A C HORTICULTURAL MANAGEMENT

If you don't care about damage to your property, hire them. If you do, you're better off looking somewhere else. We hired Rene and his team to treat our oak from a beetle infestation and trim the oak and a small olive tree. When they arrived we asked them to take care of our brand new gate when they take the branches out. We even offered to cover it, but they declined reassuring us that they're professional and they'll take care of it. After they left, we checked the gate and lo and behold there were tons of scratches all over it. Although we have video (!!) from the security camera clearly showing his crew dragging the branches over the gate and even slamming them into the gate, Rene refused to admit that his crew did the damage on the pretense that his crew denied it because the branches were wrapped with a tarp. Yes, the branches were indeed wrapped with a tarp, but the ends were still sticking out of the tarp and dragging over our brand new gate. When confronted again with all our video evidence and a close up picture that clearly shows FRESH scratches, he claimed the crew said the scratches were already there. After which he completely refused to respond to any of our follow-up calls or emails. We have no complains about the actual tree service performed, but I am appalled that a company refuses to accept liability for damage they cause to personal property, despite asking for more than $1000 to treat and trim 2 trees.

He says that our tree looks like it's dying, which I already knew but my wife insisted on it. I like that he was honest. He said he could try to inject chemicals into it to try to save it but that would cost us $600 but that would be a waste of money. He wasn't just trying to sell a service. He did give us a bid for tree removal.

The person who came out, Rene, was very nice. The problem that I had, though, was a few days prior when I called to make the appointment. I told the fellow who answered the phone that I wanted an estimate for tree trimming and I also am thinking about redoing my whole landscape depending on the cost if it is not too exorbitant because of the drought that we have been having and the LADWP. With the water restrictions we have, our lawn now looks horrible. I was thinking of maybe removing the lawn or a portion of it and doing a drought-tolerant landscape so I wanted to get his input on whether he would recommend that and what the cost might be and a number of different things about it, also changing some of the plants that we have so that we could spend a lot less on water. I was trying to explain that to the fellow who was making the appointment and he really just cut me off as soon as I said I wanted the tree trimming estimate. He told me he could come out on Saturday and I told him there is still more and a bunch of other things I needed to ask him so I started to tell him and he just cut me off. He told me I can ask the man who will come out any questions I want and discuss anything that I have in mind. It was like he had a I-do-not-need-to-be-bothered-about-it-now attitude. He said he will be there between one and three on Saturday. At a quarter to one, he showed up. He said he will start looking around outside. I told my husband to tell him what I wanted estimates on while I was getting ready to go down and a couple of minutes later before I was quite ready, he came back to tell me to hurry up because the man was ready to leave. It was not even one o'clock yet. I said when I made the appointment, the man said he will be all mine and I could ask all the questions and go over all kinds of that because I wanted to have a whole idea about redoing my whole landscaping stuff. He asked who I talked to and I said it was Steve. He said he needed to talk to the people in his office because they overbooked him and do not do things right and he said he do not have time to do that because he had an appointment way out in Newbury Park and said he has to be there by two so he needed to leave right away. He wrote down an estimate and I really wanted it to be broken down as far as what tree would cost what. I was thinking of taking out some trees that were not really very good looking. I wanted his opinion whether we should take out the tree or just trim it again. All he gave me was a lump sum. This is how much it is for everything. I mentioned that there was one birch tree which had a top that was all dead. He said that whoever trimmed it the last time cut the top and birch trees do not like to be topped and it probably got filled with aphids and that was why the whole top was dead. He said what he can do was to cut the tree almost in half and get rid of all those dead stuff. I asked how much would the estimate be if we do not do anything with it. Maybe I will just have my husband cut it down and maybe they could just drill off the roots. He said it is the same price whether he trimmed it or whether he cut it out. That does not make sense. He said he charges a hundred and twenty-five dollars an hour for consultation. I told him the man I talked to on the phone did not tell me. He woke me up this morning and I was still exhausted after my husband's surgery. He was asking if I wanted him to come out or schedule an appointment. I told him I would be calling him when things settle down. I said I have a little business card and attached to it was a little thing that was like a discount card but it did not have any expiration date. He said they did not have anything like that for a long time and that was probably three years old and they do not do that anymore. In other words, they will not honor that. He said if I am going to get an estimate from a licensed bonded person and I have a written thing, he will take a look at it but I got the impression that there was no guarantee. I am a little upset. I had him come out years ago for something and he seemed knowledgeable. There are a lot of people who come out for an estimate for free because they want your business and want to talk about ideas. They do not charge just to talk about it. If he charges a hundred and twenty-five an hour, I do not know if he will be here for an hour or more. My impression is that it just seems like it is going to be extremely expensive.

I have been using them for over 3 years. I pay roughly $250 a month. What I like about them is that they take care of everything. I think the price is a little steep but you get what you pay for.