Ouch!

[treeman82]

Last fall I was referred by another tree company to go look at this removal job. A few big oaks over the house, septic, wires, etc. Few spruce, and some hemlock. I told the guy between $10,000 and $15,000 with everything going. He had 2 other prices, of $6,000 and $8,000 respectively. I gave him my card and said that if he wanted a price from me that he should call and I would give him a formal quote. A friend of mine also was called and pretty much gave the same speech... you want a price, here's my card. All winter nothing happened, but then a few weeks ago they started working on it. 4 or 5 guys took at LEAST 3 days to get this one oak tree to the ground. Today I see a uhaul pick-up in the driveway being loaded with wood. My friend calls me this evening, and informs me that this "company" is paying a local scraper $200 per visit to chip the brush... even though they bid the job at $5,800. Best part of it all... they put one of the hemlock trees across the guy's roof. Driving past tonight on my way out I saw that there was indeed a tarp covering the roof where the damage had occurred.

 

[Jumper]

Last fall I was referred by another tree company to go look at this removal job. A few big oaks over the house, septic, wires, etc. Few spruce, and some hemlock. I told the guy between $10,000 and $15,000 with everything going. He had 2 other prices, of $6,000 and $8,000 respectively. I gave him my card and said that if he wanted a price from me that he should call and I would give him a formal quote. A friend of mine also was called and pretty much gave the same speech... you want a price, here's my card. All winter nothing happened, but then a few weeks ago they started working on it. 4 or 5 guys took at LEAST 3 days to get this one oak tree to the ground. Today I see a uhaul pick-up in the driveway being loaded with wood. My friend calls me this evening, and informs me that this "company" is paying a local scraper $200 per visit to chip the brush... even though they bid the job at $5,800. Best part of it all... they put one of the hemlock trees across the guy's roof. Driving past tonight on my way out I saw that there was indeed a tarp covering the roof where the damage had occurred.

Classic case of you get what you pay for.....

 

[tree MDS]

The problem is, while you (understandably) take pleasure in this guy's "you get what you pay for" disaster, everybody still loses out in the end.

Typical of what sucks about this business; another potentially good job for someone, gone to waste on idiots that probably won't even be doing trees anymore in a few years!

Oh well, is what it is..

 

[treemandan]

The problem is, while you (understandably) take pleasure in this guy's "you get what you pay for" disaster, everybody still loses out in the end.

Typical of what sucks about this business; another potentially good job for someone, gone to waste on idiots that probably won't even be doing trees anymore in a few years!

Oh well, is what it is..

It is what it has been made to be. And that explains everything, I mean everything.

Sure, if I didn't know the deal and saw a price for 8k and a price for 15k my little brain would start making up stories to fill in the blanks. Hey, who wouldn't?
If the guy was able to make concrete distinctions about why the prices were different he might have gone with the 15k... if he had it. But what does he know? He thinks he is comparing apples to apples. How can you show him what the differences are? I mean beforehand, I guess he knows now. Someone should call the guy and tell him that U-haul trucks are for moving furniture so he doesn't get the idea we all operate like that.
Some guys I know carry a spread sheet of the costs involved in running a legitimate tree company and show it to prospective clients. The things I do are to be honest and speak freely about this sort of thing.

 

[treemandan]

Last fall I was referred by another tree company to go look at this removal job. A few big oaks over the house, septic, wires, etc. Few spruce, and some hemlock. I told the guy between $10,000 and $15,000 with everything going. He had 2 other prices, of $6,000 and $8,000 respectively. I gave him my card and said that if he wanted a price from me that he should call and I would give him a formal quote. A friend of mine also was called and pretty much gave the same speech... you want a price, here's my card. All winter nothing happened, but then a few weeks ago they started working on it. 4 or 5 guys took at LEAST 3 days to get this one oak tree to the ground. Today I see a uhaul pick-up in the driveway being loaded with wood. My friend calls me this evening, and informs me that this "company" is paying a local scraper $200 per visit to chip the brush... even though they bid the job at $5,800. Best part of it all... they put one of the hemlock trees across the guy's roof. Driving past tonight on my way out I saw that there was indeed a tarp covering the roof where the damage had occurred.

