Steven R Bassett Inc

When confronted about the lies and the unreasonable price compared to his competitors he refused to adjust the price and was combative and abusive over the phone. I refused to pay him out of principal and he took us to small claims court - which I (mistakenly) blew off. When refinancing our home we had to pay off the lien to close on our new loan and he was abusive to the CLOSING AGENT who was doing nothing but trying to give him his money and was completely unrelated to the situation and wasn't even hired by us. She said she understood why I hadn't paid him and had no interest in dealing with him or speaking to him ever again. I have passed on my experiences to my clients (I'm now a real estate agent) as well as my colleagues who are looking for recommendations for their clients. His unwillingness to work with a customer after missrepresenting himself to get the business and then his abusive and juvenile behavior has resulted in the loss of multiple jobs (that I'm aware of) and a Title agent (who works with MANY agents in town) who also thinks he's unhinged and a horrible person to hire. My father was a forester (and has a Southern WI arboretum named for him) and many people come to me for recomomendations in this field. There are MANY great arborists in Madison - I wouldn't list Bassett as one of them. I wouldn't recommend him to y worst enemy.

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I feel that the pruning work wasn't done carefully. And the over all design was a little boring.

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He did a good job. I really don't have any knowledge about the fruit trees in the back, but I expected a little different. There's very small young trees. I had expected a little more expertise in that area, but we'll have to wait and see in the spring. I was a little concerned about that.

It has been awhile so I am not exactly sure of the date or the exact price charged per visit.  
The lawn service was only good at best.  
My first call was that an area of the lawn was being skipped half the time they had come out to spray.   After my call, that area was for the most part was sprayed, but on occasion, it was missed half the time.  It was the long strip of grass between the fence and the driveway.  
The second time I called was in regards to dandelions not being killed.  The person answering the phone acknowledged, "yah, it has been a bad year for them (meaning the dandelions)."  And agreed to return for additional spraying.  However that never happened.  I gave a follow-up call a couple of weeks late,r and again, received a promise someone would be out to take care of it, but no one came to check it out, or respray.  
I did not renew my lawn contract the following year.

We are working to get our lawn in to good shape (it needed help). It was looking pretty good before the snow, and the trees look better too. We will start up with them again in the spring.

Suggestions and options for work was provided both in scope and prices.  Work was appropriately staged and staff professionally completed plan. Will continue to use them for maintenance work in spring 2014.

They have done work twice for me, once last year and once this year. Their work is excellent. However, the wait is long. For example, this year, I got an estimate on pruning three small trees in early June, but the work wasn't done until late August. This concerned me because one of the trees was diseased and the diseased area needed to be pruned out . When I called with my concern, they explained they were understaffed. I called a second time, and they came later that week. I wish that they had told me there would be a delay when they gave me the estimate. This is a dilemma for me because they are very knowledgeable and professional otherwise and do excellent work. I would use them again if I had a problem that I was concerned about, but for routine work I would reluctantly go to another arborist.

When I called with my initial questions, they were very responsive and the arborist came out within a couple of days. I was originally told that he would call and let me know what the issue was, but it took several days for me to get ahold of him. He said he would send a written estimate, which took about a week. The estimate was clear and reasonable, so I agreed to have the work done. After several weeks, it still hadn't been taken care of, so I called again and was told that it wouldn't be scheduled for about 6 more weeks. I wanted this resolved before winter, so I told them to take us off the list and I would take care of it, and then was told they could get out and take care of it the next week (which they did). Overall, no real complaints but I would have appreciated clearer communication about the speed with which they they were planning to do the work.

Responded promptly and cleaned up after the work was completed.

They did pretty good. I think they did a good job. I think the price is good.

Kim Nelson designed a beautiful plan that fit the area perfectly, incorporating existing landscape. The crews were efficient and professional - it was clear that they wanted things done correctly. We were very pleased! We've worked with Steve for years and plan to continue to do so in the future for all of our yard, tree and landscape projects. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Had gotten 2 estimates and theirs was nearly $400 less.  They were about 3 hours later than the appointment because of a previous job and traffic and I would have appreciated a call instead of my calling to find out if they were still coming, however it worked out fine and they were done much faster than expected

They performed very well, removing the deep, heavy snow from our driveway and walkways.  They were able to fit us into their busy schedule when approached while they were working at a neighbor's house, and without their help, we would have been stranded for many more hours because the deep, heavy snow was too much for our backs and small snowblower.  The price wasn't discussed ahead of time, and came in a bit higher than expected, but again, without their help we would have been stranded since shoveling or snow blowing with a small Toro were not an option given the size of the storm.

The tree trimming has always been prompt and professionally done.  The landscaping is beautiful, perfectly suited to our house and yard, as well as solving the erosion problem.  People tell us it "looks like a resort."  In the early days they fertilized and treated the plantings as appropriate, and Steven has always been great about answering questions or concerns.  I'd highly recommend them.

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The overall experience was excellent. He was punctual, responsive, and professional.

We have been using him for about three years. He is a registered forester and we had him at our old house when we had to get some work done. He was recommended to us and we have been using him ever since. He is very reliable and very excellent. It is a big company and has got a lot of people working for them. What impressed me the most is the professional job that they do. I think that we get very good pricing from them and he provides the information on what we should do and we act on his information and then they do a very perfect job of completing the work. I know that his prices are very competitive. We call them every year to do some work for us.