Joe from Old Toronto

If you're bored, or find yourself with too much money on your hands, by all means give this outfit a call. They will fix you right up. Our neighbors have a large oak tree that has recently undergone a heavy pruning job, large limbs removal, etc. as a prelude to eventual removal. The tree company they hired took two and a half days to do the job. One of their guys mentioned that it was a $ 1,600 job. I thought they did a pretty good work and took their card. We have a large oak tree as well, very close to the house. The broken wood falling down is killing our roof and creates leaks. Now the roof has to be replaced. Evidently the tree creates a hazardous condition. In addition it has a large cavity inside, and overall the best solution would seem to be to have it removed. But we thought that a pruning job similar to the one done next door would have some effect on reducing the damage to the roof and decided to try this approach first. I was about to call the company that worked in our driveway before, but my wife mentioned ONTree as a company we had used in the past and suggested calling them first. Apparently they have given us an estimate for a similar job earlier in the year. So we called them and scheduled an appointment. One day Jody from ONTree arrived to check things out. We showed him the previous estimate. He promptly declared it invalid, saying that the person giving it to us had made a mistake in the price. He also decided to keep that invoice and said he would give us a new one via e-mail. I then described our situation with the tree to him and informed him as to what our plans were. I specifically described the kind of pruning we had in mind and the reasons behind it. When the invoice arrived it described the work to be done on that particular tree as 'prune deadwood 2" and larger' at the cost of $ 1,650 plus tax. This suggested to me that this amount probably represented an average industry standard for the kind of job our neighbors have received, which was exactly what we wanted. A couple of weeks later ONTree was in the area and they showed up one morning. Four guys in a large bucket truck, with their chipper truck parked in front. They poked around, filled two plastic garbage-sized bins with twigs and small branches and were making ready to leave. All this took about two hours. I went outside and asked if they were finished with the job. A man said yes, they were finished. I stated immediately that I was not going to pay almost two thousand dollars for two hours of work. I was told that I should look up and see how nice the tree looked now. I repeated what I said and was told to take it up with somebody else. I said I would. This resulted in two phone calls from the ONTree. In the first one I said that I haven't contracted for the removal of two plastic bins full of twigs but expected something else. In addition, their charge of almost $ 1,900 for two hours of work was hugely excessive. No heavy equipment was used, etc. The second phone call about a week later was substantially the same, except the man asked me what I thought would be the appropriate charge for the job they did. I said: "Four guys, two hours, eight hundred bucks!" I thought I was being generous. The man disagreed. Some days later I wrote ONTree a letter describing my position and included a cheque for $ 1,000, tax included. They cashed the cheque and then sent another invoice demanding the rest of the money, or they would take us to Court. Well, we've had enough of this nonsense. We have no time for Courts, so we paid the rest. But this is our story. We've signed a contract in good faith but what we got in return was nothing like I told Jody we wanted to have done. Instead we were hit with their usurious charges. When it comes to ONTree, a huge CAVEAT EMPTOR blinking sign should light up for anybody considering their services! Eighteen hundred for two hours of work? That's nuts! Joe

Gold Standard Home Care? An oxymoron in spades! My advice is to WALK AWAY and save your time and money. They offered to clean our windows. Their supervisor wanted to talk me into cleaning our gutters as well. I rejected that idea, because the gutters are scheduled to be replaced. Nobody came to clean the windows, but some days later my wife returned from shopping and there were people on their stepladders cleaning our gutters. She had no idea what was going on. Then they gave her a bill and instructions on how to pay it - by calling a phone number and supplying a credit card number. Later the credit card statement showed that they charged us twice the amount written on the bill. What would you call this kind of behavior? Somebody had to dispatch this crew to our address, with specific instructions. This was not a mistake. We're talking to our attorneys and will take it further.

Yo! Everybody! Need something gone pronto? Chinchillas? Hangover? Bad company? Seriously, folks, other similar entities would likewise provide similar service but there are good reasons why you should contact these guys first. They're quick and helpful in unexpected ways. They show no need for excuses. A good sense of humor is always nice to see. And finally, when was the last time you saw two gentlemen driving a funky truck in your neighbourhood? Take it from me, I say gentlemen. As of today, their number is on my personal A list.