We have a massive maple tree in the backyard. On one side of it is my house, on the other side is the shed. It is surrounded by two power lines from our house and the house next door. It is at the end of its life and needs to come down as it was a risk not only to our house but also the the neighbors. I started calling all of the tree removal companies in the Yellow Pages. Some bids came in as high as $1000.00 while others never did get back to me or said that they couldn’t do it.
A local company quotes us with a written quote for $450.00 and then said if we could do it Tuesday, they would knock off $60 because there were other trees in the area they were cutting down. They were going to charge $150 for removal but Jordon and I said that we would do it, the plan was to cut up the maple and then use it for firewood for the firepit and some friends wanted some of the maple as well.
Tuesday morning they came by and started cutting away.
I had a doctor’s appointment so Jordon and I got in the van to take off but as we were leaving, someone else from the company drove up and I repeated that we would handle the disposal of the tree. When we got back, the branches at the bottom of the above photo were chipped up which is not what we asked for but the tree was almost down and there wasn’t anything we could do about it. A couple minutes after we returned, the bill was placed in our mailbox for $100 MORE than what they quoted us for and with taxes was almost $600.00
I called and the reponse was that because it was more branches than they thought, they decided to chip them all up despite us saying not to. Also, they gave me a written estimate of what it would cost and apparently that meant nothing to them.
Some people have said to just pay the quoted price plus taxes but the problem is that it was so difficult to get anyone to give us a quote let alone do it, I feel like we have to pay it if we need any of our other trees done again (and we have a couple left to do over the next five years or so). Of course $100 isn’t much and if they would have quotes me the higher figure, I would have still gone with them but the entire transaction left a bad taste in my mouth.
That one would have left a bad taste in my mouth too, but I understand your thought in terms of payment, because that’s how I’d feel. Raising a point vs. having a lower cost option for next time…that’s hard.
shady characters…
i also have to cut down a tree in my backyard, and this is helping me to think about the issue…
wow. thats one big tree!
Estimates are tough… I usually estimate high that way if the job is tougher then anticipated… not problem, the customers expectations were met. If it is as I expected… again no problem charge less and the customers expectations were exceeded.
It is really about expectations.
Dick, I wouldn’t have had a problem with them if that was the case but they gave me a firm quote in writing and then managed to destroy a hedge, some shrubs, and my landscape pond. They probably wrecked another $200 worth of stuff that wasn’t that close to the tree. It was just them being lazy and careless.
True, but if you hired them in the future. You would expect that their firm written quote was not worth the paper it was written on, you would expect that the contractors employees would be lazy and careless and would not particularly care if they damaged your property. If you expected these things to happen and they did… you really should not be upset. It is because your experience was beyond your control that you struggled against it …
??? Or am I just being way to philosophical
I didn’t expect them to trash my hedge, spill chain saw lubricant all over the place or rip me off.
I think I struggle with it because there isn’t much alternatives available other than small claims court.