Youngbuck20
ArboristSite Guru
Kinda stuck here not sure what to do. A local guy who is also a fellow fighter has gotten me a few tree jobs, through contacts of his. He by no means knows anything about trees, I mean nothing. He asked me how much to do a 20 ft spruce and a 30 ft ash. Me, being in desperate need of money said 100 for the spruce 200 for the ash. The trees were at two separate location both almost 2 hours away. The spruce turned into a spruce and two cedars, all no more than 15 feet. K no prob. The ash was about 40' tall in a city backyard. So as you guys know, shed, deck, fence, house. They have never done tree work so I had to show them the "ropes". I do the job no prob but they took me for a ride not letting the top or some branches run a bit, he cut my brand new never been used rigging line in half, and didnt know how to start my saw so it was flooded so bad I had to take the muffler off and dump gas out of it!! Today he says 2 spruce just topped and dropped, arent as tall as the ash. Ok $100 per tree whatever i need the money. One spruce 60' tall in the corner of the house, the other was a cedar, same height, less than 6" away from the house. I limbed and topped the spruce then jumped over to the cedar. He had almost 180 degrees to drop the rest from the ground...smashes their fence. Yelling and screaming at his son just created un needed stress. So what Im getting at is he is pricing these trees without seeing them then asking me what I charge, hes making money off me by getting these jobs "for me". These jobs were worth much more I know but I didnt want to lose the job, little did I know he had already priced them and knew id do them for cheap. He's also a hot head and has no idea what hes doing. He says he has lots of work for me which is good cause I can start making a little bit of money but without seeing these jobs I cant price them properly. He describes them like they are nothing. He is a loud over powering person and Im the quiet guy that just does what people tell me to do. Do I work with him and watch him wreck everything in sight while freaking out on everyone and giving me much harder work than he says or just call'er quits and have no income? Sorry for the long post it was a bit of a rant Ill admit.
Stick to your guns. One thing I have learned doing tree work is that your instinct is usually right, like 99.9% of the time. If its not, you won't last doing tree work. The other thing I am still learning is that it takes a long time to estimate tree work effectively. It sounds like you have a good eye for tree work, find someone that appreciates your skills, respects your on the job decision making, and pays you accordingly.:cool2:
