Sticker Shock

[farmersamm]

So...............I gotta tree..............

Something has been killing the Oak trees around here. Is what it is.
This thing is getting ready to fall on the double wide.
The double wide is an extremely expensive trailer I moved onto the place to take care of my parents before they passed.

So...................I call around to see how much it would cost to remove FOUR limbs that are in danger of falling on the roof. Not the whole tree, just the 4 limbs. And I don't need them hauled off..........just lay them down on the ground. Neither dood, that I could get in contact with, would give me a ballpark estimate.

One guy says he can do it today. Says he'll pull his equipment off another job, and hit it on his way home. This is bogus........but we'll get to that later.

I tell the guy that as long as it's not two grand, I guess we ought to get it done. I'm figuring around maybe 600 bucks to lay them down.

Dood shows up, makes a huge production of blocking traffic on the highway to back his trailer in the driveway. I told him to leave it on the highway while we look at the tree. No soap. Tells me about how the stuff on the trailer is worth 300K, and the rig weighs over 30K (I got a Class 8 rig sitting in the yard that moves almost 3 times that) Dood is sorta immature I guess.

We go to look at the tree.

The tub of lard tells me, without blinking................SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS TO LAY THE LIMBS DOWN.

Told the dood I can't pay that, and I won't.

Then I spend the NEXT 45 MINUTES LISTENING TO THE MOPE TELL ME THAT I OWE HIM MONEY FOR COMING OUT TO DO THE WORK. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS TO BE EXACT. Bein' as I didn't accept the bid, I owe him for the estimate.........which he never mentioned on the phone.

It's getting pretty heated. Guy keeps telling me how much his equipment is worth, and how it costs money to move it. NOT MY PROBLEM. Fatso tells me he doesn't get out of bed for 600 bucks.

I carry on my place. This is getting out of hand, he ain't moving his trailer out of the driveway, and I'm thinking about whether the lil' .38 will make a dent in this whale. It's sittin' in my back jeans pocket. This is getting pretty bad.

I finally turn, and walk up back to the house. Next move is his.

This is the sorta stupid crap that gets people killed, and people living a lifetime in jail. This ain't lookin' good.

Porky storms back to his truck, and leaves. I breathe a sigh of relief. I had visions of this loser trying to take me down.

Bein' as this is crap country. lotta ignorant folks....................I call the guy, ask for a mailing address, and tell him I'm gonna mail a check for a hundred bucks to cover his "estimate". I don't care to get burnt out in the middle of the night, and wake up in a burning house.

So...............the mental midget walks away from 600 bucks, which would make a dent in his overhead. I don't feel I share any blame in this. I figured 600 would cover about an hour's worth of work. I guess I'm behind the times. AND THE MORON COULDA TOLD ME A ROUGH FIGURE TO DO THE WORK. We coulda avoided this whole fiasco.

K'kins, and I, are gonna tackle it in the morning I guess.

So..............about the bogus thing in the whole deal. If he did have a job going somewhere else............he woulda have had to pull his equipment. Wind is set to run steady at 20mph tomorrow.........with gusts to 34. Nobody does high work in that kind of weather.

But we will

Lord...........I miss my loader.

 

[ss55]

So...............I gotta tree..............

View attachment 109145
View attachment 109147

Something has been killing the Oak trees around here. Is what it is.
This thing is getting ready to fall on the double wide.
The double wide is an extremely expensive trailer I moved onto the place to take care of my parents before they passed.

So...................I call around to see how much it would cost to remove FOUR limbs that are in danger of falling on the roof. Not the whole tree, just the 4 limbs. And I don't need them hauled off..........just lay them down on the ground. Neither dood, that I could get in contact with, would give me a ballpark estimate.

One guy says he can do it today. Says he'll pull his equipment off another job, and hit it on his way home. This is bogus........but we'll get to that later.

I tell the guy that as long as it's not two grand, I guess we ought to get it done. I'm figuring around maybe 600 bucks to lay them down.

Dood shows up, makes a huge production of blocking traffic on the highway to back his trailer in the driveway. I told him to leave it on the highway while we look at the tree. No soap. Tells me about how the stuff on the trailer is worth 300K, and the rig weighs over 30K (I got a Class 8 rig sitting in the yard that moves almost 3 times that) Dood is sorta immature I guess.

We go to look at the tree.

The tub of lard tells me, without blinking................SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS TO LAY THE LIMBS DOWN.

Told the dood I can't pay that, and I won't.

Then I spend the NEXT 45 MINUTES LISTENING TO THE MOPE TELL ME THAT I OWE HIM MONEY FOR COMING OUT TO DO THE WORK. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS TO BE EXACT. Bein' as I didn't accept the bid, I owe him for the estimate.........which he never mentioned on the phone.

It's getting pretty heated. Guy keeps telling me how much his equipment is worth, and how it costs money to move it. NOT MY PROBLEM. Fatso tells me he doesn't get out of bed for 600 bucks.

