Unfinished Business...
Ben Garduno runs a tree cutting business that isn't really professional, but he doesn't charge a lot. The problem with this business is that while he doesn't charge a lot, he doesn't always complete the job & from what I've found online a lot of his claims about sponsorships are false... After we had a problem with his service of cutting down down a tree (which wasn't where the problem was) & it became apparent he wasn't going to come back & complete what he stated, I decided to start looking up information about his business. I found the following, which states he was fined $6000 in 2006 for making the same claims he did with us & not completing those jobs, which I will go into further details as to what our particular issue was with his services later in this review:
| Name and Address | Basis for Inclusion on List | Fine | Date Placed |
| Garduno, Ben dba Alpine Tree Experts 4669 Namba Way SLC UT 84107 |
Respondents committed a deceptive act when they falsely indicated that they had a sponsorship, or approval, or affiliation, and failed to provide goods and services to consumers within the time advertised or represented. |
$6,000.00 | 7/06/2006 |
Documentation of this can be found on page 14 of this document:
http://digitallibrary.utah.gov/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=26761
Note that site previously linked to appears to no longer be in service, however I have located another site that has roughly the same documentation that was previously mentioned, this can be found on page 10 of the document located at https://www.angio.net/aros_article/dcp-BuyerBeware-2007-07-16.pdf. I have made a backup of the PDF this time in case it needs to be restored should the referencing site be taken down again.
What I would suggest you do if you intend on doing business with him is to tell him that you will pay him a portion of the asking price & the rest when it is completed. Of course this may pose a problem since he has you sign a document that states you will pay the full amount at the end of the day, when the job is complete, which I expect he will use to take you to court if you don't pay the full amount (of course you might be able to contest whether the job was actually completed or not). It would make sense to bring what you know to light when you are discussing terms of payment & if he disagrees to full payment on completion rather than at the end of the day the first day they are working on the job, then tell him you'll find somebody with a better reputation to take care of the job.
Our experience in hiring him was to cut down a tree at a new house we had purchased to move to, which arched at the base of the trunk & could have fallen on the house causing significant damage if we allowed it to. My father paid Ben the full amount after he made sure the tree was no longer a threat to the house, which was where the mistake was, seeing as we probably wouldn't have had anything else done on the job if we didn't keep hounding him about the unfinished job. Near the end of the day, when they were getting near to be done with removing the branches & trunk from the yard (placing them on the shoulder of my property), I even purchased them a pizza & provided drinks (water, Gatorade & soda) seeing as they were working on this job the entire day & didn't leave to get anything to eat, which also seems to have been a mistake (something I'm pretty much prone to, giving everybody a benefit of doubt until they give me a reason to believe otherwise).
We didn't think to much about it seeing as he stated his brother was going to pick the branches up & have them hauled off in a couple days, however after around 2 weeks, we got a violation from Murray City for Obstruction of Sidewalk when the limbs were not picked up. At this point I requested being allowed to take that notice home & scan it, which my parents wouldn't agree to, however I did make it a priority to write down the contacts from the letter so I could make use of them when I got back home. At that point I made contact via email to Trevor LeBaron stating that the tree limbs technically weren't ours anymore & they belonged to Ben Garduno, seeing as he hadn't disposed of them as previously stated. He understood the matter & stated that it was still our responsibility to work with the contractor to get them removed, but he would provide us with an extension (before being fined for the violation if not resolved) if needed. My father contacted Ben again a couple days after he received the notice of violation & filled him in on the details regarding the matter, he did get them cleaned up within a few days after he was informed about the notice of violation from the city. The email conversation between myself & Trevor was as follows:
| Date/Time | Person | Message |
| 05/02/2016 6:23 PM |
Myself | My name is
censored , I am the son of
censored who is the owner of
censored & the current resident of said premises
(renting from my father). In response to the complaint made in
Case #24025, mailed to my father at
censored (where he lives), I am going to attempt to
clear up some confusion as to where the complaint should have been sent.
On April 21st, Ben Garduno (along with 3 others) spent the majority of
the day cutting down a tree on our property, where he was paid $350 for
the task, which was supposed to include hauling away the branches
afterwards. He stated that it should be no longer than 48 hours
before those branches would be taken away (supposedly by his brother),
yet over 2 weeks later, they are still here. He did come back on
24th to remove the majority of what was left of the stump, however that
portion of the task still isn't completed either... A good portion
of the larger wood was removed through an ad I put on KSL.com detailing
"Free Firewood (Maple)" & at this point all that remains
are branches, since apparently nobody wants branches for firewood.
