knowledge value

[boo]

A few years ago I was called out to give an estimate on a huge pine tree that was leaning way over top of this lady's house.
Tangled in heavy thick grape vines, and very top heavy, nowhere to get a bucket.
I told the 60 + year old lady I'd take her worrysome tree away safely for 450.00.
The lady was very very happy about the price.
"Please do it!!", "THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!" she said.
A couple days later I started up the tree limbing on the way up.
Every limb or 2 the tree would stand up a little more, by the time I made it to the top removing all the limbs, the tree was standing vertical.
I installed a bull rope, came down the tree, rigged the rope for the felling.
45 minutes the tree was on the ground, and brush cleaned up. I had 2 guys who wanted the logs for the sawmill 5 minutes after the tree was down as I was cleaning up the brush.
The completed job took just over an hour.
As I went to collect my 450.00 dollars, the lady said
"if Ida' known that's all you were gonna do, Ida' dun it myself"

 

[clearance]

Funn story, reminds me of utility work, people running up and asking you to cut down trees for them. Some people were great, after work we would hammer down thier tree and they would hand over the agreed to amount in $20 bills. Some people on the other hand were not so cool, "What!!! you guys want $400 to cut down my tree?, forget it, I'll do it myself" My foreman would ask "Fine, when are you going to do it?" "Why" "I'll bring my lawn chair, a case of beer and my camera, should be interesting"

 

[Manco]

It's funny that after you get a dangerous tree on the ground, it suddenly becomes so easy of a job people arrogantly assume they could've done it themselves. Just human nature I guess. Kinda like someone looking at a dead lion after the hunter risked his life to get him. ( They should make a motel 8 commercial on someone walking up telling you how to fell a tree) I think I'll ask the next person that does that if they stayed at Motel 8 last night.

 

[Climb020]

Some people just have no concept of the skill that is involved to sucessfully complete a job. I would like to see some one, after being told that it was too easy for the money, back there truck right up to there front door and dump the chips right there along with the wood. Then tell them if it was so easy to cut it down it should be really easy to clean this up and drive away.:hmm3grin2orange: Would love to see it.

Oops I stand corrected. My girlfriend works for another tree service and apparently this has all ready been done to a customer who refused to pay.

 

[Log hog]

I never tell them how long it will take, most all the time there at work when I come, but once in a while there home and I feel that I get the look. You know the look I'm talking about, the you over priced piece of :censored: , well if I knew that was all it was going to take I'd a done it myself. Then why the hell did your wife call then. I notice that about 60-70% of the time it seems like a woman calls, probably because he's to macho and stubborn to call. One time my brother and I drove about 40 min away to do an estimate, met the guy went around the house to take a look. What I saw was not an easy job, very little if no room to maneuver a boom into place and a 70' red oak with about a 50 degree lean over his meditation garden and his kids play set, not to mention his wife's 3,000 lawn ornaments. The tree was about 24" at the trunk and about 18-20" all the way up. I said its gonna run you about $1,000 not including the stump.:jawdrop: He did'nt even skip a beat and said :censored: for that kid of money I'll shimmy up that tree and cut it up myself. Well what do ya say,:angry2: ya gotta be professional, so I just said, well good luck with that. We were leaving and my brother wanted to go back and kick the guys ass, but I had to persuade him not to.
In this type of industry you run into a lot of know it all pricks, ya just gotta let it go, as hard ass it seem.

 

[1CallLandscape]

I had a simailar experience about 2 months ago. i was removing 10 pines in a residential neighborhood at a friends house when a neighbor asked me to give tham an estimate...so, i went over and quoted them 400$ for a large pine
(20"+ dia) drop and chip it up. a mere 2 hour job. the customer agreed on the price and we shook hands. i was going to do it the next day. i went there ,tools in hand and as i pulled up to the job i realized that the tree was down. there was a ladder on the ground, tree cut 15' up in an angle ( no notch) blood all over the place and a saw on the ground...no joke!!!!

so while i was really:angry2: :angry2: an very puzzled, i called the customer...no answer, than i went home and called again. the woman answered and i asked her politely who the hell cut the dam tree..her answer- my son came down and decided to cut the tree. so i also asked why there was blood on the ground, she replied well..............he cut the tree and it fell on him because no one held the ladder while he cut it..DUH, who'd be that dam dumb! to make a long story short the guy fell off the ladder , saw in hand, cut his arm real bad ( 70 stitches) and had the top of the tree fall on him. serves the dum ass right.... and the lady had the nerve to ask if id chip it for her...hell no, i told her if he started it he can finish it!

mike

 

[l2edneck]

the best is the "i used to do tree work" ok i still do thats why ya called me aint it? lol

