When cheaper isnt better

[B Harrison]

Background,
I do a little tree removal and some minor pruning on the side more because I enjoy the work than the money, and my rates are sometimes as low as my basic hourly rate for construction/ remodeling. I consult with an Arborist on occasion and hire him and his large equipment when needed, he is insured and 30 years ish experienced twice re certified.

The job in question was a $6000 job, 8 medium risk trees (healthy) and a large unhealthy white oak that was over the home somewhat, that I considered to much risk for me alone. I priced the work as I always do with an allowance for what might be and since the customer was my buddy and permanent customer, I priced the work to be done at cost then quoted a price, then added stumps into the price and still offered to lower the bill to cost after work was complete........not what I am accustom to doing. My price was 4600-5300, then added the stumps and said still $5300.
I felt good, and like I had room to do a great job and possibly get away with a little less contract labor at the homeowners savings.

He got it priced for 3200 including last falls leaf clean up which i was going to do anyway just to see the ground and work safely.

He went with the cheaper price and two trees landed on his home yesterday, no one was injured!
These guys were supposed to block everything down, but had one large limb tied and blocked to another tree which was anchored at its base with a portawrap. The anchor tree uprooted and the whole mess came the wrong direction.....

Am I wrong for feeling a small amount angry, and how many times has this happened to you guys, obviously this is worse for me because i had been working or this guy (friend) in his home for some time at a reduced rate to help him out.........
He hasn't called me yet to fix the tree or the house.

 

[Marshy]

That's sucks for your buddy. Don't let it eat at ya, he's the one that's probably upset with his decision. Just brush it off and jab him a little about it when his ego heals over. Tell him you'll fix it but I wouldn't be as generous this go round...

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I wouldn't feel too sorry for him either. You gave him a good price to do it right. They quoted a price for a lot less than that...... obviously, not to do it right. I'll bet he uses you the next time.......at almost any price.

I don't care if you are talking tree work, auto repair or airline tickets. There is a price where the business is making a good profit, a price where they are barely making a profit, and a price where they are cutting all kinds of corners hoping for a profit.

 

[pops21]

I wonder if the tree guy will still get paid? Odds are the tree guy did not have insurance and I hope the owner had home insurance. When these things happen I wonder how the home owners insurance would handle it? Odds are the tree guy will not come back to fix his problem.

 

[B Harrison]

Last I saw the tree guys were trying to figure out how to get the tree off the house, I saw pictures and would have chosen a crane at that point, the roots of there anchor tree weren't good, so I tend to thing any other potential anchor trees would be the same way. But I didn't get a call, and may not. And correct I am done offering to do special pricing or figure jobs three ways. Any work he gets from me will be at my usual rate.

 

[KenJax Tree]

When he does call you i hope your price is much higher than $5300 to correct someone else's screw up.


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[VA-Sawyer]

When he does call you i hope your price is much higher than $5300 to correct someone else's screw up.


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I agree. Education comes with a price tag, and he just got some of it.

 

[old_soul]

Wow if I were you, I think I would be kinda thankful that I didn't get the job. That's a serious accident when the anchor tree fails......glad nobody was hurt

Would be interesting to find out if they overloaded the rigging or just didn't look closely before tying into rotten tree.

Port a wrap can take a lot of shock loading out of the system, if used correctly. Either way 5300 not worth dealing with headaches like that.

 

[Pelorus]

There will always be lowballer willing to do a job for less than your best price.
Regard it as an "occupational hazard". Advertising "free estimates" likely encourages some customers to get quotes from a whole bunch of different tree companies. I understand their mentality to some extent........if it's not gonna cost them anything for an estimate, then why not? Save some coin for Bingo and booze. Zero sum game.

 

[chief116]

I dunno, it sounds like they just had bad luck. An anchor tree failing is something that is nearly impossible to predict. Consider yourself lucky that it was them and not you, at least your buddy can't be pissed at you.

If they are a full time tree service, 3200 doesn't sound unreasonable for a day rate. At some companies, that pays for 3-4 guys, a chipper and a bucket for 2 days.

 

[Single_Shooter]

Always remember the old saying.......Repair work $25/hr -- If you watch $30/hr -- If you help $40/hr -- If you tried to fix it before you brought it to me $50/hr.

But I doubt you will hear from them. had this happen to us just last week when a potential customer asked us to come look at two trees to remove down the street from a job we were on. He said we charged too much and listened to his roofing and siding guys when they said they could remove the 2 trees for him. The roofing and siding guys came down the street to our job later that day and asked us to bail them out - tree on the house - crushed roof - broken windows...a real mess. We charged more than originally to clean up their mess, drop the second tree and make them haul off all the logs.

The homeowner never stepped foot out of the house. Embarrassment is a powerful thing.

But I agree....sounds like you may have lucked out on this deal.

 

[peetar]

I think you are 90+% to have totally lucked out on this (unless you were not going to rig from the other tree). I'm guessing the it was the unhealthy tree over the house that pulled over a "healthy" tree next to it. Think about it, it's pretty darn hard to pull a decent sized bush out of the ground with a truck. If you were not going to use that tree for rigging, you may have decided to get it out of your way, something very bad might have happened while you were in it.

If they were not trying to swing 1/2 of the whole tree from the rig tree, I think you just danced between raindrops.

 

[yeahbuddy24]

Wow he hust have been using a super small tree as a block to "uproot" it, unless the limb they were lowing is gigantic. Hopefually you get a call to finish up the treework the right way.

