Ecology Tree Service

I hired Scott Sears and his company to remove a large brush pile, cut down several branches and remove two trees that butted against a rock wall I did not want damaged. Unfortunately I paid in full before the work was completed. The brush pile was indeed removed but from there the project went downhill. The Ecology Tree Service workers took down the two trees but damaged the wall in the process. Clearly the men who removed the trees were not professionally trained as one wore only board shorts with flips flops and at one point was seen climbing a ladder with a chain saw in hand, additionally they did not have the appropriate equipment as their chainsaw broke down repeatedly. I have attempted to contact Scott Sears on several occasions and early on he indicated they would complete the job and repair the damage to the rock wall. Since the end of July 2014 I have repeatedly contacted Scott in hopes of getting the job completed or at a minimum a refund for the uncompleted work (my preference is a refund as I am clearly not keen in having them back on my property). To date he has failed to return my calls or complete the work paid for. I am in the process of filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of Austin. A truly dissatisfied customer

I agree with alicia k. on the company’s scheduling. I have called several times. The owner always asked me to call back or he will call me back to schedule.
Our first conversation he told me it’s three weeks out. I said fine. He said, I will call you back with details. He didn’t.
I called back about a week later. He said the shop got broken into and they were dealing with insurance company now. They had no equipment. They would call me back in a week, which they did.
Then when they called back, the owner blamed the employees for not doing anything while he’s away on vacation. And then he mentioned again their stuff got stolen. At this point I pretty much didn’t care. He said he will call me back next week.
He did an hour or two later when I was least expecting. I missed the call and called back. He said we had an appointment canceled and could go to your place, but now it’s no longer available. We just booked another appointment. He will call me back next week.
No call. I called. And that’s more than a week ago. I have had it. It’s really super simple job with some debris removals and trimming, which he asked me three times we talked on the phone. Apparently, no notes were taken.
I asked LivingSocial for refund.

Please do not use this service.
Scott is busy, does not call back and you have to call to schedule your job. He is upfront on the deal. He got the wrong address for the house!
Dillon and another crew member came. Just like the other reviews, both of them did not work all the time, but the time was counted in. Dillon’s job is to sell extra time. When I did not buy extra time, he left leaving tree branches on my front lawn, street and neighbors driveway! Very unprofessional! Honestly — this is a scam with the groupon. The work should have easily been done in the 3 man hours if their objective was not to try to get more time.

I haven’t even been able to schedule service with these guys. I called Scott last Monday, he said he would call me back on Tuesday. On Thursday he left me a voicemail and text asking if hey could come at a specific time on Friday. I had an appointment then so I said no, but told them I was free this week and asked specifically for a certain morning. No response, so I asked again. Still no response!

I should have read the reviews before purchasing a LivingSocial deal. The deal was not worth all the hurdles I had to jump through. I’ve always chosen to support a local business when I can, so it pains me to write this. Scott, the owner, seems to be a great guy, but he really should get organized if he wants the business to succeed.
The scheduling was a pain. I left messages and called a few times before I got a hold of Scott. There was always something with his kid. He didn’t call me back and when I was finally able to reach him again, I got my appointment later that week. The guys showed up, gave us an estimate and that was more hours than the voucher provided. This is Ok considering taking down a tree is difficult work, however, when they were done, the price was higher than what was quoted to my husband, because they didn’t realize how much work it was. My husband is convinced that the price increased when they saw my nice car pull up. When they were almost done, there was a problem with the saw and they said they had to come back. I paid them.
I called again to schedule an appointment to remove the stump. They were hours late, even though I was told they were on the way a couple hours before. They finally showed up and finished the job.
Overall, the work was fine, but you don’t really know what you will pay until they are done. Also, I had to write 3 checks to 3 different people, which I find odd. Until they get their act together, it’s not worth the headache.

I am the type of person who likes to craft my own review based on my own experiences. Had I seen the reviews previous to mine, I would have taken that into account when utilizing the services and living social groupon. But as it happened, I bought and used the service before reading the reviews.
My living social coupon was $ 175 for $ 500 service, and two man ~ 3 hour service. Scott scheduled with me and was prompt with the communication. He was also clear and up front about the two man crew splitting the three hours (three total man hours) of service. He was also clear that based on the job, the time might go over, but the crew would let me know after evaluating the job.
The day of, Dylan and Chris (the two crew members) showed up on time and after evaluating the area, was up front in telling me how much past the time they were going to take and their hourly rate after. They also said that I could request them to stop after the coupon allotted time. So I played it by ear. The scope of the job was hard, and I saw that they were working non stop, so when it came time I told them to go ahead and finish. The extra fee I paid was reasonable, given the job… I also gave them a good tip for the professional and efficient job that they did.

