# Ever Cut Down the Wrong Tree??



## Jumper (Oct 15, 2002)

There was a newpaper report last week here where some woman left her town house in "The Market"(one of Ottawa's trendier though somewhat rough and tumble 'hoods) and discovered her 30 foot maple which was planted three feet from the house had been cut, chipped and debris removed. Problem was she never hired a tree service to do the same!! Well the poop hit the fan, and she has accused someone of "stealing" her tree, crying about it even. (Sounds like she has OD's on granola) Looks to me like one of the neighbours wanted it removed as it was too close to the houses, or someone made a genuine error and cut down a tree at the wrong address! Cripes they even have "Crimestoppers" involved. Anyone here ever cut down the wrong tree-I have seen it done once (not by me!)


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## Acer (Oct 15, 2002)

I heard one story where a tree surgeon was working on a row of trees, alternate beech and sycamore, alongside a drive leading up to a big house. The instructions were to remove every other tree, starting with the first sycamore..Needless to say, the last bit of the instruction got a little confused, and he started on the wrong tree. The owner came back to a line of sycamore, and was obviously furious..especially as his house was named "The Beeches". The tree surgeon started to try to explain, realised he couldn't, and took the only option open to him...he ran for it!

Apparently, the bloke now earns a living dangling from a rope painting a large bridge over a big river somewhere in Scotland.


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## trees4life (Oct 15, 2002)

We've had that happen at property with multiple trees. 'Remove the westerly Norway maple' can be misinterpretted by the geographically challenged. That's why we now mark them with paint prior to removal.


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## xander9727 (Oct 15, 2002)

Surgeons removing the wrong limb, Arborist removing the wrong tree (all of the limbs). 

What is this world coming to.

Yet another in the long list of things that JPS is directly responsible for.


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## mowdenver (Oct 15, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Acer _
> [ The tree surgeon started to try to explain, realized he couldn't, and took the only option open to him...he ran for it!
> [/B]



Saw him run by while I was hunting near the Continental Divide a few years ago, said he couldn't stop to talk-somebody was after him 

Think I'd have to do the same


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## DDM (Oct 15, 2002)

Stick with the Paint someone could change up the ribbons for you.


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## sonny (Oct 15, 2002)

That realy makes me lafugh (now ). I remember a fews yrs. back we were to remove the whole street of trees on pecan st. In the town of Huntington Beach. About 4 crews of us were there cutting away. Well any way we were missing 1 crew. Tried & tried to reach them on the 2 way radios. ( they mush of had truck trouble. Well any way got ahold of them they wanted to know where the heck we were . They were on pecan street cutting down all the trees. The only problem was they were in the wrong city.Oh well its funny to me now. Was not so much fun at the time.


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## Stumper (Oct 15, 2002)

Never cut down the wrong tree but I did have a"situation" this past year. A customer for whom I had worked previously called and asked for a price on removing 3 ash that were growing between her fence and the neighbors fence in the back yard. 1 10"dbh and 2 6"-7" dbh. I gave her a price and she said great -"Go Ahead-my neighbor said she might split the cost but I know I want it done irregardless" . We agreed on a day then walked over to the neighbor to get permission to access her back yard ect. No one was home (or didn't answer the door). I showed up a few days later-knocked on the neighbor's door-no answer. I started working and after about an hour a woman came out and started cussing me out! My customer and the neighbor then engaged in a verbal cat fight. Bottom line-I removed the 2 smaller trees and left the biggest. The neighbors were madder than spit at each other but decided that it wasn't my fault.(My customer had pretty good evidence that the trees were primarily on her side of the lot line.) I certainly don't want to repeat that mess-if , on the other hand, a neighbor insists on getting mad at me for removing an undisputed tree for its owner, they can take a running jump.


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## 65hoss (Oct 16, 2002)

A very old and historic church in my area was having 3 pine trees taken down that were close to the original 1850's building. The idiots that came out took down a very large 100+ year old tree instead. Several very po'd people around after that.


