knowledge value

[Jim1NZ]

For the very rare unhappy customer, there are many many pleased ones. People are amazed when they see a good arborist doing his thing. The other day i had 3 big pines to take down, The last two i was able to do from one anchor point, i swung between the two trees limbing them on the way up. once high enough up i bombed out the first smaller head, a few people stopped and were watching from the road (a safe distance from the road!) set myself up and felled the last head. The people watching could hardly believe their eyes!

I said i think i might have to charge for entertainment value!

 

[Ekka]

I get lots of people, damn near every day, ringing me to ..

SELL ME their palms. They actually want me to pay them for their palm and remove it, root ball and all, and sell it again somewhere else to recover my costs.

So it's a big turn around, in their mind they think of getting say $500 instead of paying $500 to cut them down.

I just tell them we remove them with chainsaws and stump grinders not transplant them. They go quiet then perp up with, "well, these are so nice and it would be a waste to cut them down and I wanted to make money from them bla bla bla" so I ask, "why do you want to get rid of them?"

"Oh, because they're so messy and they get these berries and the fronds dont fall off properly bla bla bla" and you think that some-one else wants to pay for that mess?

They are Syagrus romanzoffianum, a weed species that no-one wants.

 

[treeman82]

A number of years back I had gone to one customer's house to prune this white oak. Apparently the customer's neighbor was cutting down some dead elm trees on his property which went out over my customer's lines and house. My customer asked me to go over and give a price for putting the trees on the ground so that the house wasn't damaged. The neighbor said for that price he'll do it himself. Long story short, my guy and I sat in the truck watching for about 20 min until the guy came over and gave me the money to get it done.

Gotta love the people who used to climb trees.

I put in a bid this past winter on 2 large spruce trees... $6,000 for the two, everything gone but the stump. Guy tells me that he isn't going to pay that much, and that he still has some gear from back in the day. I said good luck.

 

[trevmcrev]

I get lots of people, damn near every day, ringing me to ..

SELL ME their palms. They actually want me to pay them for their palm and remove it, root ball and all, and sell it again somewhere else to recover my costs.

So it's a big turn around, in their mind they think of getting say $500 instead of paying $500 to cut them down.

I just tell them we remove them with chainsaws and stump grinders not transplant them. They go quiet then perp up with, "well, these are so nice and it would be a waste to cut them down and I wanted to make money from them bla bla bla" so I ask, "why do you want to get rid of them?"

"Oh, because they're so messy and they get these berries and the fronds dont fall off properly bla bla bla" and you think that some-one else wants to pay for that mess?

They are Syagrus romanzoffianum, a weed species that no-one wants.

Ha, we get that down here all the time as well, cept with Canary Island Date Palms. Coz the idiots hear of people paying 10 grand for them they figure we will buy them for that much. We tell em thats coz it costs that much to move them and if you pay us 10 g's we can transplant it for them or for 2500 we'll cut it down. At least 1 call a week from these fools that think theyve just found a "money tree" growing in their backyard.

Trev

 

[Ekka]

Oh yeah, the Canaries fetch the big bucks.

They're a right bastard to cut down, flamin disgusting.

 

[boo]

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....

just the other day I drove for about 45 minutes to bid on 2 massive white pines covered in poison for the 1st 30 ft.
each of the 2 pines split to 3 and 4 stems after 10 ft.
trees were about 100' tall, 50' from her house with not so good leans.
I told the lady I'd get them down safely for 400.00 and set up an account at her local sawmill in her name for the value of the wood. it's her wood.
the wood could have paid her maybe 1000.00.
she said "400.00!? for your prices I'd climb up there and cut them myself".
Maaaan I wish I had my gear with me at the time. I'm normally very polite, as I was, but I would have offered her the use of my gear had I thought about it at the time.

I know she'll never get anyone to cut them cheaper, unless she finds a crazy drunkard to attempt it for beer..... I don't drink.
was a friend of a friend, extra low low price. wish I would have taken my cam, you guys would think I was crazy for offering to do it for that price.

 

[treeman82]

As of this morning I had a nice, 2 part tree job for $5,000. It was one house with 2 cottonweeds... everything but the stumps went $2,500. Then there was another house with 4 white oaks, $2,500... chips could stay, wood just had to be piled by the stumps.

Went this morning to the cottonweed house because I was in the area and wanted to evaluate how much wood was going to have to go. I spoke with that particular customer, and he said that he didn't want to waste my time, but he got a price for $900. I said good luck and left.

