I am fed up with people wanting topped trees....

[capetrees]

In the end ,,,their tree,,,their money.

I look at it this way.You drive around town,and see an otherwise beautiful home ,painted some weird, and loud non contrasting colors.Doubt the painters wanted to do this to a lovely home,but they have to eat like everybody else.The HO makes the decision,as they have the checkbook.
Pride doesn't pay the bills.

Exactly as I have always said. look at it as job security. You'll be back soon enough to fix or remove the remaining tree.

Another thing to remember is that here in the Northeast, unless you were hit by the ice storms, we haven't had a tree damaging storm for 18 years so the trees have grown unusually tall, normally some of the tall ones would topple over or snap to be repaired later. Some folks top with the intention of safety over looks.

 

[Taxmantoo]

It sounds like the classic " I paid $300 for NOTHING!? " They don't see how much came out of the tree.

You could pile all the brush and take a pic before you chip it, but that would require the groundies to sit around doing nothing when they should be chipping the brush as you drop it.

Something like this happened to me long ago, I was maybe 24. Ceasar, the retired Philly cop who own a beer distributor ask me to do some work, we agreed on a price after we both looked at it together. Everything was verbular.

Your first mistake was trusting a man who lasted more than six months with the Philly PD.

 

[talloak]

I had a similar situation a few years ago it was 2 very healthy silver maples (they were never topped before) we thined , elevated , and gave some house claerence . They called and argued with me I tryed to explain but in the end I was out 600 bucks . The point is if they dont understand what your doing to there trees its a guessing game in the end . We dont have cut and dry job theres always a difference in what we see and what they see . Good job if they cant tell what you did in there trees that means you most likely did it right . I wouldnt stress over it speak your peace and let that be that

 

[Raymond]

I had a similar situation a few years ago it was 2 very healthy silver maples (they were never topped before) we thined , elevated , and gave some house claerence . They called and argued with me I tryed to explain but in the end I was out 600 bucks . The point is if they dont understand what your doing to there trees its a guessing game in the end . We dont have cut and dry job theres always a difference in what we see and what they see . Good job if they cant tell what you did in there trees that means you most likely did it right . I wouldnt stress over it speak your peace and let that be that

That's why it is important to discuss EXACTLY what is going to be done at the time of the bid.

I never get in a hurry to spit out a figure. When I see a nasty brush pile at the farthest point of leaving the yard, I bring it up first. Or anything else I may see.

Keeps from the awkward time of "Could you run that little bit of brush through your chipper while you're here? Or that's a neat saw on that pole thingy, can you reach these limbs in this other tree? It's getting kinda low and hard to mow around."

You get all that out of the way first, when giving bids. Then you talk about their health issues and medicine prescriptions, car issues, daughters drug addiction, AC unit they had to buy without a warning, neighbor problems and their job and hours, they should feel lucky to have.

 

[talloak]

I focuse alot explaining what exactly I am going to do and in my situation my exact words to them were "the trees will be the same hieght when im done" these people were on the exact same page as me or so i thought some times I think people just dont get it but your right RAYMOND being absolutly on the same page is inperitive

 

[Raymond]

I also think a lot of guys try to impress the customer with fancy tree trimming terms. May not seem so fancy to us but I literally see it go right over their heads, not knowing for sure what to expect.

The simpler you keep the lingo the less trouble you'll have.

 

[southsoundtree]

subtle way to get point across

Subtle, like a brick over the head,

Maybe to get you point across, you can offer them you whole house package:
(with a straight face)
Topping for their trees,
Termites installed in their walls,
Moles for their lawns,
Glue for their drains,
and Lice for their kids hair,
with free sugar in their gas tank...
or we can stop the damage at the Tree Topping,with an expensive maintenance program.

Would be interesting to see what they say when you lump the one expensive damaging activity in with the rest.

