First off Matt goes to meet Peter and Pam Heath who employed Shaun Varey when he was trading as Beechwood Tree Services (based in Bromley, and not to be confused with any other businesses of the same name). Shaun approached Peter back in August 2009, when he was working in his front garden and asked him if he needed any work doing. Peter had a tree that he wanted taken down as it had been damaged in a storm six years previously. Shaun started the quote for the work at £700, coming down to £500, Peter told Shaun that he still could not afford that price and the pair settled on £250. Shaun started the work straight away.
Peter was horrified when he went to inspect his garden. Shaun and his men had left the tree strewn across the lawn; they had broken Peter and Pam's fence and damaged their shed. Despite this, Shaun still expected payment in full. Peter said, "They packed up their tools, and said that they was leaving but they wanted their cash and if they didn't get their cash they'd do damage to me property." Intimidated by Shaun's threats Peter paid up and the Heath's were left with a £150 bill to clean up the devastation.
Earlier this year Shaun signed undertakings with Bromley Trading Standards promising to amend his business practices. However, after talking to the Heaths it was apparent that Shaun had not changed his ways. Rogue Traders found a house in Bromley, rigged it with secret cameras and hired actress Pauline to invite Shaun Varey out to do some work.
Pauline's job for Shaun was a straightforward task. She wanted him to move three smallish trees from the garden along with the tree stumps. Our expert James Pinder stated that a reliable tree surgeon would charge no more than £200 for this job.
When Shaun arrived at our house he was no longer Beechwood Tree Services but now Green Leaf Tree Services (also not to be confused with any other businesses of the same name). Shaun inspected the trees, incorrectly identifying all of them. He called a Common Ash a Mountain Ash, he said a Prunus was part of the Lime family and he said a Viburnum shrub was a Bay tree. He also told our actress that the removal of the tree stumps would be impossible and suggested poisoning the stumps would be a more effective way of killing them. He quoted £630 for the job. Our actress asked him once again to remove the tree stumps, this time Shaun told her that if she really wanted them out it would cost her a further £1000 so Pauline settled on poisoning the stumps.
Shaun and his team got straight to work, but alarm bells started to ring straight away. Shaun's clothing and that of his teams, their behaviour and the way they wielded their saws lead our expert to believe that they were not trained tree surgeons. If Shaun is not trained to commercially operate chainsaws then he's breaking the law. Shaun's workers also put their hands dangerously close to the chainsaw, at one point Shaun stepped back onto a chainsaw and he even got something in his eye while was working. Shaun's team finished the job within 30 minutes, however he did not poison the stumps, despite telling Pauline he had.
Before he left Shaun offered to prune the Hazel tree which we decided to take him up on.
Shaun arrived back at the Bromley property a week later but before he started work Matt had a few questions about the way he conducts his business. Matt pointed out our expert had managed to remove the stumps that Shaun claimed were "impossible" to get out and informed him that he didn't poison the stumps even though he said he had. Shaun apologised and when Matt asked for a refund Shaun assured us that we'll get that back. Shaun also said that all the other customers who he'd overcharged, or done a bad job for, would also get a refund too.
We are yet to receive a refund from Shaun. He has told us that he has a cash flow problem and we will receive a refund in 3 to 4 weeks.
The trying tree surgeon