Busy Boy Tree Service

Busy Boy Tree Service was recommended to me by a close friend who had used them a number of times (he has a number of rent houses). I called them, and they were able to get to me in a few days, despite the fact that here we had experienced a rather disastrous storm - the worse I have ever seen, actually, - during the first part of August, and there was LOTS of tree work to be done.. In the front, I had one completely dead sweet gum tree, a very large tree and in the back I had a completely dead maple tree, the upper portion of limbs which had already been taken down. Prior to contacting Busy Boy, I had received a number of estimates to take down both tree and to grind the stumps. Those estimated ranged from $1615 to $1750. Busy Boy had first given me an estimate of $1700. A few hours after I had called the firm which gave me the $1615 estimate (the first one on the list of "Tree Services" on The List) to tell them that I would give them the job, Busy Boy called back to say they would do it for $1400. I immediately called back the $1615 guy to ask him if he would release me from my promise to give the job to him, which he did. When I had called that guy with the intention of telling him I would give him the job, the tone of his voice was very hostile. It was obvious for some reason that he did not like me - perhaps because he felt that I was not an honest guy or that I wanted him to do the job for little or nothing. Anyway, on that call I asked him if he would honor the Angie's List coupon for a 10% discount on jobs over $1000. He said that he would not because he had given me the best price. He also said that he would not accept credit cards despite his information on The List said that he would. He did not seem to want to do the job, but he said that he could get to it sometime in October because he was going on vacation. When I called him back to ask for his release from my promise to let him do the job, he was not very happy and said something like..."you people are like that..." whatever that means. When he came out to give the initial estimate he was all smiles, full of happiness, charisma, sweet talk, etc., In fact, he was so nice, I felt guilty that I did not give him the job on the spot. But I am a retired guy and have a very limited income and price is very important to me. Anyway, to get back to Busy Boy. There were so many things which impressed me about them. They had a crew of 4 and sometimes 5 men who worked like hell for 6 hours and got both trees cut down and both stumps ground. They were able to do this because they worked as a team AND because they had the RIGHT equipment to get it done. They had this huge machine which would lift them up 50 feet - or whatever - so that the top limbs of the tree could be cut off. They started at the top (of course!) and little by little got it all cut down and all the pieces hauled away.. They did not get anywhere close to my house or roof, despite the nearness of same to the tree. They had another machine, a fork lift, which lifted the cut limbs us and put them in their truck for hauling away. Access to the back yard via my gate did not permit the stump-grinding machine to get to the back, which fronts on a cemented creek/drainage ditch. The access gates to that area were locked, but they were able to remove one of the gates by the hinges so that they would get the stump grinder into my back yard. Nobody else would have done that. Afterwards they put the gate back and no one could tell what they had done. One of their crew saw an "Umbrella Tree" which I have in my back yard, which was somewhat diseased. He told me that he was an arborist (sp?) by training, and he told me what to do to kill the fungus on it, and what fertilizer to use to help the tree become more healthy. There are NOT enough good words that I can say about this outfit. THEY WERE VERY REASONABLE, VERY EFFICIENT, QUICK. I simply can not imagine any tree service that could be better.