Cowboy’s Stump-n-Grind Tree Service

For a month I’ve been trying to schedule the services I purchased through Groupon — $ 75 for $ 250 worth of tree trimming services. This company does not answer the phone, and they don’t return messages. I tried to track them down through the website, then made my way here to see if there was any other information like an address. When I read the reviews below from people who have had this same experience as me, I contacted Groupon and cancelled the purchase, receiving credit on my account. I urged them to come here and read the reviews, then remove this provider from their services.
A company should honor a pre-​paid service. One who doesn’t isn’t worth doing business with.

We bought a Groupon for $ 75 supposedly for $ 250 worth of service. The estimate given was very high, and then they add a $ 150. charge for removal of the tree debris they cut! Really!!! We eliminated some of the original stuff we wanted done and got the estimate down to a manageable amount. I do feel that they upped the price to cover the Groupon. The work is A-​OK. I had no issues getting them to our home, they arrived with the appointment on time, both for the estimate and the work. Tree trimming services are difficult to manage.

I bought this for my son who needs a tree removed. First appointment was cancelled due to freezing weather ~ understandable. Second appointment was missed. No calls that they would not be coming. No returned calls to respond to the numerous messages left by my son or myself. Have called and asked for someone to call and give me an estimate to do work at my house as well. NO response.
Then ~ I got online and started reading ALL of the reviews from the people that bought a Living Social coupon. All but 1 gave 1 star for the same reasons that I just stated.
Basically, they have their money from Living Social and now they are playing the MIA card. I just called and got my money back from LS. I also informed them of all of the reviews and they need to check out this company.
FC

This company is a complete con, DO NOT, hire this flim, flam company. I bought their living social for 2 hours work for $ 75.00. They sent an estimator out who tried to sell me on a $ 1500 job. I told them I just wanted the deal I prepaid and purchased which would allow for 2 branches removed from over my roof line. After I refused the hard pitch sell tactic, he left and said someone would call and schedule the 2 hours work. No one ever called. When I called no one would answer the phone. This went on daily for 2 weeks. I finally got a person and they scheduled the work. I stayed home from work and no one showed and no phone call. Now repeat the 2 week trying to call them. Finally got a reschedule… again, no show, no call. They try to delay until after the livingsocial deal expires. I was able to get a refund from living social, but only after repeated complaints and proof that Cowboy’s Stump-​n-​grind is a con.

We hired Cowboy Stump n Grind to remove some dying Bradford pear trees, and to trim our oaks and crêpe myrtles.
First, they use outside contractors, not their own crews. In hindsight, I’d prefer to use a company that runs their own crews, both for accountability and for communication. The crew we got was good, but the roundabout communication caused a few problems.
The biggest problem: the necessary removal of the Bradford pear trees was a dramatic loss of shade to our backyard, but that couldn’t be helped. We also had a beautiful row of crape myrtles that needed the seed pods removed and some trimming of dead branches,
They «topped» them, reducing them from gorgeous, graceful, 20 foot tall shade-​producing lovely things to 6 foot tall clumps of twigs – no shade, no greenery left at all. I was, and am, horrified. I have since learned that this is common practice, but even when done, doing it in summer is a bad idea.
Plus, it wasn’t what I thought we agreed to, nor was it what I wanted.
In short: they turned our back yard into a desolate wasteland.

I’d give them 0 stars if I could.
I bought the living social deal because I needed a tree removed and the deal was specifically for that. A few days later I get an email saying — oh sorry we won’t do that. YOUR NAME IS COWBOY STUMP AND GRIND. What do you mean you won’t do that?
Still have plenty of other work, so we tried to make an appointment. Two missed appointments. No phone calls, no explanations or apologies.
I’m getting my money back!

Wow. I wish I’d read the Unilocal reviews before I bought the Living Social deal. Our experience sounds exactly like the other ones. One cancellation after another, one excuse after another. Fortunately, Living Social didn’t hesitate with refunding our coupon deal. Too bad… we would have given them plenty of work had they shown up as promised the first time, or the second… even the third…

I needed two trees cut down and some tree trimming done. I bought the Morgan’s Deal (75.00 for 230.00 worth of service). I told them on the phone that I knew I would exceed the deal. On the day of the appointment they never showed up and did not call. I called them and left a message and they never returned my call. It’s been 5 days now and no one has called.
After reading the reviews here I decided to get a refund from Morgan’s Deal. I cannot take off work and wait around for a company who does not respect other’s time.
People should leave complaints on the BBB too.

