How would you handle this situation....

[teamtree]

We worked about 4 hours this moring doing a removal and pruning broken limbs. We get back to the shop around 11am and I check my messages. A guy down the road about 5 miles left me a message about a tree on his house and garage from a storm Thursday night. I call him but get no answer. I ask one of the guys if they will go with me in case we can cut it off without the bucket truck. The message lead me to believe he wanted me to just come and do it.

We go down and look the situation over and tell the guy we will come back later to do the work. Probably would take about an hour or hour and a half. It was a fairly small Silver Maple with three leads and one broke off and landed on his garage.

The homeowner acts like he is fine with what we told him and he was in no hurry and we could do it as soon as it works out for us.

We jump in the truck and start to pull out of the driveway. Well here comes a bucket truck down the road and is wanting to come into the driveway where we are pulling out of. I see it is one of the local scumbag tree guys with a new (new to him / old Asplundh truck) truck. This guy was in court on Friday with a property owner in which we had to come behind him and fix and finish his screw ups.

Anyway....we made our money today and I did not really care if we did the work so we go up and grab lunch. We swing back by the house and they are doing the work.

My first thought is....was this guy just sitting around waiting for a call to get some work? What did he say after I left with the job given to me?

Frustrating....I lost work to a full-time garbage guy and part-time tree guy.

 

[teamtree]

I am an honorable guy and I was going to let the homeowner tell him he was sorry and that the work was ours.

I should have put the truck in reverse, called one of the other guys and told them to brind the bucket truck down.

I love getting screwed for being the nice guy.

 

[Treetom]

teamtree, i've had similar situations occur. get a little money up front next time and have the client sign a cotract. that way you have some job security. i've had people tell me to go ahead and do the work (tree on house), then get to the job and another tree service is already working. in your case dipchit tree service probably just under bid you.

 

[tree md]

When I've got a tree on a house, or more usually the case, many houses with trees on them in storm situations, I'll always at least get a line in the tree and move on to the next one. I'll tie up as many as I can then come back and start working the ones that I started first. I always like to get a line in an emergency job to "tie it down".

 

[mic687]

A guy asked me to look at some trees to remove for his son inlaw. I went out and bid the job the guy tells me they like the price so I think I got it. Two weeks go by with no call and I run into this guy. I asked him about the job. He says his son inlaw hired some local noch and drop scumbags (his term) and they left all the brush for the city to come get, they do that once a month. These are the same guys who's truck was broken down in front of someones house for two days, also they showed up to bid a job and when asked about insurance claimed to had it and never came back. I saw them working at one house and would'nt you know it they were using a pulan wildthing. You know it hacks me off to loose a job to these guys but I gave the man a low price because things were slow. If they did it cheeper they didn't make any money and I don't think I wanted the job anyway but it still hacks me off.

 

[pdqdl]

What invariably happens is that the distressed homeowner calls a bunch of tree services. One service shows up, gives a bid, he says ok. No hurry...(Owner speaking to himself) I'll just be taking bids from all the other tree services in town while you take your time.

The next guy drives in the gate responding to the same call you got, then gives the homeowner a price, perhaps higher than yours. Here is how it might happen.

Owner: "Oh, no. Company x (you) just gave me a quote for $xxx. You will have to do better than that."
Scumbag tree service: "Well I can match that"
Owner: "No, I already told him he could have the work at that price. If I am going to let you do it, you need to beat his price"

An agreement is struck, and they start work, you got sold down the river.

Don't blame the other tree service, he is as likely a victim as you. If he failed to do the work cheaper or sooner, the homeowner had his ass covered by having you for a backup. Two tree services sold to the same job: if the first one doesn't do the work, it'll cost more, but the other guy will get it in two more days. Problem solved (for homeowner)

 

[gr8scott72]

What invariably happens is that the distressed homeowner calls a bunch of tree services. One service shows up, gives a bid, he says ok. No hurry...(Owner speaking to himself) I'll just be taking bids from all the other tree services in town while you take your time.

The next guy drives in the gate responding to the same call you got, then gives the homeowner a price, perhaps higher than yours. Here is how it might happen.

Owner: "Oh, no. Company x (you) just gave me a quote for $xxx. You will have to do better than that."
Scumbag tree service: "Well I can match that"
Owner: "No, I already told him he could have the work at that price. If I am going to let you do it, you need to beat his price"

An agreement is struck, and they start work, you got sold down the river.

Don't blame the other tree service, he is as likely a victim as you. If he failed to do the work cheaper or sooner, the homeowner had his ass covered by having you for a backup. Two tree services sold to the same job: if the first one doesn't do the work, it'll cost more, but the other guy will get it in two more days. Problem solved (for homeowner)

Or, he says that his price is higher but he can start right and finish right now.

I've actually won several bids (not ones already promised to others) just by being available to do it right then even tho my price was higher.

 

[Rookie1]

Id go berserk and burn, Oh wait a minute thats for another thread. Seriously I would go to the homeowner and ask him nicely what happened. Maybe he was too scared to tell you the other guy was lined up already. Ill bet there are alot of homeowners with little or no backbone. Dont jump to conclusions and do something rash.

 

[HorseShoeInFork]

Let it roll off and move on to the next. I've found it keeps the blood pressure in check.

 

[Rftreeman]

What did he say after I left with the job given to me?

Most likely he said " so how much did you say the other guy's quote was, hell I can beat that and do it right now"

It's a dog eat dog world out there, get use to that, or follow him around and cut his throat a few times and send a message, I've been known to do that.

 

[Rftreeman]

Ill bet there are alot of homeowners with little or no backbone.

My favorite line from H/O's is " can I call you right back?" they never call so most of the time I call them like 5 times.

