Jose Martinez Tree Service

I have a hard time understanding all of the bad reviews. These guys came out and removed 9 Italian cypress trees that were 40 – 50 feet tall and 10 – 12 feet in diameter. They also removed a ton of low lying juniper and a 50 foot Mexican fan palm. These guys worked their butts off all day.
Yes, they damaged my fence, but they came back and fixed it. Was their repair 100% perfect. No, but it was good enough and if you read my other reviews you will know I am a perfectionist and it was good enough that I didn’t really care. They dislodged a couple retaining wall blocks with their stump grinder and didn’t put them back very well and they hit a few sprinkler lines with their grinder. I am re-​doing my entire yard so I did not really care about any of this. Had I asked them to fix what they damaged I am sure they would have. They were very polite, quick to fix the fence and did a TON of work for half of the next lowest quote. We were referred to them by someone in our neighborhood who also had good experience with them. If you need a lot of work done for a good price and can stand to fix a couple of $ 5 sprinkler pipes then give them a shot. We saved a couple thousand dollars going with JM tree service. Well worth the minor aggravation of sprinkler work and re-​setting some stacked retaining wall blocks.

I had the unfortunate opportunity to meet this company’s crew at Laguna Beach today and I must say that I’m so horrified with their bad work ethics and even worse behavior. I would NEVER hire them and would warn others hence my review here. Furthermore since posting this company is now having people calling me a liar, this is so shameful. What happened to apologizing? They should have their work license suspended.

This company just finished trimming two trees across the street and the ficus looks horrible. They chopped the ends and didn’t lace it properly. I guess the home owner tried to get them to trim the inside top of the tree but they wouldn’t do it. Do not hire this company.

We had a large Bird of Paradise tree removed. The guys arrived toward the end of their quoted arrival time and worked quickly. They had to come back to remove all of the roots, but Maricela was very helpful and they corrected the issue very quickly. I will recommend them to family and friends.

LAKE FOREST RESIDENTS BEWARE — IF YOU SEE THIS GUY TRESPASSING IN YOUR YARD CALL THE POLICE!!!
How many stars do you leave for someone who destroyed your fence, palm tree, several plants and yard ornaments; trespassed in your yard without permission; then, after being shown photographic evidence of the damages and asked for a mere $ 100 to fix all of it, basically tells you to get lost? And the worst part is, WE DIDN’T EVEN HIRE HIM! Beware if your NEIGHBOR hires this guy, you’ll be out some money for the damages he causes — not to mention the fact that they will be trespassing in your yard, even if you’re not home! After I CAUGHT the guy in my yard trying to clean up the mess they made while working on my NEIGHBOR’S trees, I was informed by Jose Martinez that they usually just go into the yard to clean up any mess they make, because normally the homeowners are not home during the day, they’re at work. That’s exactly what he said! Oh, and the workers don’t understand English anyway, so basically it’s my fault for not being able to communicate with them in Spanish. Is that supposed to make me feel better? It’s nice to know that these guys will trespass into any yard and think nothing about it! I have big dogs and video cameras, AND on top of that I happened to be HOME the day they decided that it was ok to enter my yard without permission. Nobody ever came to my door and knocked to see if it was ok to go into my yard — they just did it. This was after they dropped several limbs from my neighbor’s trees into my yard, causing a lot of damage. I called the OC Sheriff and filed an incident report against Mr. Martinez’s company for trespassing, as well as showing the Sheriff the damages they had caused. The Sheriff even TOLD them that they could NOT enter someone else’s property without permission, but read the Unilocal reviews — clearly nothing matters to them! He’s lucky that I didn’t press criminal trespassing charges against them! After finally getting in touch by phone with Mr. Martinez who was NOT working on site that day, he showed up at my house that evening. I told him that his workers had been in my yard without permission, and I showed him the damage that his workers had done. The next day my husband spoke with him, and asked him to pay $ 100 so that we could repair the damage to our fence, and also the plants and lawn ornaments that were destroyed by his workers. We realize it wasn’t done intentionally, but it WAS done. We felt that $ 100 was a nominal number, because it has cost us a lot more to fix what they damaged. Jose’s response to my husband was just plain rude. He told my husband that he wasn’t going to pay us anything, and that if we wanted to get money for the damages to get it from our neighbor. OUR NEIGHBOR??? He did NOTHING other than hiring these clowns. It wasn’t HIS fault they did a shoddy job and we weren’t going to ask him to pay for anything. But that was Jose’s response. Our only option now is to sue him in Small Claims court. We have plenty of proof — the pictures of the damages, the police report of trespassing in the yard — Mr. Martinez has no defense. Oh, and we can report him to Licensing, along with everyone else who has. His License is probably not even his anyway — most of these tree guys work under a license that’s procured by someone who isn’t even working with them. It’s illegal, and these guys shouldn’t be allowed to get away with all of this! We didn’t even HIRE this guy in the first place! But now we have to fix what he broke? And from the reviews here it looks like he’s getting away with it all over town!!! Make it stop — DON’T HIRE JOSE MARTINEZ TREE SERVICE!

