Charlayne's Blog

I'm 50 and for the FIRST time in my life I got "took" by someone that I thought would be ok.

 A guy with a SUV full of help and a trailer behind it that had a company name on it knocked on my door last week (Thursday) and said he could trim my trees out front and get the dead branches off them, move the big branch covering the magnolia tree, and cut and grind the tree that was growing between my air conditioner and house, spray the big tree for the ants killing the tree, and take the branches and stuff with them when they left. With a quick trim of the tree out back, the cost would be $350.

 I ran it by my husband who was at work and we decided it would be ok. We authorized it and they got to work. All pro tools, no suspicious people in the group and they were working hard. I had to go to the doctor and told them that I would be back in an hour and a half and pay them, it was probably about that to do a proper job. The lead guy wanted me to get it paid before I left (oh, should have been my first tip off, what was I thinking?) and he told me they would be finished in about 20-30 minutes.

 Dumb me, I wrote the check and ran off to the doc.

I get back, they are GONE. The job is not complete, the big branch and the little tree at the air conditioner are both still there, all the dead branches are not gone (just the ones he did when I was there) and the dead branches were laying all over the ground by my mailbox.

 To top it off, the check was cashed that day and I have no way to track them.

I feel so stupid that I trust anyone but someone I called after checking them out (I always do that, before) and my husband is mad that someone took me and made me feel stupid (he's so protective of me).

If someone, ANYONE, comes up to your house and says "I can do xx for you for $, just say no and go call someone reliable (check 26News site or BBB) to do the work.

I hate this. We didn't have the money to throw away on it.