I carry on my place. This is getting out of hand, he ain't moving his trailer out of the driveway, and I'm thinking about whether the lil' .38 will make a dent in this whale. It's sittin' in my back jeans pocket. This is getting pretty bad.

I finally turn, and walk up back to the house. Next move is his.

This is the sorta stupid crap that gets people killed, and people living a lifetime in jail. This ain't lookin' good.

Porky storms back to his truck, and leaves. I breathe a sigh of relief. I had visions of this loser trying to take me down.

Bein' as this is crap country. lotta ignorant folks....................I call the guy, ask for a mailing address, and tell him I'm gonna mail a check for a hundred bucks to cover his "estimate". I don't care to get burnt out in the middle of the night, and wake up in a burning house.

So...............the mental midget walks away from 600 bucks, which would make a dent in his overhead. I don't feel I share any blame in this. I figured 600 would cover about an hour's worth of work. I guess I'm behind the times. AND THE MORON COULDA TOLD ME A ROUGH FIGURE TO DO THE WORK. We coulda avoided this whole fiasco.

K'kins, and I, are gonna tackle it in the morning I guess.

So..............about the bogus thing in the whole deal. If he did have a job going somewhere else............he woulda have had to pull his equipment. Wind is set to run steady at 20mph tomorrow.........with gusts to 34. Nobody does high work in that kind of weather.

But we willView attachment 109149

Lord...........I miss my loader.

Any easier to put the wheels back under the trailer and move that?

So...............I gotta tree..............

View attachment 109145
View attachment 109147

Something has been killing the Oak trees around here. Is what it is.
This thing is getting ready to fall on the double wide.
The double wide is an extremely expensive trailer I moved onto the place to take care of my parents before they passed.

So...................I call around to see how much it would cost to remove FOUR limbs that are in danger of falling on the roof. Not the whole tree, just the 4 limbs. And I don't need them hauled off..........just lay them down on the ground. Neither dood, that I could get in contact with, would give me a ballpark estimate.

One guy says he can do it today. Says he'll pull his equipment off another job, and hit it on his way home. This is bogus........but we'll get to that later.

I tell the guy that as long as it's not two grand, I guess we ought to get it done. I'm figuring around maybe 600 bucks to lay them down.

Dood shows up, makes a huge production of blocking traffic on the highway to back his trailer in the driveway. I told him to leave it on the highway while we look at the tree. No soap. Tells me about how the stuff on the trailer is worth 300K, and the rig weighs over 30K (I got a Class 8 rig sitting in the yard that moves almost 3 times that) Dood is sorta immature I guess.

We go to look at the tree.

The tub of lard tells me, without blinking................SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS TO LAY THE LIMBS DOWN.

Told the dood I can't pay that, and I won't.

Then I spend the NEXT 45 MINUTES LISTENING TO THE MOPE TELL ME THAT I OWE HIM MONEY FOR COMING OUT TO DO THE WORK. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS TO BE EXACT. Bein' as I didn't accept the bid, I owe him for the estimate.........which he never mentioned on the phone.

It's getting pretty heated. Guy keeps telling me how much his equipment is worth, and how it costs money to move it. NOT MY PROBLEM. Fatso tells me he doesn't get out of bed for 600 bucks.

I carry on my place. This is getting out of hand, he ain't moving his trailer out of the driveway, and I'm thinking about whether the lil' .38 will make a dent in this whale. It's sittin' in my back jeans pocket. This is getting pretty bad.

I finally turn, and walk up back to the house. Next move is his.

This is the sorta stupid crap that gets people killed, and people living a lifetime in jail. This ain't lookin' good.

Porky storms back to his truck, and leaves. I breathe a sigh of relief. I had visions of this loser trying to take me down.

Bein' as this is crap country. lotta ignorant folks....................I call the guy, ask for a mailing address, and tell him I'm gonna mail a check for a hundred bucks to cover his "estimate". I don't care to get burnt out in the middle of the night, and wake up in a burning house.

So...............the mental midget walks away from 600 bucks, which would make a dent in his overhead. I don't feel I share any blame in this. I figured 600 would cover about an hour's worth of work. I guess I'm behind the times. AND THE MORON COULDA TOLD ME A ROUGH FIGURE TO DO THE WORK. We coulda avoided this whole fiasco.

K'kins, and I, are gonna tackle it in the morning I guess.

So..............about the bogus thing in the whole deal. If he did have a job going somewhere else............he woulda have had to pull his equipment. Wind is set to run steady at 20mph tomorrow.........with gusts to 34. Nobody does high work in that kind of weather.

But we willView attachment 109149

Lord...........I miss my loader.

I tell the guy that as long as it's not two grand, I guess we ought to get it done.

The quote was for less than that amount.

 

[Scott 730]

....

 

[Scott 730]

So...............I gotta tree..............

