Ever Cut Down the Wrong Tree??

[Jumper]

There was a newpaper report last week here where some woman left her town house in "The Market"(one of Ottawa's trendier though somewhat rough and tumble 'hoods) and discovered her 30 foot maple which was planted three feet from the house had been cut, chipped and debris removed. Problem was she never hired a tree service to do the same!! Well the poop hit the fan, and she has accused someone of "stealing" her tree, crying about it even. (Sounds like she has OD's on granola) Looks to me like one of the neighbours wanted it removed as it was too close to the houses, or someone made a genuine error and cut down a tree at the wrong address! Cripes they even have "Crimestoppers" involved. Anyone here ever cut down the wrong tree-I have seen it done once (not by me!)

 

[Acer]

I heard one story where a tree surgeon was working on a row of trees, alternate beech and sycamore, alongside a drive leading up to a big house. The instructions were to remove every other tree, starting with the first sycamore..Needless to say, the last bit of the instruction got a little confused, and he started on the wrong tree. The owner came back to a line of sycamore, and was obviously furious..especially as his house was named "The Beeches". The tree surgeon started to try to explain, realised he couldn't, and took the only option open to him...he ran for it!

Apparently, the bloke now earns a living dangling from a rope painting a large bridge over a big river somewhere in Scotland.

 

[trees4life]

We've had that happen at property with multiple trees. 'Remove the westerly Norway maple' can be misinterpretted by the geographically challenged. That's why we now mark them with paint prior to removal.

 

[xander9727]

Surgeons removing the wrong limb, Arborist removing the wrong tree (all of the limbs).

What is this world coming to.

Yet another in the long list of things that JPS is directly responsible for.

 

[mowdenver]

Originally posted by Acer
[ The tree surgeon started to try to explain, realized he couldn't, and took the only option open to him...he ran for it!
[/B]

Saw him run by while I was hunting near the Continental Divide a few years ago, said he couldn't stop to talk-somebody was after him

Think I'd have to do the same

 

[DDM]

Stick with the Paint someone could change up the ribbons for you.

 

[sonny]

That realy makes me lafugh (now ). I remember a fews yrs. back we were to remove the whole street of trees on pecan st. In the town of Huntington Beach. About 4 crews of us were there cutting away. Well any way we were missing 1 crew. Tried & tried to reach them on the 2 way radios. ( they mush of had truck trouble. Well any way got ahold of them they wanted to know where the heck we were . They were on pecan street cutting down all the trees. The only problem was they were in the wrong city.Oh well its funny to me now. Was not so much fun at the time.

 

[Stumper]

Never cut down the wrong tree but I did have a"situation" this past year. A customer for whom I had worked previously called and asked for a price on removing 3 ash that were growing between her fence and the neighbors fence in the back yard. 1 10"dbh and 2 6"-7" dbh. I gave her a price and she said great -"Go Ahead-my neighbor said she might split the cost but I know I want it done irregardless" . We agreed on a day then walked over to the neighbor to get permission to access her back yard ect. No one was home (or didn't answer the door). I showed up a few days later-knocked on the neighbor's door-no answer. I started working and after about an hour a woman came out and started cussing me out! My customer and the neighbor then engaged in a verbal cat fight. Bottom line-I removed the 2 smaller trees and left the biggest. The neighbors were madder than spit at each other but decided that it wasn't my fault.(My customer had pretty good evidence that the trees were primarily on her side of the lot line.) I certainly don't want to repeat that mess-if , on the other hand, a neighbor insists on getting mad at me for removing an undisputed tree for its owner, they can take a running jump.

 

[65hoss]

A very old and historic church in my area was having 3 pine trees taken down that were close to the original 1850's building. The idiots that came out took down a very large 100+ year old tree instead. Several very po'd people around after that.

 

[geofore]

wrong tree

Never cut down the wrong tree but have seen my share of neighbors argue over who's tree that was, what a hassle. Knocking on the doors of the ajoining property owners is not just good PR, it may make your day go easier. Let them know you'll be there making noise. Nothing like having the neighbors calling the police to come see what is going on to slow down the job. I don't know if you run into this much but I have had one guy call and ask me to cut down trees on the other guy's place and sometimes the other guy wants the tree down, he just doesn't want to pay for it but the first guy will. The tree is a hazzard and someone is willing to pay the bill, I'll do it but the real owner must say it is ok first. Get it in writing because once it's down, it's down. At best you can plant a new tree but you can't put the old one back up if they change their mind once it's down. I always ask what kind of tree they are going to replace it with, you may get a tree sale from it, nine out of ten times they want a smaller tree that flowers.
Most often what I have seen is the timber co. cutting on the wrong property to get a few extra trees, Hey it was near the line??? Mark the trees with paint and you will know where to cut.
Don't talk to the ajoining property owner and you may hear this," Your man was in my yardand left a footprint, now I want you to resod the whole lawn."

