Ever Cut Down the Wrong Tree??

[Tree Machine]

wrong tree

A new client had me out to assess her trees and quote one storm damaged tree in the back yard. The beautiful tree in the front needed no work, and I gave a quote on the back yard trees. A week later I got a call regarding the 'topping' of her front tree. Seems another tree company went to butchering her front maple. The guy whose house they were supposed to be at was two doors down, and seeing the hatchet job they were doing on the wrong tree, immediately fired them from doing his. Had the company used proper pruning techniques, I could have maybe come to bat, at least on some level. But, they did a hack job, damaged a hedgerow, bent two gutters, trampled the perennials and screwed the lawn up. They settled out of court for $5,000. The moral here, if you're going to prune the wrong tree, at least do quality work.

 

[NeTree]

Hmmm... Never cut down the wrong tree, but man, have I caused some HUGE domestic arguments!

One went like this:

Woman: Can you cut down this tree?
Me: Sure.
[Tree hits ground in background]

[Husband comes home early from work]

Husband: What the */?@3$^ is going on?
Me :Your wife hired me to cut down this tree.

[A HUGE fight ensues..divorce is threatened, testicles slandered, hair pulled, relatives slurred, etc etc etc]

[Exit ME]
[Enter neighbors]


This REALLY happened!

And I have seen a few smaller ones, too. Now I try to make sure than they're both on the same page as to what's being done. By the way, I did get paid for the above job; but I waited a week to go back and collect on the bill. Didn't want to get in the middle of a shootout or something!

 

[FBerkel]

I was young...it was the eighties...

Hopefully the statute of limitations has passed by now, so here goes:

About 19 or so years ago, right after I got to Denver, this very marginal company I had hooked up with had me doing their street tree removal contract. Mostly big Siberian Elms and Silver Maples. One morning I'm on a street where, for some reason, the numbers aren't posted for a whole block, and when they resume on the next block, they do so as if there wasn't a block in between. The address I wanted was on this next block. Well, I didn't know this yet, and I make a bad assumption.

There's one building on the whole block, a windowless, soul-less monolith. Turns out it's the phone company. I take down one of the two sibos in front, and...apparently, nobody notices! I guess people who work in windowless mausoleums aren't very aware of the "natural" world outside.

I'm usually one to make sure I've paid for my own mistakes, but this one seemed too huge at the time, so I (and the company, which had no qualms about shirking responsibility) laid low, and nothing ever came of it.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

CUTTING THE WRONG TREE

Almost had it happen.

When I used to contract only small pruning, I referred a medium removal.

The service was weak on tree identification, and almost removed the wrong tree. The homeowners ran out and corrected the situation as the saws were fired up.

I do not think it can happen in most cases unless tree identification skills are lacking, or communication has a weakness.

This reminds me of a business law class I took in college here in Oregon as an elective for my landscape technology major.

The law provides that nobody receives a benefit without paying for it.

In other words, if its totally reasonable to understand why a contractor would perform work at the location where work was not requested, then the recipient of the benefit must pay.

About the only way this can happen is if a consumer provides information that could be confused with another location.

For this to apply, the location of the recipient must have a need, like a fence that is falling apart, or paint that is peeling.

Suppose I asked Skippy's Tree Service to remove a 100' dying tree in my yard - no, let's say I went to their office and they did not come to my place.

So I show them a photo of just the tree, not my house. Then they give me a price, but when I sign the contract at their office, I give them the wrong address, or the pen malfunctions and makes the 7 in my address look like the 1 in my neighbor's.

So they go out to do the work, but pull up next door. And I am not home, and my neighbor is not home, but the neighbor does have a 100' dying tree also.

If they remove that tree, which is basically a need, then that neighbor will be obligated to pay the cost if I don't.

Nifty eh!

Mario Vaden
Landscape Designer / Arborist

www.mdvaden.com

M.D. Vaden - Trees & Landscapes
Beaverton, Oregon

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Then you have to make them pay the judgement, and maybe go through appeals court.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i had a client call me out to quote a tree removal that was posing a problem to concrete, couldn't meet me, i could figure it out.........

Well i had doubt so wrote up the to remove the tree pushing up the sidewalk by the front door; wrote it as "South side of garage" as there was more than 1 tree in the yard; that is why i wanted them to meet me, but they didn't have the time for such things. Well wrong tree, they didn't read the quote well enough; in fact took them till the end of the week when they got the bill to notice the tree gone! But they realized the mistake was theirs, still got kinda 'torqued' into taking out the right tree at a discount as they were friends of my dad...

We trimmed the wrong palms once, the guy's secretary didn't want to disturb the busy man, didn't know the home numerical address, said it was the only place with a white fence on the street. Well, except for the place right across the street; so i asked if it was the place with the palms in front or back of the fence, she was sure it was the one with the palms in back. The cop that we awoke 1/2 way thru (that was working midnights and didn't answer the door) insisted we trim the rest of the palms for free too! i had quoted the palms per palm; the cop had 9, the client had 3; the secretary wasn't sure of that either.....

Unless it is the only tree on the property and being removed i have always tryed to insist on meeting the client there. Even then i like to ask about underground sprinklers, septic etc. (which my insurance doesn't cover). These situations have only thickend my resolve. We have an ordinance that states that addresses on the house are to be visible from the road, if ther is an alley there too! But we don't have total co-operation on either!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I was working with a buddy last year and he had stopped by a property the night before for a bid on pruning a medium sized honeylocust.

We are getting gear out of the truck when his cellphone rings, the lady is asking him if he is cutting her tree down...no, he's not he othere side of the county...no he does not ahve any other workers and no Mexicans...

we then go intot the advice of getting the info off the trucka nd pictures of the tree and all that...

 

[palmer4670]

I heard this one from a client that used to work at a golf course. The course was adding a new hole through the woods so they tagged all of the trees that they wanted to keep. The dozer operator thought that the tagged tree were to come out. Needless to say they ended up with a fairway full of trees and a barren rough. communication is very important.

Palmer

 

[mowdenver]

Not a wrong tree story but....

Firefighters Cut Up Wrong Car


FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) - Firefighters who were practicing with the Jaws of Life ended up making a big mistake - by cutting up the wrong car.

Antonio Rocha parked his car Friday behind the fire department's headquarters, next to two other cars that firefighters planned to use for their drill.

Firefighters never gave it a second thought.

When Rocha returned, he found his 1998 Honda Accord minus a roof and doors.

Firefighters learned of the mistake when the employee of a nearby body shop called the fire chief to tell them a man had come by complaining his car had been cut up.

 

[treeman82]

Mark had suggested that when doing any work on trees...
1) use thumb tacks (inconspicuous and won't wash away) I think he uses green for prunes, and red for removals?

2) never give a price without having at least 1 hand on the tree.

3) walk the property with the owner at least once, preferably twice. 1x to hear what the customer has to say... 1x to give your opinion.

 

[treeman82]

I know I am gonna be kicking myself in the arse here... however I just reminded myself of a day last year where I cut SEVERAL of the wrong trees. Not my fault though. Regular customer bought a piece of property, wanted it cleared immediately. Property was 3/4 of an acre out of a 2 or 3 acre wooded area. 100 x 300. Went to look at the lot with the customer who ALWAYS paid either cash, or other untraceable way. Customer tells me to clear from a sign up to a telephone pole. I go and clear the land. Find out a couple of weeks later I had cleared the wrong lot. Customer told me to clear his next door neighbor's land. Cut an area about 100 x 120 of all small trees. His are mostly medium - large maples and cherries.