How could a company like this have A rating on the better business bureau? I truly hope more people complain.
On May 8, 2012, I purchase a Moolala coupon $ 75 for $ 250 of tree services. It took many numerous tries to finally be able to leave a message with the phone number, which was given. Like most of all the other complaints on Unilocal,I called and asked for them to come by and give an estimate and me. I did have an appointment and they called to reschedule and promised they would come by the next day. They never called me back and I called approximately in late June I called 3 – 5 other times to reschedule. Finally, after many calls someone asked if they could come by on and give me an estimate in July. When they came to the house they told my husband and I they couldn’t give me an estimate at that time, because I had a coupon. Then once again, I tried to reach the owner named «Cowboy». It took over a week maybe two to finally reach him. He promised me he would take care of me and would come by the first of the week. Once again, promises were broken no one never called me back. Finally on August 13, Cowboy was coming to the house! Once again, Cowboy had to reschedule a time for that day. I found out that the owner «Cowboy» did come by to the house after I called him. However, he did not ring the doorbell at all or leave an estimate at the door. The owner would not put the estimate in writing for me and I wonder why. The verbal estimate for my service was $ 650.00 over what I was quoted from another tree service. Over $ 900 for tree service, and that was at a discount price for all of my trouble. I only really needed 2 trees trimmed and that is what I would him. Cowboy seemed quite surprised that I was upset with estimate. I believe anyone would be surprised with an estimate like that. It was over three times the price, I was given from another company. Would you be upset? I asked for Cowboy’s” full name and he refused and then he refused to do service for me. He also refused to give me the written estimate. I don’t understand how a company like this could have an A rating at the Better Business Bureau and feel it is absolutely necessary to say something. It looks to me after seeing all the comments on Unilocal that the company gets coupons online for tree services and then charges a extremely high rate. This kind of business should not happen, to another person.
I should have looked on Unilocal it would have saved me a lot of time.

OK — not to belabor the Groupon sentiments below… but…don’t do it. We were scheduled for stump removal on a Monday — no show. Call them and ask what the deal is — oh sorry that will be Tuesday… and at no certain time. Really — don’t people have to work for a living? Tuesday — no show… Wednesday no show… Thursday — some random guy shows up «on behalf of» this outfit — while I am working. I sent him home and we are in the process of getting a refund.
To say they are unprofessional would be an understatement. Furthermore — if you don’t have the staff to handle the eventual volume of a deal on Groupon, then don’t put it out there. It only ruins your reputation if you can’t provide stellar service or show up when you say you will. To date, they have not returned our phone calls to apologize for our inconvenience. Worthless.

I also got a groupon for the company. Some one came out, we discussed what I want to have done right now, even though I need to have quite a bit of work. I received an estimate, the crew came out the next day and were done very quickly. For what I wanted, the additional charge did not seem outrageous. I’ll probably have them come out to work on the rest of the yard.

I, too, fell for their Groupon «scam». I finally received an estimation appointment date after two and a half weeks of trying to contact Cowboy’s Stump-​n-​Grind. The estimator was due to come out this Wednesday, but he/​she never showed up.

I agree with Jenn C below. I foolishly thought that buying the Daily Deal at $ 75 for $ 230 worth of work would surely cover one stump removal. I mean, we’re talking: bring the tool, put it on the stump, grind. But it did not cover it. They ended up charging an additional $ 95.-so warning: DO NOT BE FOOLED INTO THINKING YOU ARE GETTING A DEAL. I’m fairly sure there are a lot of people in town who would have removed one stump about 25″ across for $ 325 [deal+$ 95]. The estimator, who called himself Cowboy, I found to be brusque and dismissive.
I called several times to find out where they were the day of the scheduled removal –they said they’d be there sometime between 9 and whatever. I stayed home in the morning until informed, after 5 calls to them, they wouldn’t be there until late afternoon… gee thanks. What is wrong with these people and their lack of customer service. Looks like they bit off more than they could chew with the Daily Deal they offered, they are overwhelmed.
Also, as with another comment in this list: be prepared to speak Spanish. The person who came to our house didn’t speak one word of English when asked if they were going to clean up the wood renderings, which BTW they will not be doing. [PS: I’m sure you note that there is not one word from anyone at this company about these negative comments. I believe my point about customer service and caring what anyone thinks is made.]

I bought a Groupon ($ 75 for $ 230 worth of work) to apply toward trimming five trees.
We called to make an appointment and were told it would be a week until someone could come out and evaluate our trees and provide an estimate. A few hours before the appointment, we were called and told that our estimator wouldn’t be out because of some emergency. They rescheduled the appointment — unfortunately the next available spot was a week away. When our second appointment came, no one showed up or called. When I called them, I found out the estimator had had car trouble. However, even after complaining about the two missed appointments; they were unable to arrange a timely third appointment — it would be another week. About an hour later, we called back after we realized that that latest appointment was a potential conflict with a previous appointment. This time, however, a slot was available the next day — finally the estimator would come out.
The bill, after supposedly discounting our bill for the inconvenience of two missed appointments and subtracting the Groupon value, was $ 545. (This doesn’t include the original $ 75 Groupon price.) They would trim some lower branches on two other trees as well.
We weren’t told exactly when they’d return to do the actual trimming — maybe they’d do it the next day (Friday) or the day after that (Saturday). They didn’t show up or call then on Monday morning my wife called and someone came out that afternoon.
I just don’t feel the value I received was worth what I paid ($ 620). Maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed too expensive. I was told, one of the times I called, that $ 230 is their minimum price for any work. I wonder if the estimates are upped to bit to offset the $ 155 Groupon savings.
The trees do look much better, and I hope they are healthier now.