 

[sgreanbeans]

I have had this happen a few times. They go with the cheaper guy, bad things happen and then they call and want me to rescue them. I wont. The last thing I want, is the neighbors to hear about the carnage, look down the street and see my truck there and just assume it was me that did the damage, not realizing I am there to fix it. I make sure to tell them "told ya so"
I had one guy get really pissed that I wouldn't help. Local hack tried dropping a dead maple over in a small back yard, no way it would have fit without hitting something. Took out power, cable and phone and smashed garage, blocking the HO's car in. He told me that he ran them off and that I could come any time, and he would pay me half my price, ya know, since the tree is down. When I old him no, he said he was going to sue me since I had "24hr Emergency Service" in my add. I just started laughing and he went off. I hung up on the Fool.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I never thought about the neighbors assuming it was us that caused the problem.
I have never crunched a house with a tree, but I have removed a lot of wood from roofs that was there before I arrived.

You should have told the guy, " Lack of planning on your part, isn't considered an emergency on my part."

 

[Matt81]

I have had this happen a few times. They go with the cheaper guy, bad things happen and then they call and want me to rescue them. I wont. The last thing I want, is the neighbors to hear about the carnage, look down the street and see my truck there and just assume it was me that did the damage, not realizing I am there to fix it. I make sure to tell them "told ya so"
I had one guy get really pissed that I wouldn't help. Local hack tried dropping a dead maple over in a small back yard, no way it would have fit without hitting something. Took out power, cable and phone and smashed garage, blocking the HO's car in. He told me that he ran them off and that I could come any time, and he would pay me half my price, ya know, since the tree is down. When I old him no, he said he was going to sue me since I had "24hr Emergency Service" in my add. I just started laughing and he went off. I hung up on the Fool.

I never thought about the neighbors assuming it was us that caused the problem.
I have never crunched a house with a tree, but I have removed a lot of wood from roofs that was there before I arrived.

You should have told the guy, " Lack of planning on your part, isn't considered an emergency on my part."

If i cut off a toe or finger every time something like this has happened to me i would not be working with my hands or walking straight!!

Too many dumb asses who are tight with money think that anyone with a working knowledge of gravity can successfully cut down a tree. After it has fallen on their house and knocked out power and pissed off the entire neighborhood they realise that your quote was not so bad after all. I have learnt unfortunately the hard way that it does not matter how well i get on with a customer, it is how well they get on with me!

To the OP B harrison,

yes But I didn't get a call, and may not. And correct I am done offering to do special pricing or figure jobs three ways. Any work he gets from me will be at my usual rate.

To answer your own question, yes any work you do for him from now on is at your usual rate. Friend or not. Anyone who has this kind of experience happen to them after turning you down, and still turns you down in the future for some hack offering a cheaper price is truly an idiot!!

 

[imagineero]

The last thing I want, is the neighbors to hear about the carnage, look down the street and see my truck there and just assume it was me that did the damage, not realizing I am there to fix it.

So I'm guessing you don't take any kind of work fixing other people's mistakes, even if you didn't quote on it? I don't mind taking that kind of work, I think it increases my reputation. There are no secrets in most neighborhoods, the neighbors will get every last detail, and they'll know the name of the company that came to screw it up, and the name of the company that came to fix it. I have prominent signage on my truck at all times.

I've had a few situations where I quoted and the owner went with someone else who either did damage, left the tree on the ground, or took all of the high points out of it leaving an impossible situation. In all cases I don't bear a grudge, I just take another look at the job and price it as I would any other job. It gets priced according to risk and scale, just as with any other job. If we win it, we go take care of it as we would any other job also. It's just business. I feel that once you start turning down customers, it's the beginning of the time when you gotta start thinking about getting out of the business. You want customers! Any customer willing and able to pay the price of an agreed upon amount of work is a good customer.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Did you get any pictures? I prefer to learn from the mistakes others have made. Then try NOT to duplicate.

 

[sgreanbeans]

So I'm guessing you don't take any kind of work fixing other people's mistakes, even if you didn't quote on it? I don't mind taking that kind of work, I think it increases my reputation. There are no secrets in most neighborhoods, the neighbors will get every last detail, and they'll know the name of the company that came to screw it up, and the name of the company that came to fix it. I have prominent signage on my truck at all times.

I've had a few situations where I quoted and the owner went with someone else who either did damage, left the tree on the ground, or took all of the high points out of it leaving an impossible situation. In all cases I don't bear a grudge, I just take another look at the job and price it as I would any other job. It gets priced according to risk and scale, just as with any other job. If we win it, we go take care of it as we would any other job also. It's just business. I feel that once you start turning down customers, it's the beginning of the time when you gotta start thinking about getting out of the business. You want customers! Any customer willing and able to pay the price of an agreed upon amount of work is a good customer.

Nope, here it is nothing to live on the same street 2-3 doors down from someone and never meet or talk to them. I have plenty of clients, the ones that go that route then backtrack, I am not interested in them. If they call again, about something separate than the first go round, that's ok. But I will never clean up someone else's mess, NEVA!!! I have gone and finished work that others have pulled off of from being scarred. But if there damage done, I stay away.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Beans is right, neighborhoods are way different from when I was a kid. I have only met two of my neighbors and can't tell you their names. Only lived here 7 years. Keep up the discussion, I hear good points from both sides. Even if I don't change my policy about working other folks messes, I will be aware of things I hadn't considered in the past.