It doesn't sound like you put much into selling what you were selling. I do what you did sometimes when I don't feel like taking on the demands of providing people with reasons why they should pay me more than the other guy. Mostly its because I feel they will go with the cheapest price anyway so why waste my time and energy?
So if you did just blurt out 10 to 15k then walk away telling the guy to call you then, from another point of veiw, you could be construed some kind of shyster by the guy. And that makes you somewhat responsible for the tree on the guy's house and the U-haul truck on the lawn.
Like I said I do it too but i don't feel good about it. I dunno, for a 10 to 15k job I would have spent a good amount of time making sure the guy knew exactly where his money was going unless I had a good reason not to. Maybe the guy was a shyster himself and not some poor veck who has no idea what the job costs. Sometimes when I sense the shyster in somebody I make quick with the goodbyes too especially over a big ticket job.
So no, I don't think ( judging by what you said) you brought enough to the table for the guy to be able to trust you. Sure, you could have poured you heart out and he still could have went with the U-haul brigade but that still doesn't mean you have no responsibilty in the matter.

 

[sbumgarner78]

Lowball prices are what kills the industry.

 

[treemandan]

Classic case of you get what you pay for.....

Or a case of 'you get what you can afford to pay for'. Do you have 15k to throw at your house? I do but I am not bragging and I sure as Hell would be trying to hold onto as much of it as I could. But that don't mean I would hire a tree service with U-haul trucks.

My wife called a number off the TV for some carpet. The ad showed nice clean white people with soothing voices and great prices. I wanted to do the job myself but was not allowed. Well I didn't really want to do it, I felt like I had to.
When I asked to two Mexicans that showed up in a beat up old van with out of state plates for ID they whipped out their company IDs. It was a little tough communicating with them cause, uh, well, they didn't speak English very well but I told them I needed to see their driver's licenses. When they started shaking their heads and acting confused I sent them packing with the knowledge of how fast the cops show up around here and how enthusiastic they can be. Then I called the company , got my 500 bucks back and went to buy some carpet and a knee kicker. Piece of cake!

Hey, you guys remember that commercial for Midas mufflers where the customer comes in demanding, shakes his fist and tell the mechanic " I am NOT going to pay a lot for this muffler" ? I saw that when i was 14 or so, I remember thinking, " well first 'paying a lot' has to be defined " and secondly " who the Hell is this guy to know how much a freaking muffler costs and be demanding how much he will pay"?

Commercials like that have made businesses kiss more ass, cut more corners, and be unscrupulous than I don't know what.

And how about " the customer is always right"? He is? You mean he knows all about tree work too? Oh, Ok.:msp_sneaky:

Its marketing like that that makes people think they are in control of something they know nothing about. It makes them feel they have the right to demand cheap and that is why we have China. Poor psuedo commie bastards, if we killed them all we would almost be doing them a favor and they know it.

 

[ted4bp]

Lowball prices are what kills the industry.

Well said. This is starting to be a common place. Where I work they hire a bunch of college grads with no real world experience to tell me how it should be done, not once have they done the job or even filed a real tax form but now they are the experts. To them as long as it looks good on paper so be it and we all get a gold star. This is what the country is starting to be in all industries. Call it the Walmart effect I guess.

 

[treeman82]

Dan, the guy was looking for the lowest price, period. I actually tried to talk him out of taking down all the trees and instead pruning the bulk of them plus some removals.... I think there were 8 or 9 trees in this deal. 3 large oaks for certain, and the rest were birch and conifer.

 

[treemandan]

Dan, the guy was looking for the lowest price, period. I actually tried to talk him out of taking down all the trees and instead pruning the bulk of them plus some removals.... I think there were 8 or 9 trees in this deal. 3 large oaks for certain, and the rest were birch and conifer.

Got it !

Yeah I guess you can't blame him for trying. I have to say I have seen a fellow, Affordable Tree Service, who has a big box truck. I would hate to be in charge of loading and unloading that thing as box trucks don't dump and have weak sides. I have yet to see a fellow roll up in a U-Haul. We rented one to move a buddy not too long ago, I dunno, maybe its me, but I was getting paranoid thinking people were pointing and laughing at me as I drove it down the road. I wore a hat and dark glasses.

 

[Nailsbeats]

I have yet to see a fellow roll up in a U-Haul. We rented one to move a buddy not too long ago, I dunno, maybe its me, but I was getting paranoid thinking people were pointing and laughing at me as I drove it down the road. I wore a hat and dark glasses.

Hey, that's what I will be wearing in the Hi-Ranger tommorow, lol. Actually, tennis shoes too.

 

[treemandan]

Hey, that's what I will be wearing in the Hi-Ranger tommorow, lol. Actually, tennis shoes too.

Sounds like the hardest part is getting the saw chips out of your socks... and make sure not to forget there is a set of fenders down there.

 

[Nailsbeats]

Sounds like the hardest part is getting the saw chips out of your socks... and make sure not to forget there is a set of fenders down there.

I find myself thinking "if I could just get out of this bucket and have someone move the truck, I'da had this thing trimmed up already." Then I realize I'm still in my pajama's, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a 200 in the other and think, yeah this is nice, lol.