equipment, I realized he was not going to come back. When I looked at the tree, I realized that he didn't remove the one limb that I really wanted removed. I asked the climber why he didn't remove that limb and he said that Ronnie, the owner told him to only remove 3 limbs. He said he would have another climber come out and finish and he never showed up either. He never completed the service and we have called multiple times and they have been unresponsive.

We submit this report to spare others (although we hope most Angie's List members would not fall for this person's sales tactics). Mr. Smith and his coworkers climbed the trees using large spikes (which severely damage trees and make them susceptible to fungus and insects), even after concern had been expressed and after they said they could use only ropes instead. They also said they would use rope to tie off branches to be cut, so that they could be lowered slowly to the ground, but then they allowed large branches to fall freely and land in the yard and on other (dogwood) trees. They did not use proper pruning technique, which would involve "stub-cutting" the large branches using three cuts; instead, they used a single cut (and not at the proper angle), causing the bark to be stripped off the tree beneath the cut. They performed this and other work in the neighborhood without the required license to perform tree care service in Maryland. All this is illegal and tree-damaging