 

[kkottemann]

One time i had a guy call me out to look at a job. Pine, about a 95 footer. the top was broken and hanging by strans of wood fiber and bark. This tree was right next to his house, which he informed me had an estimated value of $600,000, and had a deck built around the butt of the tree. I told him I would use a crane and lift it out of there for $1500. He then asked me why don't I climb it and cut the top out and block it down. I told him because I did not want to die when the top breaks off and rides the trunk down impaling me along the way. Then he informed me about what a great deer hunter he is and how he climbs tree every weekend and how I was making a big deal out of a little pine. Next thing I did is walk right over to my truck got my gear, (climbing rope, rigging line, block, sprus, saddle, rope brake, saw and PPE) Threw it on the ground by the tree and said here is everything you need to climb this tree and cut in down, I will work the ground and it won't cost you a dime. He just stared and me for a minute, then got in his golf cart and drove off. Needless to say I never got the job.

 

[boo]

fortunately I did get paid for the job, as her husband stood quietly remembering an earlier estimate, and their situation before I got there.
I think that was the only time a customer was ungreatfull to me.
I stood there quietly and heard her comment.
I think maybe she realized later how she sounded.

There is a group of older guys in the community that like to come up with jobs that they know I'll have to climb around a good bit, just to watch me swing on ropes.

They get together to watch whenever one comes up with something for me to climb.
It's cool, I get a kick out of them too.

 

[Log hog]

and the lady had the nerve to ask if id chip it for her...hell no, i told her if he started it he can finish it!

mike[/QUOTE]

Sweet 1call, he can finish it himself:hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Log hog]

Hey kkottemann, I think the pricks that have the most money are the cheapest ones around. I have had a neurosurgeon talk me down $50 off my bid already, and that was a bid for $250, they make $500,000 - a million a year. Doctors are some of the cheapest people around. But you get some people that don't even make half that. They don't haggle with you cause they understand what it takes to operate a business and how much work is involved. It would of been nice if he would of tried to climb that tree. Because you and I would of just sat and enjoyed a and watched the poor sap try and climb that tree.

 

[deercatcher]

Yesterday, yep, yesterday, at my dad's 85th birthday party MY BROTHER! who owns rent houses and also runs a business, presses me for an estimate on a dead tree removal at one of his rent houses. I told him a late storm had tied me up a couple of days, I'll get a price next week, and continued what I was doing. He informed me, he was getting other bids, and he'd let me match the low bidder. This is after I coached him how to talk to the local electrical utility on how to get it down for free- It threats a series of secondaries pole to pole, but he gave up on that. The post oak split in a tornado and the local big guy wal mart tree man (he plants trees because he has a tree spade, he doesn't have a tree spade because he plants trees, dig?) Tried to take the split half and HIT HIS HOUSE!! Weeelll, he is inviting him back for a bid! and a couple of others! I told him I was no longer interested in doing the job. "Well in my business..." "I do not want a lecture on your business practices..." Gave me indigestion all night, the jerk!

 

[1CallLandscape]

and the lady had the nerve to ask if id chip it for her...hell no, i told her if he started it he can finish it!

mike

Sweet 1call, he can finish it himself:hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:[/QUOTE]

yup with a gymped arm and a hell of a big tree to be cutting with a 012. hope that saw died on him and his toyota truck broke an axle.

customers should really keep their know it all personalitys to them selves and leave the "easy work" to the professionals they'll think its sooooooo easy until you tell them to put that saddle on and sit 80' up in a tree for 2 hours and limb down a a tree over a glass green house.....intense

-mike

 

[AJ373KU]

I am going to post a more detailed explanation with pictures in the beginner’s forum. I had an unfortunate experience a few weeks ago. After spending one season cutting firewood in the national forest I thought I was an expert. Hey, how hard is it to cut down a tree? I had a 100 year plus ponderosa pine in front of my house about two feet from the main deck. It was 52 feet tall and 42 inches in diameter at the base and slightly leaning in the opposite direction from where I wanted it to fall. My wife was concerned about fire danger and creating defensible space around the house.

So on a fine Saturday morning I went out with my one year of experience and my new chainsaw to cut this tree down.

Long story short..... $300.00 to get an electrician out on the weekend to fix the meter and box that was ripped off the pole. $1700.00 to the power company to replace the wires from the pole to the main line and the transformer that was ripped off when the tree fell, in the exact opposite direction I was trying to fell it.

Bottom line. You guys charge what you do because it is dangerous and difficult. Because you are pros you make things look really easy, especially to the inexperienced layman. I am here to verify from a hard lesson learned that it is not easy. I am not a bit upset about the money I had to shell out to fix everything. I am really glad to be alive because I could have easily killed.

