Furious tree surgeon dumps trimmings on 'non-paying' customer's lawn

Moment furious tree surgeon dumped quarter of a ton of trimmings on customer’s lawn ‘after she refused to pay £40 because hedge wasn’t pruned into Christmas tree shape’

• Boss of A1 Tree Surgeons Jamie Young, 37, said returning waste was ‘last resort’ 
• Video shows him and two helpers unloading two bulging sacks of trimmings
• Customer complained in texts that finished job was ‘not level or symmetrical’

This is the moment a furious tree surgeon dumped a quarter of a ton of trimmings on a customer’s lawn after she allegedly refused to pay £40 for a job because her hedge was not pruned into the shape of a Christmas tree. 

Boss of A1 Tree Surgeons Jamie Young, 37, and two helpers, can be seen in a video lugging two bulging sacks of hedge trimmings from his truck and tipping them over the customer’s fence on the outskirts of Rochdale, Manchester.  

In a 60-second clip shared to Facebook, Mr Young, donning an orange high-vis jacket, tells the person recording: ‘This is what happens to customers who refuse to pay for the job.’ 

In a caption alongside the video, the director of the company, based in Whitworth, Lancashire, said it was the first time in 15 years that he had been forced to ‘return waste’ to a job following a non-payment, which he said he was ‘well within my rights to do.’ 

Boss of A1 Tree Surgeons Jamie Young, 37, (pictured in orange high-vis jacket) said: ‘This was a last resort to get my point across that it’s not on.’

Tradesmen dump trimmings on the lawn of a customer who allegedly refused to pay for a job in Rochdale, Manchester

Texts the company claim to have received from the woman on July 15 also show her complaining that he’d ‘made a right pig’s ear’ of the trimming, and that it was ‘not symmetrical or level’ on top (finished job pictured). The company disagreed with her assessment and replied: ‘Unfortunately I’ll be returning the waste that was taken from the job tomorrow afternoon’

Mr Young claimed the woman texted to say she would not be paying for the work, carried out on July 11, as it was not what she had asked for. 

Her main gripe was that her conifer did not resemble a Christmas tree shape – although Mr Young claims he had told her that would not be possible and that he would have to use a flat-top style as ‘conifers are dead inside’.

Texts the company claim to have received from the woman on July 15 also show her complaining that he’d ‘made a right pig’s ear’ of the trimming, and that it was ‘not symmetrical or level’ on top. 

The company disagreed with her assessment and replied: ‘Unfortunately I’ll be returning the waste that was taken from the job tomorrow afternoon’.

Mr Young claims the woman ‘hid in her house’ when they came to collect the cash, which she denied after the video was shared on social media, claiming the money was ‘sat waiting’ for the tradesmen. 

Mr Young 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.

Boss of A1 Tree Surgeons Jamie Young, 37, and two helpers, can be seen in a video lugging two bulging sacks of hedge trimmings from his truck and tipping them over the customer’s fence on the outskirts of Rochdale, Manchester

In a caption alongside the video, the director of the company, based in Whitworth, Lancashire, said it was the first time in 15 years that he had been forced to ‘return waste’ to a job following a non-payment, which he said he was ‘well within my rights to do’

Mr Young claims the woman ‘hid in her house’ when they came to collect the cash, which she denied after the video was shared on social media, claiming the money was ‘sat waiting’ for the tradesmen

‘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 to try to do it, loads of tradesmen have said the same.’

He added: ‘This lets people know it’s not on and it’ll fire back 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.

The video has been viewed more than 10,000 times online, with many supporting Mr Young

‘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’.’

Mr Young said he had the moment filmed primarily to prove he didn’t enter the property or cause any damage to enact his revenge.

The video has been viewed more than 10,000 times online, with many supporting Mr Young.

One user commented: ‘Good job lads. More people need to stand up to these non-payers. All your hard graft wasted.’

Another said: ‘Good one, I would have spent an extra 10 minutes and spread it all over the yard.’

A third added: ‘Well done lads, it’s only what they deserve.’

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