Bloom Tree Experts Martin Macauley Owner will take deposits from people and not return them under any circumstance even though his customer service people say he will. Seattle Washington
A very bad experience with the owner of this company. I had a tree fall during a wind storm and the tree fell in to my neighbors yard and blocked their driveway. It was very difficult to find a company because they all were very busy due to the storm. I called Blooma Tree Experts and talked to a very friendly customer service person. The storm was August 29th, I called them the next week and they said they couldn't schedule until the end of October. They did mention that if I booked it I would be first in line if there was a cancellation and they needed $250 deposit, I booked it. 2 weeks later I found someone to remove the tree right away. So I called Blooma and asked to cancel and the very nice customer service person said no problem since I called a month before the service was to be done. She told me there should be no problem getting my deposit back since it was taking so long and I had called early. I got an e-mail that night from the owner saying he was keeping my deposit because he has it in his contract that he can do that and call it Liquidated Damages. I don't know what he is thinking what kind of damage I caused him ? I looked on Yelp and have found simallar customers he has done this with. I'm trying to let everyone I know about this guy and his bad business practices. I don't want anyone else to receive this kind of treatment and get Ripped Off by this person (company)
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Martin Macauley, ISA Certified Arborist
Seattle,Washington,
USA
Canceling a Contract Results in Loss of Deposit
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, October 27, 2015
Randy Anderson agreed to the contract terms when he hired us; those terms include liquidation damages of $250 or 15%, whichever is greater. He had this information beforehand, plus his expertise as a real estate broker means he is very familiar with contracts.
Mr. Anderson canceled his contract with us. We invoked the liquidation damages, which is our right under Washington State Law. We did nothing wrong -- we were fully prepared to complete the work he contracted us to do. He is attempting to smear our name throughout the internet when he is at fault.
Finally, it was not our "customer service representative" he talked to. It was our part-time bookkeeper, who did not promise him a refund. We responded to him promptly, which meant he could honor his original contract with us and experience our excellent high quality work rather than the loss of his deposit.