Ralph's Tree Service

I have been calling and talking to Mr Ralph since he  cut down trees for me and gave me a promissory not that he has not seen fit to fulfill.  He lies every time I call him.  His brother has started a business also I would hope he does better than Mr Ralph.



He has damaged my fence, gutters, bulkhead, and left holes in my neighbors yard as well as mine.  When he cut the trees he assured me he talked to neighbor about the limbs falling in her yard, another lie.  



I have given this company ample time to make repairs promised as well as talked to Mr Ralph listening to his yet unfulfilled promises.  He sounds religious but no way is he honorable.

Because of the ratings here, and bbb I hired Ralph's Tree Service.  The company cut 5 trees down and did a very quick  job. However they left holes in my yard and my neighbors yard, fence broken, bulkhead broken, gutter guards broken. They said they would be back in 3 days to repair. They did not come. My neighbor has tried to contact them with no response despite messages left. I talked to them twice and both times they failed on their promise to come back and do the repairs. Now they do not answer their phone nor return messages left. Was my error as I paid them in full and accepted their word and promissory note.  Promissory notes are only as good as the person signing them. Anthony Ralph and JW
both of Ralph's Tree Service have said they will repair both have so far not honored their word. Mark Quimby, who does pick of of the trees did a very good job and I have no complaints about him.
I am still  hoping to update this saying what a fine job  they did overall but because of damage left to be repaired I cannot do that yet.  They do not keep their word and are not as professional as I thought. 
For Clarity Ralphs tree service has the same phone number 757 237 4956. but they are listed in two different addresses.  Here they are 711 Duke Street in Portsmouth Va. on BBB they are listed as 1217 Shell Road Hampton Va. 23661.   Using Google maps I couild not find either place.

Anthony Ralph showed up at our door offering tree trimming and removal service.  My husband and I have had several estimates and his was the best.  I told him I would talk to my husband and get back to him.  I looked his service up on BBB and Angie's List.  There were no negative reviews and positive comments.  He was able to start work the next day.  The invoice stated they would remove two trees and take 8-10 ft off the top of two larger trees.  He wrote on the invoice that the limbs would be in 4x4 piles.  The two piles we had were approximately 5 ft high x 6 feet long x 4 feet deep and 5ft high, 12 ft long x 4 feet deep.  The branches were also right up against an electrical box.  When the city came to pick up the limbs, the driver came to the door to explain that there was too much to take in one day and explained the above issues with the piles needed to be fixed. I told him a tree service had completed the work and was then made aware that the city would not remove the branches, Ralph's tree service would have to do it.  The invoice did not say the limbs would be removed and we accept responsibility for not understanding that the city does not remove the branches because it was done by a company (not the home owner). My neighbor and I tried repeatedly to contact Anthony and left multiple messages.  We never heard anything back from him. Luckily a post on craigslist for free wood helped us get rid of most of the large logs.  We still have quite a bit to remove and don't expect to hear from Anthony.  He was also very pushy about getting his check. I had to pick up my children early due to the snow storm as the preschool decided to close early and my 25 minute drive took over two hours as people slid around I-64.  He called multiple times asking how much longer I would be even after I explained the driving conditions. We will not use his services again and just offer a warning to others about the removal of the cut down trees.
Update:  2/18/13 We contacted another company through Angie's List to have the remaining branches removed.  We also had him inspect the trees that had been trimmed.  The way the trees were cut has damaged the trees to the point they will not survive and now have to be cut down to prevent them from falling and damaging our home.  We are ver saddened to learn this as our goal was to help the trees grow.  We are now having to spend an additional $2000 to have the trees removed and clean up the mess Anthony left.

Overall it was an OUTSTANDING experience.
Anthony arrived with his team and I showed him what I wanted done.  He assessed the situation and quoted me a price.  I couldn't beat it, so he had his team working within two minutes.  His primary cutter has been in the trade for over 20-years.  He "dropped" all the trees clear of power lines and the house.  As the trees were dropped, the rest of his team cut them up and piled them appropriately.  Within an hour, they were done with everything.  Last time I payed with a check and they cashed it within 24-hours...this time I payed them in cash.  I HIGHLY recommend Ralph's Tree Service!

They kind of caught me by surprise in my front yard. The two of them drove up and said they were in our neighborhood performing services for other residences and offered to 'balance' a tree in my front yard that they noticed was leaning. They offered to take 5 or 6 large branches from about 40ft up for $180. I agreed and they came back after about 30 min of working on another neighborhood tree. They did a great job of taking the large branches and directing them away from the house as they came down. It started raining pretty hard and they kept at it...(I totally expected them to quit and come back.) I also asked them to cut the branches down for firewood (after they were done) They did it for free even after I offered to pay extra. They were VERY quick and efficient. We wrote them a check and they cashed it a day later. We also referred them to our neighbors who were looking to cut a tree down that split their properties. They did it forr almost $1000 less than what was quoted by a different tree service and I believe they took split payment from both of our neighbors since they were splitting the cost. Great quick service at a great price!

I called Anthony (757-237-4956) at 2:00 p.m. and by 2:30 p.m. that same day, they were at our house. His price is the best and cannot be beat. All four trees required precise cutting and "dropping", and his team did it perfectly. Initially, he offered to cut down the one tree that was growing into the foundation, the large limb that was hanging over the house, and cleaning up the tree that would be a future problem for $450. An hour after they started, I asked for him to cut another limb. He was flexible in adding the extra limb that was over the garage, and I proposed the price of $600 (he may have done it for $550). His guys cut the large chunks into smaller pieces and piled it in the garage for fire wood and piled all the limbs out by the street for the city to pick up. (He did mention that if he needed to haul the wood off the premises it would cost $300.) He is retired military (Army) and a true professional. I highly recommend him!

The first thing that I want to say about them is, that they are by far the cheapest tree service in town. The other estimates that I had received wanted thousands more than they wanted. I felt that they did a perfect job. They actually hauled our wood out to the side of the street for the city to pick it up.