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## geofore (Oct 16, 2002)

*wrong tree*

Never cut down the wrong tree but have seen my share of neighbors argue over who's tree that was, what a hassle. Knocking on the doors of the ajoining property owners is not just good PR, it may make your day go easier. Let them know you'll be there making noise. Nothing like having the neighbors calling the police to come see what is going on to slow down the job. I don't know if you run into this much but I have had one guy call and ask me to cut down trees on the other guy's place and sometimes the other guy wants the tree down, he just doesn't want to pay for it but the first guy will. The tree is a hazzard and someone is willing to pay the bill, I'll do it but the real owner must say it is ok first. Get it in writing because once it's down, it's down. At best you can plant a new tree but you can't put the old one back up if they change their mind once it's down. I always ask what kind of tree they are going to replace it with, you may get a tree sale from it, nine out of ten times they want a smaller tree that flowers.
Most often what I have seen is the timber co. cutting on the wrong property to get a few extra trees, Hey it was near the line??? Mark the trees with paint and you will know where to cut.
Don't talk to the ajoining property owner and you may hear this," Your man was in my yardand left a footprint, now I want you to resod the whole lawn."


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## Toddppm (Oct 16, 2002)

When I first started in tree work the foreman was new to the co. too and was a stoner. On the way to the first job with this guy he fired up a bowl, did an amazing job of taking down the wrong tree , beautiful spruce in the front yd. After realizing it was the wrong one he took down the right one and broke the pool pump in the process. Cost $3000 to replace the tree.


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Oct 16, 2002)

One day I was sent out to re-measure a state champion Oak tree and remove a lousy boxelder. The champion tree was almost big enough to be a national champion, so a re-measure was in order to see if it might qualify.
Anyway, I got the two trees mixed up and came back to the shop with all the measurements of the boxelder and a lot of Oak firewood.


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## budroe69moni (Oct 16, 2002)

i've never removed the wrong tree but i did clean out 
the wrong live oak!! the customer gave me the wrong 
address of their rental and i went out back and cleaned
out this 30" dbh oak. 1/2 of it was hanging over the back
of the house so i had to do some lite rigging. later that
night, i got a phone call from my customer and they asked
what happened to me today, why didn't i come by and do 
the job???? i told them that i did and read back the address
to him and he said that his rental was on 27th st, not 27th 
ave what are the chances of 2 houses w/ the same
address (except for the ave and st. thing) both having an 
oak out back that needed to be worked?????
budroe


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## Jumper (Oct 16, 2002)

Dis he pay you for the tree you serviced due to his error? Hope so!


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## Tom Dunlap (Oct 17, 2002)

Many years ago I sent my crew out to 873-74th Ave to lower the top of an amur maple hedge. A few hours later I get a phone call from a p'ed off person! Screaming at me. Turns out the crew went to 873-74 1/2 Ave and was half way through lowering the top of a Siberian Elm hedge. The woman was a legal secretary... you guess the end of the story  I had to remove the whole hedge and stumsp and replace with a row of pines.

There is a good ending though. I go every other year and do between $1k and $1.8k at the amur maple hedge property.

The pines have overgrown the front yard and are a real mess. I get a wicked gloat every time I see that yard. I had offered to finish the elm hedge and have a large tree spaded into the front yard to replace any "shade" or "privacy" that they felt the "lost". They would have a nicer front yard if they'd done it my way.

Tom


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## TREETX (Oct 17, 2002)

When I was between employed and self employed, I did contract work for other small tree co's. Doofus from "Doofus Tree Care" actually, Aaaaaaaafordable (to be the 1st in the YPs), sent me to an address to clean out "oaks". Operating on $300 a day (I hauled brush too), I cleaned all of the oaks in the front yard. The customer was very happy and let him know. He called me 2 days later po-ed because I was only supposed to crown clean the live oaks and I did 2 extra red oaks plus a cedar. Mad at me for doing a good job?? He wanted to hit her up for extra work but it had already been done. That was the last we worked together.

She was one of my first clients when I did her backyard - it was for much more than $300.

That was where I learned to make detailed proposals.

Another time, I started removing a row of cedar trees between a golf course and a new house. By the time tree #8 was diced up, the golf course guys came cursing and yelling. The trees were on the golf course, not the homeowner's land. I invited him to get out of the cart and continue that conversation. He was smart enough to decline and I just left the mess there as requested. I'm not sure what happened but I billed for the full amount and the customer payed up.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Oct 17, 2002)

I dont think I ever cut down a wrong tree. 

Waddaya say Tom, have I?


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## Tom Dunlap (Oct 17, 2002)

LMAO!!!!

It would be coming donw this spring anyway...no worries... 

