"Do It Now" Bid

[Sunrise Guy]

I am po'd at myself, today. I went and bid a job, a ball moss removal. I had my equipment and, as we weren't working today, I was ready to do the gig, today. The job involved two big oaks in an assisted living home's back yard. The place is immaculate and is owned by a doctor. The guy is making a damn killing owning this thing. His daughter manages it.

OK, so both trees were fairly big, about three foot DBH, and around forty feet high, with spread canopies. I figured I'd spend three hours in each tree and then bag up the ball moss, and split. Since I was alone and ready to go and the yard was nice, the weather great, and the trees good climbers, I quoted a mere $250 for the gig, knowing that the good doctor would understand I was giving him a great deal for my six hours spent, and that he'd say, "Go ahead."-----WRONG!

This :censored: told me, "Well, I don't want to rush into this, so just leave the bid with my daughter." :censored: :censored: :censored: !!!!!

If I was bidding this gig for me and my crew, I would have charged $650. Here I tried to be a nice guy and got the cold, hard one. Yeah, nice guys blah, blah blah.-------

All the way home I was thinking how I was going to handle this when the :censored: calls me to do the gig, as I'm relatively sure he will. It's clear across town from me. What I came up with was I will probably just go out with one ground guy and do OK, but not like I wanted to do. The way I see it, I can't ethically jack the price.

BUT----I now have typed up a "Special Do It Now Bid" dayglo yellow sheet to attach to bids like today's. :

**********************************************************

The attached bid is priced for a "do it now" job. Because we are in your area, today, or because of other special circumstances, the price on the attached bid is only valid for today. While we in no way wish to put pressure on anyone to quickly decide to use our services, we also know that our cost and the time it takes us to return to the address on the attached bid, makes it impossible for us to offer the very low price we are offering, today, on a return trip to your site. We appreciate the opportunity to bid your job, and want you to know that if you decide to use our services at a later date, you will get the very best care available for your trees, although we sincerely regret that the work will be priced higher than it is, today.

We appreciate your understanding.

**********************************************************

I'm hoping the above will keep me from ever experiencing, again, what I did today. We'll see.

 

[CentaurG2]

We don’t usually show up to quote a job will all the gear in tow expecting a carte blanche go ahead. If fact, we have been doing this for 12 years and I don’t ever remember this actually happening. For smaller jobs, we try to line up 3 or 4 all in a row to make it worth pulling out all of the iron. We usually just inform the customer(s) that we can do this job for the lower quoted price if we are on the way back from another job and it may be a week or two before we can get to their job. We tell them that we will give them a call on the night before we are going to show up. Usually works just fine. Customers get the price they want and you can maximize your road time. Works great especially for things that are not a real emergency. I can understand your frustration but the “do it now” bid might put off a lot of potential customers. Makes you look like a fly bi night company. Just some thoughts…

 

[arbor pro]

$250 for six hours work to remove and clean up two 36"dbh trees? That's $40 an hour for labor alone not accounting for large equipment use (truck, loader, chipper, etc). :jawdrop:

Dude, you must be getting REALLY REALLY hungry with the current economy! Even $650 sounds way too cheap to me unless they were both simple drop and chops with no aerial work required and nothing in either the fall or clean up zones to get damaged by the falling tree or by equipment used to clean up the debris.

No way I'd want that job for $250 if I have to make a return trip. No way I'd want it for $250 under any circustances. My cleanup fee alone would be that much.

 

[arbor pro]

We don’t usually show up to quote a job will all the gear in tow expecting a carte blanche go ahead. If fact, we have been doing this for 12 years and I don’t ever remember this actually happening. For smaller jobs, we try to line up 3 or 4 all in a row to make it worth pulling out all of the iron. We usually just inform the customer(s) that we can do this job for the lower quoted price if we are on the way back from another job and it may be a week or two before we can get to their job. We tell them that we will give them a call on the night before we are going to show up. Usually works just fine. Customers get the price they want and you can maximize your road time. Works great especially for things that are not a real emergency. I can understand your frustration but the “do it now” bid might put off a lot of potential customers. Makes you look like a fly bi night company. Just some thoughts…

I'd don't think it makes you look 'fly bi night' if you're already in the area and have the equipment with you. Giving such a HUGE discount to a customer is not a good idea though. I could see discounting the total price by the cost of drive time if you were having to return to the site at a different time/date because doing the work 'now' would actually save you the expense of returning. However, the rest of the job should be bid the same as what you normally bid work just minus the travel expenses.

 

[Bigbrass1's]

No way I'd want that job for $250 if I have to make a return trip. No way I'd want it for $250 under any circustances. My cleanup fee alone would be that much.

LMAO He is only cleaning the MOSS out of the trees.

figured I'd spend three hours in each tree and then bag up the ball moss, and split

 

[Rftreeman]

my "do it now" price is the same as my do it whenever price.......

 

[arbor pro]

LMAO He is only cleaning the MOSS out of the trees.

