Pinching my work

[Bermie]

I was at a long time client's property today, doing the rounds of maintenance pruning, small fruit trees etc, nice varied work. The local landscapers were in, mowing, planting etc. The owner and I were walking about and she pointed out an an avocado tree about 30' tall to be taken down in the banana patch (too much shade), I had reduced it a year ago.
Well she had mentioned it in passing to the landscapers who immediately said they would do it. I was annoyed, they get paid to do what is their expertise, leave the trees to me. I expressed my doubt (nicely) to the owner that they would be able to do it safely and without smashing all the bananas, and that the tree work was my area.
Suffice to say, we waited til the landscapers left, I donned the spikes and that tree was on the ground, crosscut, stacked, brush piled for the chipper, no smashed bananas in two hours, and I was by myself!
I can only hope that it reinforced to my clients that tree work is for specialists, and not to let the 'scrapers' pinch my work!
Got to stick up for ourselves sometimes!

 

[dakota]

Well done!

 

[frashdog]

stuff like that has made my partner come up with some ad ideas like, you wouldn't have a brain surgon give you a heart transplant, so why would you have a land scaper touch you're trees? Yup some can do both, but really good tree peeps and really good scrapers stick to what they're good at.

Like the guy recently posting, he's a landscaper coming to this forum looking for an arborist. Smart landscaper, probably pretty busy landscaper.

 

[frashdog]

stuff like that has made my partner come up with some ad ideas like, you wouldn't have a brain surgon give you a heart transplant, so why would you have a land scaper touch you're trees? Yup some can do both, but really good tree peeps and really good scrapers stick to what they're good at.

Like the guy recently posting, he's a landscaper coming to this forum looking for an arborist. Smart landscaper, probably pretty busy landscaper.

 

[Bermie]

stuff like that has made my partner come up with some ad ideas like, you wouldn't have a brain surgon give you a heart transplant, so why would you have a land scaper touch you're trees? Yup some can do both, but really good tree peeps and really good scrapers stick to what they're good at.

Like the guy recently posting, he's a landscaper coming to this forum looking for an arborist. Smart landscaper, probably pretty busy landscaper.

Absolutely, folks have asked me to design an area, or rebuild walls (drystone) I could, but I don't, I don't have the equipment or the time, and I know several designers and landscape gardeners who will do it better, cheaper and quicker, I refer them and they refer me for tree work!

 

[JohN Dee]

I was at a long time client's property today, doing the rounds of maintenance pruning, small fruit trees etc, nice varied work. The local landscapers were in, mowing, planting etc. The owner and I were walking about and she pointed out an an avocado tree about 30' tall to be taken down in the banana patch (too much shade), I had reduced it a year ago.
Well she had mentioned it in passing to the landscapers who immediately said they would do it. I was annoyed, they get paid to do what is their expertise, leave the trees to me. I expressed my doubt (nicely) to the owner that they would be able to do it safely and without smashing all the bananas, and that the tree work was my area.
Suffice to say, we waited til the landscapers left, I donned the spikes and that tree was on the ground, crosscut, stacked, brush piled for the chipper, no smashed bananas in two hours, and I was by myself!
I can only hope that it reinforced to my clients that tree work is for specialists, and not to let the 'scrapers' pinch my work!
Got to stick up for ourselves sometimes!

TOO TRUE Mate! We get that all the time down under(Australia) with the lawn mowing services, and the non-legitimate tree companies(Loppers). We like to call them Poachers, which they are. If we were to try and mow their clients lawns and do thir gardening they be the first one's to open their mouths.

Good to see you sticking up for your business and the tree industry from the Poachers.

 

[manual]

I sure hate to post this But here I go.
I do lawncare and if my customer ask about a tree job. and IF it is within my skills I WILL DO IT. If not I know a tree climber that will help me.
Thats how you learn. Were I live Diversification pays the bills.

 

[SteveBullman]

i dont personally have a problem with landscapers taking on small trees. if i go to price tree work and the customer mentions they have an area they'd like knocked down with a brush cutter then i'll gladly do it, we all have to earn money, is that any different?

