Don't name names. It's not a good idea!

[tree MDS]

I had a very good experience with that company but they were unable to do my job in the time-frame I needed, so I decided to give you a shot. Now you have really offended me with what you've said, and I am asking you to leave, right now!" I felt so stupid on the walk back to my truck. I learned my lesson, though.

Leave right now. I would not want to work for some corn ball that came out with some dumb sh!t like that anyway. Leave right now. Give me a break. That is about the gayest thing I have ever heard.

Lol, I'm gonna rep you just fer all that hate, right on. I havent made it quite like you yet, I do try to not fall into that trap of badmouthing competitors too much, it makes you look better when you take the high road-even though the customer gave you a golden oppertunity, its allmost like a test imo. It must be raining everywhere, sure are alot of us around today.

 

[mckeetree]

As long as you have a good lawyer, I suppose you may not have to worry UNTIL you put down the wrong company that has a better lawyer.

In all seriousness, as a group, I don't find our peers to be overly litigious, but it only takes that one guy who decides to sue you for slander and then you're in for wasted time in court, legal expenses out the :censored: , possible bad publicity, etc. I figure, why bother? As long as I do great work and have happy repeat customers I'm not going to worry about putting down the work of others.

To each his own. I often write reports where you cannot keep from making a company (and I use the word "company" loosely here) look bad. You just can't. I had a guy about ten years ago call me and say he wanted to meet me and whip my a$$. I told him all I did was write a report and if that showed him up as an assclown then so be it. Then he said he might sue me and I told him have at it. I have been through a lot in the years I have been in business. I've had to chew through a couple concrete walls and try to look good doing it. I am not going to go around worrying about getting sued or being politically correct or getting my a$$ whipped or my little pee pee bruised. I have found the main thing people want and care about is if you can deliver. And if you can back up what you say you just about don't have to worry about anything.

 

[mckeetree]

Lol, I'm gonna rep you just fer all that hate, right on. I havent made it quite like you yet, I do try to not fall into that trap of badmouthing competitors too much, it makes you look better when you take the high road-even though the customer gave you a golden oppertunity, its allmost like a test imo. It must be raining everywhere, sure are alot of us around today.

No rain here but I have to run the office untill 11:00 this morning.

 

[TDunk]

It must be raining everywhere, sure are alot of us around today.

Been raining most of the night and today. No high winds............ just rain. I can speak from experience that bad mouthing another company behind there back is just childish. If you have a problem with them, talk to them face to face. In the original post, i think the guy was more p!ssed that his mother-in-law had someone else do the work rather than waiting on him. So there fore naturally the other tree co. is a bunch of @$$ hole hacks. But that's just me.

I've been called a hack before because a H.O. wanted 3 maples topped and i did. There was no argueing with the guy, he wanted them topped. I was slow at the time and didn't want to loose the work so i did it. Catch 22 i guess.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Delete, per the above post.

 

[ddhlakebound]

Bad work is bad work, and if somebody is more interested in having their ego stroked than they are about learning the difference between bad treework and good treework, then I'm not the guy they should ask for an opinion. Because when they do, I politely express my opinion without even thinking about what they want to hear.

I'm sure it has probably cost me a few customers. It's made other customers savagely loyal. Some peoples personalitys jive when they interact, others don't.....just the way it goes.

I sort of want to clarify what I said here......

I'll readily give my opinion when asked about whether treework is good or bad. I don't/won't offer my opinion about the work a specific company or trimmer does, unless I have a good knowledge of their practices.

If they're good, I readily tell the person asking that. There are only a few companies around here that I would recommend. There are lots I wouldn't let near my trees, and there are lots I know very little about.

If they're bad, I simply say "I wouldn't choose them to trim my trees, but who you choose is up to you."

If I don't have knowledge of the company in question, it's easy to say "I don't know enough about them to offer an opinion.

Badmouthing your competition won't get you anywhere, but trying to train people to recognize the difference between good work and bad work sure will.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

(snip)

Badmouthing your competition won't get you anywhere, but trying to train people to recognize the difference between good work and bad work sure will.

Well said!

 

[TexasTreemonkey]

I sure am glad I mentioned names!! Lmao

 

[pbtree]

Unless I'm having some kind of hallucination, it appears that a post in here that put down a company's work, and named that company, has been pulled, along with any record of those who posted in the thread. It is like it never happened.

The moderator did the right thing. Too often I am asked by potential clients what I think of the work of this or that tree company. I don't go there, homie. You should not go there, either.

There are many ways that putting down the work of others can come back to bite you in the :censored: . Besides the obvious legal issues, some clients will actually bait you to see if you get into bad-rapping others, and will then not hire you because they find that you do.

Very early in my career I fell into that exact trap. I was asked about a specific company and then I rattled off a bunch of negative stuff about it. The potential client was visibly taken aback and said, in a shaky voice, "Well, I had a very good experience with that company but they were unable to do my job in the time-frame I needed, so I decided to give you a shot. Now you have really offended me with what you've said, and I am asking you to leave, right now!" I felt so stupid on the walk back to my truck. I learned my lesson, though.

It kind of goes back to that old saying that my Mom taught me, long ago:
"If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything." I wish I had that saying in my head that one time I slipped up.

I concur wholeheartedly. I figure if I have nothing nice to say, then I say nothing at all... the silence alone can convey quite a bit at times!

 

[Ekka]

I made a whole video about it, and it got the victim $2500 in compensation from the company who did the damage.

Just as well she found me not some WHIMPY YANK (ooh ooh I might be sued and it's not good and it's not politically correct bla bla bla, but I aint a man just a mouse)!

