East Side did a great job removing two large trees from the front of my house. They were very communicative during the process and coordinated all groups and permits.

I was frankly amazed at how good these people are: 1. They came and gave me an estimate that was as good or better than others that I had received. 2. They scheduled things in a simple way that didn't require me to even be home. 3. They then came by a few days in advance and put up no parking signs in front of the house to ensure they had place for the trucks etc. 4. They also came by and marked to the tree and a cut line so there would be no mistakes. 5. AND they took a video of the access points, the path to the tree, the tree itself so everyone involved would be familiar. 6. They then sent the first crew that made incredibly quick work of efficiently taking down a very large tree with five trunks and cleaning everything up so there was no debris whatsoever. 7. Then came the stump grinding crew who figured out how to navigate an impossible small entryway and ground the stump to nothing. 8 Finally they swept everything up and even cleaned up leaves in the garden that had nothing to do with the job. 9. At each stage someone from the company called me before and after to make sure I knew what was going to happen and then to follow up and make sure it went as I expected. It just does not get any better than this. They could write the book on customer service.

Dan came out to give us an assessment about the health of an old cedar we have next to our home. I was concerned that he wouldn't be "straight" and would try to upsell services. However, I really wanted an experienced arborist to let me know why parts of my tree appear to be dying. Dan checked our tree out thoroughly and gave us his opinion that the tree is stressed but will most likely bounce back over the next several months. He then went on to look at a number of other trees on our property -- ALL AT NO CHARGE TO US -- and without trying to sell us any services. I have complete confidence in Dan and Eastside Tree Works. They came to take care of our landscape needs and didn't attempt to profit off of our ignorance. I will not hesitate to use them in the future!

Matt's team did a good job. They showed up at the time promised. Everyone was polite and professional. I lately saw some of them on YOUTUBE removing trees. Search "Guilty of Treeson" to see how they did their job.

Very comprehensive and professional. I appreciated your responsiveness and consideration of the city and neighborhood aspects of the work (e.g. permitting, implications for neighbors and electrical wires, etc).

Services were detailed and bid prior to work starting. Workmen were here at the appointed time and all work was performed in a skillful manner. Very knowledgeable crew who consulted with us as the work was done. Clean up was excellent as was care for our other shrubs and plants.

Great, highly skilled work, never hitting my garage. Excellent cleanup. Easy to talk to and deal with. Very upbeat and professional.

unknown

BID- Process was great.  Very thorough; included a Sales Rep (Ron) who is also a certified Arborist.  He arrived on-time, spent quality time walking through the yard answering questions and giving advice (we drilled him) on not just cut, but function.  Ron knows his trees.  The estimate included him tagging the trees, pictures, a detailed description of the work, and a typed estimate.  We got two other bids; and they were all in the same ball-park for costs.   I read some of the older reviews which included some negativity, and decided to go with these folks anyways based on the preparation, success a neighbor had just had with them, and their clear desire to make me happy (e.g. they don't change you until you confirm you are 100% satisfied with the work).

EXECUTION-  The team showed up on time on the date committed.  They were nice, fast, clean, and good.  Although I would have preferred trunk removal/ stump grinding be done the same day in my case, they were done in a second stage a week later, and also done quick and cleanly

I would definitely recommend this company; and hire them again myself!

unknown

The crew came over on time and began the work.  We had arranged to be home ourselves from work before they trimmed two particular trees because they also served as screens and we wanted specific branches cut.  One additional crew joined the first crew and they got almost all of it done that first afternoon which was a great surprise.  All of the guys worked well as a team making a fast job of it all.  We appreciated that they clearly practiced safety while doing the dangerous work.   Everyone was polite and good natured; they cleared, chipped, raked and blew all the mess away in no time. 

 

There was one problem that came up.  The guys were already down from the trees in front and we wanted a few more awkward branches cut.  The crew said we?d need to talk to Matt because they weren?t sure if they were authorized to do more.  Matt came out on another day and explained that his crews were trained to cut precisely as instructed to avoid misunderstandings.  He was even able to have some trucks and a crew came over that very evening.  That amazing service was totally unexpected. 

 

The cherry on top was that they took out a huge, overgrown 25 foot holly bush that on that second visit that saved us days of work had we done it ourselves.  Eastside Tree Works will always have our business, we strongly recommend them!

They cut down the right tree and grind the wrong stump. We have a huge stump that I needed to grind, so I am not happy with them. I had a tree that I needed to grind so I asked if I can I will pay you extra. He charged me $60 for that it was bit high and they did not did the whole tree when I looked outside half tree was there in my yard and they left. So i think they were shady.

Estimator arrived 1 hr early after his
liquid' lunch.
Crew arrived 3 hr late.
They limbed and pruned fine
and cleaned up well.

