How to Spot a Bad Tree Service (Before They Spot Your Wallet)

Last fall, a guy in a pickup truck with a chainsaw in the bed knocked on my neighbour's door in Billerica three days after a nor'easter. Said he could take down the leaning pine for $800 cash, right now, no waiting. My neighbour almost said yes. Then he remembered the last guy who knocked on his door after a storm left half the tree on the roof.

That is the thing about tree services. The good ones and the bad ones both have trucks and chainsaws. The difference is what happens after the saw starts. I am Keith McDonald. I have been running tree crews out of Billerica since 1995, and I have cleaned up enough bad jobs to know the warning signs. Here is what to look for before you hand anyone a deposit.

The Short Version

Door-knockers after storms are the biggest red flag. "Starting at" pricing means the price will go up. No insurance means you own the liability. National chains charge double and sub the work out. A real tree service gives you a flat written quote, shows proof of insurance, and does not pressure you to decide today. If any of those feel off, trust your gut and call someone else.

Door-Knockers After Storms Are the Number One Red Flag

This is the big one. After every storm in Middlesex County, guys in unmarked trucks cruise the neighborhoods looking for downed trees and leaning limbs. They knock on doors, offer a deal, and want to start right away. Some are legitimate. Most are not.

Here is the math. A real tree company that has been in business for years is booked after a storm. We have a list of existing customers, scheduled jobs, and emergency calls coming in on the phone. We are not walking door to door looking for work because we already have more than we can handle. The guys knocking are the ones with no phone calls coming in. That should tell you something.

What happens when you hire a door-knocker:

• They do the work fast because they want to move to the next house
• They leave damage — broken fences, rutted lawns, bark ripped off remaining trees
• They have no insurance, so the damage is on you
• They disappear. No phone number that works, no address, no way to reach them

I have been called to fix door-knocker jobs more times than I can count. One family in Tewksbury paid a storm chaser $1,200 to remove a fallen oak. He cut it into pieces and left every piece in the yard. Did not haul anything. Did not clean up. The family had to pay us $400 more to finish the job he started. The $1,200 was gone.

The rule is simple. After a storm, if someone knocks on your door offering tree work, say no. Call a company you can find on Google with real reviews, a real address, and a real phone number that someone answers.

"Starting At" Pricing Is Not Pricing

This one drives me nuts. You call a tree service, they quote you "starting at $500" for a removal, and you think you are getting a deal. You are not. You are getting the floor price for a tree that does not exist on your property.

"Starting at $500" means a small tree, in an open yard, with perfect access, on a flat surface, with no obstacles, on a sunny day. Your tree is not that tree. Your tree is in the back, over the fence, next to the garage, with the power lines running through it. The "starting at" price has nothing to do with your job.

A real quote comes after someone looks at your tree. I come to your property, I look at the tree, I look at the access, I look at what is underneath it, and I give you one number. That number is what you pay. Not "starting at," not "plus this and that," not "we will see when we get there." One number, in writing, before we start. Anything else is a sales tactic.

No Insurance Means You Own the Liability

Tree work is one of the most dangerous trades in the country. People get hurt. Trees fall on things. Branches go through windows. Chainsaws kick back. That is why real tree companies carry liability insurance and workers' compensation. It is not a nice-to-have. It is the thing that protects you when something goes wrong.

If a tree company does not have insurance and someone gets hurt on your property, that is your homeowner's policy. If they drop a limb on your neighbour's car, that is your problem. If they damage your fence and disappear, you pay to fix it. Insurance is the difference between "the company handles it" and "you handle it."

How to verify insurance:

1. Ask for a certificate of insurance. Not a promise. Not "we have it." The actual certificate.
2. Call the insurance company listed on the certificate and confirm it is current.
3. Make sure it covers both general liability and workers' compensation.
4. If they dodge, make excuses, or say "we will get it to you later," walk away.

A company that will not show you insurance is a company that does not have insurance. That is not a guess. That is thirty years of watching how this works.

The National Chain Markup

Here is a story I hear about once a month. A homeowner in Wilmington or Burlington calls one of those big national tree companies with the nice trucks and the matching shirts. The salesperson comes out, gives a quote, and the homeowner nearly falls over. Then they call us, and our price is half. Not because we are cutting corners. Because we do not have a call center, a franchise fee, or a commission salesperson to pay.

National chains work like this. You call an 800 number. A call center books an estimate. A salesperson comes to your house, and their job is to sell you, not to assess your tree. They get a commission on the sale, so the quote has to be high enough to cover their pay. Then the company takes a franchise fee off the top. Then they sub the actual work out to a local crew — sometimes the same crew you could have hired directly for half the price.

One of our regular customers in Bedford got a national chain quote for $4,800 to remove a medium oak. We did it for $2,400. Same tree, same access, same cleanup. The difference was the corporate overhead. He saved $2,400 by calling a local company with a phone number that a human answers. That is not a discount. That is just the real price without the markup.

The International Society of Arboriculture recommends getting multiple quotes and checking credentials. They are right. But the credentials that matter most are insurance, experience, and a flat price — not a logo on a truck.

