In the fall of 2007 we decided that we needed to finally have some tree trimming work done at our home in Thonotosassa, Florida. We live on just about 2 acres and have numerous grandfather oaks on the property. In the past we had lost one of our larger trees to a lightning strike and feared that we had lost another during one of the storms of that prior summer. We decided that instead of just getting a "tree company" to come out and do work, we were going to go the route of hiring a certified arborist to make sure our trees were healthy and trimmed properly.

In December of 2007 we contacted a company by the name of Florida Landscape Doctor in Plant City to find a certified arborist to come to our home and give us some assistance with our trees. They referred us to Aerial Arborists for the work. Soon after that Joey Sirmans, the owner of Aerial Arborists, came to our home and my wife and him took a tour of our yard and discussed the work that needed to be done. He assured us that the work would be done professionally, safely, and most importantly that he would be present during the work so as to make sure the job was done properly. How he talked about trees and the work he would be doing impressed my wife so much that when Mr. Sirmans gave us a written quote of $3,000 for all of the work, we pretty much decided to give him the job. They were to trim all of the trees in our yard and cut down any of the trees that were either dead or in danger of damaging a structure. Over the next week or so we had another company come in and give us an estimate and not only was it higher, but my wife still thought that Aerial Arborists would do a better job.

Upon hearing that we decided to go with Aerial Arborists, Mr. Sirmans informed us that it would be about 2 or 3 days of work and that he could be out the week of December 17th. As it so happens, this coincided with the week I was planning to take off of work. As that week approached, Mr. Sirmans calls us to let us know that they will be at our home on Wednesday, December 19th at 9:00am to start work.

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 -
After getting the kids off to school we start getting ready for them to arrive and start work. We make sure that most items were out of the way and ready by 9:00am. The appointment time comes and goes and there has been no sign of them. At around 10:30am Mr. Sirmans calls to inform me that the county is re-paving the road in front of where he stores his equipment and he was still waiting for them to let him out; he assures me that he will be out before noon to start work. Lunch comes and goes and they have still not arrived. Mr. Sirmans and his work crew eventually do arrive at around 1:30pm to begin work.

Before beginning work, Mr. Sirmans takes me around the yard and explains to me again all of the work that is to be completed. During this I had him verify with me that they were only going to be dropping limbs and cutting the larger ones up into firewood length logs and that I would take care of all of the cleanup (I don't mind doing the work, it saves me some money, and I get firewood). Once this was completed, Mr. Sirmans got in his truck and left his workers to start the work. We thought that perhaps he was just running an errand since he told us he would be present but unfortunately, he did not come back until that evening. The first thing that they started doing was cutting out all of the dead wood from the trees out front. We had one smaller oak that was dead and needed to be taken down. Unfortunately they hit our fence and bent one of rails in the process. Since that part of the fence had been hit and repaired once before, I didn't really care too much about it, but there was no mention of the fact that they had hit it. When they started trimming up underneath the oaks out front, they cut them back a lot further than my wife had requested and since Mr. Sirmans was not present, he was not there to correct them. Due to their late arrival, and the fact that it gets darker sooner in the winter, they did not have all that much time to work but did stay until it was almost completely dark.

Thursday, December 20th -
Again this morning, the appointed time of 9:00am goes by without any word from Aerial Arborists. After a few attempts to contact Mr. Sirmans, we finally talk to him around 10:00am and he says that they had a late start, they were on their way and would arrive shortly. After another hour of waiting we started calling again and could get no one on the phone. Finally the workers show up after lunch and Mr. Sirmans soon after. He explained that he had a dental appointment that morning and that his workers had taken advantage of him not being around and did not start work on time. After a relatively short conversation about the work that had been done so far, Mr. Sirmans again climbs into his truck and leaves.

