neighbours tree
"beowulf343: posted by We are in this business to make customers happy. You just flattened a tree belonging to a neighbor. Was he one of the ones who didn't want the trees taken down in the first place? You've just given him another excuse to dislike treemen. Thanks. And you left a couple loads of branches in his yard to make up for it? What is he going to do with those branches? Sounds like you talked him into taking them because they were "non-chippable" and thus more difficult to dispose of. Outfits i've worked for would fire you over something like this or at least make you pay to replace it. And especially a ca who should know better. Sure, accidents happen, but if you ruin something, replace it. I have lost a couple paychecks due to this, but at least the person whose property i damaged was happy. Makes me much more careful in a tree too."
beowulf343: just noticed your old post; just for clarity and to keep up a "treemans" good name, I did replace the tree and give them money on top for the inconvience of "pruning" their tree. Also, the origional tree should live so they will end up with two tree's. I also have them on my calander to follow up with although they were happy when I left them, even suggesting that replacing the tree was not needed. I should have mentioned that origionally but I assumed it was implied one would replace what they break in this business.
As far as leaving the branches; his yard was recently excavated by a small machine that did serious trenching and he expected to remove more debris soon. He was more then happy to have about a pickup load of chippable branches left and not pay for my three chains. I thought I might go back and retrieve it myself not becouse I "got one over on him" but rather as the optics; getting referals from the neighbours was diminished; who wants to call a company that leaves stuff in their yards? For that very reason I have since hauled stuff away, even though the customer wanted a price reduction for doing it themselfs.
I relieze my origional thread does not read well, but I do try to be very fair at all times. That is what I was trying, albiet poorly, to get at with my origional thread. Early In my business life I tried to approach all bids with the mindset of how little can I do it for not how much could I bill. This was out of a sense of fairness and not from being hungry for work; I have been blessed with lots of work.
I was also fishing to see how folks here approuched the customers who knew very well that they got to good of a deal and the service provider was going to eat it. thanks to replies, I beleive my answere to be; "be proffesional and not just a" good guy" tree service that expects poeple to do well by them as he does for them."
Thanks to advice on these pages I have been able to feel comfortable charging more and consequently working a bit less [not nearly less enouph for my wife mind you!] I am not a charity after all.
I also learned from this site when I have any doubt as to the clarity of what I am doing for a customer I will put it in writting. That has helped as I have been held Hostage for monies owed untill I do more work outside of the origional verbal agreements.
So to answere my own question for those reading the post, don't underbid in the first place, feel comfortable asking for what would be the worst case scenario not the best case. And obviously one must finish what they are contractually bound to do.
IN short, I now run a [although still in appereances an informal operation] a tighter ship and try not to leave matters up to peoples' good nature but spell things out before hand.
Well so ends this rant
Cheers SCott
Taking this foregranted, using less care because it is 'lower' voltage has been the demise of more than a few, and yes, the amperage is a great factor but higher I believe just means quicker. Regardless, this is a force to be respected and reckoned with. Call me a 'safety slut' if you will, I don't muck with real power. I do apologise ahead of time if my facts aren't exact and of course stand to be corrected and ammended,np there eh! 
And the amazing thing is that i once saw him in action on my last job with him and the homeowner paid him, no questions asked! I don't know if that kind of response is normal for him or not. I think i would be too embarrassed to ask for more money.
