Niamh Spence
We’ve all been there, when you want to get revenge on someone who’s done you over but one angry tree surgeon took it to a whole new level.
In 2022, Jamie Young, a tree surgeon from Lancashire, decided to get his own back after a woman allegedly refused to pay him for trimming her hedges.
While working on the job, he was already getting bad vibes as he claimed the woman ‘hid’ inside her house as he completed the hedge trimming.
Four days later, he claims he'd received a text telling him she wouldn’t be paying for the work on her home in the outskirts of Rochdale, Manchester.
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The woman allegedly refused to pay for Jamie’s work as she claimed he’d left her hedges ‘uneven and unsymmetrical’ rather than in the shape of a Christmas tree as she’d requested.
Despite Jamie previously explaining to her that her festive inspire foliage would be impossible, she was still left disappointed and refused to pay for any of his time and effort.
Texts from the woman to A1 Tree Surgeons, where he works, show her claiming that he'd 'made a right pig's ear' of the trimming, and that it's 'not symmetrical or level' on top.
After the company tried to explain that he had outlined the issues before completing the job and that the work still needed paying for, she texted back: “No chance, that is in no way what I asked for. I wanted it the same shape it was aka still Christmas tree shaped but trimmed.
"That is not anything like it. I'm sorry but I won't be paying."
So they decided to take matters into their own hands - telling her that they'd be 'returning the waste tomorrow'.
Footage shows Jamie and a pair of pals lugging two bulging sacks of hedge trimmings from his truck and tipping them over her fence.
The waste can then be seen in two giant heaps on her lawn next to her newly-pruned conifer.
A video clip shared to the A1 Tree Surgeons Facebook page of them taking the cuttings back has been viewed more than 40,000 times, which ends with Jamie declaring: “This is what happens to customers who refuse to pay for a job.”
And many comments praised them for taking the garden waste back, with some even claiming 'great job'.
Speaking after the video has been widely shared, he explained that he wouldn’t usually react in this way: “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.”
According to Jamie, the woman wasn't happy with the video and he claims she had £40 'waiting' for them at the house.
He said that he doesn’t take money until people have seen the work and are happy, but that the woman allegedly refused to come out of the house when he finished the job and wanted to talk to her.
He added: “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.”
Whilst the job might have only been for £40, he continued: “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.
"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.”
UNILAD has contacted A1 Tree Surgeons for further comment.