Everything was done correctly and per the timetable as discussed. The workmen were punctual and professional and cleanup was satisfactory.

The team completed the project in less than an hour. The surprise was that they didn't grind the stumps on the arborvitae, which
I found out later was a separate task to be completed by a different team. The team leader agreed to return in a couple weeks to complete the stump grinding at an additional cost of approx. $150. After 16 months, I assume they are never going to return and I am contracting with another firm to have the stumps ground and the Leland Cypress re-trimmed. Be aware that they have a $500 minimum, so regardless of the scope of your project, you're paying at least $500. I was not an Angies List member when this job was completed. Had I been, I would not have contracted with these folks given the low quality of some of the reviews.

Called on Sat 7/16 around noon, phone was answered by a real human, I described my tree issues and she said that Matt would call me today! Matt did call and come by to look at my trees, gave me an estimate and said if I signed the contract that day, I could get a 10% discount and I could pay him then if I wanted to. I opted out of doing that since the work had not been done yet! The price was a bit high, but given the size of the trees, including firewood hauling and stump grinding, I signed the contract. Matt said they would be by to do the work on Tuesday or Wednesday. They arrived on Wednesday, cut down two trees, took a big limb off another and ran all the branches through a chipper. They cleaned up fairly well but left the large wood rounds in the flowerbed, pretty much ruining my few decent plants. I mentioned this to the foreman and he apologized, but said due to the power lines on the east and the house on the west, safety took precedence over saving the flowers. I guess I have to agree with that. I asked when the stumps would be ground and when the wood would be taken away and was told in and ldquo;two or three daysand rdquo;. It is now Saturday and nobody has come by or called about the stumps or the wood. I'd really like to get it out of my flower bed so I can see what's left of my plants! I thought that the price included stump grinding, but it did not so the stumps are still there.

had storm damaged tree and some trees that were potential future storm damage removed--also some dead trees that needed removal

Sales pitch too lengthy, and way to much 'we are the best' for our liking. Also spent way more time working on the bid, at our home, while we waited. We obtained 4 local bids and this company was the only one that stayed so long! Price was much higher then all 3 of the other bids. Eastside Tree Works main sales pitch was that they have Bond, License, and Land I (all of the companies we obtained bids from also have these insurances in place and current) Sales person wanted to know who else we were getting bids from, not the way we do business. We wanted the job completed in 1-2 days, and Eastside said it would be a 3 step process, cut trees, haul wood, grind stumps and would probably take longer, even into a second week.

From our IGNORED response to this company -
Hello,
There is a reason you have not heard from us prior to this
email, we wanted a period to ‘cool off’ before we responded in order to ‘let
cooler heads prevail’. Well, we have
given it some time and we are still plenty disappointed and angry. We did, however, list a number of
points/issues right away so the impact and emotions would not be dimmed. Here is the list, and I do not think in this
time anything has dimmed as much as the opposite.

-
It took 25 years to get our tree where we wanted
it. Why do you think we haven’t had it
done before... we were scared for our
tree. Well you did what we were scared about!!!!
-
Canopy 6 – 10 feet higher that we specified.
-
The intimacy of our deck has been destroyed;
this was expressed as our primary concern multiple times in discussing the work
to be done.
-
I specifically stated I wanted to be present
when the work was performed, this was disrespected and ignored. On top of totally disregarding my adamant
demand that I be home no effort was made to accommodate this beyond a
‘courtesy’ call at the end of the day before stating the crew would be arriving
to do the work “late in the afternoon” the next day. I made sizable adjustments to my day to be
present by 10 after 1:00, but “late in the afternoon” turned out to be 11:30
and by the time I got home the damage was already done and I did not have the
chance to prevent it.
-
Roof was ‘cleaned’ off right into the gutters.
-
Some of the crew spent a good amount of time
engaging in a petty argument, loud and persistent enough that there was no way
for us to not have to hear and listen to it.
To have one of your crew knock on our door to apologize for essentially
being incredibly stupid was beyond bad.
-
Just like a car getting service…they call before
they do anything that was not specified on the contract. There was no such call
to us. They just did what they thought was and quot;bestand quot; without even
thinking about the clients wishes!!!!!
-
Cabling billed for, not done.
-
Everything in your literature and my
conversations with your representatives lead us to believe that you were a
local company with local employees, all but one of the vehicles your folks
brought had out of state plates.
Misleading or just disappointing?
-
All the wood over 3” was supposed to be left
here, all the wood but a single wheelbarrow full was taken.
-
Parts of some outdoor decorations are missing.
-
Very little was put back to where it was. In the case of the swinging bench if anyone
had sat on it, they and the bench would have fallen had I not checked what your
crew did.
-
It still brings a tear to our eyes.
As you can see this was an incredibly negative experience
with equally negative results. I don’t
know how we could have been more explicit in our insistence that we be present
before and during any work, a condition I thought we had agreed to but was
totally ignored. And judging by the
“This happens all the time statement” made buy your foreman and crew, you folks
have a terrible time communicating or a straight up disregard for your
customer. Your foreman and I discussed
at length that most important thing we wanted was to retain the intimacy of our
deck and that I absolutely wanted to be present to manage the work and scope,
none of that was considered and by the time I got home the damage was done.
On top of the ignoring our wishes, your crew spent a good
amount of time arguing and acting like little bratty children. Any time an employee knocks on the
customer’s door to lamely apologize for
basically being an idiot, it speaks volumes about your company’s problems.
And, the cabling was never done but it is being billed for.
Obviously we are not
ever going to do business with you folks again.

