Complaint Review: Asplundh Tree Expert Company - Willow Grove Pennsylvania

Did you receive acceptable compensation for your claim?

Sherry,

I understand how you feel. The home I currently live in was my Grandmother's. Asplundh came through this area 15 years ago and cut a "V" in the middle of the trees. She was very upset by the cut and took pictures. Duke Energy stated their focus was to get the tree limbs away from the power lines. That they did.

I understand 100% that if my tree or your tree hits these powerlines in a storm it can sever power lines. It will surely cut off power to people that need it, epspecially the elderly and people that need power to run medical equipment. That can be a horrifying experience, possibly worse. I work in healthcare and know how this is always a problem.


I now own the house. I saw these guys coming through and noticed a hanging notice on my door. I called Duke Energy so I could have the foreman come to the house and talk to me. As it is the 60 year old maples that were butchered 15 years ago are diseased. I asked if they could take the trees to the ground. They did a good job getting one tree cut limb by limb. They quit work promptly at 5:00pm and left the other tree half cut. This was Thursday (the end of their work week). They said they will be back on Monday. In my opinion they could've got the other tree but I'm sure overtime is not permitted.

It pays to be present when they do their job. The foreman was nice and promised to come back on Monday. I have two new trees I have nursed from 5 foot high when I bought them. I stood in the yard and made sure their monster trucks did not run over them and made them aware of the trees. They made sure they stayed clear of the trees.

I didn't notice any illegals working for them but very exhausted men. There was a neighbor that came into the yard and started to ream them out about even getting near her trees. They were calm and tried to explain they were contracted to make two cuts: V-shape or a Doughnut shape.

I understand people and trees. Like my new trees I want them handled right since I take the time to grow them right. I understand people that have trees older than their homes that they enjoy. Though my circumstances are different this time for these trees, I made sure I was present. They can see you monitoring every move they make. 

I think anyone that knows this is going on talk to your power comany, demand to meet with the contractors and be there. This way you can "control" what is going on. Just my take. 

I hope you get things worked out. 

All name calling aside Mr. rebutt lawyer, or power company rep. legions of property owners can't all be wrong.  There were more than a few unhappy homeowners left in Asplundh's wake of destruction the last time Asplunh tore through our county.
You are not even a good liar.  There were 4,350 complaints from this county alone.  Don't worry about my fuzzy math which is your childish and  pathetic attempt to put me down.   We neighbors are all best friends and they too complained about you and Asplundh.  Perhaps they should write a review here too. 
I have been very lucky to have had great contractors and laborers work on my property after all I hired them on their good reputation not low bid. Guess that BLOWS your stupid statement trying to make me out to be a chronic complainer, out of the water.  You sir are the turd in our punchbowl.

Being an employee working in the utility line clearance industry , I work on thousands of properties a year. Yes , things do happen, and property does ,regretfully , get damaged. When proper care is taken and lines of communication are kept open , line clearance and property owners can respectfully tolerate on another. I'm happy to say that in my area we have few complaints. Now lets get to some details.... Trees and power lines can't come in contact with each other. When they do safety , reliability, and efficiency are all compromised. Safety concerns with electrocution a and fires. Reliability with outages that can involve thousands of customers , some of who's safety can be put at risk because of outages. The trees NEED to be trimmed! The resulting look is far too often not pretty. It's not our fault! We USUALLY do the best we can to make the tree look like a tree with the situation at hand. You sound like a customer that would end up in our "special" customer file. We would know to communicate with you before hand and work out some things before doing any work. These are the procedures done by the utility I work for , and they seem to work pretty good. However out of the thousands of customers who fall into the " mutual toleration" category, you will enevitably find a turd in the punch bowl. Please explain your fuzzy math concerning the $2500 Lillie's on both sides of the drive that account for the $4000 in damages? I would like to speak to any contractor that ever did work at your home(carpentry, plumbing, whatever) that you were happy with. You sound like the person in the neighborhood who will tell someone about how awful EVERY neighbor they have is . FYI after we hear about 2or 3 we know who the real turd is!

Well Mr. Texas New Mexico Company Manager. You screwed up when you hired Asplundh to tear up our trees. Power Companies stop hiring the lowest bidder you are filthy rich and they are 70% green card workers and 30% illegals.  If there not then why do they run like rabbits when INS investigators show up?  Liar!

You are not sorry. You are sorry that I posted a complaint about your sneaky underhanded company and the UNSKILLED labor that you hire.  If you were sorry you would have had Liberty Mutual your insurance carrier pay me the $5,000.00 in damages that your idiots did to my property. Burn in Hell.

Texas New Mexico Power Company hired the lousy bastards to tear up all the ancient trees in La Marque.  You were overly concerned about your 75 year old stinking power lines being brushed by their branches so you hired the cheapest, illegal, unskilled crap you could find.

If you ever think of showing up again we will be ready for you.  After enough lawsuits have been filed I hope you go broke.  You are as bad as BP with their environmental rape and the horrific murder of loyal employees.   I hope you burn in Hell for the damage you cased.

"I wish to note that it has been a frequent misperception that the men and women who work on many Asplundh crews are undocumented immigrants, but to my understanding, Asplundh employees are legal citizens of the U.S." ~ mouserepublic ~

That's funny!  My husband worked for Asplundh for several years.  About half of the employees were illegal immigrants.  There were employees that "quit" and were rehired on the same day under a different name for reasons I will never know.

