Perth Voice Interactive

THE dodgy tree-loppers are back.

An outfit that fleeced a 90-year-old Coolbinia man out of $1000 have letterboxed his house again, looking for repeat business.

Talbot Bashall is keen to get the word out: he wouldn’t touch WA Tree Services with a barge pole.

Late last year he’d answered a knock on the door and was presented with a $1480 bill for the pruning of a verge tree.

He hadn’t engaged anyone to do the work but the men at the door insisted on payment and produced a mobile eftpos machine. Flustered, Mr Bashall paid $1000 on the spot.

He later contacted WA consumer protection, which issued a warning about the company, and eventually got his money back.

Mr Bashall was gobsmacked when the same company letter-boxed him last week: “I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “Why on earth would I consider employing that mob?

“I wonder how many more suckers are going to be hurt: I count myself as one such sucker, albeit a wiser one now.”

WA consumer protection has issued warnings and taken various legal actions in response to complaints about the company’s business practices.

In May 2014 an enforceable undertaking required WA Tree Services and its employees to provide consumers with an itemised, written quotation which described in detail work agreed to be carried out, the cost for each item listed and a total cost, including taxes and other charges.

The business is also required to obtain written authorisation from the customer to commence work. Its flyers are now reviewed to ensure references to local council garden waste collections are distributed in areas where such services are offered.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK