Rod’s Tree Service

If I could give Rod negative stars I would. Absolutely DO NOT use this service unless you like giving away your money to swindlers.
We had a large tree branch fall down over our house, resting — we learned later — relatively safely among the other branches. We called a couple services for an emergency job and Rod’s was the first to respond. He was fast to get back to us — and that’s the only good think I can say. As I sit here writing up this report, I’m realizing the only likely reason he was available was because he likely was idle since anybody who does any kind of research would not hire him. My mistake… emergency situation called for a bad decision on my part…
Rod went and got a small crew together and they came and took the branch down — charged us some $ 800 ($ 850, but a discount for a cash payment… can you say non-​reporting of income to the IRS/FTB…as in, FRAUD?) for about 30 minutes of work (that’s generous) and asked if we would clean up.
As to his ‘crew’ (I use the term lightly) — while one person was good about going into the tree, the other person clearly had no clue about trees. I truly think he picked up at least one of his crew members by cruising the local Home Depot parking lot.
We later learned from other tree services that this was a non-​emergency situation and that not only was his rate excessive, it was an absolute swindle to take advantage of us and our lack of knowledge about the safety of the situation… that even on an emergency call, this should not have cost more than $ 300 or thereabouts.
Additionally, Rod was rude and abrasive when told that he had to clean up. He then called up a day later later thinking we had agreed to additional work to happen the next day… but when the moron (and I’m being polite) checked his paperwork, he realized that he was wrong and that he hadn’t even given us a quote for additional work.
I later realized we had Rod do a quote for us for some work about three years ago and his was three times as much as the three other quotes we received.
UNPROFESSIONAL in the extreme. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

I contacted Rod from a reference from a friend of mine. What a mistake! My friend had no problem, but I certainly did. Rod came over to give me an estimate and I told him I needed a number of trees cut down, small brush removed, and stumps ground. He asked for 1800 for the job and I agreed. Then, he asked for cash and I said only if he gives a discount. I said no. What nerve! His crew arrived the morning of the date and started to work. I was surprised he was not there to direct them, but being a landlord of several properties and an apartment property manager, I know how these guys operate. You have to be there or the job will not get done correctly or it will be done incorrectly. So much for American work ethic.
His crew seemed sort of tired and I will explain this later. I told them what I needed cut and worked alongside them. How often should a client work alongside the people he is paying? Never, but again, I knew I had to be involved or this job would not be done right. I directed the crew to cut what needed to be cut and Rod arrived later and made some smart remarks about pushing his crew to work while they took a break. It was a warm day and I gave these guys continuous water and gatorade. He made comments to keep working hard to me! Can you believe it? If these guys weren’t already involved, I would have fired him. We negotiated another tree to cut on my neighbors side and the price we decided on was 2200.00. Ok. My neighbor is a senior citizen and she stated prior to this project she had no money. The guys continued to work until noon. I bought them pizza and soda for lunch for their hard work. Then Rod calls me and tells me these guys are only supposed to be there for 6 hours and two more jobs scheduled. I live on ⁵⁄₈ of an acre and this was a 8 hour job easy. It’s then that I realized this guy is a real rip off. There was an ad from Angie’s List (I got this later) for 4 guys for 8 hours for 2000. I wish I had seen this earlier. I then learned from his employees that he overbooks these guys and works them to the bone. Meaning, they are tired and they cannot do 16 hours of work in 8 hours. No wonder they were tired! They guys started to work again after lunch and then he comes later. He was rude, loud and just a big bully. I’m not scared of these types, but was astounded how he can treat a customer like this. He brought a grinder with him and ground a few stumps in front. Then, the lady next door wanted the chipped wood and he dumped his whole load in her front yard. I had huge cuts of wood that weighed an easy 50 pounds if not more. I asked him can you take this since your truck is empty now? He said no. I personally hauled all this stuff myself and made a pile. I was pretty tired. I asked him to help, but he claimed his shoulder hurt. One of his guys helped load this in my long bed pickup truck and I had to get rid of this myself. I had two more loads after this! I did these myself and had to get rid of them myself. He then was angry he had to cancel a job. I told him it was his fault he overbooked. A couple of his guys took off to work on the second job. The other two broke their grinder and were fixing it when I left to get rid of all this wood in my truck. When I got back, the stumps were not ground because they probably could not fix their grinder. I called him a few days later to tell him that the stumps were not ground. I spoke to one of his English speaking employees this time. He said he would relay him the message and that was the last I heard of them. I would not recommend this guy. I even paid him in cash due to the extra work he did for that neighbors tree. He advertises in the Sacramento Penny Saver a lot to hook people. I definitely would not use him. He’s bad news and a rip off artist.

I solicited several quotes to remove an old diseased plum tree from my yard. Rod’s Tree Service gave me the most reasonable quote. They completed the job very quickly and were professional throughout the process. Would recommend.

I telephoned Rod’s tree service to get an estimate on getting a tree trimmed and they set up an appointment to come out the next day between 10:00 and noon. They showed up right at 10:10 and gave me an estimate that was slightly lower than other companies I contacted so I decided to go with Rod’s. We then set up an appointment for two days later to get the tree trimmed and again they showed up right on time. They did a great job and cleaned up the yard thoroughly. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.

Great fast service! Called Rod to get an estimate for stump grinding. He gave us a quote in the same ball park as other services in the area and said he could be out in an hour, not in a few days but an hour. Not 50 min later he was pulling up and unloading his grinder.
Our only issue was in my mind a little of both of our faults. For the quote he asked if it was front or back yard, it was our front. He didn’t ask and we didn’t think to mention we have a few stairs to our front yard from our driveway and a retaining wall completely enclosing it 4 or so feet up from street level. The grinder machine was massive, nothing I pictured which is why I didn’t mention stairs. I happened to have a bunch of scrap 2×4’s and large shoring so with a little work and thinking and about 15 min. we got the grinder up the stairs. I was impressed on his determination and positive attitude to get it up the stairs when he found out by pulling up to the house he was going to have to deal with this.
I would use this company in the future 100% and plan to in a few months to remove two cypress trees… (I’ll be sure to remind them about the stairs beforehand next time)