Family Tree Lawn Care

We recently called John Roberts (the owner of this company) to come give us a quote for some tree work. Then we accepted his quote and had him come do the actual work too. The Good: 1) Mr. Roberts' prices are very competitive. 2) He does a good job. Granted, he probably left a few too many branches …

We recently called John Roberts (the owner of this company) to come give us a quote for some tree work. Then we accepted his quote and had him come do the actual work too. The Good: 1) Mr. Roberts' prices are very competitive. 2) He does a good job. Granted, he probably left a few too many branches lying on the ground for us to clean up ourselves, but overall his work was pretty solid. The Bad: 1) Roberts fails to show up when he says he will. When I scheduled the appointment for the quote, he asked me to text him a reminder the afternoon before. Well, we customers aren't his paid secretary and shouldn't have to do that. And even though I did send him a text as he requested, the next day he showed up a whopping FORTY minutes late! I don't think he ever apologized either. Next, I scheduled him to do the actual tree work during the afternoon a couple days later. He said he would be coming some time after 12 PM, but didn't know exactly when. Well, at 2 PM on that day, I still hadn't heard from him, so I called him up. He then informed me that he wouldn't be coming at all that day, but instead the next morning. EXCUSE ME? I had never agreed to that. And if I hadn't called him up to see what was going on, would he have even bothered to let me know? Interestingly enough, a few days after he did the tree work, I called him with a general question I had. Basically, I wanted to know how about long it would take for the roots to decay for a couple trees that he cut down. And guess what? He never returned my call. Apparently once this greedy jerk gets your money, you're dead to him! 2) While Roberts does carry insurance for general liability and workers' comp, it DOES NOT specifically cover tree service! Instead, it only covers general landscaping. So, if something bad happens on the job, you as the customer may have to shell out a ton of money. I probably should've never taken a chance on him in the first place, but thankfully nothing bad happened. Would I ever hire Roberts again? Probably not. His inadequate insurance and general rudeness are two big deal-breakers for me. However, I know how difficult it is to find a decent tree company in this area. So, I won't say to never hire this guy, but if you do, please be very careful and know exactly what to expect.