 

[weenieroaster]

If you are put on the spot, so to speak, with regard to having been asked to critique somebody else's work, perhaps a little diplomacy is in order. It calls for saying things in such a manner that you don't exactly spell out your opinion, but things can be said in such a way that the listener can likely "catch your drift", if they want to, and you still remain in somewhat neutral territory. It can be a useful skill in a number of areas of social interaction. Politicians have perfected it to a fine art, they know how to cover their a@@, for better or for worse.

 

[hornett224]

no!

So we shouldnt name a company that put peoples life in danger, screws over people, treats employees like rubbish, wrecks trees, lies cheats or steals.
So does this mean we can name models of saws that suck, or it would be wrong to say that brush bandit has sold defective chippers to arborsite members, or a certain seller on EBay is scamming people???

FFS. THIS IS WRONG. FREE SPEECH. OPINION. EDUCATED OPEN DEBATE. WARNING OTHERS OF DANGER

These are important things, why be muffled?

we should be PC and non noffensive.to hell with the truth,it's obviously unimportant.

 

[Scots Climber]

Unless I'm having some kind of hallucination, it appears that a post in here that put down a company's work, and named that company, has been pulled, along with any record of those who posted in the thread. It is like it never happened.

The moderator did the right thing. Too often I am asked by potential clients what I think of the work of this or that tree company. I don't go there, homie. You should not go there, either.

There are many ways that putting down the work of others can come back to bite you in the :censored: . Besides the obvious legal issues, some clients will actually bait you to see if you get into bad-rapping others, and will then not hire you because they find that you do.

Very early in my career I fell into that exact trap. I was asked about a specific company and then I rattled off a bunch of negative stuff about it. The potential client was visibly taken aback and said, in a shaky voice, "Well, I had a very good experience with that company but they were unable to do my job in the time-frame I needed, so I decided to give you a shot. Now you have really offended me with what you've said, and I am asking you to leave, right now!" I felt so stupid on the walk back to my truck. I learned my lesson, though.

It kind of goes back to that old saying that my Mom taught me, long ago:
"If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything." I wish I had that saying in my head that one time I slipped up.

Duly noted.

I was in a foul mood when I posted up due to the fact that the work was appalling. They were asked to do a crown reduction and balancing of a mature Norway Maple, they removed all the smaller limbs on one side and didn't even deadwood it.

I apologize for my lapse of judgment, although I stick by the content and context I let my anger rule my head. If I have upset and/or annoyed anyone, again I apologize.

 

[tree MDS]

we should be PC and non noffensive.to hell with the truth,it's obviously unimportant.

NICE..., lol.

 

[mckeetree]

we should be PC and non noffensive.to hell with the truth,it's obviously unimportant.

You know by the replies in this thread it would almost make one wonder if the folks that are so worried about other tree services getting bad mouthed is because they themselves are in reality running a little two bit bullsh!t operation and lord forbid a precedent get started to expose any ones lack of insurance, credentials, expertise, equipment, financial power, etc.

 

[Slvrmple72]

Time to trim the fat!

 

[weenieroaster]

You know by the replies in this thread it would almost make one wonder if the folks that are so worried about other tree services getting bad mouthed is because they themselves are in reality running a little two bit bullsh!t operation and lord forbid a precedent get started to expose any ones lack of insurance, credentials, expertise, equipment, financial power, etc.

Probably nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade, and honesty is maybe best, based on direct experience, that is your own observations. The problem is that there can be mitigating circumstances that you are not aware of, or heresay that gets confused with the truth. Let's face it, such happens all the time, and some folks with good intentions tend to exaggerate. Given the wide picture, maybe keeping your mouth shut is the best policy for everyone concerned. It's like it's better to let the guilty go free, than execute one innocent person.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The idea is twofold, first and foremost is to protect the site from litigation, someone can sue anyone for anything. It may not go far, but there are always costs involved. The post gets quoted, and requoted, next thing you know it can get hits on a search....

Second, as stated above, bashing someone else is never a good thing. The anecdote may not be representative of the companies work in whole. I know I've done some partial removals, working with the clients budget, that look like hackwork.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Only an hour ago, on a bid, I practiced what I preach, although the strong temptation was there to engage in bad-rapping two of my competitors.

This gal had me out to bid a clean-up of five trees around her house. As we walked around her property she said, "You can see how badly my trees have been butchered by *******. They just hacked at them, and I couldn't believe how terrible of a job they did. What do you think of *******?"

Now, the trees looked bad, no doubt about it. Thing is, the client fully understood that fact. What would I gain by adding some negative opinion on that company? I simply said, "I can get your trees looking great. To tell you the truth, I have too much on my mind just keeping up with the day to day operations of my company. It's just about impossible, for me, to keep up with the operations and reputations of my competition." Then she told me that another company had already given her a bid, but she didn't like the vibes she got from the guy doing the bid. "Do you know anyone at #######? I really didn't like the guy they sent out here." Again, I just told her that I try to concentrate on my own operations, even though the second company she named is known to do terrible work in this area.

To me, in the final analysis, it all boils down to what I asked, above, as it pertains to what I would gain by bad-rapping another company. FWIW, I got the gig with a $1000 bid.

 

[mckeetree]

[QUOTE=Sunrise Guy;1089008 "Do you know anyone at #######? I really didn't like the guy they sent out here." Again, I just told her that I try to concentrate on my own operations, even though the second company she named is known to do terrible work in this area.

I would have told her they are known to do terrible work if that is the fact. I don't make things up about anybody but facts are facts and I sure don't have a problem with stating them. One local tree guy here is extremely careful he never says anything bad about some of the bum tree services around here but one of my customers said a while back she didn't think the guy was trying to be super honorable or anything he was just afraid somebody at the hack tree service would slap his old azz down. I had to agree with her.