Working with this company was one of the more bizarre experiences we've had with home services/contractors. My first communication with them was fine. The arborist who came out to give us an estimate was great - very knowledgeable, took his time explaining tree care, pointing out things to look for. He gave us an estimate right away which was very reasonable, so we agreed to have the work done before he'd even left. After that, things went downhill quickly.

First, the company refuses to give you any warning as to when the crew will actually show up to do the work. I had to call several times to pin them down on when the crew would come. They kept saying that we didn't need to be home for the work to be done, but the thought of having people come by and just start cutting made us too nervous. Every time I called the office, the person I talked to seemed to have no idea what was going on - I think she had to tell me she'd call me back every time I called. The crew just showed up one day, but thankfully someone was home to at least talk to a couple of the guys.

The crew didn't warn us that they would want to get in our neighbor's yard to do the work from his side. We ran over to get permission from the neighbor so everything seemed to go as planned. Unfortunately when we returned that evening, the crew had only done 3/4 the work they were supposed to do. When I called the company to ask when the crew was coming back to finish the job, the woman answering the phones once again couldn't help. She said she'd call me back. Instead of her calling me back, the owner of the company called me back. He proceeded to tell me that he thought the bid their arborist gave us was too low and was a really good deal - too good of a deal, in fact. So good of a deal, he didn't think it was really worth it for one of his crews to come out and finish the job! While the company's name is "Eastside" Tree Works - they're actually located in Renton and think that coming up to Bellevue (i.e. the Eastside) is really too far to come out multiple times to finish a job they should've finished the first time. After talking with the owner several times, he agreed that he would send a crew to our house to finish the job once they were in the neighborhood for another job to make the trip "cost effective" for the company. Weeks went by and the job was never finished. After several phone calls, the crew finally showed up again, and they tell us that they'd been to the house several times before, but the neighbor had turned them away. So instead of the owner calling us and letting us know, they figured that if they ignored us we'd go away! So we agreed with the crew that we'd talk to the neighbor and they could come back another time. After talking with the owner of the company, he told us that it wouldn't be cost effective for his crew to come up again unless we paid them an additional $500. We're left with 3/4 done work and now have to find another arborist company to come and finish the job.

We will not be using Eastside Tree Works any time in the future or recommending them to anyone we know. The initial consultation was great, but communicating with them was a total disaster.