They are tree doctors! They're not just some local guys, they're trained professionals. They were very honest.

Excellent, excellent, excellent. I was greatly impressed by the professionalism of the crew. I was never worried that my house was going to be damaged. They finished a lot quicker than I expected. They also removed the stump also. I will definitely call them for any additional service.

So far we have given a 500 dollar deposit, but expect to be billed for the remainder of this just over 5000-dollar contract based on what we read on other websites - sadly, we did not read those before.
Be up to date on your contract law before signing with Eastside TreeWorks!
Here is a run-down of our experience so far:
Between Christmas and New Years Eve, a representative of EastsideTreeWorks knocked on our door, despite the fact that we have a 'no soliciting' sign. My husband answered and accepted a pamphlet from EastsideTreeWorks, and made an appt with the 'arborist' to evaluate our trees. Our trees were overdue for pruning, plus we wanted to remove a border of overgrown Leland Cyprus. We had been talking about taking action, but I was not exactly happy that husband responded to a front door solicitation.
My husband wanted to proceed. I shall 'kill' him later.
The 'arborist,' Kristine, came on Monday, December 31, 2012 and my husband felt she was knowledgeable about trees as she gave her assessment, and he felt comfortable with her knowledge base. She told him she is an arborist and impressed upon him more than once that EastsideTreeWorks is a family-run business. Additionally, 'arborist' it is not printed on her card. There is a legal reason for that. (They can say anything, but unless it is in writing, it is our word against theirs.)
In hindsight, and we should have looked her up at the time. As of this writing, we find no verification for her certification as an arborist with PNWISA - PacificNorthwest Society of Arbiculture.
Also, regarding this and quot;family ownedand quot; business - Mathew Rengo, who lives in Newcastle, WA, incorporated Eastside TreeWorks in the state of Washington in September of 2009. Two and a half years ago.
Kristine called New Years Day and the job was set up for the following Monday, the 7th of January. The team arrived as I was leaving to drive somebody somewhere - about 8:30 a.m. When I got back about 9:15, they were milling about, claiming they could not start work until we got permission from our back-fence neighbor, who was not home at the time. No work had been started in the time I was gone. There were many other areas of the yard and many other trees they could have started on that did not involve that neighbor. I suggested they start on the Leland Cyprus trees in a different area of the yard, and they did start, sometime after 10:00. Kristine told me that it was her job to get that neighbor's permission, yet she had waited until that very morning to pursue that. (What if they had been out of town?) My phone records indicate I reached the back-fence neighbor at 10:35 and we got verbal permission.
The tree cutters started to cut down the row of Leland Cypress and haul out front to be taken away. I checked progress now and then. Toward the end of that row, at one point, I went out to check progress and saw one of the Leland Cypress had been felled right on our 25+ year rhododendron (over 12 feet tall) just off the deck that was habitat for hummingbirds we had been fostering for many years. Hummingbirds stay through the winter here and it is currently hummingbird mating season. After the tree fell on it, they cut away over half the rhododendron, exposing its core, (see photos) without consulting me. I walked out and in my shocked realization, the foreman told me: and quot;That's nature.and quot; I could not speak and went into the house, extremely upset. We had told Kristine at the time of the estimate that we did not want those rhododendrons to be touched. If the Leland Cypress had been taken out piecemeal instead of fallen, this would not have happened. I called Kristine, who came to the site, and just as she arrived, one of their men fell out of a tree. I had gone back in the house, and did not know until the EMTs arrived with sirens and lights that a tree cutter had fallen out of a tree. He seemed okay, but was eventually taken to Harborview, and I hear from them that he has cracked ribs and other injuries. We certainly hope he is okay. The Land I and police then showed up to take reports. The team left. It was pre - 4 o'clock-ish on Monday. They said they would call to schedule the rest of the job. Next day, about 2:15 (mid-afternoon) a team came to the door looking to see if they could do more work. I told them I would have appreciated a call before they just showed up, and told them I was just leaving for errands. They looked around, then decided it was not feasible to work on our yard that day.

