Avina Tree Service

Amanda

Be Aware!!! AVINA killed my TREE and they DENIED it. We had a very nice big Brazilian Peppertree in our front yard (see photo). On 2/13/24, a tree-trimming guy from AVINA Tree Service stopped me while I was driving out of my garage to go to work. He offered to trim our trees. He showed me his business card with a license number (#944972) on it. I quickly negotiated the cost of the tree trimming since there was a license number on his card, and several guys led by Fidel Avina started trimming our tree. I told him the Peppertree was too big and asked him to trim it smaller (I did not ask him to kill my tree!). While they were working, I was not watching them. I went out a couple times to see if they had finished the job, so I could pay them before I left for work, afterwards. A couple weeks later, some leaves started turning brown and drying up. I thought my tree might be in shock temporarily and would come back later. Unfortunately, the Peppertree died completely in late June when all the leaves turned brown and dried up (see photo). I was told by a second tree company that my tree died because it was trimmed too much and also the chainsaw they used might be unclean. The second tree company offered to remove my dead tree for $500. I declined and decided to call AVINA Tree Service to take a look at our Brazilian Peppertree they trimmed. The first response I got from Chris from AVINA was “Your tree was sick before we trimmed it.” This excuse is not even logical. Fidel Avina and his team never told me my tree was sick before, during, or after the end of their tree service when I paid him $370. Our tree was very vibrant as shown on the photo before they trimmed it and I have confirmed with a nursery that a big tree will take years to die if it’s sick. Chirs kept telling me that he would send someone to look at our Peppertree again, but no one showed up. It was not until 10/7/24, that Fidel Avina showed up at our house to talk to my husband while I was at work.. He made it sound like it was my fault that our Peppertree died by telling my husband “it was your wife asking me to cut it smaller” Yes. I asked him to cut it smaller. Isn’t that the purpose of trimming? And I did not ask him to kill the tree! The Peppertree would not need trimming if it wasn’t growing too large. I thought AVINA was licensed to do the tree trimming service and Fidel claimed he has been a Tree Arborist for 20 years. To my knowledge, to become a certified Arborist in the state of California, you need to pass a written test after being in the Arboriculture field for a minimum of three years, but he blamed the paying customer for his own mistakes! To move forward, my husband offered to help with half of the cost of a new tree (so we can choose the tree we like) but Fidel asked my husband to also cover half of the tree removal on top of the cost of the tree. Let’s be honest here, we went to a mainline Nursery with 9 locations in Southern California, Moon Valley Nurseries, in order to find out how much it would cost to replace our full size Brazilian Peppertree with a new one. The total cost was $19,334.35 with the Peppertree alone costing $14,999. We did not ask AVINA for $19,334.35 (see photo) to replace the Brazilian Peppertree they killed. For less than $2,000, they should be able to remove the dead tree and plant a new younger tree than our now dead Peppertree. It is unbelievable to me that Fidel even asked my husband to pay for half of everything on their own mistake! I believe AVINA should first refund me $370.00, for the tree trimming service they failed at. After that, AVINA Tree Service can then talk about how to come up with a compromised solution with a younger tree.