Ray Williamson Tree Service

We recent bought an older house and there was a tree leaning over the garage as well as several dead trees in the backyard (due to last year's drought). Ray was punctual in showing, came in with a good price, trimmed all the trees and did a great job in cleaning up afterwards. We are extremely pleased with their service and will use them again.

This is the second time this company has done work for me. The previous job was much larger - about $2,000-worth of tree pruning and removal of invasive hackberry trees. On both occasions, the job was expertly done, and the price was reasonable. I gave the company a low grade on price this time not because the price was unreasonable but because there was an attempt to jack up the price when the job was part way done. The owner had quoted the job based on his recollection of the tree from a previous visit and the assumption that the tree was still standing (although I had specifically told him on the phone that it had fallen). A couple of hours into the job he came to the door and told me that he had made a mistake and could not keep to the quoted price. After I indicated that I would call another company if he didn't feel able to finish the job, he agreed to honor his original quote. I would not have held this first discussion against him, but was extremely unhappy when he came to the door a secpnd time the following morning, asked me whether I wanted the stump removed, and when I said yes informed me that there would be an extra charge of $250 for that part of the work. I subsequently learned that he did this under pressure from his son, who owns the stump grinder and was refusing to permit his equipment to be used unless the price was adjusted. After some discussion, we finally agreed on a price increase of $100, and the work was completed. I do recommend contacting this company for a quote if you need to have tree work done - they do good work and the price is right. However, make sure that someone actually comes out to inspect the job first, and be very careful to get the quote in writing. The owner of the company is an elderly man of the "my word is my bond" generation, who is fond of sealing a deal on a handshake and tries hard to deliver on his promises. However, his son doesn't seem to share this philosophy, and appears to have enough influence in the company that there could be problems if they disagree on something.

I'm extremely satisfied! Ray gave me a fair price and went out of his way to make sure I was happy with the job. They did great work, cleaned up after themselves, didn't break anything and kept the lines of communication open and honest. They weren't able to grind a few stumps due to the slope of my yard and retaining walls, so Ray negotiated on the price to ensure I was still happy. They worked their butts off, doing 2 days worth of work in 1 day, to finish before the rain came in the following day. Great local family doing honest hard work!