Michael's Tree & Loader Service

I cannot speak highly enough about the team at Michael’s Tree & Loader Service! I’ve never had a tree removed or had any idea what to expect and this experience was a dream!! If you want an idea of what to expect, read on, otherwise TL;DR. We had an old growth oak tree in the middle of the turn around at the side of our house that was making the parking space behind it all but unusable. It wasn’t just its massive size - we could’ve dealt with that - it was the constant falling limbs, dripping sap, bug/squirrel/bird mess, just an overall mess. AND our power, cable and phone lines all ran under the canopy in danger constantly of being taken out of service. We called Michael’s on a recommendation from a friend. Mandi in the front office was very quick to have Anthony come out the next day to get us a quote. He was extremely knowledgeable about trees in general and how we needed to go about removing our particular nuisance. They gave us a very reasonable quote and were willing to wait while we gathered more information. About a week later, we realized they were they best choice - not the least expensive but definitely the best overall value - and called to schedule. It ended up being good timing as they had a cancellation and could fit us in the next day. Mandi quickly coordinated with STEMC to get the electrical wires moved out of the way, and the next morning everything was ready to go. Merlin and crew were perfect! They did everything with an efficient and watchful eye (even saved a baby squirrel), and moved the debris to the street. The debris was picked up the next day by Trent and his huge picker/dump truck. Due to weather the stump grinding took a few extra days, but Merlin came back yesterday and that’s now gone so you can’t even tell a tree was there! I just waved goodbye to Trent who cleaned up the shavings from the grind and we are done!

Overall good work. Showed up when asked, on time, but 1 star off for up charging to haul off all the chips.

fair price, good work

Very well. The worker was on time and performed the job timely and satisfactory.

Tree was removed on the date it was scheduled. I'm happy with the work.

Michael's crew dropped the gum trees, but they did not keep our path unblocked by trunks so we could get from point A to point B. I reminded the crew each day to drop gum trees AWAY from the house. On last day, I heard a loud thump near the house when they dropped one of the trees. I ran outside when I heard crew members yelling. The tree had barely missed the side of the house & our 29-year-old ornamental Japanese maple in the front yard was split in half by the tree they dropped. Concrete bird bath was broken. Rose bush was demolished. Butterfly bush was demolished. I started crying. They said the wound on the Japanese maple would eventually heal over. Three years later, I still have the log from half of the Japanese maple to remind me never to recommend Michael's Tree Service to anyone. I called Michael's & complained. Sean Hunt came out & toured the damage. He apologized & said that their last four jobs including ours were not up to their quality expectations & the owner, Michael Potts would be reviewing the problems & making corrections. He said they would root feed the Japanese maple twice in 12 months & if it died within 12 months, they would replace it. I only saw holes once around the maple where they apparently came out & root fed it without me knowing they had come onto our property which is gated & fenced. They never called to tell me they were coming to feed the maple. Not aware they ever came a second time to feed the maple. Sean asked me to send them copies of receipts for replacing the birdbath, rose bush, & butterfly bush, which I did & they paid those bills. Maple survived but still looks unbalanced & always will. You cannot replace 29 years of growth on one side. No deduction made on the tree service bill.

Very well. Relatively fast with no damage to the thickly planted shade garden below. All debris carried to the street and picked up first thing the next workday.

As estimated on time.

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Professional Service, responsive to questions.

