Funny Story

[DDM]

Got a funny story
This guy calls me 2 weeks ago Friday needs an estimate 1st thing Saturday morning.
He tells me the 5 trees are marked and to call him with a price for the trees and stumps
So I change my plans with the family and go look at the trees 30 min drive both ways.
Its small job so I figure I’ll do the trees for 600 and stumps for 100.
Call him saturday afternoon leave a message for him to call so I can discuss a price.
No return call.
Call again Monday same.
Then Thursday I call and leave another message still no return call.
My stump guy is grinding for me yesterday and says he has to go to the same SD for a 5 stump job.
I ask him what the address is.He says all he got was directions and didn’t know the address.
He says he'll call me later with the address.
He calls me last nite and its the same job.
So I’m irritated because I wasted an hr of my time and fuel plus the family went to the movies without me.
And the guy never even returned my call so I could give him a price.
Homeowner doesn’t know I use this stump guy and thinks we grind our own stumps.
So I ask my stump guy if he knows what did the trees cost to be removed.
He says the other guy charged him 875.00 plus 60.00 for the stumps.
I Call the guy today and again get his voicemail
My Message:
Mr.Smith I haven’t heard back from you but I’ll be in your S/D tomorrow and While I'm There I’ll Take down your trees clean it all up haul out all the debri and grind your stumps for 275.00.
Maybe he will think about getting all the prices he requests next time before he awards the job.

 

[SmokinDodge]

That's funy right there I don't care who you are!

 

[sawinredneck]

Nice one DDM!!! REAL NICE!!!

 

[GASoline71]

HAHAHAHAHA!:biggrinbounce2:

Gary

 

[Treeman587]

Hope you don't mind if I use that one the next time some fool does it to me

 

[Timberhauler]

I thought I was the only one....But you are working in the Greenville area too.This happens to me about once a month...It's even worse in Spartanburg.I once spent two days putting together a bid for a guy who wanted 100 pine trees removed...There wasn't one single tree under 24 inches.I even lined up someone with a grinder to come and just grind the scraps that were left over after sawing the logs,and the rest of the brush...This guy talked like he wanted all of this done right away,so I got back to him with a price,he said"let me talk to my wife"....I never heard from him again...I made several tries to call him again.I left him several messages,I even left him a message just for him to let me know one way or the other,and he never called back...I had three days in this job without even taking it,not to mention the guy who owned the grinder had to drive an hour out of his way to look at it.....A month later,I saw a "redneck" outfit in there cutting down trees and making an awfull mess.I figured we could have done that job in five days...They were in there nearly a month,and there is still a big pile of brush left over...That pile is still there,and this was three years ago...I ended up sending that guy a bill for $300 bucks for wasting my time.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

One of my clients told me this;

A poker buddy called and asked for a price for on a box elder over the garage.

The contractor friend goes out to look at it and throws says $500-leave the wood, no raking.

The next weekend he is an hour away, at a party, and gets a call;
"Hey 'Chuck', how do i get the top to go the other way!
It's about to go
My saw is pinched
it's leaning towards the roof of my garage and it's big!
I'll pay you!"

"I've got several beers in me, I'm not doing tree work! You screwed it up, it's your problem now."

Turns out the buddy rented a scissor lift to do it himself! It was near "Chuck's" shop, so he figured he could do it on a weekend. It would have been $800 if it was a not a "freindly" job.

Another one was a person asked for a removal of a large, bad sugar maple by a mound system. Just get it on the ground. The contractor offered $600 so he would have something $100 after deductable if something went wrong. (large canopy, slight lean towards house, some root flair dieback)

The home owner says, your just felling this tree, it should be 60, not 600!

Hmm..ok... you know there is risk here, and you do not want to assume the liability for it. You call me gready because I want to cover that liability that you do not wish to hold?

 

[Tree Machine]

Good one, JP. I'll use that line some time.. very diplomatic and blunt.

We had a bad storm a couple months ago, toppled a 30" DBH maple into the street. It was a previous client of mine, close to home. I told her it's on city property (eavesment, sidewalk and street) and the city will remove the part and leave the log in the yard. I'll come saw the log up when they're done.

Another call, same woman, two hours later. "The city hasn't come yet...!" "Don't worry, they will. I'm pulling trees off of houses for at least another day. You didn't cause the problem. As long as traffic can get around it...."

Later that afternoon I swung by to take a look. There's a pickup truck outfit, saws a rarin', cutting the limbs and branches into small pieces. I stopped to apologise to my client for putting her off. She says these guys stopped and bid me $800 to take the tree down.
Hate to inform you, but the tree is already down, it's just a cleanup. The city would have cut the upper 2/3 off at your property line, picked it up with their grapple truck and they'd have been out in like a half hour. My plan was to come and saw up the log for $150 and pay the firewood guys $50 to take it away. Do these guys have insurance if they get hurt on your property?
She apologised and I was truthful with her...."Losing this job is no big deal to me, I just wanted to save you some money."

On the way out, the saw man says, "Hey, I wanna hire you to chip this stuff." "Only if you leave it in as long a lengths as possible and stack it with the cut ends all facing the same direction." He looked at the hours of work they's just put into mincing it up and tossing it into a tangled array of a pile. "Sorry. Not interested, but thanks for thinking of me."

