BELLES TREE SERVICE

Craig came by to give us an estimate for multiple tree removals without notifying us in advance or scheduling an appointment. By this time we had already hired another service. Craig lost his temper and yelled at us for not notifying him and causing him to waste his gas, even though he never told us he was coming for the estimate. He accused us of being a bad customer. It was actually scary.

all aspects were done professionally and to a high standard

On Time, EXCELENT JOB, good clean up. A group of hard workers, here all day, and everyone worked hard, nobody standing around

The price was fair. Quality was good. They came when they said they would. Professionalism was good.

Wish I had read the reviews on Angie's List earlier. We recently purchase a house and as first time homeowners who have lived for less than 2 years in Lehigh Valley relied on our friends for recommendation on various services. We were recommended by a friend who was a customer (commercial and residential) of Belles Tree Service. The owner Craig came promptly and discussed what needed to be done. Some things we never thought about but were needed. In total three plants, more like young trees, close to the house were to be cut and roots stumped. This was something Craig suggested and we do not regret. Cost for this was quoted at $300. Two other trees trimmed to leave the driveway open to sunlight and cut branches above electric cables. One other tree, spruce, had several branches over our neighbors electric cables which were to be cut to prevent severing of cables during a storm. The cost for these three tree was $700 for a total of $1000. No written quote was provided just a word of mouth and expected work to be done after 2 weeks. We specifically asked to be contacted before the tree service was to be done since we haven't yet moved to the house and wanted to be there when the trees were cut. No one contacted us when the work was scheduled. Belles Tree Service arrived early about 7 (according to our neighbors) and did a good job of cleaning up after themselves. No tree limbs or leaves were lying around for us to clean. The trees uprooting was done professionally and we have no complaints. The other three trees, nothing noticeable was trimmed. Complained to Craig that shoddy work was done. Craig came promptly and agreed that the work done was shoddy and would send a crew to trim a few more branches of the magnolia tree. When we showed him the spruce tree and said that the branches over the electric cables were not cut, he said "Those are telephone cables that do not require cutting". We disagreed and said that we still want the branches cut since we do not want to move to a new house and have our neighbors immediately blame us for broken cables. A crew came by a few days later and trimmed some more branches but still not what we had discussed earlier. We called Craig the third time and said that the work done was not as discussed. He came to see the work done and was very arrogant and belligerent. When we mentioned that he was supposed to trim more leaving visible skyp, he said "I am the pruner and no one tells me how to prune trees". His tone was angry, loud and very belligerent. When we said that the branches for the spruce tree were not trimmed, this time he said "Those are electric cables and are the responsibility of PPL". My wife said that she would call PPL and verify that it is their responsibility to cut the trees. He refused to do any further work and said that the invoice is in the mail and there is nothing we can do about it. We didn't call PPL but within an hour one of his crew came and cut three branches of the spruce tree that were over the electric cables. His invoice came a few days later. The invoice was mailed after he cut the spruce tree contrary to what he had said earlier. How do I know this? He had a line item for cutting three (yes it was specifically mentioned three branches only) branches of the spruce tree dated the day he came the third time on Aug 13. The charge for the spruce tree, zero dollars like as if he just threw it in there to get us off his back. Again nothing was in writing, everything was word of mouth. My biggest regret is not having a written quote from Belles Tree Service on the work that was to be conducted. For my experience, Belles Tree Service is very unprofessional and dishonest. Work was done the week of Aug 13. The attached photos were taken on Sep 9. Judge for yourself.

unknown

He did the job as i expected him to do it. I was satisfied with the work.

The owner came for an estimate promptly but, he quoted several things we didn't need to do, including removal of other overgrown elements. Unfortunately, nothing was in writing which, caused some confusion later. They were quick to schedule the actual service once we agreed on the work, which might be because they also did work on a neighbor's tree directly across the street as well. They did thin the trees and remove dead branches but did not do much to shape the tree or reduce the overall size, which is what we were looking for. The owner, who is a certified arborist did not feel the tree would survive a crown thinning which was different than other opinion we had. (also from certified arborists). The workers did work very quickly and cleaned up well. After they were done, the invoice was for an higher amount than what we had done. We called the owner twice and he agreed to the original quoted price, but this is where if we had a written quote would have helped.