How to Verify a Real Tree Service

Here is a quick checklist. Five minutes of checking can save you thousands of dollars and a lot of headaches.

Google reviews. Not five reviews from their friends. A real company has dozens of reviews, over years, from people in your area. We have 62 reviews at 4.7 stars on Google. That is not perfect, but it is real.

A real address. Not a P.O. box. Not "we serve your area." A physical location you can find on a map. We are at 8 Sycamore Lane in Billerica. You can drive by. We are there.

A phone number a human answers. Call it. If you get a call center, a phone tree, or a voicemail that never gets returned, that tells you something. I answer my phone. If I am on a job, I call you back the same day. That is how a real business works.

Written estimates. A handshake and a number is not an estimate. A real tree service puts the scope, the price, and the timeline in writing. If they will not write it down, they do not plan to stand behind it.

Insurance certificate. Already covered, but worth repeating. If they cannot hand you a certificate of insurance today, do not let them on your property tomorrow.

How long they have been in business. We started in 1995. Thirty-one years of tree work in the same area. That is not a guarantee, but it is a track record. A company that started last month and has no history is a bigger risk than one that has been doing it for decades.

The Massachusetts Arborist License is worth checking too. It is required for anyone doing tree health work and pesticide application. For removal and pruning, experience and insurance matter more than any piece of paper.

When the Cheapest Quote Costs the Most

Cheap tree work is expensive tree work. I have said that for thirty years, and I have the repair bills to prove it.

Here is what cheap looks like: branches dropped on your fence with nobody to fix it, cuts in the wrong place that rot the remaining tree, no cleanup, and no stump grinding. A $600 job that ruins your fence is not cheaper than a $1,000 job done right. The cheap quote is only cheap if nothing goes wrong. And in tree work, things go wrong.

We are not the cheapest. We are the ones who show up, do the job right, and leave your yard better than we found it. We price it flat, in writing, and that is what you pay.

When You Do Not Need Us

I tell people this on almost every estimate. There are times when you do not need a tree service at all.

The tree is healthy and not a hazard. If it is growing fine, not leaning, not dead, and not dropping limbs, leave it alone. Pruning for shape or clearance is different from pruning because a door-knocker said you needed it. Get a second opinion if you are not sure.

The job is small enough to do yourself. Trimming low branches, cutting up a small fallen limb, hauling brush — these are Saturday tasks. You do not need a crew for that. Save the chainsaw ladder work for us, but the ground-level stuff is yours.

You have a permit issue, not a tree issue. Some towns in Massachusetts — Lexington, Bedford, some parts of Westford — have tree protection bylaws. Before you hire anyone, check with your town. We do this for customers all the time. Sometimes the answer is "you need a permit first," and we wait.

You want to keep the wood. Tell us upfront. We buck the trunk to length, stack it, and leave you a winter's worth of firewood. That saves us hauling time and saves you heating money. Everybody wins.

Straight Answers

How do I know if a tree service is legitimate?

Check Google reviews, ask for a certificate of insurance, confirm they have a real address and phone number, and make sure they give written estimates. If any of those are missing, keep looking. A legitimate company has nothing to hide and will hand you the paperwork without being asked twice.

What should I do if someone knocks on my door after a storm?

Say no thank you, close the door, and call a tree company you find on your own. Door-knocking after a storm is the biggest red flag in the industry. Legitimate companies are too busy to walk neighborhoods looking for work.

Why is one quote double another for the same tree?

Usually it is a national chain versus a local company. National chains run call centers, pay franchise fees, and send commission salespeople. All of that overhead shows up in your quote. A local owner-operator does the same work for less because the money goes to the crew, not the corporate structure.

Do I need to check if a tree service is licensed in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts requires an Arborist License for tree health and pesticide work. For removal and pruning, there is no state license, but insurance is non-negotiable. Ask for the certificate, call the insurer, and confirm it is current. That protects you more than any license.

What happens if an uninsured tree service damages my property?

You pay for it. Your homeowner's insurance might cover some of it, but you will be filing the claim, paying the deductible, and dealing with the fallout. That is why insurance is the first thing to check, not the last.

Is a cheap tree quote a red flag?

Not always, but a quote that is significantly lower than everyone else usually means something is missing — insurance, cleanup, stump grinding, or experience. Cheap tree work is expensive tree work when the job goes wrong. Get three quotes, compare what is included, and pick the one that is honest about what the job costs.

Give Us a Call

McDonald Tree Service has been working out of Billerica since 1995. We handle tree removal, stump grinding, and emergency tree work across 18 towns in Middlesex County and the Merrimack Valley — Billerica, Chelmsford, Lowell, Tewksbury, Wilmington, Burlington, Bedford, Carlisle, Dracut, Westford, Andover, Woburn, and Lexington.

Call (978) 375-2272 and I will come look at whatever you have got. I will tell you what it costs, what you actually need, and what you can skip. No pressure, no "today only" pricing, no commission salesperson trying to hit a quota. Worst case, I tell you the tree is fine and you have spent nothing but a phone call. That is the kind of tree advice I have been giving away for thirty-one years.