I bought a Groupon for services from this company, because we have a silver maple that didn’t make it through the drought and needs to be removed.
Right after purchasing this Groupon, I scheduled an appointment, for an estimate, for ⁴⁄₂₅ at 3:00 (yesterday). I took off work to make this happen.
At 3:15 I called and left a message, checking to see where they were. At 4:00 I called and left a message, checking to see where they were. At 4:45 I called and left a message, checking to see where they were. I left my house at 4:45 to pick my dog up at the vet. I left a message taped to my front door, so they’d know to call me, if they showed up.
The one and ONLY phone call I’ve had from this company was over a week ago when I scheduled yesterday’s appointment. I waited at my house for nearly two hours and NO ONE came by, and NO ONE called me, not even to tell me that they were running late. I’m not unreasonable. I know that sometimes unexpected things come up, but to not pay me the courtesy of a phone call, letting me know that they were running late? That is absolutely inexcusable for a business to do that.
As of today (about 10am) I have yet to have a single one of yesterday’s 3 voice mails returned. I’m working with Groupon now to get my money back. I don’t want to try and reschedule, or anything like that. My time and my money are both valuable. I don’t want to even attempt to do business with a company this badly managed.

Got the $ 99 for $ 300 of work from Morgan’s Deal. Thought they were going to do the work when they came out for the appointment but it was just an estimate. We wanted some branches from a tall palm removed along with whatever else we could get for $ 300. He said that’s all we could get for $ 300.
We’ve had other services come out to look at that tree. Of course most have a minimum ($ 300 was the last service’s minimum). With the other service we only wanted the palm tree done. They said to get our money’s worth he should do more than just the palm because that wasn’t worth $ 300.
Just saying it felt like the deal was misrepresented. The palm was probably worth $ 99 so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.
Just saying it wasn’t a «Deal»

I am really upset with this company. I purchased their Groupon in the hopes that I could have them remove a single tree stump as the value was for $ 230 and that seems to be what they specialize in. So first off, I made the appointment assuming that they were going to come and do the work since I specified what I needed done over the phone with the appointment setter. My husband stays home from work to do this. Some guy shows up to only provide an estimate. So husband lost time off from work for nothing basically.
Second problem, I, at a minimum, thought that they would be able to remove the tree stump for the cost of the Groupon. This guy tells my husband that its going to cost an additional $ 100 to remove the stump. He told him to leave. This is a complete rip off where they are taking advantage of the fact that they can arbitrarily name prices since its a Groupon and $ 230 doesn’t guarantee you anything. Basically this guy wants the equivalent of $ 330 for a relatively small tree stump removal. Really, really disappointed with this. We’re having a sprinkler system installed this weekend and they said that they will take care of the stump as part of the entire package which is going to cost $ 2200 for tree stump removal, system install (including all labor and materials) and some new sod. Cowboy’s math just doesn’t really add up.

Paul Bunyan doesn’t live in my neighborhood, but cranky home-​owners do. I figured we’d better get to treescaping in a hurry before we started getting the stank-​eye en masse. Lo and behold, a deal came up for Cowboys Stump n Grind. Was this, oh Artemis, the answer to all of our tree-​trimming dreams?
Well, hold on a minute. I’d gotten the Morgan’s Deal as a means of confirming my superior smarts; this is a wise investment. After all, tree-​trimming is like, $ 300. Right?
No. No my dear, sweet innocent children, it is not. Especially not on my property, which backs a creek and features 1.2 trillion trees. So while we have no idea if the final cost of $ 1,100 is reasonable for both front and back, it sure seems that way based on all the work we saw them do. All day. For forever.
The difference to our landscape is dramatic; the front yard looks lovely and the backyard is picturesque. Our dog has no idea what to make of this, but seems to have an improved vantage point for guarding against high-​risk intruders (read: squirrels).
The leader of this here outfit, Thomas, is a sweet fella, and we appreciated his sincerity. According to the website, they will beat any competitor’s price, so you might as well let them give you a free estimate. Give them a call before the neighborhood stank-​eyes pile up and leave you loveless.