Madison County Tree Trouble - FOX 54 WZDX – Huntsville News, Weather and Sports

When tornadoes tore through Madison County on April 27th of last year, Bridgette Johnson's house was essentially cut in half by falling trees. After the rebuild, she had a lot of trees that needed to be removed, and that's what she hired Parkers Tree Service to do.

"He was supposed to cut down the trees, grind the stumps and remove all of the debris and just basically overall cleanup," said Johnson.

But she says that didn't happen. Instead, she says, the owner James Huskey worked one day, and was never seen again.

"Basically, all he did was cut the trees down and eventually they ended up here in my backyard," she explained.

That was in back in December of 2011. Johnson says that day he also asked for payment in full and she obliged. The total amount paid added up to be $2,000.

"He wanted the other half to pay bills, buy food, etc. He had not worked, he told me, in about 4 months," she said.

There have been several complaints about Parkers Tree Service to the Better Business Bureau. In fact, Mrs. Johnson says she plans on contacting them herself.

"[In] many of the cases, they report that the trees get cut down but they don't come back to grind the stumps, but they are asked to pay money so that he can rent a stump grinding machine," explained BBB President Michele Mason.

And that, says Mason, should be a warning sign to anyone looking for a contractor.

"It's a red flag to us when a company has to tell customers they have to rent machinery to do their job. If they are a well established, then they should already own that equipment," said Mason.

Huskey did not want to go on camera but in a written statement he says:

"Parkers Tree Service does intend to take care of all of the problems reported to the Better Business Bureau. I have no intentions on doing wrong to customers; if they can just bear with me everything will get taken care of in a timely manner. Parkers Tree Service does apologize for the poor negligence done by the owner."- James Huskey

Mrs Johnson says all she wants is her yard cleaned up so she can once again enjoy her property.

"It's been so long that I think I have snakes and rodents and other undesirable things living in this pile. When family members come over we really can't enjoy my backyard because we have this mess out here."

Mason encourages everyone to visit the BBB's website before signing any contracts with a company.