And if an employee gets injured at work, the policy is "Fire them before they can make it to a doctor."  

They don't care about the customers.  They have them sign a piece of paper before they start working, but if you don't read it closely word for tiny word before signing, you will wind up with all that useless wood left in your yard!  

Oh, and the employees are not allowed to go anywhere during the day to use the bathroom, not even at lunch time, so they are told to go behind a tree, in someone's yard, or in the back of the truck!  It's disgusting.  They can't leave if they are injured at work either unless they call someone to come pick them up... then they get fired before they can get to a doctor!

Asplundh is a joke.  And you will have to sue and fight it all the way through to get what they owe.  

"I wish to note that it has been a frequent misperception that the men and women who work on many Asplundh crews are undocumented immigrants, but to my understanding, Asplundh employees are legal citizens of the U.S." ~ mouserepublic ~

That's funny!  My husband worked for Asplundh for several years.  About half of the employees were illegal immigrants.  There were employees that "quit" and were rehired on the same day under a different name for reasons I will never know.

And if an employee gets injured at work, the policy is "Fire them before they can make it to a doctor."  

They don't care about the customers.  They have them sign a piece of paper before they start working, but if you don't read it closely word for tiny word before signing, you will wind up with all that useless wood left in your yard!  

Oh, and the employees are not allowed to go anywhere during the day to use the bathroom, not even at lunch time, so they are told to go behind a tree, in someone's yard, or in the back of the truck!  It's disgusting.  They can't leave if they are injured at work either unless they call someone to come pick them up... then they get fired before they can get to a doctor!

Asplundh is a joke.  And you will have to sue and fight it all the way through to get what they owe.  

You all should keep in mind that Asplundh is a contracted company.  Their employees work according to that particular utility company's guidlines, and different utility companies have very different standards.  Just food for thought.

I am not through with you pigs.

Sherry, I am sorry this happened to you. This terrible experience is far to common with companies that perform utility line clearance tree pruning.especially Asplundh. They are one of the largest and oldest family owned companies in the USA and they are experts in the blame game. Their mode of operation is to make the customer believe that they (the customers) are with out options and is futile to resist the utility thier right to prune your tree. That is not true and thier are several options available to you. Contact a attorney that specialize in sueing them for property damage. Asplundh does employ illegals, last month 8 of them were turned over to INS here in Arizona. Asplundh employees for the most part are untrained, uncertified and unprofessionaland have a terrible reputation in the tree buisness. The damage they do to consumers property is criminal and they get their marching orders from the utility companies that employ them to do thier dirty work. The truth is that if the tree was improperly pruned or if was pruned out of season then they are liable. Please contact a ISA certified tree appraiser and proffessional witness in your area.  Asplundh also ownes Bartlett, Nelson, Blume, Trees Inc. They are all self insured and were just low balling the $130.00 settlement I am sure there is alot more money could be paid to you to make this problem go away. Placing powerlines underground is expensive and are the customers cost if that is a option you want. Generally it is 50 to 100 dollars foot. Privately ownwed tree experts in your are can help you in the future. Good luck and good day. Donny, Phoenix, Az.

Their insurance company is Liberty Mutual and everyone knows that Insurance companies are in business to make money not pay claims. They offered me $109.00 for my $4,000.00 rare plant.  Go to Hell Asplundh and Liiberty Mutual.  U Certainly are SORRY.

Dear Sherry, I am greatly sorry for the damage that appears to have been caused by an Asplundh crew. I do not doubt that you are not the only person who has experienced such problems. The remainder of this posting does not refute or try to discredit Sherry's experience, but is only to give an "insider's look" at how Asplundh operates as a utility contractor- I am not an employee of Asplundh, but work in close contact with their employees in the department I am in, working for a major California utility. To be fair, I have seen excellent customer service and pruning work by Asplundh crews in the area I work in, as well as examples of less than outstanding service and cleanup. Much of the work quality depends on who is locally managing and supervising their crews, and how well the local utility has set up their management system for utility tree pruning work. In regards to the comment made that the crews are made of "illegals", I wish to note that it has been a frequent misperception that the men and women who work on many Asplundh crews are undocumented immigrants, but to my understanding, Asplundh employees are legal citizens of the U.S. and this screening comprises part of their hiring process here in California. In addition, the work that is done by these crews can be quite dangerous, as they are working near live electric wires- before an employee can begin working in trees growing near power lines, they must pass a rigorous certification program to obtain a Line Clearance Certification, as no legitimate utility company would wish to have the liability of untrained workers near live electric lines. Asplundh crew members have also been trained to make what arborists describe as directional pruning cuts, which are pruning cuts that create the least amount of stress and wounding to the tree. Although some utility customers consider this type of pruning to be unaesthetically pleasing, the alternative is to top trees or leave stub cuts, which are extremely stressful and detrimental to a tree's health. As with any very large company, performance can vary from region to region: I have had the pleasure of working with and meeting many outstanding Asplundh crews that work in my area, but do acknowledge that several homeowners and utility customers have had poor experiences as well. In the region that I currently work in, we have taken our customer feedback seriously, and am glad to note that positive ratings for Asplundh in this region have increased in the time I have worked for the utility. I encourage utility customers to continue sending in their feedback to their local utility, so that we can continue to make improvements and adjustments to our maintenance and management programs.