SavATree - Lincoln

These guys are great. Jeff Bourque came to give us an estimate. He was really nice, professional, seemed really knowledgeable. All work was completed within a month. One of the guys who came to do some fertilizing also gave me a free 10 minute lesson on how to prune.

On the positive side: 1. Everyone at Lowden Savatree is professional, polite, responsive, punctual. 2. Cleanup after the work was always great. 3. The tree removal portion of the work seemed to go well. 4. Their marketing & billing is very attractive (and frequent!) On the negative side: 1. NEVER have I had to ask a contractor to come back so many times to finish a piece of work. The first day the team left at 2:45pm. I expected to see them back the next day to finish the 25% that was not done. Nothing. I called a few days later and indeed the crew came back. But they didn't finish. Again, I waited but when I saw the same team working elsewhere in my town, I called to remind. Then I got the bill. I called and said I would not pay until the job was finished. They came again and got to 95% complete. I did a walk through with the arborist and showed him more that was not done. Frustrating. 2. What was verbally conveyed to me with respect to weeding was not completed. The comment from the arborist was "we will take the weeds out, and you can count on our guys to know the difference from the weeds and the plants". I thought that meant ALL our weeds and so when I got a competitive bid, that is what I conveyed to the other party. Lowden thinks they only meant the weeding of the foundation plants. After some of the nagging, they did indeed take some weeds out of the foundation plants. (Weed removal was written on the contract, but of course I needed to remind/request/nag for them to do any.) 3. Sales vs Execution. Clearly, these guys are good at sales. A smart arborist comes to your property and tells you all the things that need fixing. Execution is the problem. The arborist was proud to say that he would be there to tell the guys what needed to be done on the first day. Super. But he NEVER came to review their work at the end of the day. 4. Contractual promise different than execution. My contract says they'll do all pruning by hand except the forsythia bushes. I was on a conference call in my office as I heard and saw them using gas shears on some of the bushes. Savatree's solution? Not a discount but rather they'll come back and hand-cut the bushes so they look more natural. Is that like taking a store-bought pie and beating it up so it looks home-made? Bizarre. This overall experience has caused me to cancel my maintenance contract with them ( $2-3k/year) as I cannot count on them. For maintenance, a cheery guy in a pressed polo shirt shows up at your door. He does something at his truck and in the back yard and hands you a bill for $200-500. I used to trust that he was actually doing something, but after the experience with the pruning/tree job, I no longer know whether he is just futzing at the truck or actually doing something. At least with pruning it is OBVIOUS whether a bush has been pruned. And they had obviously missed 25%, then 10%, then 5% of the work.

I found this company to be the most honest I have ever encountered. I was not charged anything for looking at the trees and given advice on how to fix the problem. The red maple is back to normal now and Jim just scraped the fungus off the stump of the 2nd tree and said the tree was healthy - it's just that there is no bark covering it and not to worry about it.

Representative arborist came out to assess the situation and recommended two courses of action-one for just a temporary fix and the other to do more preventative work. We went for the temporary work. They were responsive to all calls, showed up on time, and did a great job. With all the storms this summer, we were thankful we had the work done.

Jeff Borque and Lowden SavATree were great to work with. Very responsive and professional throughout. Jeff came the next business day to quote the job and then was in touch with utility for them to trim back thee power lines. Once that was (finally) finished, Jeff and his team were in almost immediately. Everything looks immaculate and we are very happy. We'll definitely work with them again.

I WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THIS JOB THAT LOWDEN DID FOR ME. I WOULD LOVE TO USE THEM IN THE FUTURE.

The experience has been excellent. They have responded to my calls quickly and one of the workers has come out and given me a free consoltation and scheduled the work quickly.

A red maple tree with a double trunk, overhanging our house, was damaged, either by lightning or wind, in one of the summer's many severe thunderstorms. After noticing the dangling limbs on one of the trunks, I called Lowden which had done work for us in the past. A receptionist answered and scheduled Jeff to come out a couple of days later. He arrived on time. Jeff and I discussed a number of options (removing the affected limbs versus the entire trunk) and prices; my wife and I decided to go with the trunk (stem) removal because the bend in that trunk of the tree would continue to present a threat in the future. After giving Jeff the okay, he promised, because of the precariously hanging limb, to try to get to the job by the end of the week, even though they were working about 4 weeks out. In fact, they were able to get to it in two days. A crew of three arrived and did the job in two hours. It went perfectly: nothing touched a nearby air conditioning condenser, storage shed, or fence. They cleaned up so well that, if it wasn't for the stump, it would have been impossible to tell they were here. They even cut and stacked the larger pieces of maple for a neighbor who has a wood stove and who came by during the work to ask if he could have the wood. In terms of my ratings, I only marked them down slightly on price: $795 seemed a little high for a total of six man-hours of work. On the other hand, I didn't get other quotes for comparison, since I have been happy with Lowden in the past, so perhaps it was not so high.

They cleaned up when they were done. They were easy to get a hold of and it was easy to make an appointment. They were very professional and friendly.

Jeff Bourque visited promptly to provide a quote. He was very knowledgeable about his work, and generously provided us with a lot of information about the trees in question, as well as suggested plants for other locations which were not part of the current job. He also noticed that one of the trees had a cable around the base which would eventually kill the tree; he removed the cable as part of the job. Overall the trimming was done in a timely fashion, and the clean up was thorough, so there was no noticeable debris. They also accommodated the fact that we had to notify two neighbors in advance of the job.