They let us know the night before, and the morning of, that they would be four and a half hours late. Less one star.
The GroupOn coupon deal was less than transparent, but the lead tech was up front and clear about the actual contractual expectation. Less another star.
They are not arborists, and corrected us when referred to as such. This was good to know.
We guided their work a bit, but they did know what they were doing. The two guys stayed on task to complete what was needed in the time frame. All said and done, the tree looks good. There were no accidents or injuries. The technicians were friendly and informative.
Pretty good deal if you’re willing to be flexible with their arrival, and taking time to communicate with the technicians your needs and expectations.
Less than honest marketing and logistics, but their service seems to have improved.

I can’t tell you the last time I had to write a negative review, I enjoy giving people credit where it’s due and letting people know about good companies, but in this case I just don’t want people to spend their hard earned money on a company that has horrid work ethics and customer service. I too purchased the «Morgans Deal» ($ 99
for 3 man hours, $ 500 value) Ecology Tree Service, Scott is the owner, I really don’t blame Morgans Deals for my lack of due diligence in checking this company out better.. When I scheduled them to take down a tree (1 hackbary tree) He sent out two young men (to work for 1.5 hours). I have never in my life seen people work so slow, as others have mentioned one works the other drags the limbs one by one to the trailer on the back of their truck. Of course they couldn’t finish cutting down the tree in the 1.5 hours because they are SLOW. I had to pay additional for them to finish the job.
A HUGE problem was the damage they left behind. It took me days to get the owner to answer his phone after they left. I was calling to tell him about damage his «crew» left behind. A shelf dented and busted off my gas grill and the back porch light completely pulled off the wall by the back door. He’s never called back or come to look at the damage. Please buyer beware, don’t throw your good money away. Find another company and do your due diligence and check them out before hiring.

Like the others here I did not read Unilocal before buying my Morgan’s Deal. Bad on me. What I discovered when they arrived is that their hourly rate is based on which deal you purchase. In my case, they charged $ 250 an hour for 2 men. If that wasn’t bad enough, one of them stood around while the other worked with a chain saw. I had some easy work to do– trimming vines and bushes – that did not require ladders or two men working together – but they still worked as a team – one working, one standing around doing nothing, instead of splitting up and getting the job done.
At $ 250 an hour this was outrageous. I was thinking of having them do additional work beyond the scope of the $ 250 certificate but when I saw that I was being taken to the cleaners by these guys I told them to leave after 45 minutes. They gave me no argument and I left to do some shopping, but once I left they tried to pressure my wife into additional work, telling her that we «had a contract.» Absolutely a lie. I told my wife to put them on the phone and told them to leave immediately, and then told my wife to call the police if they did not.
Needless to say the Morgan’s deal is a come-​on for a service that makes up their rates depending on what deal you have purchased. Elsewhere on this page someone wrote that they quoted their rate as $ 250 for 3 men for two hours. They quoted me $ 250 for 2 men for one hour. Why? Because that was the certificate I bought. In the future I am staying away from this company, and also from Morgan’s deals. They obviously do no checking on the people with whom they do business. I have never before seen a business that has all negative ratings on Unilocal without a single favorable report. That says something.

I have to agree with the rest of the negative reviews here, The Morgans Deal coupon was a lot of hassle. If you try to use the Morgans Deal, you get put on the low priority list. It took Ecology Tree Service 3 months after their initial consultation visit to come back and actually trim a tree. And at that time, they showed up out of the blue, no appointment or warning. I had a $ 500 value Deal that the estimator agreed to use on the trimming of a tree. When the workers got here 3 months later, they did a bait and switch. They said it would be an additional $ 500 ($ 1000 total) to trim the tree.

Hmm. So I got a Morgan’s Deals, noted Ecology Tree Service was in Spicewood and wondered if they came to Cedar Park. Went ahead and got the $ 75/​$ 250 worth of trimming. Stupidly! did not check Unilocal first. (uses branch to paddle my behind.)
The following day I printed the voucher, then checked Unilocal.Oh dear. Not good. I seemed to remember you could cancel within 72 hours. No one answered the phone. I looked on the net. hmmm… Ecology Tree Service is in Austin. The voucher says Spicewood. Are there 2?
I was disappointed that Morgan’s Deals, while they say they are not responsible, would offer a service with 4 one-​star reviews and no positives on their record. Anyway.
Called credit card company to see if it had been billed. It had. W/​in hours of the «buy.» BUT the charge card service could not find a $ 75 charge, only a $ 114 one. The ONLY amount with a $ sign on the VOUCHER was $ 75 for $ 250 worth of service. No add ons listed – e.g., $ 15. for coconut oil to grease the saw. As far as I know, there was no tax increase in Austin yet this year. Or are they charging for a tip – a BIG one – about 50%– before the service is even scheduled?
If you bought a deal, you might want to look at your charges. If you have an Angie’s List membership, might want to check there also.
Maybe their reviews are better on Angie’s List.