 

[treeminator]

have you guys noticed the customer's expectation on price changes dramatically between the two. a tree company can go in and quote $1,000 for a job that takes 4 hours to do. if the lawn guy tries it, they expect it for less than $200. i think it's because they see the lawn guys earning $30/hr during their cutting/landscaping routine and multiply by that. just an observation.

 

[BoesTreeService]

Similar problem

What do you do when a competitor keeps bugging your clients after you have booked a job? I had clients who asked me to do a takedown for them a month in advance tell me a competitor who bid 150% my price called them 30 times and stopped at their house 7 or 8 times to try to get the job (he didnt know they asked me to wait the extra time- I was two weeks booked to start and they wanted two more weeks to get the rest of the money)

Then the guy drives by when Im doing the job and tells my groundies that he really didnt want to do the job anyway.

 

[Bermie]

I sure hate to post this But here I go.
I do lawncare and if my customer ask about a tree job. and IF it is within my skills I WILL DO IT. If not I know a tree climber that will help me.
Thats how you learn. Were I live Diversification pays the bills.

Ah, see but that's the difference, you know what is within your skills, AND you're prepared to bring a climber along, good for you, I have no problem with that and you're right, get the bills paid!
I will do small landscape jobs myself, I mean SMALL, I know I can handle it, cripes I spent 15 years managing acres of hotel property.
What bugs me is that these chaps here have no training, there is no requirement for certification to be a landscaper, they are great for mowing, weeding, planting, and massive machete weilding, chainsaw screaming scrub land clearance, but proper pruning, technical takedowns are not part of their skill set! They don't have ropes or harnesses, just a homelite and a ladder.
We're working on the same property - you do the lawns, leave the trees to me!

 

[frashdog]

It happened today, a customer was asking me for a quote on another tree for removal. I've already taken 4 away and am going to prune a big oak. So, I give him the quote and he acted shocked and told me the roofer told him $100. I said that's a good deal, hope he's insured cause that trees got a good lean to the house. I stuck to my guns and moved on. Then while I'm grinding some stumps the home owner stops me to let me know that he's leaving and the roofers might stop by, so I say," I'll let them know that I gave you a lower bid and I'm doing the roof now!" he thought it was funny.

 

[Bermie]

What do you do when a competitor keeps bugging your clients after you have booked a job? I had clients who asked me to do a takedown for them a month in advance tell me a competitor who bid 150% my price called them 30 times and stopped at their house 7 or 8 times to try to get the job (he didnt know they asked me to wait the extra time- I was two weeks booked to start and they wanted two more weeks to get the rest of the money)

Then the guy drives by when Im doing the job and tells my groundies that he really didnt want to do the job anyway.

That's just irritating! If I was the client I'd tell him to bug off! I think he'll lose work by being a pain in the you know what!

 

[Bermie]

It happened today, a customer was asking me for a quote on another tree for removal. I've already taken 4 away and am going to prune a big oak. So, I give him the quote and he acted shocked and told me the roofer told him $100. I said that's a good deal, hope he's insured cause that trees got a good lean to the house. I stuck to my guns and moved on. Then while I'm grinding some stumps the home owner stops me to let me know that he's leaving and the roofers might stop by, so I say," I'll let them know that I gave you a lower bid and I'm doing the roof now!" he thought it was funny.

Did you get your tree work Frash? And did they get the point when you said you'd do the roof?

 

[frashdog]

Did you get your tree work Frash? And did they get the point when you said you'd do the roof?

They held off on the removal. Perfectly healthy oak, my opinion was to prune it. With the new roof going on they're all worried about the leaves whatever, I held my tounge especially when he said he should get a discount cause I've done so much work already. He's a doctor with a phat house on a lake, I bet he doesn't give discounts for numerous office visits that probably come to thousands more than my services.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

If a landscape knew how to remove trees and was covered for the work in every facet required, I'd say it's okay.

But more than half that I've seen tackle such endeavors, underbid the work. In many cases, they drive down tree prices, and the tree industry is still in great need of increased pay to boost education, etc..

A good businessman offers estimates and undertakes services to help a customer and to better his business, his employees and his profession.

A so-so businessman offers estimates and undertakes services to make money and expand business operations.

 

[a_lopa]

In another ten years the "easy jobs"will evaporate at least 50-70% of them,technology how many lawn guys own a ht75?