Friday, a young fellow came to pick up wood. He had left a message, but we thought he must be mistaken because the job was so far from being finished. We never answered the message, but he just showed up the next day to pick up wood. Very young fellow, didn't know anything about the job not being done. Then Saturday, another older fellow came to get more wood. No phone call to let us know to expect him, just showed up at the door Saturday morning. And then he showed up again later that day, apparently not having gotten all the wood the first trip. So Eastside sells this wood to people who come pick it up, but don't let you know who is coming or when. We have two daughters living here and do not want men we do not know showing up at the door when we are not here, or any other time, for that matter. But EastsideTree Works freely gave out our address and let them come here unexpected by us. We know nothing about these men. Not making accusations, but this is not good form in this day and age. Is it too much to expect a phone call to let us know they are coming? We live on the eastside, at least one came from Seattle. Would he have just turned around and gone without that wood if we had not answered the door or let himself in to our fenced back yard? We will never know. We have previously had trees fallen and always get a courtesy call to make arrangements to come into our private back yard that are suitable for both parties.
And this is THE LAST WE HEARD FROM Eastside Tree Works. We have had no phone calls, no emails, no nothing. Not one word and it has been over three weeks! And we are not going to chase them down to fulfill their contract with us.
We just decided to go public. Next stop: Get Jesse! (I bet we get a phone call after Matt reads this - he does seem to monitor his reputation.) They did write into the contract that we need flexibility in scheduling, but this is ridiculous!
We will post more information as it becomes available. OH! Wait. Just in the time it took me to write this, we received an invoice for the full amount - over five thousand dollars.

Update: We never did hear back from Eastside Tree Works for any reason other than to bill us for the full amount. On Jan 8, the day after they were in our yard, we sent this email:

and quot;Curtis,
We wanted to inquire about the well-being of the young man who fell yesterday while cutting our trees and hope you are able to provide an update. He seemed fine afterwards and was walking about, but you never know about internal injuries. We understand they took him to Harborview. Thanks in advance for your response.
Kind Regards, and quot;

( We did not hear back from them. )

Then on Jan 25, husband fired off this email:

Hey Kris,
Can you explain to me why K and I have heard NOTHING from you and NOTHING from Eastside TreeWorks about when our job will be completed? It's been nearly THREE WEEKS since your crew was last here. Really?... THIS is the and quot;family-owned businessand quot; way of doing business that you're all so proud of?
Let me ask you this - if YOU were the customer here, would YOU be satisfied with the service that Eastside has rendered?
We'd like to know what you propose to do about this situation. We'd like to know if Eastside TreeWorks intends to complete this job, or not. A failure to respond will be

After coming out to do an assessment of the yard and work that needed doing I booked this company to come out one afternoon. I've lived in the house less than a year, and it had been let go a bit. I had several large pines that needed trimming and interior bulk reduction, as well as underhang reduced to make it safer for passersby. I had another large tree that needed major trimming and tidying. I had another huge shrub that was dying and blocking a pretty maple removed completely. Additionally they trimmed neighbor's trees that were overhanging into my yard and posing a threat. After last year's ice storm (and neighbor tree that came down on my fence) I wanted the property to be safer and better prepared. A team of guys arrived as scheduled and on time and set to work. They were done in about an hour, including clean up, and the yard and driveway looked cleaner than before the work when they were done. I was very impressed with their professionalism, thoroughness and attention to detail and safety. I'd use this company again and recommend them.

I read all of the Angie's List reviews and I selected 2 to call Ballard Tree Service and Eastside TreeOnce Eastside was at my house, they were great.The sale lady was very nice and listened to me and marked the branches that needed to be cut.They tree crew was really wonderful and easy-going. I stayed home from work but these guys were so trustworthy that I think you could definitely stay at work
The only problem I had with Eastside Tree Service was the communication. The missed their first appointment and I kept having to call them to get the scheduler to call me back.

I contacted Eastdie tree service asking for an estimate on coming out to look at 2 trees which concerned me . They gave no estimate over e-mail/phone but setup a date for a free and quot;apprasial.and quot; Project Manager Benjamin Gray came out and did evaluate two trees that were concerns to me. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and I was very pleased that he didn't just want to go straight to cutting them down (since he works for a tree service). He looked them over, saw some minor concerns, but told me to leave them be and have him come back in 2 years to re-evaluate. Because I wasn't initially told there would be a fee, but usually they charge over $100 for his visit and tree inspection, he wasn't going to charge me anything. I decided to pay $75 out of fairness, for his time and efforts.