Short review: Don’t use this company. They tried to rip me off.
Long review: I bought a Morgan’s Deal for $ 99 which covered 3 hours of tree trimming services. A seemingly nice man came out to look at the project and said that it looked like it was going to go a bit over the 3 hours, and would likely run about $ 250 extra. Surprised at the large amount of additional cost for what didn’t seem like a lot of work, I asked why and he clarified that this was about 6 hours of time (3 men for 2 hours). When he said that I trusted him that the scope of this project was much larger than what the Morgan’s Deal covered and agreed. Note that we did not agree on a fixed fee, but that it would likely go over the Morgan’s Deal but not exceed $ 250.
The next day men came to do the work. I was not at home, but left a check with my mother. When I got back I found out that they had billed the entire $ 250 (plus tax) despite there only having been two guys onsite for a little over an hour. As my Morgan’s Deal covered 3 hours of service, I feel that I should not have been billed above it, and certainly shouldn’t have been billed the high end of what we discussed considered that was advertised as being about 6 hours of work.
I called the guy that came out and he said they do work by the job, not by the hour, and the amount of time spent is not important. This is despite the fact that they sold a friggin deal for 3 paid hours of labor. He said this project was in the area of a $ 500 service, and would not be covered by a Morgan’s Deal. (Note: On the face of the Morgan’s Deal is says 3 hours of service for $ 99, a $ 500 value). He said they have never received a customer complaint before, which is funny because they are currently 4 for 4 on 1 star reviews on this site. I told him I was putting a stop payment on the check that was provided to them and someone needed to call me the next business day to work this out.
5 days later I received a call from an angry woman asking why I put a stop payment on the check. Apparently the person she worked with didn’t tell her I had called. She then berated me for 10 minutes about how their business works and that I had no right to cancel the check without telling her. (Note: I have no idea who this person is, and only dealt with the man who quoted the job, who I did tell I was cancelling the check.) Without going into a bunch of repetitive detail, she made a lot of the same arguments the other guy did, asserting that the service was worth more than the Morgan’s Deal despite the amount of time being less due to the work performed. When I asked for clarification on what was high end about basic tree trimming work that was done, she didn’t respond.
My guess is that they made a bad deal with Morgan’s Deals and are trying to upcharge once they get in with the customer. I have never cancelled a check in my life, nor have I ever disputed a charge like this. I am not a crook, and don’t appreciate being treated like one by these people. If they do work by the job, not the hour, then they shouldn’t have sold a Morgan’s Deal by the hour. That’s their problem, not mine.
If you have already bought one of these deals, be very cautious about the billing situation.

BEWARE!!! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY!!! I wish the rating system allowed for zero stars. I bought a Morgan’s Deal voucher this company. I can attest that the communication within this company is terrible and dishonest!!! It took several attempts to schedule an appointment This should have been clue #1). My sister had purchased the same kind of voucher as well. Her service appointment was scheduled for the same day (seeing as how we lived close to each other, they were going to be in the same neighborhood). We both stayed home from work as I was scheduled from 8 – 10 am and she was scheduled from 10 – 12 pm. I had also requested a reminder call the day before. I received a call from them early in the week with a vague message saying that I had an appointment at the end of the week This should have been clue #2. On the appointment day my time slot came and went. I called them and after a couple of attempts someone finally answered the phone. She simply stated that my appointment was for the next day. I explained the circumstances about how my sister and I had an appointment on the same day. What are the chances of two people getting the date wrong??? She was insistent without offering to truly rectify the mistake that was clearly made on their behalf. How can you trust a business when they can’t even seem to own up to their mistakes? ??? I had to call Morgan’s Deals and ask for my money back.

I really hope they are better tree-​trimmers than they are about their customer service. I bought a groupon about a month ago. I immediately scheduled my appointment. The day of my appointment, no one showed up. Evidently they went to the wrong house??? So I rescheduled my appointment for today… and again, no one has come. I’ve tried to call about 5 times today (also left VM and sent an e-​mail) and have gotten no response at all.
Save yourself the hassle and go with a different provider for your tree-​trimming needs.
Here’s to hoping someone actually decides to show up today… although I have little hope at this point.