An angry tree surgeon tipped more than a quarter of a ton of trimmings onto a customer's lawn - as revenge when she reportedly 'refused to pay £40' as she her hedge wasn't pruned in the shape she wanted. Jamie Young of A1 Tree Surgeons of Whitworth, Lancashire, says he suspected something was amiss when the woman 'hid' inside her house during and after last week's job.
Four days later Jamie claims he received a text from the miffed customer declaring she wouldn't be paying for the work done at her property on the outskirts of Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The woman reportedly said the 'uneven and unsymmetrical' work wasn't in her desired Christmas tree shape - despite Jamie insisting he told her that it would be impossible to do beforehand.
Footage shows the 37-year-old tradie and a pair of pals lugging two bulging sacks of hedge trimmings from his truck and tipping them over her fence. The quarter of a ton of waste can then be seen in two giant heaps on her lawn next to her newly-pruned conifer.
Jamie ends the clip by telling the camera 'this is what happens to customers who refuse to pay for a job'. The tree surgeon claims dumping the clippings on Saturday, July 16, didn't give him any personal satisfaction, but he felt he needed to share the message that the customer's alleged actions aren't acceptable.
The clip was shared on Facebook and has been viewed more than 40,000 times, with people praising the dad-of-five's actions, claiming he'd done a 'great job'.
Jamie, from Lancashire, said: "This was a last resort to get my point across that it's not on. It's a bit of a sorry situation over £40. You'd expect it to be over £1,400 or £4,000, not £40.
"I don't expect a penny until people have seen the job and they're happy with it and that's how I've always worked. The woman was in but didn't come out. I thought that was weird, like she was hiding.
"I think she thought she'd rip me off and if I kicked up a fuss it'd look bad on me - but she thought wrong. It backfired. It's nothing to do with the money, it's the principle.
"If you let one person do it then I'll have one a week trying to do it, loads of tradesmen have said the same. This lets people know it's not on and it'll backfire on you. I don't think she realised how far it'd go.
"[Tree surgery] is something I've been doing all my life and a few professional gardeners have told me there's nothing up with [the tree]. I explained when I was quoting that you can't have a conifer at a point when they're pruned.
"You can't make something look like a Christmas tree when it doesn't want to be because they're all dead inside. Her attitude was all wrong, so I just thought 'you can have your cr*p back'."
Texts the company claim to have received from the woman on Friday, July 15, apparently show her complaining that he'd 'made a right pig's ear' of the trimming, and that it's 'not symmetrical or level' on top. She appears to also claim he didn't follow her request to make it look like a Christmas tree - despite Jamie claiming he told her he'd have to use a flat-top style as 'conifers are dead inside'.
The company replied 'unfortunately I'll be returning the waste that was taken from the job tomorrow afternoon'. The woman apparently took offence at the video being posted online and Jamie claims the woman said she had £40 'waiting' for them at the house. The company responded by telling her 'you can keep your money, some of us aren't that desperate' before the two angered parties stopped speaking.
