Sign here, please.

[MasterBlaster]

Today I had something occur that has never happened before.

I was geared-up and fixing to get in a tree, and the groundies were getting ready to rock and roll. As I slung my lanyard around the tree, I noticed another tree biz truck slowing down and checking us out. At least that's that I thought they were doing.

No, they were arriving to bid the job. It seems the guy I was working for was supposed to bid the job tomorrow, and these guys were gonna give their bid today. My guy called the lady about coming today because we have a crane job tomorrow, and she said to do the job. No contract was signed.

What suprised me was this guy just walked up through the men, and started talking to the lady like we weren't even there. The lady told me to hold on, she was gonna see if this guys bid was cheaper. Guess what? He was.

She told my guy that she was gonna go with this other guy because he was lower. We told her to make sure he had liability and WC insurance, which we knew they didn't. My guy was on the phone reporting them to the state guy.

She said, "Oh? Really?", and went over to ask them about it. He showed her some liability stuff, but that was all he had. We told her that without WC, if somebody was hurt on his job they could sue HER. Again we hear "Oh, really?"

And she went back over to talk to them. To sum up, she opted to go with the cheaper guys, and she hoped nobody got hurt. We left. At least one hour wasted with me and four groundies on the clock. Minimum groundie pay - $10 hr.

Three things I see wrong going on here:

1) My guy should have had a contract signed before starting.

2) That OTHER GUY shoulda just kept on going when he saw a five man crew already on the job. I would never do that, walk up on a crew already working, and then underbid them.

3) The freaking lady was stoopid. She knew they weren't adequately covered insurance wise, yet she still went for it. She actually said that... "Well, I hope no one gets hurt." HA!


For the record, the other guy was a fat 55 year old with one wino looking guy with em. I drove past the job after they had finished, and the clean-up was extremely shoddy. Crap was everywhere, the street wasn't even raked. I've never seen this particular guy before, he was a jackleg.

Anybody else experience this?

 

[treeman82]

I know somebody who would do what the "jackleg" did. That same person has a few people waiting for him in the shadows with scores to settle. :blob5:

 

[MasterBlaster]

Oh, we had plenty of work to do. Which we did. But yea, your right. I told him to bill her $100 for wasting our time.

 

[Treeman14]

Yup, three stupid people all right. Your guy for not getting a signed contract before staring the job, the other guy for just barging in on someone else's job, and the homeowner for dissing your guy and going with the hacker. You're the only one who made out today. I assume you got paid anyway?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Oh HEEL YAH!

 

[glens]

Kinda sorta.

I had an overhead door customer who had loading docks busy all day.  They called me up for an emergency once and when I got there, the door was completely off the tracks and standing against the far wall in one piece.  I came back after 3:30 when I could work without being in the way of all the forklifts.

A couple months later I got the same kind of call and I was sick as a dog.  I asked was the doorway open where they could use it and they said yes, so I laid back down for a while.  I got there about 5:00 and started working on the door and there was a guy standing around watching and talking to me.  It wasn't uncommon for someone from the maintenance dept. to be assigned a work ticket and waste a couple hours on it anyway so it didn't really mean anything to me.  After I'd gotten some of the up-high stuff disassembled the guy from purchasing shows up and says to me "you're out of here" and he turns to the other guy and says "who are you?  are you with Overhead Door out of Lafayette?" and the guy says "yes".  The purchasing guy tells him to fix the door.  So I picked up my tools, loaded up the truck and left.  The next day I submitted a bill for fixing the door against the purchase order they'd given me and they paid it.  They closed up shop within a year after that, so no big loss.

Brian's right.  She reneged on the verbal contract she and your boss had.

Glen

 

[Dadatwins]

Can't believe your guy rolled over and let homeowner draw strings like that. I would think a verbal contract would be valid to collect money for time and materials spent on job if not the total price of the job. Other guy had some set to walk into another companies work zone and start negotiating job. Back in N.Y.C. I have seen company owners fist fight in the street over stuff like that.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by Dadatwins
I have seen company owners fist fight in the street over stuff like that.