I wish I could have a picture of your face that day 

Tom


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## xander9727 (Oct 17, 2002)

Another serious crime against humanity by JPS. This guy is out of control!


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## bighugetrees (Oct 22, 2002)

Got a call to " remove two trees in my front yard, the only two you can't miss them." I go see the trees and call him with a bid. The price seemed a little small so he wanted me to come out and see the trees when he was there. When I got back to the house and knocked on the door, someone was yelling to me from across the street. "You the tree guy?" I walked over and found out I was at the wrong house. Same street and the house numbers were the same too! I brought this to his attention that you both have the same address and he said, "you know, I should look into that. Sometimes we don't get all are mail."

Double check on removals then check again.


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## Tree Machine (Oct 27, 2002)

*wrong tree*

A new client had me out to assess her trees and quote one storm damaged tree in the back yard. The beautiful tree in the front needed no work, and I gave a quote on the back yard trees. A week later I got a call regarding the 'topping' of her front tree. Seems another tree company went to butchering her front maple. The guy whose house they were supposed to be at was two doors down, and seeing the hatchet job they were doing on the wrong tree, immediately fired them from doing his. Had the company used proper pruning techniques, I could have maybe come to bat, at least on some level. But, they did a hack job, damaged a hedgerow, bent two gutters, trampled the perennials and screwed the lawn up. They settled out of court for $5,000. The moral here, if you're going to prune the wrong tree, at least do quality work.


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## NeTree (Oct 30, 2002)

Hmmm... Never cut down the wrong tree, but man, have I caused some HUGE domestic arguments!  

One went like this:

Woman: Can you cut down this tree?
Me: Sure.
[Tree hits ground in background]

[Husband comes home early from work]

Husband: What the */[email protected]$^ is going on?
Me :Your wife hired me to cut down this tree.

[A HUGE fight ensues..divorce is threatened, testicles slandered, hair pulled, relatives slurred, etc etc etc]

[Exit ME]
[Enter neighbors]


This REALLY happened!

And I have seen a few smaller ones, too. Now I try to make sure than they're both on the same page as to what's being done. By the way, I did get paid for the above job; but I waited a week to go back and collect on the bill. Didn't want to get in the middle of a shootout or something!


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## FBerkel (Oct 31, 2002)

*I was young...it was the eighties...*

Hopefully the statute of limitations has passed by now, so here goes:

About 19 or so years ago, right after I got to Denver, this very marginal company I had hooked up with had me doing their street tree removal contract. Mostly big Siberian Elms and Silver Maples. One morning I'm on a street where, for some reason, the numbers aren't posted for a whole block, and when they resume on the next block, they do so as if there wasn't a block in between. The address I wanted was on this next block. Well, I didn't know this yet, and I make a bad assumption. 

There's one building on the whole block, a windowless, soul-less monolith. Turns out it's the phone company. I take down one of the two sibos in front, and...apparently, nobody notices! I guess people who work in windowless mausoleums aren't very aware of the "natural" world outside. 

I'm usually one to make sure I've paid for my own mistakes, but this one seemed too huge at the time, so I (and the company, which had no qualms about shirking responsibility) laid low, and nothing ever came of it.


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## M.D. Vaden (Oct 31, 2002)

*CUTTING THE WRONG TREE*

Almost had it happen.

When I used to contract only small pruning, I referred a medium removal.

The service was weak on tree identification, and almost removed the wrong tree. The homeowners ran out and corrected the situation as the saws were fired up.

I do not think it can happen in most cases unless tree identification skills are lacking, or communication has a weakness.

This reminds me of a business law class I took in college here in Oregon as an elective for my landscape technology major.

The law provides that nobody receives a benefit without paying for it.

In other words, if its totally reasonable to understand why a contractor would perform work at the location where work was not requested, then the recipient of the benefit must pay.

About the only way this can happen is if a consumer provides information that could be confused with another location.

For this to apply, the location of the recipient must have a need, like a fence that is falling apart, or paint that is peeling.

Suppose I asked Skippy's Tree Service to remove a 100' dying tree in my yard - no, let's say I went to their office and they did not come to my place.

So I show them a photo of just the tree, not my house. Then they give me a price, but when I sign the contract at their office, I give them the wrong address, or the pen malfunctions and makes the 7 in my address look like the 1 in my neighbor's. 

