This is the reported incident in which a client allegedly refused to pay a tree surgeon £40 for a work because her hedge was not pruned into the shape of a Christmas tree.
The tree surgeon became enraged and dumped a quarter of a ton of trimmings on the customer’s lawn.
Jamie Young, the 37-year-old owner of A1 Tree Surgeons, and two assistants are seen in a video dumping two bulging sacks of hedge clippings over a customer’s fence on the outskirts of Rochdale, Manchester.
Mr. Young, dressed in an orange high-visibility jacket, is heard saying to the guy filming: “This is what happens to customers who refuse to pay for the job” in a 60-second clip posted to Facebook.
The director of the Whitworth, Lancashire-based business claimed in a caption next to the video that this was the first time in 15 years that he had been required to’return garbage’ to a work as a result of non-payment, adding that he was “well within my rights to do.”
According to Mr. Young, the woman texted to indicate that because the work was not what she had requested, she would not be paying for it to be done on July 11.
Although Mr. Young claims he had warned her it would not be possible and that he would have to adopt a flat-top style as “conifers are dead inside,” her primary complaint was that her conifer did not resemble a Christmas tree shape.
The woman reportedly complained that he had “made a right pig’s ear” out the trimming and that it was “not symmetrical or level” on top, according to texts the company claims to have received from her on July 15.
Her evaluation was rejected by the business, which then said: “Unfortunately, I’ll be returning the rubbish that was collected from the project tomorrow afternoon.”
After the video was circulated on social media, the woman contradicted Mr. Young’s assertion that she “hid in her house” when they arrived to collect the money, saying the cash was “sitting waiting” for the craftsmen.
This was a last-ditch effort on Mr. Young’s part to make his point that it wasn’t appropriate.
“Over £40, it’s kind of a sorry state of affairs.” It should be more than $1,400 or $4,000, not only $40.
“That’s how I’ve always worked; I don’t demand a penny until people have seen the workmanship and are satisfied with it.”
The woman was inside but remained inside.
That seemed strange to me, like she was hiding.
I believe she believed she would take advantage of me and that if I made a scene, it would reflect poorly on me.
But she was mistaken. It failed. The principle is what matters, not the money.
Many tradespeople have expressed the same thing: “If you let one person do it, then I’ll have one a week to try to do it.”
“This lets folks know it’s not on, and it’ll fire back at you,” he continued.
She may not have realized how far it would go.
I’ve spent my entire life performing [tree surgery], and a few expert gardeners have assured me that [the tree] is in perfect health.
“I explained when I was citing that a conifer cannot be present at a time when it is being clipped.
They’re all dead inside, so you can’t make something look like a Christmas tree when it doesn’t want to.
She had the wrong attitude, so I just said, “You can have your cr*p back.”
Mr. Young claimed he wanted to document the incident on camera to show that he didn’t break into the house or do any other harm out of retaliation.
More than 10,000 people have watched the movie online, and many of them backed Mr. Young.
Good job lads, said one user. There needs to be more resistance to these non-payers.
All of your labor was for nothing.
A different person remarked, “Good one, I would have spent an extra ten minutes and scattered it all over the yard.”
“Well done, lads, it’s only what they deserve,” a third person said.