It’s easy to think that trees are among the few great things in life that are free. They increase our property values, provide us shade, show beautiful colors in autumn, and help cool and clean the air we breathe. But sometimes there may be a price. To keep your trees healthy or to get rid of dying ones, you may want the benefit of professional advice, skill, and labor. Our ratings of 35 area tree care services will help you find this help.

Read our article and findings (available exclusively to CHECKBOOK subscribers)

Back to Chicago Consumers' CHECKBOOK Table of Contents.

Sample Subscriber Comments/Reviews About Tree Care Firms

CHECKBOOK provides subscriber comments on their experiences with the firms they use. Please remember that individual subscriber comments are informal. Subscriber comments may give you insight into the types of features and problems that exist in a service field, but are not the best basis for selecting or rejecting a specific firm. To assess the quality of a firm's performance, we recommend that you give more weight to the percentages of favorable ratings. Those percentages are generally based on much larger numbers of consumers' ratings (the number of consumer ratings is noted above).

As You Can See Below, Some Tree Care Firms Get High Praise from Their Customers. Some Others Don't. So Choose Carefully.
Here Are a Few Samples of the Thousands of Comments CHECKBOOK Has Collected on Hundreds of Different Tree Care Firms.

• Subscriber from BUFFALO GROVE, IL wrote Another Service: Great service. Knowledgable.......
• Subscriber from BARRINGTON, IL wrote Another Service: Called them three times. FIrst time did not return my call. Second time still did..........
• Subscriber from CHICAGO, IL wrote Another Service: Communication on when crews will show up could be better........
• Subscriber from LIBERTYVILLE, IL wrote Another Service: Felt they were very knowledgeable but also very expensive. Felt they also tried to push..........
• Subscriber from MT PROSPECT, IL wrote Another Service: Very unresponsive. Doesn't seem interested in your business........
• Subscriber from ELMHURST, IL wrote Another Service: great price and very clean when finished, fast and prompt.......
• Subscriber from CHICAGO, IL wrote Another Service: I've used this firm to trim my trees for many years. Last time I used..........
• Subscriber from BROOKFIELD, IL wrote Another Service: good tree guy..........
• Subscriber from DOWNERS GROVE, IL wrote Another Service: Dawson Tree Service left the yard cleaner than it was before they came. I was..........
• Subscriber from LEMONT, IL wrote Another Service: Just not impressed for the money........
• Subscriber from WHEATON, IL wrote Another Service: Very good price and extremely fast. Took down an 50 ft pine tree in less..........
• Subscriber from CHICAGO, IL wrote Another Service: They seem very busy but worth the wait! They do very good work with very..........
• Subscriber from EVERGREEN PK, IL wrote Another Service: Heather took a long time explaining what she wanted to do about thinning out 2..........
• Subscriber from NORTHBROOK, IL wrote Another Service: Very impressive service. Very knowledgeable and gave honest assessment of options. Staff was very professional..........
• Subscriber from WILMETTE, IL wrote Another Service: Extremely responsive and casts are reasonable........
• Subscriber from ST CHARLES, IL wrote Another Service: This firm is extremely hard to do business with........
• Subscriber from CHICAGO, IL wrote Another Service: GREAT OFF SEASON PRICE SERVICE.......
• Subscriber from LOMBARD, IL wrote Another Service: Took a long time coming after estimate was accepted........
• Subscriber from WINFIELD, IL wrote Another Service: Never showed up for the estimate appointment. Called a week later wanting to know if..........
• Subscriber from LOMBARD, IL wrote Another Service: We thought that these folks did a good job and cleaned up well after themselves...........
• Subscriber from WHEATON, IL wrote Another Service: Great experience with Tree Green. Service has been superb for the past 4 years........
• Subscriber from ARLINGTON HTS, IL wrote Another Service: Brown's arborist did a nice job explaining my trees to me; it was an informative..........
• Subscriber from GLEN ELLYN, IL wrote Another Service: We are pleased with their removal of three trees and 100 ft of shrubs. Helpful..........
• Subscriber from GLEN ELLYN, IL wrote Another Service: Very pleased with their tree feeding and trimming services. Not a low cost supplier, but..........
• Subscriber from GLENVIEW, IL wrote Another Service: Reliable and reasonable........
• Subscriber from CHICAGO, IL wrote Another Service: Over priced and Manager Heather, says they will do something one way and when service..........
• Subscriber from NORTHBROOK, IL wrote Another Service: Great quality and company - more expensive then their competitors.......
• Subscriber from ELMHURST, IL wrote Another Service: Rarely does one experience a truly outstanding service provider. This happens to be one of..........
• Subscriber from OAK PARK, IL wrote Another Service: High price!!.......
• Subscriber from GLENVIEW, IL wrote Another Service: I've used them at least 3 different times and always been highly satisfied........
• Subscriber from MT PROSPECT, IL wrote Another Service: At first they seem to want your business but after the first year you don't..........
• Subscriber from ELMHURST, IL wrote Another Service: Not being familiar with today's prices regarding tree removal, I felt for the price charged..........
• Subscriber from BUFFALO GROVE, IL wrote Another Service: They took down 2 trees for us and the first tree fell onto my neighbors..........
• Subscriber from LA GRANGE, IL wrote Another Service: Had a very lage storm damaged tree in the back yard removed. Sinnott had to..........
• Subscriber from NAPERVILLE, IL wrote Another Service: Gave me an estimate on fertilizing a lilac bush that was dead........
• Subscriber from DES PLAINES, IL wrote Another Service: From the owner who gave the estimate to the tree trimmers, all was a very..........
• Subscriber from LONG GROVE, IL wrote Another Service: Very knowledgeable on trees. Treatment program really works to improve health. Staff turnover in recent..........
• Subscriber from PALATINE, IL wrote Another Service: Of 3 different vendors I've tried for tree trimming/pruning service, McGuinn has been the best..........
• Subscriber from NAPERVILLE, IL wrote Another Service: Services more expensive than other provider we've used. Arborist walked the property with us, discussed..........
• Subscriber from LA GRANGE PARK, IL wrote Another Service: I know nothing about trees. They were very helpful with selection and gave me a..........
• Subscriber from RIVER FOREST, IL wrote Another Service: A registered arborist explained the problem & solution and was on hand to supervise the..........
• Subscriber from CHICAGO, IL wrote Another Service: I have used Gray Tree Service several times and have always been satisfied........
• Subscriber from OAK PARK, IL wrote Another Service: Price too high........
• Subscriber from SKOKIE, IL wrote Another Service: Arborist was informed but would not follow owner's instrucion in pruning trees for fear of..........
• Subscriber from BUFFALO GROVE, IL wrote Another Service: We had two trees taken down at different times. Both times we had to wait..........
• Subscriber from DOWNERS GROVE, IL wrote Another Service: Phil and his crew carefully took down my damaged ash tree and did a good..........
• Subscriber from ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL wrote Another Service: Have used service for several years. Excellent service, knowledgeable.......
• Subscriber from WILMETTE, IL wrote Another Service: We have used Care of Trees for several years. The only problem is that they..........
• Subscriber from NORTHBROOK, IL wrote Another Service: Their Arborists are very skilled at treating and pruning trees. have used them for many..........
• Subscriber from NAPERVILLE, IL wrote Another Service: Asked to meet with arborist. He showed up at house while we were at work..........