Called up the other house and talked with the customer, he said he didn't care who the other guy was going to use, he definately wants me to do the job. Only now he wants the chips, wood, and stumps gone. I told him that I would have to get back to him on a price. Went by later today and measured the stumps and evaluated the wood situation. I was about to present a price to the guy when his wife comes home... I could tell she was a piece of work as soon as she got out of her car. So she sits down with us, takes the easiest tree out of the job, adds on a harder one, and adds on a cluster of about 6 trees which aren't exactly small. I told them roughly $6,000 to do what they wanted. She told me that the smaller trees she could drop herself with a whip. I offered her the use of one of the saws I had in my truck, but she got angry and declined the offer. So she then asks me how much per tree, I went around pointing things out when she tells me that she refuses to pay more than $500 per tree for everything (not including the smaller trees). I told her good luck finding somebody to do the job for that. When she told me that she already had found somebody for that price, I told her good luck. Then I turned, walked to my truck, got in and left.

 

[Ekka]

Well Boo and Treeman, it sounds too damn crazy to me, what are these people thinking?

100' white pine quad leadered plus another for $400, that's about as insane a price you could expect and they knocked that back.

And Treeman, here's a good line for you. "And how long have you been bidding treework?"

I cant stand insultive customers like that. You have been good enought to drive out, do the bid etc, even if they go with some-one else or whatever than can be nice about it. Thank you for your time and finish by saying some-thing like, " I'll let you know if I decide to choose you and thank you for taking the time and explaining everything so well".

They are just selfish buggers who want something for nothing and have no respect for the job we do, we are just dumb chainsaw wielding neanderthols to them.

 

[Treeinnovator]

just the other day I drove for about 45 minutes to bid on 2 massive white pines covered in poison for the 1st 30 ft.
each of the 2 pines split to 3 and 4 stems after 10 ft.
trees were about 100' tall, 50' from her house with not so good leans.
I told the lady I'd get them down safely for 400.00 and set up an account at her local sawmill in her name for the value of the wood. it's her wood.
the wood could have paid her maybe 1000.00.
she said "400.00!? for your prices I'd climb up there and cut them myself".
Maaaan I wish I had my gear with me at the time. I'm normally very polite, as I was, but I would have offered her the use of my gear had I thought about it at the time.

I know she'll never get anyone to cut them cheaper, unless she finds a crazy drunkard to attempt it for beer..... I don't drink.
was a friend of a friend, extra low low price. wish I would have taken my cam, you guys would think I was crazy for offering to do it for that price.

reminds me of... this week i rented a boom lift. i had it parked in my driveway. neighbor across the street sees it and asks if i can reduce 2 of his large trees. i say, "help me pay the rental fee and i'll do you a favor and only charge $150 per tree." he said he "had to think about it".

i laugh everytime i go by house knowing there's no way he's getting that price from ANY other tree trimmer. if he asks again, i'll say "sorry, my schedule is too busy now."
i hate cheap *sses who don't value what we do and the risks we take.

 

[Treeinnovator]

I get lots of people, damn near every day, ringing me to ..

SELL ME their palms. They actually want me to pay them for their palm and remove it, root ball and all, and sell it again somewhere else to recover my costs.

So it's a big turn around, in their mind they think of getting say $500 instead of paying $500 to cut them down.

I just tell them we remove them with chainsaws and stump grinders not transplant them. They go quiet then perp up with, "well, these are so nice and it would be a waste to cut them down and I wanted to make money from them bla bla bla" so I ask, "why do you want to get rid of them?"

"Oh, because they're so messy and they get these berries and the fronds dont fall off properly bla bla bla" and you think that some-one else wants to pay for that mess?

They are Syagrus romanzoffianum, a weed species that no-one wants.

ekka, i hate to admit this but...
i used to be one of those a-holes you speak of. before i ever got into treework, i used to have this one washtonian palm in my front yard. i used to offer it people for $100 if they came and got it. i actually was offended one time that a tree company wanted to charge me to remove it.

i'm embarrassed about all that now. i had no idea that a rootball on a 20ft washtonian is huge and weighs like 700lbs. if i ran into a customer like the old me, i'd probably laugh in his face. washtonian palms are like weeds here. very messy and nobody likes them.

 

[Ekka]

Hahaaha

Treeinnovator, you know the costs then of a transplant.

Washy's suck too! I see flamin huge ones on movies shot in Miami and see why they leave the beard on them.

 

[jmack]

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.

amen

 

[RolloriClimber]

Few months ago working for my old boss I had got everything on the ground for the groundies to clean up and the boss said grab your gear and get in my truck.He informs me we are going to look at a small tree just get it on the ground.

We get there and it is a small dead oak right next to a wood deck and rail coming off a raised drive way.still not bad easy climb 15 to 30 min including putting my gear on.

boss told the husband and wife $250.00 and we would do it right then.
They talked HIM down $50.00 , he was easy to talk down then I taught him a few things, because soon as they try to talk me down I head for the truck and say have a nice day.

So any way the whole time I'm up this tree getting it down the women watching keeps telling the boss I wouldn't do that for $500.00 . I told him he should of told her to write a check for $650.00 then.