A day from Heck.

[treeman82]

I had a day from heck fellas. I need to vent, and I need some advice.
I went to do some work this morning across the street from my house, at the new neighbor. I had already brushed out a few small trees and stacked it for the chipper with my guy. A friend of mine comes over at 9:00 with his 10 wheeler and chipper. We start chipping and the homeowner shows up. Now I gave this guy a really neighborly price the other day. $800 for about 10 trees or so which were all really easy, but it was a good day of work for 3 people. Guy comes over and we walk the property. He now wants a bunch of other crud chipped up as well as some new trees down. Half an ash which wasn't too bad, but did have to be climbed was worth another $300. By 11:30 we had blown the 10 wheeler full of chips. Wound up doing that 2 times today.
I was walking on the ground with my boots on, and I had known that the seems were going last night but figured they would last the day. At lunch time they went and from about the instep back went flapping around. Later on in the day they completely went. So I had to get new boots. Anyways, I still have another day's worth of work at my neighbor's house and to do that will cost me some bucks for the chipper and labor and all that stuff. I am going to talk with him tomorow and tell him that I need $ for another day. I don't know what he will say to that.
While the 10 wheeler was out dumping chips, I went up into a maple tree in front of the house. The chain on my 020T got thrown off the bar. I wound up having to use an 044 to make some really small cuts. Then I was cutting the top out of a leader and the thing went backwards on me when the wind came up.
I got down on the ground, we finished the day at 4:00 and we took off. However one of the tires on my car was DANGEROUSLY low. So we go to my garage and fill it with air. One of my landlords was trying to reach me on Nextel. Apparently he has 2 properties about 1/2 hour north of here which need work. Now I have worked for this guy before... most times with problems of some form or another. The last time I worked for him he said that whatever I do for him had nothing to do with my rent and he would simply pay me. Well at 5:00 I still had to get the commercial property ready for a party going on all weekend. Wound up being there till 12:00 AM. I went and got boots after I dropped off my guy and dropped $230 there. I did however get a small tree job off of it. I went at about 8 oclock and looked at the first of 2 properties for the landlord, I called him on Nextel. Probably a few thousand dollars worth of work between the two places. Guy tells me I have to do it for free because I owe them money We got into an arguement because I told him I needed to be paid for it and he replied with.. "I am going to talk with my 2 partners tomorow and have you removed from the property" I on my own figure I have done enough work there in the past 2 years to be paid up for quite some time. I wound up working at the property till midnight. Used a pressure washer on the parking lot from about 10:00 - 11:00. Now I am home and my feet are all soaked. I hope I don't have another day like this for a while.

Any input fellas?

 

[Acer]

I feel your pain. I've also had those runs of bad luck where everything you do seems to go wrong, every machine you touch seems to break, and the bills come through that letterbox like drifting snow. The only thing to do is batten down the hatches and ride the storm. Avoid as much potentially dangerous work as possible until things seem a bit more positive. Things always get better.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Yahe when you satrt giving too much work away it realy ends up biting you.

For my neighbors, I tell them I will work cheap doing the pruning and they can haul, but if other workers/equipment need to be brought in then they pay the going rate.

I've read your travails with your landlords before, thye realy know how to milk you for everything possible. You gotta get stuff in writing with them I would guess. They want you to do extra and then chisle you later. Start shopping for a new shop I guess. The history of this relationship just showss it will get worse.

 

[kf_tree]

dude just plan that some thing will go wrong every day. if it doesn't then its a nice surprise. if tree work was easy then every one would be doing it. take your girl out to nice dinner tonite and relax. be firm with your price's. i pruned out an oak a while back. i had the husband and wife come out to look at the tree before i came down. they said it looked great. just as i pulled my ropes, they wanted me to go back up and get one more branch. i told them i wanted another 150 just to go up for that branch. it was mondo wood and a ????? to get up. it took me about 25 min just to get to the top. in the end they paid.

 

[Treeman14]

Like Thumper said, get EVERYTHING in writing. After seventeen years in business, Ive learned that lesson many times. I'm basically a very trusting person, so when someone tells me something I tend to believe them. Unfortunately when it comes to money, many people have a very selective memory. I've gotten burned more than a few times over the years because of verbal agreements or misunderstandings.
I just got paid last week from a job we did in November and the only thing that saved me was a signed contract. Had to threaten legal action, all the nice letters and phone calls were virtually ignored.

Don't be shy about getting a signed contract. You are a businessman after all. It actually protects both parties. They know exactly what you are going to do and you know exactly how much you are going to be paid for it.

I like Brooklyn's advice about planning for something to go wrong every day. And having the customer's check out the tree BEFORE you come down. Good idea.

 

[treeman82]

Trust you me John, as soon as another place local opens up I am gonna let them know. Me and 2 of the normal owners get along perfectly well. I actually get away with a LOT of shot with both of them before they say anything. This guy who is barely ever around... we have a strange relationship. Anyways, I went there this morning and talked with the owners. They were very happy about the way the place looked (less the stolen plant). I told them about my problem from last night with their partner and they sided with me. I saw the 3rd partner today over there and we didn't say a thing about me being over there or me doing the work. If he asks I shall simply tell him that I will not do the work because I don't have time.

 

[kf_tree]

thats why i like removal work , never a complaint. on prunings i always have the customer(if there home) give the ok before i come down. i hate going up the same tree twice.

 

[treeclimber165]

Originally posted by spike_it
thats why i like removal work , never a complaint. on prunings i always have the customer(if there home) give the ok before i come down. i hate going up the same tree twice.

Seems like I'm going up the same tree twice a LOT lately. Usually to remove a big limb that I intentionally left because 'It doesn't look right, I want it OFF from over the house!'. It seems like I'm nothing more than a trained monkey lately, removing perfectly healthy limbs because they are 'over the house' rather than using my 15 years experience and training to better the health of the tree. Frustrating.....