Whoops. Thought maybe you guys used 'Ball Moss' as a common name for some particular tree on the coast. There's no moss to clean out of the trees in the midwest so I have to admit, the original post confused me just a little bit. I feel smart as a turd now. :stupid:

Still, $250 for 6 hours labor regardless of what you're doing is too low IMO. I get $65/hr to prune 6' tall shrubs. No arial work involved. Cleanup fee extra.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

$250 for six hours work to remove and clean up two 36"dbh trees? That's $40 an hour for labor alone not accounting for large equipment use (truck, loader, chipper, etc). :jawdrop:

Dude, you must be getting REALLY REALLY hungry with the current economy! Even $650 sounds way too cheap to me unless they were both simple drop and chops with no aerial work required and nothing in either the fall or clean up zones to get damaged by the falling tree or by equipment used to clean up the debris.

No way I'd want that job for $250 if I have to make a return trip. No way I'd want it for $250 under any circustances. My cleanup fee alone would be that much.

OK, you're not from here, so I'll forgive your misunderstanding. This was a ball moss removal gig. Ball moss is a little bromeliad that grows on oaks and other trees down here. You climb up and pick it, no "drop zone" needed, per se, as each clump weighs an ounce or so.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

We don’t usually show up to quote a job will all the gear in tow expecting a carte blanche go ahead. If fact, we have been doing this for 12 years and I don’t ever remember this actually happening. For smaller jobs, we try to line up 3 or 4 all in a row to make it worth pulling out all of the iron. We usually just inform the customer(s) that we can do this job for the lower quoted price if we are on the way back from another job and it may be a week or two before we can get to their job. We tell them that we will give them a call on the night before we are going to show up. Usually works just fine. Customers get the price they want and you can maximize your road time. Works great especially for things that are not a real emergency. I can understand your frustration but the “do it now” bid might put off a lot of potential customers. Makes you look like a fly bi night company. Just some thoughts…

Sorry, it appears, from your post and a few others, that ball moss is "foreign" to you. Its removal simply involves climbing and picking. It's a Texas/SW US thing. My "do it now" approach is not unheard of, for this kind of gig, down here.

 

[Bigbrass1's]

Hey you know that moss is worth money at garden centers. They use it for hanging baskets to hold the dirt in.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Hey you know that moss is worth money at garden centers. They use it for hanging baskets to hold the dirt in.

Yep. The thing is, the garden centers down here get their own moss off of their own trees. It's down here by the ton. I suppose I could look into shipping it all over the country, but I'm just not into the hassle factor for doing that. If you want to look into it, let me know what you want to pay, by the pound, and I'll ship it up to you. PM me, if you actually want to get into this.

-Miles

 

[CentaurG2]

OK, you're not from here, so I'll forgive your misunderstanding. This was a ball moss removal gig. Ball moss is a little bromeliad that grows on oaks and other trees down here. You climb up and pick it, no "drop zone" needed, per se, as each clump weighs an ounce or so.

Yup….ball moss aint native up here. Why do you remove it? Is it just unsightly or is it a hazard?? Most of our work involves a bucket truck, chiptruck, chipper and support truck. To load the trucks and pull everything out of the yard will cost $200. To just drop the outriggers on your site will be another $200. Prices increase from that point depending on the job. If we can line up a couple of smaller jobs, we split the $200 pull out fee between the jobs. Chipper and chiptruck combo alone is a different price. Regional differences I guess!

 

[Blakesmaster]

in an assisted living home's back yard. The place is immaculate and is owned by a doctor. The guy is making a damn killing owning this thing. His daughter manages it.

In my opinion, this is where your problem lies. He may be the one with the checks but he's not the decision maker. He's most likely a partial decision maker but any "business" that's looking to have work done is usually arranged in such a way that more than one person has say in who they hire which prevents things like impulse buys. I've given "do it now" prices but only when I'm talking to the HO who makes all the decisions. If I hit it off with the HO and I have my equipment with me ( say I'm working next door or something ) I'll go much lower than my usual price if they hire me then and there. But your situation involved more than one party making the decision and you knew that. In that case, I always try to be as professional as possible, submit my bid on nice paper, shake their hand and walk away. Buddying up to the guy does no good.

 

[pdqdl]

Why give a do-it-now price? EVER ?

You will always be the only tree service there to give the do-it-now price, so who are you bidding against? By undercutting some jobs, you are forcing yourself to make more $ on the drive-to-it-again jobs; so now you are much less competitive than the guy who was working next door, who may not be giving away work.

Then... next time they call you, they will howl about how much you have raised your prices, or... You did my neighbor last week for just $xxx.00, how come mine is so much higher?

Quote a fair price to do a good job on every job, then you never need to make explanations about your capricious, unfair pricing.

 

[TreeTopKid]

I am po'd at myself, today. I went and bid a job, a ball moss removal. I had my equipment and, as we weren't working today, I was ready to do the gig, today. The job involved two big oaks in an assisted living home's back yard. The place is immaculate and is owned by a doctor. The guy is making a damn killing owning this thing. His daughter manages it.

