Nels J Johnson Tree Experts, Inc.

Completely unprofessional. They have been doing tree trimming for the Village of Skokie for the last 2 weeks. They are not following Village ordinances, they are requiring people to move their cars without any legal notice, and they are incredibly rude. There has been signs up banning parking on my street on ²⁄₂ and ²⁄₃. At 7 AM on 2/​4, they range the bell demanding we move our cars from in front of our house. When my boyfriend pointed out that the signs haven’t been changed, we have expletives screamed at us, told to ‘eff off’, ‘go eff ourselves’ and the gentleman working kicked the sign at us. I expected better behavior out of someone hired by the village, and better behavior out of someone standing right next to his company’s logo. I know if I treated my customers the way he did, I’d be fired. Rude, unprofessional, and like to use abusive language. Don’t give these people your money.

This company was contracted to trim trees on kimball ave in Skokie. There were signs posted not to park on the street feb 2&3. On feb 4 i was woken up by a knock on door at 7 am saying i need to move my car for the tree trimming crew. When i pointed out to the guy that the sign was wrong he told me «I don’t f#cking care. F#ck you, go f#ck yourself.» Very unprofessional and rude. They have been starting their chainsaws at 7 am on the dot in this neighborhood for the last two weeks.

Unprofessional and unethical. Do not work with this company unless you’re prepared to have little to say about how or when your trees are trimmed.
On the appointed day, Dean and his crew failed to show up and could not be reached. The secretaries at the office were totally unhelpful. We never got a straight story from Dean about why he missed the appointment, but we couldn’t fail to notice his attitude of self-​importance when we questioned him. He didn’t seem to think that the fact that my sister and I each took the day off from our university teaching jobs meant anything, while his own apparent need to multi-​task so heedlessly that he failed to show up was of the highest importance.
On the day of the trimming Dean came and went quickly, taking the foreman with him because they apparently forgot a piece of equipment. The remaining four members of the crew, not one of whom spoke English, were literally set loose on the property and seemed to think they could do exactly as they pleased.
With both Dean and the foreman absent, one of the crew members went rapidly over to our only ornamental tree near the front of the house and sawed off four branches that provided the only privacy protection between the yard and the street. They also destroyed the beauty of the lower canopy of the tree. We immediately asked him to stop and without looking at us or saying anything, he literally disappeared. The foreman, who eventually returned, seemed to think it was odd we had any opinion at all about the work being done, but did agree to call Dean and ask him to come back to our house.
Dean arrived and said he was «shocked» to have been asked to come back for something so «trivial.» He told us we were «nit-​picking» to have any opinion about how our own trees were trimmed and grew increasingly hostile as we tried to explain to him that we thought we would consult directly with him before any trimming of our ornamental trees took place.
Dean is a very large man and towers over me, my sister, and my mother. By the time he left, he attempted to slam our newly built front gate — in my mother’s face — and became physically threatening, all because we were asking him to do his job as a licensed arborist.

Terrible experience. Dean Vasquez told us to be ready at 7am on a Friday so they could come and ‘work all day’ to take down two large trees, and trim several smaller trees.
We all got up an hour early to be ready, but no one showed up, so we called the office, who promised to ‘get to the bottom of it’ and then never called back. We then called Dean repeatedly, who finally called around 9a to tell us there had been an emergency family illness ‘all week’, but somehow he also said there was ‘another job’ that morning, but wait — actually — he’d turned the job over to ‘another arborist’ who had forgotten us! Maybe you should just pick one story Dean, and stick with that.
When they did come 8 hours late, Dean dropped off his crew and left.
That was the last straw. One of the non-​English speaking ones ran, and I mean ran over to a pretty Service Berry tree and cut off all the middle limbs that provided a buffer from the street for views from the house. We had been in the middle of discussing that tree when Dean blew us off during the original estimate, telling us, ‘Oh we’ll go over everything on the day of the trimming.’ Of course as I said the day of the trimming was a vacation day for Dean, who told us he was ‘offended’ to return after being called by his foreman. Offended? By what? Having a job?
All of them were unsophisticated louts who seemed to believe themselves when they claimed they didn’t have to consult with us about OUR trees because they had ’25 years experience.’ Really? The foreman looked no more than 30, and several had evidently not learned English in all those 25 years.
FYI — The job of an arborist is to consult with the owner of the trees on each tree to be trimmed, especially ornamental landscape trees, and make a plan the owner and crew both understand before leaving — if he must leave.

I could not be happier. We’ve used their services twice. Once in an emergency situation when a tree fell on our house (!!) and once just to have some optional work done. Super easy to ask for a quote online & I got a response the next day. Very professional and work was done quickly and as promised.

I had a positive experience with this company. They came out when they said they did, provided a quote, sent a crew on the day they said they would and provided good service. I asked the arborist questions about the dead trees and I learned quite a bit from him. And the office was always responsive when I called. I would recommend this company.

We hired Nels J Johnson to prune and trim two very tall Siberian Elm trees in front of our house this past Fall, based on a recommendation from a famliy member who had used them before. One of the trees had already dropped a couple large limbs — one on top of our car — so we were worried about somebody getting hurt. We worked with Dan from NJJ, one of their certified arborists, and he quoted us a fair price to prune and trim the trees. There was a scheduling change but Dan knew we wanted to have the work done before Halloween so that it would be safe for trick-​or-​treaters, so he got a crew out there as promised. They completed the work safely and efficiently, the trees looked great when they were done, and we haven’t had any issues since. What a relief it was to have that taken care of — many thanks to Dan, his crew, and everybody at Nels J Johnson!

Have used many services in the past and been satisfied. Tried Nel’s Johnson — they were expensive, didn’t show up when they said they would and took much much longer than any other service I have ever seen. They guys seem to take a 20 – 30 minute break every 20 minutes. It was crazy. Our town uses them and they have trimmed my front trees every 4 – 6 months even though they don’t need it –and guess what — they always seem to take a long time doing it and spend a lot of time on break. I would not recommend this company.

I signed a contract ⁴⁄₂₀ and since then have never gotten a call to schedule anything. They showed up twice without calling (once at 6:45 am!). I faxed my contract with my contact information asking to be called AND left two messages for Dan, the arborist. Still no call. Today I cancelled my contract with a kind manager, Carla. She was nice and listened but unfortunately doesn’t do or schedule the work. My thoughts, try someone else…

We needed a dead tree (an ornamental plum tree, maybe 25′ tall) removed from our front yard. I sent a web inquiry, and had a quote in my inbox the next day. I signed and returned the quote via email, and the tree was gone the next day. There was a little trampling of the flowers in front of the tree, but I think you have to expect that when removing something like a tree. The stump was removed and now it’s like the tree was never there. I would recommend them for tree removal.