In December 2016, we had some strong wind gusts come in and split a Bradford pear tree which crashed down in our backyard and took out a section of our backyard picket fence. If it had landed in ANY other direction, it would destroyed a part of our house, no question about it. Because of this incident, along with an Oak tree that was also way too close to our house (the trunk within 6 inches of our roof), I decided to go big and get a lot of work done at once. I decided to get rid of the split Bradford that had to go, the one next to it, the Oak tree, along with the Maple at the end of my driveway, and have some other trees trimmed. Michael's came in one of the highest rated and was the significantly lowest bid for the amount of work I wanted done. I expected to pay no less than $10,000 for the work done, however for all the work they performed, the quote came in at $5,900. I called the day after the storm I mentioned, and they had an arborist come out the following week after a few reschedules due to an illness. For what it's worth, other companies that I got quotes from were equally backlogged, it seemed. The arborist was very nice, took time to listen to the request for the work done, and gave me the quote. While they were booked up until the next month, he offered to get someone out to remove the fallen half of the Bradford if we decided to use them so that we could get our fence propped back up for our dog. As promised, when we agreed to the work, they came out the very next day and removed the fallen tree. On the day the work was scheduled, they showed up with a large crew and some huge machinery promptly at 8am. They completed all tree removal and trimming work in one day which still shocked me as I had stayed home to watch it all unfold. They removed a large maple from the end of my driveway. I had a very large maple in my back yard which had a tree trunk about 6 inches from my roof line. They managed to bring in their machinery into my backyard by removing a section of my picket fence (that had already been destroyed due to the Bradford pear that split and fell on it in Jan.) The next day, they had someone come out and remove all the tree material that they had to stage in the front yard. Early the next week, they had a crew come in to grind all 4 stumps down and remove the wood chips. I couldn't be more happy with the price and them finishing the job as promised. My only complains were that they left some ruts in the yard and a section of my driveway was destroyed in the process with all the heavy machinery. I think the ruts were unavoidable due to the size of the job, and also my driveway already had some cracks in it, due to pine tree roots from trees on my next door neighbor's property that were pushing it up. I'm a pretty reasonable person and while I knew damage would be done, the way that the concrete section cracked upward made pulling into and out of the driveway like a big speed bump, sometimes scraping the bottom of a small car like a Civic. They did use plywood to try to protect the driveway, however I don't think the damage was avoidable. I contacted them about this damage and I'd even taken before and after pictures. They sent someone out to take a look and discuss what was a "reasonable" course of compensation. While I waited for a response, I got a reminder to send payment in full within 10 days of work completion which I sent off in good faith that we'd come to a reasonable resolution regarding the damaged driveway. I didn't hear back from them for a week or so, and I ended up having to follow up with them, where they offered to give me a $350 payment for the damages. While getting even one section of concrete replaced costs much more than that, I didn't completely fault them for it, as I think the machinery was just the "straw that broke the camel's back." Overall, they did great work, and while the driveway damage was unfortunate and probably unavoidable, I think I still came out WAY ahead in terms of my costs compared to any other quotes. I'd recommend them to others, especially if your driveway can handle the load.

Crew was fantastic! Very friendly and hard working.

Excellent, the whole process lasted less than an hour.

First, I want to say that they DO NOT want you to use the coupons they offer! They make it as difficult as possible to do so. I got a tree trimming estimate for $450. I told the estimator at the time that I had a coupon from Angies list, and he said, "Great. That'll reduce the price for you a little." So when I sent the check for $405. The office did not like that and gave me a lecture on how to use a coupon. I said I had told the estimator (who was VERY nice) that I had a coupon and the office person said I had to send them the coupon. I did that and I told her that the coupon was for both treatments. It took over a month for anyone to come out and feed my tree, which was supposed to be all done the same day, by the way. When I tried to use the coupon for that service she said the work was not done at the same time and I couldn't use it. I mean we are talking about $12.50 here. In the past I have had over $3000 of work done by them and they don't want to honor a coupon for $12.50? As far as the work goes, it was great. The actual workers are polite, hard working, and took care of special requests that I had.

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Michael's called the day before to remind that they would be here the next day.  They said they would be here at 8 am and actually got here at 7:55 am.  Since the trees were so big and so close to houses a crane was required.  The crane was rather large!  They had the crane set up approximately a half hour later and started to work.  The first tree came out in two sections, I was impressed because it was not a small tree.  The second tree came out in one piece, I've never seen a whole tree this big flying through the air before!  The third tree was the largest and took several cuts to get it down, I thought it would be an all day job, but it went very quick.  The last tree again only took two cuts to bring it completely down!  They had completed the task of cutting the trees down and cutting the majority of them up and loading the majority of it by 11:15 am.  Since the truck they loaded was full they took it back to their company and brought another one to load the remainder of the trees.  The crew did an outstanding job, and I am giving them an A+ for a job well done.

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Upon arriving on my premises, Michael's employees were somewhat polite.  I talked with their crew leader, and we discussed what was to be done.  They started work . and I went back inside my house.  After a while I came back outside and they had not cut the parts of the tree I wanted cut.  I asked the crew leader to complete the job.  His response to me was in a offensive and angry manner,he ,in a loud voice said, why didn't you tell me before I brought my climbers down.  My response was ,why didn't you come and get me before you brought your climbers down.  At that time his head climber told me , I would not cut the limb, because it would cause damage to the tree's health.  He knew and I knew ,that was bull----.  Again  I asked them to ,cut the limb, THERE RESPONSE WAS . WE ARE THROUGH.  So if you use Michael's, stay with them, because that will be the only way it will be done to your satisfaction.    Better yet .chose another tree service

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