 

[Toddppm]

When I first started in tree work the foreman was new to the co. too and was a stoner. On the way to the first job with this guy he fired up a bowl, did an amazing job of taking down the wrong tree , beautiful spruce in the front yd. After realizing it was the wrong one he took down the right one and broke the pool pump in the process. Cost $3000 to replace the tree.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

One day I was sent out to re-measure a state champion Oak tree and remove a lousy boxelder. The champion tree was almost big enough to be a national champion, so a re-measure was in order to see if it might qualify.
Anyway, I got the two trees mixed up and came back to the shop with all the measurements of the boxelder and a lot of Oak firewood.

 

[budroe69moni]

i've never removed the wrong tree but i did clean out
the wrong live oak!! the customer gave me the wrong
address of their rental and i went out back and cleaned
out this 30" dbh oak. 1/2 of it was hanging over the back
of the house so i had to do some lite rigging. later that
night, i got a phone call from my customer and they asked
what happened to me today, why didn't i come by and do
the job???? i told them that i did and read back the address
to him and he said that his rental was on 27th st, not 27th
ave what are the chances of 2 houses w/ the same
address (except for the ave and st. thing) both having an
oak out back that needed to be worked?????
budroe

 

[Jumper]

Dis he pay you for the tree you serviced due to his error? Hope so!

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Many years ago I sent my crew out to 873-74th Ave to lower the top of an amur maple hedge. A few hours later I get a phone call from a p'ed off person! Screaming at me. Turns out the crew went to 873-74 1/2 Ave and was half way through lowering the top of a Siberian Elm hedge. The woman was a legal secretary... you guess the end of the story I had to remove the whole hedge and stumsp and replace with a row of pines.

There is a good ending though. I go every other year and do between $1k and $1.8k at the amur maple hedge property.

The pines have overgrown the front yard and are a real mess. I get a wicked gloat every time I see that yard. I had offered to finish the elm hedge and have a large tree spaded into the front yard to replace any "shade" or "privacy" that they felt the "lost". They would have a nicer front yard if they'd done it my way.

Tom

 

[TREETX]

When I was between employed and self employed, I did contract work for other small tree co's. Doofus from "Doofus Tree Care" actually, Aaaaaaaafordable (to be the 1st in the YPs), sent me to an address to clean out "oaks". Operating on $300 a day (I hauled brush too), I cleaned all of the oaks in the front yard. The customer was very happy and let him know. He called me 2 days later po-ed because I was only supposed to crown clean the live oaks and I did 2 extra red oaks plus a cedar. Mad at me for doing a good job?? He wanted to hit her up for extra work but it had already been done. That was the last we worked together.

She was one of my first clients when I did her backyard - it was for much more than $300.

That was where I learned to make detailed proposals.

Another time, I started removing a row of cedar trees between a golf course and a new house. By the time tree #8 was diced up, the golf course guys came cursing and yelling. The trees were on the golf course, not the homeowner's land. I invited him to get out of the cart and continue that conversation. He was smart enough to decline and I just left the mess there as requested. I'm not sure what happened but I billed for the full amount and the customer payed up.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I dont think I ever cut down a wrong tree.

Waddaya say Tom, have I?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

LMAO!!!!

It would be coming donw this spring anyway...no worries...

I wish I could have a picture of your face that day

Tom

 

[xander9727]

Another serious crime against humanity by JPS. This guy is out of control!

 

[bighugetrees]

Got a call to " remove two trees in my front yard, the only two you can't miss them." I go see the trees and call him with a bid. The price seemed a little small so he wanted me to come out and see the trees when he was there. When I got back to the house and knocked on the door, someone was yelling to me from across the street. "You the tree guy?" I walked over and found out I was at the wrong house. Same street and the house numbers were the same too! I brought this to his attention that you both have the same address and he said, "you know, I should look into that. Sometimes we don't get all are mail."

Double check on removals then check again.