The next day I was passing by again, tangled pile still there, they were sawing on the log, I stopped in with the intent to offer to to block the trunk up into firewood pieces for $150, just to help them out. They were into a concrete core, three saws down. My intent changed to just wishing them good luck.

Things just work out the way they work out sometimes.

 

[BIG JAKE]

If you have a plumber or HVAC guy come out to give you an estimate where I live they charge a service fee of around 85.00. Some will refund that if they do the work-they all do it. Helps cover time and fuel.
Some folks forget everyone has to make a living, don't care, or can only see their own perspective. Too bad you sacrificed family time for this low-life.

 

[ATH]

Big Jake,
Do you charge for estimates?

 

[DDM]

Wouldnt have bothered me had atleast returned my call so i could give him a price on the job.

 

[Timberhauler]

I bid on a job earlier this week.The guy told me to call him back and let him know what the price was,and I did..He said that he'd like to go ahead with it and get it done before the weekend,and said to call him back to let him know what day we were gonna do it...I called him on Tuesday to tell him that we'd be there Friday morning...I didn't get an answer this time,and I have left two messages.I'm not sure what the deal is.

 

[treeseer]

I ended up sending that guy a bill for $300 bucks for wasting my time.

Did he pay?

I quit the free estimate policy in 1992 when I got certified. Free estimates cheapen the profession and the professional. Sorry you got burned, DDM. If HVAC guys and plumbers get paid for house calls, why can't tree guys? Could it be that they and the customers look at trees as removals, items with negative value?

Sell tree value and you can sell your time practicing arboriculture.

 

[DDM]

Wunder how long it will take him to get over the Idea he spent 660.00 to much.
I Dont get mad just even.:biggrinbounce2:

 

[hornett22]

you guys need to accept the fact............

that there are just some dumb and or weasly folks out there.

i have only been in this business 10 months and it's mind boggling.

i had one guy call me for an estimate for a large oak leader over the deck and sunroom.i quoted him $600 including removal and cleanup.his reply was"gee,that seems kind of expensive."my reply was "gee,that's what i said to the dealer that sold me my equipment."

the one that always shuts them up:

"sorry,my FREE TRUCK is in the shop this month."

 

[pbtree]

Excellent!

 

[TimberMcPherson]

I got done by an old lady on tuesday, Im ashamed to say that she managed to keep me at a quote for 2.5 hours. I kid you not. I knew from the call that she was going to be trouble, even said it to my fiance and workmate.

I tried to get away, I really did, ALOT, I only noticed the time once I finally got away. This side of hitting her and running for it I couldnt get away. She wouldnt shut up, and little of it was about trees. Was 4 days worth of work so that wasnt so bad, until she called today to say shes using someone else.

If it wasnt so funny and I feel that shes going to be a nightmare to who she did give the job to I would probably be pretty mad. 2.5 HOURS! I must me mad!

 

[Sunrise Guy]

People are weird, no doubt about it. While the incidents detailed above are funny and frustrating, at times, you just have to keep on keepin' on and let the frustration go. You might bid a gig and lose it just because somebody else did a better song and dance and got to the client on some level you didn't. I've had times where, from the time the client opened the door to show me what I was bidding on, I knew I wasn't going to do the job. Chemistry enters into the equation here, just like it does in other aspects of life.

One time I went out to bid an oak prune gig. Before I got there, I pretty much knew the guy was a weird ##@#! from the way he sounded on the phone. He totally creeped me. I went out and bid the thing at $150 since it was a one-man, two hour job, at most. The vibes at the site were as odd as the guy. A day later I called the weirdo. He told me that he had found someone else. "Oh, so you found someone for less?" I asked. "No" he replied. "OK, well---thanks." I hung up on his butt. You just gotta let it go and chalk it up to the aforementioned chemistry. Maybe I weirded him out in the same way he did me.

I'm glad that most clients I work for, I can honestly say I like. The feeling seems mutual, but that's my point: We've got some chemistry between us. In another life, I had a big name tattooist tell me, when I had just opened my shop, "Miles, they really don't care how good an artist you are. They're getting tattooed by you because they like you. Sell yourself, and don't worry too much about anything else. You'll find this to be true." I did, and the same thing applies to getting a tree gig as well as all other sales-type jobs. Sell yourself!

 

[JayD]

Hi David,
I like your style, Mr Joe Blow, The public don't care how they muck you around or how much it cost you ! In your case a night out with your family,$$$ value...priceless...I hope it churns in his stomach for months.

John Paul well handled and correctly put to the customer, My excess is $1000.00 which sucks considering most of our jobs are under this amount, and if something goes wrong you still have to finish and still pay to correct the damage..but when you point this out they just give you the blank face look.

 

[DDM]

You Really need to careful when out to give an "estimate" Ive seen it more than once where i would go out to give an "Estimate" Especially for a prune and be very descriptive and explain basically branch by branch what needs to be done
and them they get someone in a p/u out there and take the educating you wasted on them to have someone else do the work.Only good thing is there is no telling how trees ive saved from a topping.