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Pine Tree Removal - Lessons Learned

We’ve had a crazy few weeks. We have a 40+ year old pine tree in the front yard that needed to be removed. The last few winters have ruined its beauty - ice storms causing many limbs to break and fall. The tree became such an eye sore that we knew we needed to get the tree cut down, but we could just never justify spending $1000 when we could use the money somewhere else.

Enter the scam. Joseph Adkins, of Strongbow Tree Removal Services, 443-496-1133, came by our home and offered to remove the tree and stump for $700. This was the best estimate we had received. Seemed great, but I just wasn’t ready. Then the following week Joseph came by and offered to do the job for $575 since he was supposedly doing other jobs in the area. Well, we jumped at this offer.

Joseph and crew arrived the next day with a pickup truck and a couple of chainsaws. They cut down one limb, which promptly destroyed the lamppost light and destroyed a large part of Laurel’s beloved dogwood tree. I won’t drag the story out, but the short of it is that they mentioned that they needed to come back the next day to finish the job, and they never returned, despite many repeated phone calls.

Our mistake is that we didn’t ask for paperwork proof of insurance coverage and licensure - a little tidbit that our new service mentioned to us. Apparently, they said that a few people have been going through Prince George’s county, MD without insurance, and offering to provide tree removal services. The problem is that if they get hurt, they can sue you.

We were fortunate. We only lost a $200 deposit. Unfortunately, we will not easily be able to track these guys down since they did not offer a mailing address. Although it cost us a bit more (but a realistic estimate), we highly recommend Adirondack Tree Experts for their professionalism, honesty, and speed - they completed the job in 1.5 hours!

Here are some before and after photos:

Pine Tree Removal
Pine Tree Removal
Pine Tree Removal

Here are photos from the set:

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5 Comments so far
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Strongbow Tree Removal Services is working the Bowie area too. “Joe” came by a couple of weeks ago and gave us an estimate of $900.00 to remove a tree and all the debris, the stump removal would be free “because we are in the area”. We rent so we gave the information to our landlord and he approved the work. They came by today, December 19th while no one was home and removed some limbs from the bottom of the WRONG tree. The yard is littered with the branches and a chainsaw was left behind. I assumed they had gone to lunch and would return as it is 12:58pm. I tried to call Joe at the number on the estimate (443-496-1133) to inform him that they were cutting down the wrong tree and the I got a recording telling me that the subscriber was not available. As of now, I am not aware of any deposit or payments made to Strongbow. Guess who just drove up? I’ll come back and let you know the outcome.

Ok, Joe and another guy are back and are cutting the limbs left in the yard to fit in the back of their truck. Before they came back, as I said, I could not reach Joe by telephone so I came online to see if I could find another phone number for them. I googled Strongbow Tree Removal Services and got no results for a company webpage, however the link to this (your) page was there. After reading about your experience with them, I called my landlord to let him know what was going on and about your experience with them. Wouldn’t you know it, I got my landlords voice mail, so I left a message telling him what was going on and suggested that he may want to stop payment on any checks he may have already written to them until we talked.
I told Joe that they were cutting down the wrong tree and he said they would cut the correct tree down and it would take $100.00 off the price because it’s a smaller tree (not because they made a mistake) and they could do it today. Since I could not reach the landlord I asked him if they could come back tomorrow. He said they would go dump the debries they cleaned up and return to see if I had talked to the landlord yet. I asked Joe for the company address and another phone number because his wasn’t working, he said he was still using old forms with the old number on it and gave me the “new” number and address (304 Draketail Place, Stevensville, Md - 410-980-0762). I also wrote down the license plate number and a discription of the truck, which I will be happy to provide to you, just let me know (I didn’t want to post that here).
Anyway, they have left again to empty the truck and I’m pretty sure they will be back because they left their equiptment again.
I sure wish I had come upon your story before we gave the information to our landlord. I’ll let you know what happens.

Jeana, thanks so much for this info. We would definitely like the license plate into and the truck description - you can email it to laurel@fay-family.com. WE will be following up for sure!!

A few days ago a tree removal service ( called something like Jaybirds - a man named Neal Walsh) stopped by the house and said they “noticed a dead pine tree in our backyard”. It was indeed dead and we had been looking for a contractor but nobody would give us an offer for less than $5,000. So this service came by our house and offered to remove the tree for $1,200- an offer we could not refuse. We checked papers (insurance etc..) but they were a little funny – licensed to different named companies. They took down the most part of the tree in 2 days. We had good conversations and they seemed honest. at the end of the second day we agreed to pay them and even gave them a bonus! They left their tools as well as HUGE pieces of stump and branches, and empty gas cans- littering our yard. Needless to say they have not returned in a week to clean up the mess. And I’d bet my bottom dollar they never do! So watch out for scams in Montgomery County!

I have experienced all that you have mentioned. This guy is a real bum hoever I am taking him to court to resoup my money. I have court scheduled this month. I can share all the information I have if it would be helpful for you.



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