Bamboo Gardener LLC

I called James to give me an estimate for removing three different clumps of bamboo. Each one had been planted (by me) in the ground with a barrier, but, after so many years, they had begun to escape. James came to my home, assessed the situation, then gave me an estimate for the removal. We set up a time for him to do the work, and he removed all three clumps. There were a few surprises (more escapees than expected), and James took care of it all with expertise. He even met with my neighbor to calm her fears about the one runner that had made it's way into her yard. James is a true professional. On this job, he was punctual, communicative, tidy, and had great follow-through. Not only does he have a vast knowledge of all things bamboo, he's a pleasure to work with. I would not hesitate to call him again, and I've already passed his name along to others who may wish for his help in the future. Thank you James!

I paid $300 because I'm keeping all the bamboo, I have to deal with the big pile.

It's hard to remember when I have had such a horrible interaction with someone I wanted to hire to come out to my home. I called him and he was driving, so he asked me to call back and to email (which I did) to set up an appointment. Unfortunately, the day he was supposed to come I was diagnosed with Strep Throat. I was running a fever and was really sick. My husband and my assistant looked for his online information for over an hour (he is VERY hard to locate) and they were finally able to find a phone number for him (at this point, I am unconscious in bed upstairs). They called with 3 hours to spare before he was to come over and left a message saying that we needed to reschedule because I was so sick. I own a small business and we have a cancellation policy~but we are not heartless~if there is a family emergency or someone is sick we are very understanding. Apparently, he did not get the message, and called 15 minutes before he was supposed to arrive to say that he was running a bit late. My husband said "we called you 3 hours ago saying that my wife is sick and that we need to reschedule". Then comes the string of curse words from James (I can't repeat them because I didn't hear them) and he was SO angry. He said that he had his cell phone on him all day and that he never received a call. Later that evening we get a scathing email from him ripping us up one side and down the other about how much we had inconvenienced him and how we needed to send him a check because he had left a paying job to come to diagnose what is happening with our plants. We pointed out to him that we DID call/email and that sometimes people get sick and that he needs to try to be a human being and understand that. Then we get another angry email from him saying that he finally DID get my husband's message on his home phone and how in the world did we get that phone number? Well, we got it off his website. When I pointed this out to him he said (this is word for word, as I copied it from his email to me) "I lost 1 1/2 hours of my work day for this situation. I stopped working at a paying job, packed up, left and got ready to meet you. Then found out only because I made the correct call that you wanted to cancel only hours before we were to meet, then had to go back to the job to get back to a paying client. Then you insult me with your e-mails" My emails were not insulting at all. I pointed out that it might be a good idea to have a current phone number on his website. When I pointed THIS fact out to him I got such a vulgar and insulting email from him that I simply cannot reprint it here. I don't see how he could have lost 1.5 hours because he told me when I booked the appointment that was a good day for him as he was going to be in my neighborhood. Obviously, I will not be hiring him again nor will I pay the ludicrous fee he wants me to pay for his "lost time". I own a small business and we have a cancellation policy that I make everyone aware of.

He seems quite knowledgeable about Bamboo but his plants seemed expensive for the condition they were in, for example charging $85 for a plant with one shoot. His inflexibility at taking back an item that was completely untouched and ostensibly unusable for any other purpose is frustrating. After pointing out that the receipt implied that items could be returned, he decided to charge for the time spent discussing bamboo with us so that he would credit the barrier devices and still charge for his time. This charge had not been mentioned up front.