THEN
the follow-up offer of Proper Pruning to ANSI standards and an ISA Topping brochure, or remove and replace with an appropriate tree.

What's the worst you'll do, lose a job for a topping customer and they'll go get someone else to top 'em.

 

[Taxmantoo]

They might not understand tree work, but they understand their haircut.

If the barber/hairdresser does a good job, the customer's hair looks about the same when he's done.
If the barber just ran a clipper over their heads and cut every hair down to 1/8", it would be obvious that he did something, but it wouldn't be right (unless they normally wear a buzz-cut). And that's the difference between a quick and dirty hat-rack and a proper tree pruning.

 

[Tobe]

TreeTeam you just replaced William Wallace as my official, #1 hero.

Who's got a ball and chain handy? Ohh, that's dark.

 

[Blakesmaster]

I've only had one disagreement with a customer over how much of the tree I left. It was a big oak that had been topped before and he wanted it re-topped. We basically just removed all the sucker growth at the top of the tree and didn't touch any of the laterals that were somehow still relatively healthy looking. The HO wrote me a check initially but called back a few days later to ##### about not taking enough. I lost my cool on the phone and said, I did the job, it's done, you saw it, you paid me, end of story. He hung up, but called back a few minutes later and seeing how his check had yet to clear, I begrudgingly went back to his house with my bro. Time for good cop, bad cop. Since I was already the #### in his eyes my brother played good cop. I pushed hard that we would do no more and then shut up. My bro explined to the customer that I'd had a bad day and that he would come back in his free time to remove 2 more dinky branches. Badda bing, the HO may not like me, but Choice Tree Care as a whole took care of him.

 

[capetrees]

Topped 4 oaks this morning and going back to top off the last two. Is the homewoner happy? Ecstatic that she has a water view. Is the neighbor who owned the trees happy? Very happy considering I did a few other small prunings for him. Is the other neighbor happy? Very, considering I topped a tree in his yard that was hanging over his house. And did I get paid? Yes, and actually a bit more for going back to the job when everyones calandars lined up.

 

[capetrees]

They might not understand tree work, but they understand their haircut.

If the barber/hairdresser does a good job, the customer's hair looks about the same when he's done.
If the barber just ran a clipper over their heads and cut every hair down to 1/8", it would be obvious that he did something, but it wouldn't be right (unless they normally wear a buzz-cut). And that's the difference between a quick and dirty hat-rack and a proper tree pruning.

And the guy that goes in and comes out looking just about the same can do so because he MAINTAINS his appearance. Most homewoners do not so topping for looks doesn't make sense to them. They like the trees but want them smaller. They haven't maintained them so in the end, the topped tree does look like a bad haircut.

 

[LTREES]

Go get your money, you did nothing wrong. Offer to reduce it to a lat. if they want it wacked more do it for a cheap price (they have to pay some one) Ask the HO to tell no one that you cut their tree like that. They would be less likely to not bad mouth your co. if you make them happy, neighbors see you tried to educate them and went back to make them happy. Keep your head up.

LT...

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Yep...I like when they watch me work and see what all comes out and sees me in an area where I could make one big cut or two and be done. But instead pick and choose limbs which in the long run is more work...And they see that and know I'm doing what is best for the tree.

You're right on the money! If a client pays me before a pruning job and then zips off to work, I try to take before and after pics and a pic of our trailers empty and then full of what we've taken out, with their home in the background. When they watch, no problem: They see what they're paying for. If they're not there---Take those pictures! You'll be glad you did, in cases like the one detailed in this thread. "What did you do for my $300!!???" "M'am, I'll be happy to stop by and show you exactly what we did and how much wood we removed. When would be a convenient time for you?" Case closed!

 

[MonkeyMan_812]

They are going to talk bad about your company anyway. Get your money. And I have ran into this problem before. You should make sure every detail of what your going to do is explained. And get yourself a laser pointer to be able to show them what you plan on doing when you bid the job. It helps out a lot.