So they go out to do the work, but pull up next door. And I am not home, and my neighbor is not home, but the neighbor does have a 100' dying tree also.

If they remove that tree, which is basically a need, then that neighbor will be obligated to pay the cost if I don't. 

Nifty eh!

Mario Vaden
Landscape Designer / Arborist

www.mdvaden.com

M.D. Vaden - Trees & Landscapes
Beaverton, Oregon


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## John Paul Sanborn (Nov 1, 2002)

Then you have to make them pay the judgement, and maybe go through appeals court.


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## TheTreeSpyder (Nov 3, 2002)

i had a client call me out to quote a tree removal that was posing a problem to concrete, couldn't meet me, i could figure it out.........

Well i had doubt so wrote up the to remove the tree pushing up the sidewalk by the front door; wrote it as "South side of garage" as there was more than 1 tree in the yard; that is why i wanted them to meet me, but they didn't have the time for such things. Well wrong tree, they didn't read the quote well enough; in fact took them till the end of the week when they got the bill to notice the tree gone! But they realized the mistake was theirs, still got kinda 'torqued' into taking out the right tree at a discount as they were friends of my dad...

We trimmed the wrong palms once, the guy's secretary didn't want to disturb the busy man, didn't know the home numerical address, said it was the only place with a white fence on the street. Well, except for the place right across the street; so i asked if it was the place with the palms in front or back of the fence, she was sure it was the one with the palms in back. The cop that we awoke 1/2 way thru (that was working midnights and didn't answer the door) insisted we trim the rest of the palms for free too! i had quoted the palms per palm; the cop had 9, the client had 3; the secretary wasn't sure of that either.....

Unless it is the only tree on the property and being removed i have always tryed to insist on meeting the client there. Even then i like to ask about underground sprinklers, septic etc. (which my insurance doesn't cover). These situations have only thickend my resolve. We have an ordinance that states that addresses on the house are to be visible from the road, if ther is an alley there too! But we don't have total co-operation on either!


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## John Paul Sanborn (Nov 4, 2002)

I was working with a buddy last year and he had stopped by a property the night before for a bid on pruning a medium sized honeylocust.

We are getting gear out of the truck when his cellphone rings, the lady is asking him if he is cutting her tree down...no, he's not he othere side of the county...no he does not ahve any other workers and no Mexicans...

we then go intot the advice of getting the info off the trucka nd pictures of the tree and all that...


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## palmer4670 (Nov 4, 2002)

I heard this one from a client that used to work at a golf course. The course was adding a new hole through the woods so they tagged all of the trees that they wanted to keep. The dozer operator thought that the tagged tree were to come out. Needless to say they ended up with a fairway full of trees and a barren rough. communication is very important.

Palmer


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## mowdenver (Nov 11, 2002)

*Not a wrong tree story but....*

Firefighters Cut Up Wrong Car


FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) - Firefighters who were practicing with the Jaws of Life ended up making a big mistake - by cutting up the wrong car.

Antonio Rocha parked his car Friday behind the fire department's headquarters, next to two other cars that firefighters planned to use for their drill.

Firefighters never gave it a second thought.

When Rocha returned, he found his 1998 Honda Accord minus a roof and doors.

Firefighters learned of the mistake when the employee of a nearby body shop called the fire chief to tell them a man had come by complaining his car had been cut up.


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## treeman82 (Nov 11, 2002)

Mark had suggested that when doing any work on trees... 
1) use thumb tacks (inconspicuous and won't wash away) I think he uses green for prunes, and red for removals?

2) never give a price without having at least 1 hand on the tree.

3) walk the property with the owner at least once, preferably twice. 1x to hear what the customer has to say... 1x to give your opinion.


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## treeman82 (Nov 27, 2002)

I know I am gonna be kicking myself in the arse here... however I just reminded myself of a day last year where I cut SEVERAL of the wrong trees. Not my fault though. Regular customer bought a piece of property, wanted it cleared immediately. Property was 3/4 of an acre out of a 2 or 3 acre wooded area. 100 x 300. Went to look at the lot with the customer who ALWAYS paid either cash, or other untraceable way. Customer tells me to clear from a sign up to a telephone pole. I go and clear the land. Find out a couple of weeks later I had cleared the wrong lot. Customer told me to clear his next door neighbor's land. Cut an area about 100 x 120 of all small trees. His are mostly medium - large maples and cherries.


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