Price Gouging?

[intaglio]

Hurricane "Sandy" left a sizable oak imbedded in my attached garage. I expected to pay a stiff price for its removal, but $15,000 (before taxes) seems a bit over the top. I was also charged $600 to secure a tarp (mine) over the roof opening, which took about 15 minutes. Stump left in the ground. Debris not removed from site, just carted about 50 feet to the curb for town pickup.

My location is Long Island, NY.

Your opinions would be much appreciated.

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[Icehouse]

I don't want to call anybody a thief, not knowing them and all. But did these fellows wear masks?

 

[Spillway]

The area where I live $1,500 would be a fair price to pay.

Another thought to consider, is your homeowners covering the cost or percentage of it? Maybe they are inflating their cost to claim the percentage they want to walk away with.

 

[Goose IBEW]

That's crazy. I did a similar job to that last summer in South Jersey. Vehicles weren't involved but I removed a 42" diameter oak, dug the stump out, back filled with top soil, planted grass seed, AND removed and disposed the 24x24 destroyed building for $6500. The building was a shack compared to your nice garage but still, it was work to dismantle it and haul it away. I thought her estimates for a $5,000 tree removal was steep, $15,000??? That's a hard one to follow. The only thing I can say is that I am not familiar with the logistics of working in Long Island so there could be a large expense that I am not taking into consideration.

Edit: I am not sure if the building is a total loss but I recommend a crane removal in that instance. There is no need to incur further damage onto the building and vehicles, especially if they are to be salvaged.

 

[husabud]

I am sorry, but I think you got hosed. Call your ins co to report a possible claim.

 

[Philbert]

Contact your Attorney General to ask about price gouging protection / recovery. They sometimes go after stuff like this after a storm.

Did you agree to the price before the work was performed? Was it a licensed contractor? Local company or out of town?

Philbert

(P.S. - Welcome to A.S.)

 

[deevo]

Hurricane "Sandy" left a sizable oak imbedded in my attached garage. I expected to pay a stiff price for its removal, but $15,000 (before taxes) seems a bit over the top. I was also charged $600 to secure a tarp (mine) over the roof opening, which took about 15 minutes. Stump left in the ground. Debris not removed from site, just carted about 50 feet to the curb for town pickup.

My location is Long Island, NY.

Your opinions would be much appreciated.

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I think it might of been asked but was there anything in writing before hand on this price and has it been done? Just wanted to clarify. $2500ish with a crane looking at the pictures would be more like it. Do you have a name of this company? You go through insurance?

 

[farmer steve]

2 words ,RIP OFF. Follow advice from previous posts. i hope the robbers at least left you the firewood. welcome to AS.

 

[capetrees]

First off, I hope you didn't pay that!! Hell, I would have come down for less than a third of that if you're willing to pay.

All kidding aside, it's really unfair to the profession for people to go out and make estimates like that. It just make other people fear other tree people if they have a tree to come down. Hopefully it was really $1500. That's about where I would be cosidering the damage is already done and now it's just dismantle and get the tree out of the way. I did a number of these jobs back in February in MA and many of them I did for friends for free, just took them off the house and the homeowners cut up the wood for themselves and then I went back to chip the brush. To insulting to charge after they just got nailed like that.

I agree, contact the AGs office for enforcement against this "company".

 

[046]

also have helped a butt load of folks after bad storms .. have never charged a dime...

 

[Fronty Owner]

I'm gonna start with supply and demand...
turn the receipt over to your insurer and let them :msp_w00t:

That said, it was $1500 to remove a 48" cluster of hackberry trees off my roof a few years ago.

*cluster of like 4 trees that had grown into essentially one large tree.

 

[Grouchy old man]

If you've already paid them good luck. All the insurance company is going to do is reinburse you for a reasonable amount and that's no where near 15K. About all you can do is file a complaint with your Attorney General or local DA.

 

[no tree to big]

hmmm looks like a 2 hr job start to finish @ emergency rates prob about 2k maybe 2500 no stump removal... and we would haul everything maybe leave logs @ the curb... its faster for us to chip then stack brush most times. and for 600 bucks I woulda let it get wet i mean it looks like the only thing that would have gotten wet would have been the cars anyway...

 

[Limbrat]

If you have any more, I'll drive from Florida and do 'em for half price!

 

[c5rulz]

Me thinks it would be hard to make it much worse, I mean the tree has already smashed the house. I suppose one could drop some big blocks of trunk on the cars.