takedowns over time

[treeman82]

About 2 years ago I gave a price to remove this American elm. I told the older couple $3,500 to take it down, get rid of the chips and the wood. They weren't able to do the entire thing at that time, so they wound up having me take 1 of the 3 major leads off for $1,100. The other day I got called over there to take care of a broken branch and wound up charging $300 for it. They want a price to take the rest down next year, and it's going to be $2,000. So I am off by $100. I am sure you guys do this stuff on a fairly regular basis... do a larger removal over time for people who don't have lots of $, or want to keep the tree around for a while.

 

[Nickrosis]

or want to keep the tree around for a while.

That's key. All things being equal, you want to charge more if you're making more stops.

 

[DDM]

That's key. All things being equal, you want to charge more if you're making more stops.

Yes otherwise They might have friends that pull the same.

 

[Nickrosis]

Suddenly it's a conspiracy theory that they're all out to get us?

I was thinking terms of a cost-recovery perspective. If you make 3 trips instead of one, you have greater costs going into the job between the time, fuel, etc.

 

[Can-Do-It]

What I've been doing for the last couple of years on take downs verse trimming, is I offer the customer a 50% of the trim price if the customer decides that they want to remove with-in 12 months of the trim. Most customers go with the triming and never option for the take down. If they do then I'm guaranteed the take down job. Must Tree companys here don't like trim jobs. I do and make good money at it.

 

[Nickrosis]

a 50% of the trim price

50% of the trim price off the final removal cost? Am I reading this right?

So you tell them the removal is $900 but the pruning cost is $250. So you do the pruning, they call you for the removal and knock off $125 from the removal price. $775+250= $1025. That's cool.

Are you locked in to the $900 just like they are locked in to you for the removal? You would want an opt-out or adjustment option in case the part over the house is left standing and your only rigging point falls over in a storm.

 

[Stumper]

I seldom stage out 1 tree other than seperating the removal of tree and stump but I stage a lot of jobs where we do 2 trees this time another 2 in a month, a removal in the fall etc. They are worth more that way but I don' fuss over it so long as we aren't dividing things too small.

 

[Curtis James]

Another angle, is when it has been two years since they were quoted the price and now the tree is in even worse condition. they still want the original price. WOW. I had this happen once before. I thought the tree was risky before and now it is a crane removal for sure. I was looked at like I was from another planet when I said well now it will be more. I am not a crook. I just value my life.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've several ongoing "partial removals" All we will do is T&M portal to portal. I ask them for their maximum budget for the year and then figure figure manpower and equipment based on that. Then maybe try to schedule another smaller job nearby so that the support crew has something to do while the riggers are setting up and filling the back yard up