Part of the work that was to be completed was the cutting of a couple of trees that were hanging over our large (50x50) steel workshop on the back of the lot. As my wife and I were sitting in the house, we started hearing very loud banging sounds and went out to realize that they cutting the limbs off one of the trees and allowing them to drop directly onto the roof of the shop. The guy doing the cutting came down out of the boom truck and explained that he 'couldn't help it because the tree started falling apart but there was no damage to the roof of the shop'. Well upon inspecting the roof from within the shop I could see the dents in the metal roof where the logs had hit it. Again, I decide that it is not really a big deal since I understand that this will happen and as long as there are no holes made in the roof then I fine. I go back outside to explain the situation and that since I store a 1963 Lincoln Continental and a 1970 Mustang coupe in there, I'd prefer that the roof stay intact. Gary (the guy doing the cutting) assured me that he was going to be sure to tie everything off from that point forward, which he did, so no more damage to the shop.

Probably the largest, and most dangerous, part of the job was a very large oak on the back of our lot that was 99% dead and needed to be taken down completely. When they started taking the limbs off, they again dinged our fence and bent yet another post, and again, there was no mention of the damage (at this point I had resigned myself to fixing a few areas of the fence). While they were finishing up that tree, Mr. Sirmans shows up and requests that he get paid even though the job is not done (which is kind of odd since it stated on his estimate that it was payment upon completion). His reasoning was that the workers were going to stay that day until the job was done anyhow so it should be considered "done". He also stated that he needed the money so that he could pay his employees that evening. After some discussion, it was decided that I would pay him a portion of what was owed when he returned that evening (yes, he got back into his truck and left again). While he was gone I decided to pay him a third of the money since I wanted to give him enough to pay his workers but not so much that he would say "close enough" and not return to finish the job.

Right next to the large tree they cut down, there was another that had a very large limb that was dead that hung over into the neighbor's yard. When cutting this one, they managed to drop it directly onto the fence, crushing it flat. Since they had to mention this one, they told me that they would come back with the items needed to fix the fence properly.

Again they work until it is just about completely dark and at the end they inform me that the work is completed and that they wanted me to do a walk through with them to inspect the work. I explain to them that since it is dark, I cannot very well sign off on work that I cannot completely inspect. I do, however, point out the fact that the logs had yet to be cut up and there were some relatively large dead limbs that needed to be taken out so they finally agreed that the job was not done. A short time after the workers leave, Mr. Sirmans shows up and I inform him that I would be handing him a check for $1,000. After some discussion, he eventually agrees and departs with the check in hand. Before leaving, he informs me that they had another job to do in the morning but would be back in the afternoon to finish up. An hour or so after he leaves I get a call from Amscot wanting to verify the check with me before cashing it for him; which I, of course, did.

Friday, December 21st, 2007 -
My wife and I run out and do a few errands in the morning and make sure that we are back at our home before noon so as to be there when Aerial Arborists arrive to complete the job. After waiting until 1:00pm we called Mr. Sirmans and he informed us that they were running late and that they were going to grab some lunch and be out in 20 minutes. They finally arrive sometime in the late afternoon to begin work. At this point they need only cut down a few more limbs, fix the back fence that they crushed, and then go through the yard and chunk up the logs. Soon after arriving and explaining to his workers what they needed to do, Mr. Sirmans again gets in his truck and leaves. The workers are about half way done with chunking up the logs when I realize that they are cutting them up into 3-4ft sections and I again explain that it needed to be cut up into firewood lengths. At this point they are running out of daylight but go back through and start making the extra cuts but by the time they were "finished" it was dark and I could not tell what was left. The one item that we knew had not been cut was the very large trunk laying out in my backyard. Gary informed me that the reason he could not cut it was because they did not have a chainsaw with them that was large enough to do the job. Mr. Sirmans shows up after his workers leave and he tells me that he needs to buy a new blade for his big chainsaw so he will be back out at a later date to finish that up.

Mr. Sirmans and I now get into a discussion on payment. The job is 95% complete but it is still not complete. We continue talking until finally he gives me a date certain that he will be out to complete the work; this date was January 5th at 1:00pm. With that and his words of "all I have is my word to you that the job will get done", I, regrettably, paid him the remainder that was owed to him with another $2,000 check. After about an hour or so of just chatting about work and the like, Mr. Sirmans leaves my home to go and cash the check. He proceeds to go to Amscot again but they refuse to cash it since my check of the prior day had not cleared. He calls me to inform me of this and then asks that I pay him in cash instead. At this point I flat out refused since I figured that I had already made enough concessions. Mr. Sirmans then goes on to tell me that he needs the money that weekend so that he can take his kids to Disney World for Christmas. He came up with a number of suggestions so that he could obtain his money quicker, some of them being filling out the check to CASH and cashing it myself at Amscot, letting his friend have my credit card number so that he could run the transaction through his friend's business, etc. After thinking about it, I offered to give him $500 in cash and then rewrite a check for $1,500; this way I would have a paper trail of payment and he would get enough money to take his kids to Disney World. I tried calling him back but could not reach him so I left a voice mail explaining my offer.