It’s entertaining how most of these reviews are similar yet they don’t seem to learn. My parents’ neighbor was having tree work done on some eucalyptus trees in their backyard. The guys were dropping the branches, of considerable size, down into my parents’ backyard from 50+ feet up. They broke a chicken-​wire fence that was set up around a planter along with a plaster statue. Next thing I know, one of their guys was in our FENCED IN backyard, unannounced and unwelcome. We have two dogs and one is notorious for biting strangers, this guy had no regard for what could have happened if the backdoor was open or if she was in the yard when he went in. When my mom saw a stranger in the backyard moving the patio furniture, she called the sheriff for trespassing. The sheriff responded and informed them that they need to get permission before entering someone’s private property. My mom called Jose and informed him that his workers’ actions were not okay and they needed to talk to discus damages. Jose said he was in Santa Monica but would be by the next day at 9am to talk about it. Next day, 9am comes and goes, 10… 11… Noon. My mother called him around 11 and got his voicemail. When he finally returned her call mid-​afternoon, he told her that he would not be coming by because he doesn’t believe he owes us anything for the damages and that we should seek to get it from our neighbor that hired his company. The audacity of this guy to not only not show up to a meeting but then have a response like that?!?
I didn’t even use this company but I can tell they tend to be late, have no care for personal property, will trot into neighboring yards without permission, and hide when they get in trouble (Jose liked letting his phone go to voicemail whenever my mom called and informed her five hours after he was supposed to meet with her that he wouldn’t even come to the house to face her and own his mistakes).

My neighbors contracted these guys to cut their tree. We own the property directly behind their home. These guys came in and started tree trimming without protecting anything in our yard. Our back windows and doors were wide open, fresh laundry was sun drying on the line, and the patio set for dinner. One of their employees, who identifies himself as the «owner» hopped the fence without permission and started leaf blowing. Wasted our fresh laundry and blew all their mess into our home.
I got their contractor’s license information and I am pursuing them with the license board.

I agree with Heather. they came out on the Saturday of a Holiday weekend at 7am and started chainsaw ing and saw milling. complete disregard for the neighborhood. all of this dust was blowing into the neighboring property too. this behavior would keep me from using them.

I should have Unilocaled these guys first. they suck. didn’t listen to any of my instructions. said they’d be there 730am to 8pm. I have to leave for work at 9. they came at 830. I asked them to grind specific stumps. the manager Federico said OK don’t worry. I come home at 645 pm to make sure they did everything right. they left at 5. they left a bunch if roots. I asked for a small pile of firewood chopped small. they leave me 4 huge piles. I mean huge. what kind if idiot thinks a 40 inch log will fit in a fireplace. I called to complains. he told me you asked for firewood. I said yes. a small pile. not 4 large. and they’re too big. he said he will return to cut them down and grind the stump. he lied and told me the stump was left due to the trees stability. all bs. my uncle said their stump grinder broke down. and my neighbor said their tree shredder truck was too full so they left me all that wood. I took down a huge tree and did a major trim on 2 others. they should’ve came with 2 trucks. I specified before they came back. cut the logs down to 24 inches max. he said OK. it didn’t happen. I still have a huge pile if 36 – 48 inch logs I cant even move. I have 2 measuring at 6 foot long! they also just cut and let the wood fall. multiple times the large pieces just hit the electrical line. oh yeah. they broke 2 sprinklers lines because they didn’t watch where they were grinding. I also have a log just sitting on my roof ready to slide down on me. i went with them since they’re liscensed and looks legit. legit business but not legit work. go elsewhere. they’re goal is to come get the job partially done then leave. they act very professional to get business but they just rob you.
update 7-​16-​2015. I see the owner responded to rebuddle my review. it doesn’t matter if the person at my door couldn’t speak English. if you would’ve kept notes you wouldn’t have had to ask again. and either way. I called to complain. your staff returned and still failed. incompetent is all I can say about your workers and the management team. and if you would’ve stayed until 8 as promised I would’ve been there to tell their dumb asses how much to leave.
ps. it’s wood not would. maybe you should update your response to try and save your company some face.

What a nightmare!!! Hired by neighbors to trim a tree NOT on their property and without the owners consent which did not seem to bother them at all! They proceeded to completely destroyed a beautiful tree! The tree not only gave my daughter’s family shade and privacy but was an asset to the entire neighborhood. One of their vehicles lost all of its hydraulic fluid and they just left it! I will call tomorrow and ask them to clean it up and if I do not get speedy action I will call the police and file a report. I know they have broken more than one law. Just remember if it seems like do good of a deal it probably is! Like I said WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!!

Hired them at the recommendation of a friend. I ended up paying too much for the work they did do (my fault), I had to come out and show them the mess they left behind and ask they clean it up and later I found they broke a sprinkler head underneath the tree. I called the owner and he said he was on a «bigger» job and would have to look at it next week. It’s been three weeks and you guessed it there was no follow through. I will pay to have the sprinkler fixed.

I had my worst experiment dealing with this company. The workers donot understand English at all and they totally damaged and shaved up my beautiful ficus tree instead of trimming. They just left some branches without any leaves on the tree.

This asshole company has no care or respect for anyone in the neighborhood when they come out. On a Saturday morning, they’re out at 7:30/7:45ish making VERY loud noises with their lawn care machines (sounded like a chainsaw). If you don’t want your neighbors pissed at you and losing sleep (especially the ones who work night shifts), don’t hire this company.

Beware of the low price!!! You’ve been warned!!!
Very deceitful. Jose came out and gave the estimate. Was impressed with his professionalism and fancy truck. Liked that he had insurance. Told us that they don’t use spikes to climb the palm trees. We accepted his bid. The crew came in a couple weeks. Again, nice trucks but the guys spoke very little english. We couldn’t stay to watch them do the work. Came back and was shocked at how they butched the trees and how they climbed the palm trees with spikes. There were lots of holes in the palm trees. We called Jose right away and his response was why didn’t you tell the guys to use a ladder and not climb up the palm trees with spikes. What!!! We didn’t know that we had supervise and tell them how to do their job. He didn’t even apologize because he made it our fault!!! Not only do the spikes make the trees look ugly, but they also hurt the trees. This owner definitely does not stand by his company or his word.