Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Neil from Beechwood Tree Care, and unfortunately one of our customers has been targeted by a scam which is directly set up to defraud Beechwood Tree Care customers, and it’s cost them a couple of thousand pounds. I really want to explain to you how it occurred and how you can avoid it happening in the future.
There are just some horrible people out there who do nasty things, and I’m lost for words, but let’s go through how it happened and how you can avoid it.
Our customer had a quotation from us, was happy to go ahead with the works, and they were trying to pay their deposit. Unfortunately, they were struggling with the technology and they couldn’t pay their deposit online. So they decided to call us, and that’s where they got caught up in the scam.
We think the gentleman got scammed because when he couldn’t pay his deposit, he did a Google search. He can’t entirely remember what he did, but we think he did a Google search, as I’ve just done here, and up comes our website, as you can see.
As you scroll down, you’ll see that we’ve got two Google review sites, Trustpilot, our Companies House listing, one of our competitors, our Facebook page, and then there are a couple of other sites which appear to be us.
You have this one here. We get complaints about the standard of these people’s work, but we haven’t come across any scams. They’re trading on our name.
This is our Trustpilot reviews, and then there’s this one here which says it’s Beechwood Tree Care, but the site is beachwoodtreecare.com — not written like the beech tree, but like the beach you’d go to by the sea.
If you go to this website, this is the number that the gentleman rang. When he rang and said, “I’m having trouble paying my deposit,” they said, “Don’t worry. No problem. We’ll send someone round to collect a cheque.”
We would never do this. Unfortunately, it obviously sounded legitimate. They came round, asked for the cheque to be made payable in their personal name, and they’ve cashed the cheque for a couple of thousand pounds. He’s heard nothing from them since.
The only time he knew he’d been scammed was when he then called us, I guess using the number on our paperwork, and said, “I haven’t heard anything about when you’re going to book a date in for me to do the work.”
This is, as far as I can tell, a website that is entirely pretending to be us and trying to gain legitimacy by trading under our company name.
We know the gentleman rang this number. If you go to their contact page, they’ve got a Reading number, but when you look at their maps, they’re in Southampton and down here in Worthing. It doesn’t really make sense.
Generally, you can see that it looks like a legitimate website, but you need to be really, really careful. There are some horrible people out there doing horrible things, and in this case they’ve deprived an elderly gentleman of a couple of thousand pounds.
We’ve not come across anybody else who’s been caught out by this scam, but we would hate for any of our customers to be caught out by this in the future. When you’re looking for us, we are beechwoodtreecare.co.uk.
It now wants to send me to the dodgy ones because I’ve been looking at them too much. You’ll see all of our branding, all of our trucks, and any time you see a Beechwood employee, they will be in a branded company vehicle and wearing branded clothing.
If something doesn’t seem right, please don’t hand over any money. It probably isn’t right, and there’s something amiss. No Beechwood employee will ever be upset with you for saying, “Actually, I want to have a think about this. I want to take some time to make sure that I feel comfortable.”
It really is abhorrent what’s happened to this gentleman, and I would hate for it to happen to anybody else. Thanks for watching the video. I’m really sorry that this has occurred, and I’m really upset that this gentleman has lost his money.
Please remember these friendly Beechwood faces. Remember our uniforms and our branded trucks, and that we will never be offended if you say, “I need to take a little bit of time to think about this.”
If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
Why Choose Beechwood Tree Care?
At Beechwood Tree Care, we are not just skilled in the work we do but extremely passionate about it too. This encourages us to go above and beyond for our clients, delivering the best possible care for their trees and landscapes.
We are highly experienced and certified arborists who operate across the region, delivering precise care and expert insights into your tree management.
Contact Us Today
If you are looking for local arborists to bring out the best in your landscape, Beechwood Tree Care is here to help. Contact the team today to request a consultation and to learn more about our services.