Below you will see a picture of the current situation:
The remaining branches are what is being detailed in case #24025,
however you may notice the stump in the background also. These
branches, based on the agreement we had with Ben, are not our property
anymore; at this point they belong to Ben due to the fact he was
supposed to remove them at least by the end of the 23th (48 hours after
the tree was cut down, minus the trunk which still needs to be
completed). Ben has already been paid (on the 21st) & I'm not
certain whether this is the reason why we have not seen him come back to
complete the job yet. As for the stump as it is now, he claimed he
was going to cut it down to the ground so it could be mowed over, which
I can provide a more detailed picture of the stump if needed to show
that hasn't been completed yet either. |
| 05/03/2016 3:58 PM |
Myself | Ben came back today after my father called him yesterday & is currently in the process of removing the branches; he has about half of what you'll see in the picture below in his truck, looks like it's going to take another trip to get the rest of it removed. He's stating that it should be cleaned up by tomorrow, although we'll see if that's actually the case... I've gone over the details about the violation notice my father received yesterday in the mail & stated that we were going to be fined if it wasn't removed by the 11th. In any case this situation hopefully will be resolved by tomorrow if what Ben is saying is true. |
| 05/04/2016 4:50 PM |
Myself | Issue at this point is still only half-resolved (picture
below), as I know Ben won't be able to finish loading the rest into the
bed of his truck before the landfills for Murray city are closed for the
day, so Ben won't be coming back today. I'll be contacting my
father (the one that the violation was mailed to) to let him know Ben
didn't come back to finish the job today, so he can contact Ben about it
again. I don't know when Ben is coming back to finish this, but if
you haven't heard from me by the 11th to let you know it's resolved,
then the best I can do is move the branches off of the sidewalk onto the
shoulder (where the grass is) to at least open up the sidewalk.
|
| 05/05/2016 9:00 AM |
Trevor LeBaron |
Thank you for keeping me informed on the progress with the clean-up, censored . Also, I appreciate you explaining the situation that you and your father are facing with your contractor. I apologize for my delayed response. Unfortunately, even in the case of a flawed contractor, it is still a shared responsibility of the property owner and contractor to ensure that code is being kept during any property renovation or alteration. It looks as if Ben is slowly making big dents in removing the pile. As you continue to pressure him to complete the contracted job, I’ll be sure to extend the deadline as progress is being made. Clearly you and your father are taking every necessary action to resolve the issue, so I feel no need to pursue a referral to the District Attorney’s Office in relation to this case. Of course you’ll need to continue to pressure Ben to take care of the issue as soon as possible, but if he fails to complete it by the date listed on the notice I want to ensure you that an extension will be graned to ensure that no fines are levied against your father. If you have additional questions be sure to contact me. I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you as progress continues. Thanks, again. |
| 05/05/2016 10:47 AM |
Myself | I don't believe an extension will be needed at this point
as it appears Ben did come back yesterday & got the rest of
the branches cleaned up, although I expect he wasn't able to dump them
seeing as the landfills close at 5 PM according to him; he'll probably
have to hold them in the bed of his truck until he can get back to the
landfill today. We do still need to worry about getting the rest
of the trunk down to where Ben has stated he's going to cut it down to
however, but this shouldn't be a concern of yours seeing as it doesn't
obstruct the walkway & isn't enough volume that it I expect it would
even if put on the shoulder afterwards. The only additional
concern I have regarding this matter is whether that violation will stay
on my father's record for this property even if no fine was processed
(I'm not familiar with this never being a home owner myself, but I know
some organizations do), seeing as technically speaking it wasn't our
fault this happened in the first place.
I will be removing the pictures from the internet in about a week given the obstructed walkway issue is resolved; seeing as they weren't actually attached to these emails (fearing that they might get auto-rejected if there was an attachment; there's still that possibility with external content, but less likely), they will disappear from these emails when that happens, so you may want to save them for your records if you still need them. |
It is now half-way through August & the stump still has not been taken care of...
I was talking to one of my neighbor about this & they said he stated the same thing about their stump, where 6 years later, it still hadn't been completed... After that, it became clear I needed to write a review about his business, but decided to see what I could find online before I wrote it for additional support to the review, which has been linked at the top of this review, however there were quite a few other articles listed in the Google search that lead me to it.
One other thing is he stated that he injected a poison in to the stump of the tree to kill the roots (which wasn't something I actually saw, but I took his word for it). However about 4 & a half months later, I'm noticing little sprouts around the stump coming up in my lawn, so I don't know that I entirely believe the injection was actually done.
One other matter of possible deception might be the statement of his brother, where I mentioned I spotted Ben doing a job at a house in the neighborhood both on my way out & back from an appointment with my father, stating that he should go speak to him & see if he can get him to complete the job with the stump. My father stated that the individual he spoke to was talking like he was the brother of Ben & he'd have Ben come over to finish the job, however this was hard to believe unless he was a twin, as he looked, talked & sounded just like him; what made the statement from my father even more suspicious was the fact that they had the exactly same truck. So at this point I don't believe the statement that he has a brother that is helping him with the business or at least I don't believe that one instance of it, seeing as looking, talking & have the same truck seems like too much of a coincidence to me...
