[gfmucci]

Originally Posted by candelandscape

* the reason i did not go and restake his trees is because of the fact that he was speaking badley of me before i was even suppose to be there to fix the situation

I called the company about the leaning trees several times over a 10-day period before I named C & E Landscape on this forum. In fact, I recommended them to a neighbor before I realized I had a problem with the absence of support of the trees. Now that neighbor is having a similar problem with a leaning tree and lack of support of a tree planted by them a couple of weeks ago. In fact, she had an appointment with this firm this morning and they did not show. Some contractors may use the rainstorm that occurred after 9:30 AM this morning as a reason to cancel. Personally, I had two other service companies show up to my home prior to 9 AM this morning who completed their work.

I was still willing to work with this company while they were willing to be responsive to requests to address the problem. They made two attempts to stake severely leaning trees they planted. You see the results above. Only after these two sub-standard attempts did I begin to express problems to others which is certainly anyone's right and neighborly obligation to do.

This morning my wife received a phone call from a principal of the firm threatening to sue me for slander. During this call she was extremely hostile. After she cursed at my wife, my wife hung up, shaking.

I have only described specific problems pertaining to the work performed by this firm in the absence of follow-up as promised. While I understand the fact that the contract does not specify "staking", I need to note two important facts:

1) The salesperson/principal told my wife and I before we signed the contract that if the trees need staking, get blown over, start to lean (words to that effect), she will make it right.

2) Most reputable landscaping books (I own several) and landscaping firms state that trees should be staked on three sides when planted.

3) Bottlebrush trees are specifically recommended by experts to be staked for the first one to three years after planting.

Originally Posted by tkret

Perhaps Mr. Mucci was wrong to take his complaints to the public before speaking with you first; but, although he did do that, is that a reason for not trying to reach a compromise with him?

I did not take my complaints public before speaking with the firm. As described above, I spoke with them as follows:

Call 1. Initially to informed them of a couple of leaning trees.
A man came out and did a dismal job of staking - one tree - several days later. It was leaning again just as severely the next day.

Call 2. I called again. This time, several days later, a man came out and staked three trees, one stake each, and one tree with string. See photos, above. The result of this staking job, 10 to 14 days later, is shown in the photos.

Calls 3., 4., 5., and 6. During the early part of this 10 to 14 day period I phoned them several more times, leaving a request to call me, with my phone number and the reasons for my call. We played phone tag the first two calls. After the last voice mail from the firm I called at least two more times over a three day period without receiving any return call. It was after this that it became apparent that they were not going to properly address my problem. Only then did I decided to post the name of the firm.