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 -
Mr. Sirmans had told me the prior day that he had planned on taking off with his kids to Disney World by 11:00am so I expected his call prior to that. Just before 11:00am he calls and I realize that he had not listened to my voice mail from the prior night so I reiterate my offer for him. Unfortunately this was not acceptable for him and he asked that I rewrite the check to his sister so that she can cash the check at Amscot instead of him. As long as I got a receipt saying it was paid in full then I would do so (since I had yet to get a receipt). Once that was agreed upon he said that he would be right over to pick up the check and he was about 20 minutes away. While waiting on his arrival, I went out into the yard to continue with the cleanup and I find that there are a lot of logs that were not re-cut to size and some that were not cut up at all. At about 4:00pm he shows up at my house and tells me that the reason he was late was due to the fact that his dog died that morning. I rewrite the check out to his sister, collect the prior uncashed check, and receive my receipt for payment in full. While he was there I described the amount of logs that were out there that still had to be cut up and he assured me that when he came out on January 5th, that he would take care of it all.

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 -
I am out in the yard still doing cleanup and my wife yells out to me from the house saying Mr. Sirmans had called to let us know that Amscot would be calling soon to verify the check that I had written out to his girlfriend. She brings out the phone and I await the call. I verified the check for them so that they could give her/him the money.

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 -
As the day for Mr. Sirmans to return to finish the job approaches, I send him both an email and leave a voice mail message asking if we were still on for that Saturday. I received no reply to either.

Post January 5th -
A week or so past his appointment I called and after a couple of attempts I finally got through to him. He apologized for not showing up or at least calling and explained that he was out of town due to an emergency with one of his children. He was unsure of when he would be back in town so he did not set another date. I let a few weeks pass by and decided to call on him again to get a status check. When I did finally get in contact with him, he then explained that his equipment had been stolen so he had to wait until he was able to buy new tools. He wanted to let me know how much he appreciated my patience but he would get back to me soon. A few more weeks pass without contact and I again call him on February 16th, 2008. This time he let me know that the reason he did not make it was because his home had burned down so he was displaced. He was awaiting payment on a couple of jobs so he could then get a chainsaw large enough to complete the work. At this point I asked him to give me a date certain when he was going to get the job completed. I explained that if I did not hear from him by this date that I would start making phone calls to the Better Business Bureau, the company that referred him to us, Chase Finance (since I paid him out of my home equity loan), etc. He asked that I give him until the end of the week and by then he would at least call me to let me know his status. At the end of that week he still did not call and I have yet to hear from him.

On February 26th, 2008 I submitted a complaint to the local office of the Better Business Bureau and according to their website, they will have sent a formal letter to Aerial Arborists within two business days of receipt of the complaint and then they will give them 14 days to respond. While doing that, my wife is getting in contact with Florida Landscape Doctors to discuss with them the experience we have had with a company they referred us to. The owners were very nice and apologized for what had occurred and assured us that they would not be sending any more business to Aerial Arborists. They even went so far as to see if they could assist us in getting the job completed correctly.

The longer this goes unsettled the more phone calls I will be forced to make. We may not get anywhere and we may end up having to hire someone else to come out and finish the job, but we at least want to make the facts of this incident known so that people looking to Aerial Arborists for their tree work can read through this and make a better informed decision.

This account is by no means slanderous, it simply outlines the facts of what happened during our dealings with Aerial Arborists. Nothing more.

Sincerely,

Michael and Susan LeBlanc

Post write up events..

March 17th, 2008 -
Received an email from the Better Business Bureau:

I updated the BBB complaint via the website and then made another attempt to contact Mr. Sirmans via his two email addresses that I had for him:

In under 15 minutes I had a response from him via email:

My response:

To date I have not received a response.