Jeff was very helpful with suggestions on what to do with this shady lawn. The regularly-spaced treatments were reasonable. However, the reseeding, which we both felt needed to be done, was $635 alone. He explained that it required expensive equipment and manpower. Since this piece of lawn is only about 40X40 ft, this seemed excessive. The company I went with charged $105 for the same treatment!

Went very smoothly. Pricing attractive (1900 vs 2800) and nice guys. Neat work. Stacked wood for us in one place and made a pile of logs in another, as discussed. Took most of one day for 3 guys and 2 trucks with a big ol' brush chipper. Did require 2-3 calls to get them to actually arrive. But when we finally got a date they were here as promised.

I was very happy with the visit. I ended up going with another company, because Lowden said they would have to subcontract the work to them anyway since they didn't have their own crane. I have tremendous respect for their honesty in referring me to a competitor. While they were here they gave me some information on some of my trees and talked to me about pruning. It was very friendly (not a hard sell) and I would definitely call on them again if I was looking for some of that type of work. Very professional and knowledgable.

We discovered one morning that our plum tree had fallen down during the previous night's snow storm. I called two tree service companies. It was nice at Lowden Savatree to get a person rather than an answering machine. I was told that Jeff would call back and he did the next morning to say he had already taken a look at the fallen tree and had an estimate ready. He asked me how quickly I would like the tree removed and although it was not causing damage to any property I was hoping it could be removed ASAP. He called me back to say he had arranged to have his crew come the next day. I was out when they came but I wasn't gone long so they clearly arrived on time and removed the tree in a short time. We are planning to meet with Jeff in the spring to talk about planting a new tree. A couple days after the tree was removed the second company I had called sent someone (without calling first) to look at the tree. I was very satisfied that Lowden took care of the job so efficiently.

Mr Lowden came that morning to look at the situation. He called about noon time to tell me that he did not have the equipment needed. Since the tree is falling and not down and not in an easily accessible location a crane was needed which he did not have. He gave me the name of another tree service that did have the equipment.

I have used their services on a number of occasions. On each visit, they have done a good job and shown up on time. On a separate service, they treated my hemlocks for a disease.

We received a prompt estimate of $650. They sounded knowledgeable, and the estimate was in the middle of the other ones we received. One downside was that some other tree service companies said they would do the entire job themselves but these folks would first call and wait for the utility company to take care of the part that was tangled up in the wires and still charge us the same amount for the remaining pruning.

I called Sav a Tree and by the next day they were out giving me an estimate. We scheduled a day for them to come out and in two weeks it was taken care of. They were quick, clean, and professional and did a great job on my tree.

The work went fine - I assume. There was no communication from the company after the initial estimate - except a bill on the doorknob on the day that the work was performed. I have no knowledge of whether the work was performed well or not - the maple tree is huge and I would have been interested in seeing how they actually do the work. We did not have winter moths this summer - but I thought that Lowden SavaTree was very late in spraying. There has been no follow up from the arborist since the work was completed ...which was fairly recently...so maybe???

They are good, responsible, and reliable. I really enjoyed that they were punctual, clean, and cautious as well. Their quality of work is very good and their prices are good, too. I would definitely recommend them to other people in need of this type of service.

They came out when they said they would. Jeff was very pleasant; he gave me a great estimate and a reasonable timetable for completing the work. They were exactly on it. They cleaned everything up when they finished.

I called to get an estimate on the repair of a tree damaged by a delivery truck and a consultation on several other trees on our property that might present a risk if they fell during a storm. My call was immediately answered by a person (no answering machines) who took down relevant information. Jeff Bourque, arborist, came out shortly thereafter. He made several recommendations. Although we could not afford to implement all of them at once, we decided to remove three small oak trees, which were shaded by larger ones and as a consequence would have grown toward the house (and been more expensive to remove in the long run.) A few weeks later a crew came out and did the work, including a great clean-up. An excellent experience overall. (At our request, Jeff even offered several recommendations for an ornamental tree for our front lawn that would be disease and drought resistant.)

Everything went very well. Jeff returned our phone call promptly. We set-up an appointment to come out and give us an estimate. He was on time for the estimate. His price was well in line with other estimates. We decided to hire Savatree based on their professionalism and the knowledge they displayed during the estimate. Their workers showed up on time and all the work was done neatly. We were very pleased.

I called Lowden in late June. Jeff came out to provide an estimate on June 26th. He provided an estimate for the tree removal and pruning by email the same day, and hard copy arrived a few days later. I accepted the proposal, sent in a deposit as requested. The initial indication was that the work would be scheduled in about 3-4 weeks. I contacted Jeff on July 26th, and learned the work would be scheduled for the week of 7/30 or 8/6 (I asked for 8/6 since I was traveling the week before). The work was scheduled for 8/10; since that day was not good for me Jeff was able to reschedule for 8/13. The crew of 3 arrived promptly the morning of Monday 8/13 with two trucks (a "cherry picker" and a large grinder). They accomplished the quoted work within a few hours, and cleaned up some extra branches while they were at it. They carefully worked around the utility wires, my garage, my tomato plants, and cleaned up very thoroughly.

Jeff Bourque came the day I called, gave a quote right away. We were scheduled in about 4 weeks, but rain caused further delay. They came 6 days later and completed the tree that needed 25% pruning. They returned 2 days later to complete the work. Different crews showed up each time, but every crew was knowledgeable, careful of landscaping, and meticulous about clean-up. I learned about tree care, and my yard looks terrific.