 

[MonkeyMan_812]

I would have to say that would light me up. I'll tell you what probably happened though. The customer called a couple of tree guys and the first one who could get to it got the job. I think it was treevet that said it but, "there is no loyalty in this line of work". Customers want the fastest and cheapest service instead of the best service. You did the right thing by leaving it up to the HO to tell them that the job was taken even though they didnt. No since in getting silly over a crummy little job anyway. That shows me true professionalism on your part. Besides , now you know what the true colors of both the HO and the other tree company are. I would rather not work for some idiot like that anyway.

 

[asthesun]

there's a guy around here who likes to get money half way though a job or up front and then leave the job unfinished or not do it at all, a true scammer. when i hear i am up against one of his bids, i inform the customer of the situation and bid as usual, with no intention of beating his bid. about 1/4 of the time the customers dont believe me and sometimes they go with his bid which is ofcourse always the lowest. i feel bad for the customers, but not too bad. i did tell them after all. sometimes they call me wanting me to finish one of his jobs, which i charge full price for. the "i told you so" fee.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Since the bucket was there, I probably would have gotten it on the ground and sent the guys back to chip it up later. So as to not have to return with two trucks.

As for loosing bids, I don't seat it, it happens all the time. I only get upset if I show when I say I will and it is done without a call. Maybe you should have called to check since "No Ethics Tree Cutters" showed up behind you.

I usually bid rather high for the market, but i had a neighbor who wanted 12 spruce dropped, limbed and bucked for milling. I talked to a client of mine with a big chipper and a skid/grapple combo. We were able to work my neighbor a deal for around $2000; blow chip on-site and leave the logs where they lay for the sawyer to buck.

His Dad (grading/excavating contractor) knew some "contractors" who do that stuff and drop and limb for $600. Then the neighbor could use old dad's chipper for the brush that would not get burned.

So these yahoos come in and spend around two days tipping these big spruce onto each other, and hacking the limbs into flinders before they realize how far over their heads they were.

Well the neighbor is in layoff, both him and his wife... I spent a Saturday limbing and untangling the pickup-sticks mess and helping stuff an old Mits&Merrill C&D. Today i did not have a gig, so I capped off the two foot plus stumps that looked like a beaver chewed them down.

The thing that sticks in my craw is that the yahoos charged my neighbor $800 for the so-called work that they did

 

[BCMA]

Teamtree...Until we get some regulation as to who can and who cannot operate as a professional tree care provider; and some regulation to govern our professional standardized practices, we will always run the risk to be viewed by some as a scum-ball industry. Low bid wins regardless of professionalism or legitimacy.

I'm in favor to move our industry to the next level as with electricians and plumbers and require a regulated process in order to operate as a professional arborist. Until then, we as an industry must accept every Tom, ####, and Harry, who wants to cut trees! We do it to ourselves!

I believe the reason we as an industry are so much against this, is that many arborist operate as a Tom, ####, or Harry, and they do not want to be regulated to operate legally.

 

[fishercat]

hmmmmmmmmmmmm,

Teamtree...Until we get some regulation as to who can and who cannot operate as a professional tree care provider; and some regulation to govern our professional standardized practices, we will always run the risk to be viewed by some as a scum-ball industry. Low bid wins regardless of professionalism or legitimacy.

I'm in favor to move our industry to the next level as with electricians and plumbers and require a regulated process in order to operate as a professional arborist. Until then, we as an industry must accept every Tom, ####, and Harry, who wants to cut trees! We do it to ourselves!

I believe the reason we as an industry are so much against this, is that many arborist operate as a Tom, ####, or Harry, and they do not want to be regulated to operate legally.

you mean regulated like doctors and lawyers? no scumbags there.

scumbags are a part of life.this is a free country.customer is free to make their own choice.we don't need any more government regulation on anything.

 

[tree md]

Since when does it take a certified arborist to take a tree off of a house?

More regulation = more operating cost. Competition is a good thing. It keeps market price reasonable. Not knocking anyone for making the effort to get certified but what are we supposed to do, put some people who have been doing excellent work for 20-40 or so years out of business so someone who's been in it 5 or so years can do his work just because he has a piece of paper that says he knows how to prune trees???

 

[mic687]

I just did a prune and small removal job last Friday just low hangers, dead,damaged or, stuff touching the house. The home owner is out in his yard Saturday morning and a guy in a camaro pulls in and asks if he needs any tree service. The h/o looks up at his trees and says you see those fresh cuts, guy says oh yeah guess you don't. I don't mind compitition I hate to see something on the ground that I didn't put there and I understand getting multiple bids, its only smart. Lost a job last week a lady says she doesn't want to pay another companys price even though she was very happy with the work they had done before. The owner of the other company is a very good, stand up arborist, I never called her back just does not seem right to me. If some one does that I don't want there work cause they are more than likley going to be a PIA anyway. Hey on a good note I must have done a good job cleaning up Friday if the other guy couldn't tell I had been there.

 

[tree md]

I get undercut all the time. Just part of the game. I have worked hard to have a good name in my town and I am not the lowest price in town. I figure you get what you pay for and tell potential clients that. If someone want's to hire "discount tree" or "affordable tree" they are very welcome to do so. Don't be upset when they do shoddy work and incomplete cleanup.

 

[Rookie1]

I get undercut all the time. Just part of the game. I have worked hard to have a good name in my town and I am not the lowest price in town. I figure you get what you pay for and tell potential clients that. If someone want's to hire "discount tree" or "affordable tree" they are very welcome to do so. Don't be upset when they do shoddy work and incomplete cleanup.

I like your thinking. I see roofers in our area doing the same thing. Cleancut workers nice vehicles and good manners. Then there are the drunkard smelly cussing crews that wonder why they cant get much work even though they are cheaper.