We got an interesting call today...

[pdqdl]

A lady called today, indicating that she had a big limb fall on her house today, could we come out to bid removing it and the rest of the trunk? [She seemed to be taking it pretty well, and was NOT sounding distraught]

Sure...

It turns out some guy named Fred was cutting off a monster limb on a tree removal. "You could see there was no way that little rope could hold that big limb..." she told me.

Shortly thereafter, clever master arborists that they were, the crew skipped out, stealing the neighbors truck as they went! The lady only had a first name and a phone number.

Somehow that seems fair, because it was the neighbor with the stolen truck that recommended these thugs to do the work!

We bid $550 to take care of the whole thing, and they told us to wait because they had to see if they could cancel the "other tree service" that bid $400 for finishing the job.

??? I am still mystified. IF they bid the job first, and they were cheaper, and the job was approved...why were we being left on the hook to do the job, pending cancelling the other company?

Another slight problem: she told me that the police would not respond, that it was a civil matter. Hmmm...Didn't that story include a stolen vehicle?

I will report on this saga as it develops...[to be continued]

 

[DirtyDog]

Sounds like somtheing i would stay away from. Tell her you got busy with a few other bids. She had her chance and you may have regretted it. i just turned down a job i had placed a bid on and lost to another company. Turns out, the other "company" didn't have proper insurance??? Then, the lady who was accepting bids tells me she wants more done than originally expected and my price was way higher than the other guys? I have no response to people when they try explain their personal problems. Seems like no one knows how expensive this line of work is and the customer may just not pay in the end if she's acting suspect already????

I'd stay away before she tries to blame the damage on you!
If there's damage done by someone else, price goes up double and take lots of pictures!

 

[MonkeyMan_812]

Thats a pretty crazy story. They stole the truck? WOW! I can just picture them running over to the neighbors, jumping in and squeeling tires out the drive way. Thats funny stuff.

 

[BC_Logger]

I would walk away from that one. It sounds like a water front property for sale in Arizona story

 

[huskystihl]

i'd wanna see some cash up front on this gig. If your as slow as everyone else ya can't hardly turn it down.

 

[ozzy42]

i'd wanna see some cash up front on this gig. If your as slow as everyone else ya can't hardly turn it down.

Yep ,once you show them your credentials,and they can see you are legit.
Time for them to do likewise;meaning some deposit,or full payment before you get started.At least 1/2 up front and balance before truck leaves their yard.
You can't come back ,and dump it,that's illegal dumping,but until it leaves their property,it is still theirs.[been there done that deal]

I would write everything down stating that you are basicly doing a salvage job,and there may be hidden damage from the previous workers.

 

[motoroilmccall]

Yeah... Big thing here, take pictures BEFORE you start working, time and date them, and have the homeowner sign them. It ain't bulletproof, but just in case, you'll have some kind of protection.

The only reasons I can think that they wanted to cancel the other service are that they either lied to you about the other companies price (it was higher than yours, not lower like they said), or the other company wasn't licensed and insured (assuming you are) and once they saw you were only a bit more money they wanted the peace of mind a real company offers (or maybe they want to go after your insurance)...

 

[Rickytree]

Ya time to get paid the bra'd say's " 550? but the other guy took off that limb for you!!"



Some people's kids!!

 

[pdqdl]

So far, we have not heard back from them. I think I'll call in the morning.

BTW, I don't ask for money up front. I advise all my customers to never pay in advance for work not yet done. If I think they are deadbeats, I can handle it in other ways.

So far (after 27 years), I have never been able to predict who the deadbeats are. Rich or poor, educated or not, I have been more often surprised by prompt payment from probable deadbeats than I have been stiffed.

It's the ones you don't suspect that get you. In the story above, sure we suspect a problem. But so far, we don't have a job to do, either.

 

[Rftreeman]

Hey I heard that they caught the other guys, they said that the idiots dropped their ISA card when they jumped in the stolen truck......whooo hoooo..............git-r-done.












disclaimer: this is just some humor for the day, not to be taken seriously, they did not catch the guys but they did find their ISA card............lol...


not really I'm just joking and if you can't see the humor then oh well.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

But in this case.... ISA stands for Idiotic Stupid Arse ! NOT the ISA we normally talk about.

 

[ropensaddle]

Yup I see crackhead tree service made it to your area man them guy's really travel lol.