Advice. Big tree, close to house, inexperience....Call the pros. The price of failure is to great, monetarily and physically to try and save a few bucks and do it your self.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

...hell no, i told her if he started it he can finish it!

mike

So you're there with the tools to do it, the lady has a son in bad shape, and you get bull-headed and rub salt into her wound. Not to forget making some money out of the your trip.



If you would have done it she would have told her friends about the Knight in Shining Armour tree service who helped out with a bad situation.

Now she will tell everyone about the unprofessional jerk who had a temper-tantrum on her lawn (driveway..whatever)

 

[1CallLandscape]

So you're there with the tools to do it, the lady has a son in bad shape, and you get bull-headed and rub salt into her wound. Not to forget making some money out of the your trip.



If you would have done it she would have told her friends about the Knight in Shining Armour tree service who helped out with a bad situation.

Now she will tell everyone about the unprofessional jerk who had a temper-tantrum on her lawn (driveway..whatever)

well.....your completely wrong, i dindnt make any money at all off of this job. ( no deposit ) this lady i later found out (from the association that she belongs to) had done this to several other companys in my area ( she'd use us to get a baseline price and then decide after hiring the desired co. that shed do it herself)

And secondly i dinnt throw a tantrum at her residence! i talked to her calmly as i could over the phone about the situation. yes, i was very upset, but never blew up at her. and for your info, she is a real prick to my friend that is her neighbor. i do feel bad for the dumb ass that cut the tree but if he had kept his nose out of his cheap mothers business everything would have turned out just fine, hed be un hurt and the tree would be safely down. end of story! Whew...............

well now back to the thread subject,
ignorant/ cheap/ or just plain unfimilar customers + know it all tree cutter attitude = getting hurt/ killed

mike

 

[Jumper]

A few years ago I was called out to give an estimate on a huge pine tree that was leaning way over top of this lady's house.
Tangled in heavy thick grape vines, and very top heavy, nowhere to get a bucket.
I told the 60 + year old lady I'd take her worrysome tree away safely for 450.00.
The lady was very very happy about the price.
"Please do it!!", "THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!" she said.
A couple days later I started up the tree limbing on the way up.
Every limb or 2 the tree would stand up a little more, by the time I made it to the top removing all the limbs, the tree was standing vertical.
I installed a bull rope, came down the tree, rigged the rope for the felling.
45 minutes the tree was on the ground, and brush cleaned up. I had 2 guys who wanted the logs for the sawmill 5 minutes after the tree was down as I was cleaning up the brush.
The completed job took just over an hour.
As I went to collect my 450.00 dollars, the lady said
"if Ida' known that's all you were gonna do, Ida' dun it myself"

What, you did not volunteer to do it for the value of the wood! I have seen that before, where people insisted their tree had at least $xxx amount of firewood in it, or did I know it was a very valuable walnut.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

I can't stand it when people say, "I use to climb trees as a kid" or "I climbed poles for the telephone Co.", or "I use to be a landscraper, too!" My answer to all these is GFY!!!!!!!!!!!!

My fav story about a do-it-yourselfer: A famous Celtics player decided to trim a branch off of an Oak tree in his backyard. He set the ladder against the limb and began cutting, the rest of the limb sprang up and down he went, broken ankle and all. Truly legendary.

 

[clearance]

Ahh, the old "Surely my wood is worth big $, you should remove it for free", yes Jumper, seen this a few times. Once on a utility removal we cut down a big spruce, out of the bucket and I climbed out of the bucket as well to rig down big branches, the guys pulled of a big top for me. On the list it said to leave a big log, we did, a 40' piece of snot, swell butt, big rot in the butt, a thousand branch knots the whole way. I guess they figured that guys with self loading log trucks would be fighting over it, offering $, not, still there, on thier lawn I believe. Whats funny is we would have bucked it into firewood for them, at the fat end it was at least 48", try that with your little ****-lite or similar p.o.s..

 

[matty f]

When i first started working for my self i quoted a guy who him and his wife where both neurosurgeon's probably make £100 an hour ,own a horse stud ect to reduce a load of trees over there tenis court.
I did the work,when i put the bill in he said he wanted an all over reduction's!,so i went back and did an all over reduction's for free as i badly needed the money three days later i finish.
He does not pay,luckily he goes in to my local pub where the land lady and her husband have a go at him.
I get a phone call the next day to come and collect the money,he pays no extra but takes me for a ride in his aeroplane to look at my reductions from the air.
On the way back to my van he say's "people like you should be working for £100 a day"...........I did nearly punch him,but i bit my lip and never returned any of his calls when he wanted more doing.