Never had an insurance claim.... Until today

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I offered to have it fixed, she said she wanted a new fence section. Nice. She called her insurance company first freaking thing, without talking to me about the fence first. Then, the insurance company called me, wants my info, and so forth, and so forth. She didn't want me to fix it or replace it because, "I've gone that route before having landscapers fix their mistakes and I just need it done right by a contractor".

Now, I still need to go back and grind the stumps. I riveted with excitement. The claim at best with be depreciated considering what was lost and she'll probably stiff me on payment on account of not having a brand new fence paid for.

When we did the job we had an audience of neighbors watching us so I couldn't let anything free fall. Every piece got rigged and it almost didn't matter.

Life is hard, never soft,
Grow it long , shave it off.
Van Halen,, Feelings
Jeff:msp_wink:
 
it sounds to me like she doesn't care about the fence, she just doesn't want to pay you. if she wanted the fence fixed, she would let you try endlessly. you have the right to get 2 estimates of your own. do not give her your insurance information. have her sign a paper stating that she would not let you fix it. if she wont let you fix it or hire your own company, she can pay to have it fixed and sue you. and when she does, you provide your own estimates and the paper she signed denying you the opportunity to make it right. also, when you give her the bill give her 10 days to pay. if she doesn't, call hourly, send invoices with late charges and sue her. the fence is a different contract than the trees and by law she must pay you. broken fence and all. don't let her con you. be aggressive.
 
So this trunk is cracked and almost half the tree is about to fall on the house. Because of its location the only way it's getting solved is by climbing and rigging it down piece by piece. After strapping the spar together with four separate evenly spaced nylon straps ratcheted tight, I'm up in the top starting the process when this neighbor yells out to me. "Hey Paul Bunyan!" I'm polite, I answer her with a "Yes Maam". She then proceeds to tell me that I had better not damage her new fence! Again I'm polite but I'm thinking here I am in a split tree about to fall on your neighbors house, it's windy, and all you can think about is your stupid fence!
I don't particulary blame someone who's had a bad experience, but I do think there are responsible ways to handle things without getting all official and such. If she's contacted her insurance company is there a chance you can work with them directly without involving yours? I don't know about this area of life, I'm just asking.
Steve
 
Damn, that sucks. You'll argue it was rotten and waiting to happen, she'll argue it was fine till you broke it and you've both got a point. Had this before with badly rotten fences and had awful customers but thankfully never together on the same job. In a sane world you shouldn't be liable for complete replacement of a manky old rotten fence and her attitude sounds full of ulterior motives. Let us know how it goes and fingers crossed
 
Please state such the SOP of and operations manager that I'm not following. I can't tell if this is hipster sarcasm.

I would say its hipster sarcasm except for one thing - ITS JEFF!

He's a bully, just a mean old bully.:msp_biggrin:

What he means is that if one of his serfs broke the fence he would whip him in front of the others.

What he means is that he would just "clean" the #####.

No, wait, I think what he means is that, well, I am not sure what he means because even if some guy went in and managed operations the fence could still have been broken and the lady would still be an old #####y ####.

I GOTTA SEE THIS 1000 DOLLAR FENCE!:msp_sneaky:

Wolpost fence? WTF is that?
 
On the other hand... one of my clients has a set of gates in front of her house, they look like hell, but she's got about 100K into them. I stay the hell away from them!

I know what you mean. We have a customer that has a Japanese garden looking thing, I don't know what else to call it, with this mickey mouse green house in the middle of it. The whole thing has an old rotten split rail fence around it. You can just look at it wrong and something falls off of it. She claims she has $75,000 in that deal and gets really upset just thinking about us damaging something in there. We always have a pre-job meeting before we work there and remind everybody to be super careful around that garden thing she has going on.
 
We were working in high winds and a pine top I cut blew on top of the neighbor's house. It scuffed up a few shingles and left a scuff mark on the brick siding. No one wold have even noticed but I wanted to do the right thing so I showed the homeowner and told him I would pressure wash the shingles and brick siding. I ended up having to pay for a contractor to replace a 10' x 10' square of shingles. He actually wanted to have the brick work replaced but fortunately the contractor he used convinced the homeowner he was going overboard.
 
the only wooden Duxbury I can see is post and rail, everything seems to be vinyl now. Offer to replace the panel with brand new current wooden Duxbury fencing, just get a signed agreement and tree payment before you start the fence :hmm3grin2orange:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top