Ha! I haven't seen that yet, but I agree with yur post.

My guy was just disgusted with the whole thing and wanted to get to the next job. This was a first for him, too.

 

[Dadatwins]

I would probably send a typed up bill all legal like and ask for money if it was me just to send a message to homeowner. Lawyer would probably be able to collect for damages but would most likely cost more than the job was worth.

 

[treeman82]

As far as I can remember, I haven't heard of fist fights. I have however, heard of trucks being torched, and tires being flattened... amongst other things.

 

[arboromega]

during hurricane isabel one of our crews showed up to remove a tree and couldn't find the hazzard tree...seems another door knockers had already come through and under bid while the client was waiting for us to do the work. guess we were making so much anyway the boss let it go...

 

[MasterBlaster]

HAR!

 

[Ax-man]

I haven't had that happen, I looked at a job last Thursday and recieved the OK to do it, I was in the same neighborhood doing a little trim job for another customer, finished our work, drive around the corner and there is my competition doing my job.

I thought when I got home there would be cancellation on phone.

So far nothing, what ticks me is I've done this customer's work for years, putting up with their bull crap requests over the years.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but if they should call again I'm not going to give them the time of day either. What is even stranger is the other guy jumped on this one so quick. I'm backed up a good three weeks to a month. I would assume everyone would be too.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened over the years. Do good work for people trimming and fussing over their trees, then they go to the competition for a removal.

Larry

 

[Ax-man]

Re: Re: Sign here, please.

Originally posted by TreeCo
I'm sorry Butch. I didn't know that was you or I would have introduced myself. And my wife is not a wino!

Fat Dan

____________________________________________________

Good one, Dan



That must have been you I seen about five years ago then, when that storm came thru. Just before Mothers day.

Remember me, we were both looking at the same job on rte 47, only I got there ahead of you. Guess you didn't like it much here in Illinois.

Larry

 

[John Stewart]

That guy had some kind of balls!
Try that with a couple of guys that I know and it wouldn't matter if he was lower he would find it hard to do the job all busted up

 

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by John Stewart
That guy had some kind of balls!

Actually, I kinda thought he was a tad uncouth. That ain't how ya do business. But...

if it happens again with the same guy, we're gonna have a 'lil tailgate meeting...

 

[NeTree]

Originally posted by RockyJSquirrel
Butch,
I think your guy blew it. He already had a verbal contract with the customer, which is legally enforceable. you already had a go-ahead on the job and you had already started. By hiring the other company after you started, the customer effectively cancelled your contract. Your boss should have immediately billed her for the time you had already wasted on the job since she was firing you without just cause. But instead he tucked his tail between his legs and sheepishly informed you guys that you no longer had a job for today.

Yes, the customer was rude and a dodo. But your boss allowed her to walk all over him. This hurts all of us because people think they can treat all of us like slaves or scum. And the other jackleg was scum also, but he stood up for himself (keeping his scheduled appointment) and he got a check at the end of the day.

I'm inclined to agree with Rocky.

Your boss should have gotten a pair on this one.

 

[Stumper]

I've never had someone walk in on the job but I've shown up a couple of times to find the work already done. Hindsight is 20/20- the perfect response would have been to cordially wish the lady well and bill her for time unloading /loading tools. I 'm not interested in playing the "check their insurance" game. When people say they got someone else I just say that I hope that it works out well. Some of my local competition I can say are pretty good. others I say are well equipped, some well..... I hope that it turns out well.
How many times have you guys got a job that was already awarded to someone else who hasn't shown up on time? I suppose that some guys other than me have been the ones showing up to a completed job.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Butch,

Aren't all arbos in a LA supposed to be state certified? You wrote that your guy called the "state guy" What happened?

Tom

 

[MasterBlaster]

I dunno. Still pending. I'll update ASAP.

But my guess is nothing happened.