OK, so both trees were fairly big, about three foot DBH, and around forty feet high, with spread canopies. I figured I'd spend three hours in each tree and then bag up the ball moss, and split. Since I was alone and ready to go and the yard was nice, the weather great, and the trees good climbers, I quoted a mere $250 for the gig, knowing that the good doctor would understand I was giving him a great deal for my six hours spent, and that he'd say, "Go ahead."-----WRONG!

This :censored: told me, "Well, I don't want to rush into this, so just leave the bid with my daughter." :censored: :censored: :censored: !!!!!

If I was bidding this gig for me and my crew, I would have charged $650. Here I tried to be a nice guy and got the cold, hard one. Yeah, nice guys blah, blah blah.-------

All the way home I was thinking how I was going to handle this when the :censored: calls me to do the gig, as I'm relatively sure he will. It's clear across town from me. What I came up with was I will probably just go out with one ground guy and do OK, but not like I wanted to do. The way I see it, I can't ethically jack the price.

BUT----I now have typed up a "Special Do It Now Bid" dayglo yellow sheet to attach to bids like today's. :

**********************************************************

The attached bid is priced for a "do it now" job. Because we are in your area, today, or because of other special circumstances, the price on the attached bid is only valid for today. While we in no way wish to put pressure on anyone to quickly decide to use our services, we also know that our cost and the time it takes us to return to the address on the attached bid, makes it impossible for us to offer the very low price we are offering, today, on a return trip to your site. We appreciate the opportunity to bid your job, and want you to know that if you decide to use our services at a later date, you will get the very best care available for your trees, although we sincerely regret that the work will be priced higher than it is, today.

We appreciate your understanding.

**********************************************************

I'm hoping the above will keep me from ever experiencing, again, what I did today. We'll see.

SRG don't feel bad. You were too cheap, and Ball Moss removal is horrible (I've done my fair share). You end up covered in dust, and little critters (are they called Chiggers?). It's his loss mate. $250.00 per tree would have been fair.

 

[treeseer]

The way I see it, I can't ethically jack the price.

Why not? Just mail a new quote, explaining the need to charge for driving etc., and that your previous bid was in error after you considered all it takes to do a quality job.

I have to correct bids pretty often; professional enough imo if done in time.

$40/hour is nutso cheap tho, even if it is fun easy work like ballmoss removal (they have it in FL too)/

 

[TreeTopKid]

Yup….ball moss aint native up here. Why do you remove it? Is it just unsightly or is it a hazard?? Most of our work involves a bucket truck, chiptruck, chipper and support truck. To load the trucks and pull everything out of the yard will cost $200. To just drop the outriggers on your site will be another $200. Prices increase from that point depending on the job. If we can line up a couple of smaller jobs, we split the $200 pull out fee between the jobs. Chipper and chiptruck combo alone is a different price. Regional differences I guess!

One of the benefits of living in New England!

I always put in a good price, but there's a lot of hacks down here. There are lots people down here that will turn up in a beaten up truck, and trailer, without Insurance and take down an 80ft pine tree for $200.00 (seriously!).

I get a lot of my work because I aim for a higher end clientele but sometimes when I've given a really fair price I don't even get a look in. APOLOGIES CENTAUR I stuck my reply to the wrong post!

 

[Sunrise Guy]

In my opinion, this is where your problem lies. He may be the one with the checks but he's not the decision maker. He's most likely a partial decision maker but any "business" that's looking to have work done is usually arranged in such a way that more than one person has say in who they hire which prevents things like impulse buys. I've given "do it now" prices but only when I'm talking to the HO who makes all the decisions. If I hit it off with the HO and I have my equipment with me ( say I'm working next door or something ) I'll go much lower than my usual price if they hire me then and there. But your situation involved more than one party making the decision and you knew that. In that case, I always try to be as professional as possible, submit my bid on nice paper, shake their hand and walk away. Buddying up to the guy does no good.

Huh? What? The guy owns the biz, solo, and makes the decisions, alone. He's an MD who runs these homes and owns them, as well. His family does the nursing and patient care. I'm not sure how, or what, you're reading into my first post. My apologies if I'm missing something, here.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

SRG don't feel bad. You were too cheap, and Ball Moss removal is horrible (I've done my fair share). You end up covered in dust, and little critters (are they called Chiggers?). It's his loss mate. $250.00 per tree would have been fair.

I have never gotten chiggers, or covered in dust, from ball moss removal. We use these ten foot long grabbers that do a great job.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Huh? What? The guy owns the biz, solo, and makes the decisions, alone. He's an MD who runs these homes and owns them, as well. His family does the nursing and patient care. I'm not sure how, or what, you're reading into my first post. My apologies if I'm missing something, here.

You said the daughter runs the place, she is the manager who makes the day to day decisions.

imo no matter what the work, you should get a signature before starting. At least you blame yourself more then her, she figures she is just doing her job.

If he wants you to do it, then you just ask for a bit more to cover the time lost on the last trip.