View attachment 109145
View attachment 109147
.

I tell the guy that as long as it's not two grand, I guess we ought to get it done. I'm figuring around maybe 600 bucks to lay them down.
The tub of lard tells me, without blinking................SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS TO LAY THE LIMBS DOWN.

Told the dood I can't pay that, and I won't.
.

Bein' as this is crap country. lotta ignorant folks..................

Lord...........I miss my loader.

Well, this seems to be the high points.

1. His price was under what you said your upper limit was. That sounds like a commitment on your part to me.
2. No competent tree service would touch that for $600. Equipment and insurance costs for them is huge.
3. No comment on the ignorant comment.......... just saying.
4. What good is a loader for removing limbs that are up and over a roof?

 

[farmersamm]

You guys have a point I guess............about my comment ON THE PHONE, about 2K. I guess I shoulda added a sarcastic emoji. 2K, to me, is stupid crazy. And, I assumed it to be taken that way.

About "ignorant", you'd have to live in this part of the country to understand(shrug).

About missin' a loader........................

Ain't rocket science. Tie the length of crap ya wanna cut, cut it, it drops, and the rope keeps it from hitting the roof. Sorta like chopping a carrot up in lil' bits...........take a small bit of the apple each time. Stand on the roof to cut the light stuff with a pole saw, and cut the thicker stuff using the man lift. Thicker stuff is beyond the edge of the roof. Man lift, with a pole saw(gas) gives ya about 26' reach(shrug). Used to do it all the time. It's why I built the man lift. K'kins was pretty good at operating the loader.

 

[Russ from MN]

You guys have a point I guess............about my comment ON THE PHONE, about 2K. I guess I shoulda added a sarcastic emoji. 2K, to me, is stupid crazy. And, I assumed it to be taken that way.

About "ignorant", you'd have to live in this part of the country to understand(shrug).

About missin' a loader........................
View attachment 109163
Ain't rocket science. Tie the length of crap ya wanna cut, cut it, it drops, and the rope keeps it from hitting the roof. Sorta like chopping a carrot up in lil' bits...........take a small bit of the apple each time. Stand on the roof to cut the light stuff with a pole saw, and cut the thicker stuff using the man lift. Thicker stuff is beyond the edge of the roof. Man lift, with a pole saw(gas) gives ya about 26' reach(shrug). Used to do it all the time. It's why I built the man lift. K'kins was pretty good at operating the loader.

I have a work basket similar to that, built it as soon as we got our loader tractor. I ride in it; wife drives the tractor! I also cut some branches off a big birch last fall, used the rope system, swung them away from the house.

 

[farmersamm]

I had to use the "way back" machine to find this one. I'm just getting my pics together off of 2 hard drives. This one goes back to 2011

Me up there trimming so we could get the IHC cabover out of the driveway, and more importantly back in the driveway with a load of hay. Funny thing................same doggone tree that's now giving us all the trouble.

And TIMES TWO on the rope thing. You got the right idea. It works.

 

[farmersamm]

I'm just sitting here, looking at the last pic. I haven't seen it in a long time.

For you welder doods.............................. Check out the heat signatures on the man basket.

I'm a totally crazed fab dood. I straighten at every step of the process. The heat signatures you see are the result of heat shrinking. Everything is straightened before the next step. It makes for stuff that's extremely tight tolerance..................and doggone nice to look at. I like straight lines.

Be back at it once they fix my remaining cataract. It's a big part of my life.

 

[used red MN]

Lord...........I miss my loader.

Why did you have to part ways with it? An offer was made that could not be refused?

 

[Mule Meat]

$1500 is the normal minimum for legit tree companies here. Some guys that work for Asplundh will do side jobs for less. With them thou you are dealing with NO insurance, No workers comp and it's OH WELL and out of your pocket if something goes wrong.

 

[farmersamm]

Why did you have to part ways with it? An offer was made that could not be refused?

Both of the 190's have seized motors. We're trying to juggle money around to fix at least one of the motors. I have a hopeful budget of maybe 10K for one motor...........which is probably wrong.....given my ignorance of what tree work costs.

It's all on hold, until I get the other cataract removed. I need to weld, and I can't weld anymore. The 3pt jib crane has to be reinforced to handle the weight of the motor.

 

[farmersamm]

$1500 is the normal minimum for legit tree companies here. Some guys that work for Asplundh will do side jobs for less. With them thou you are dealing with NO insurance, No workers comp and it's OH WELL and out of your pocket if something goes wrong.

Then, I'm an idiot. I didn't realize it was that expensive. But...........we ain't payin' it, and we will get the work done in our own way.

Or die trying

 

[UncleTom]

Everybody is GOUGEING everybody. Since the Ash tree borer is killing Ash trees in Iowa and the price gouging tree services. There are tree services popping up all over our area. Everybody wants the gravey. I bet that when the Ash trees are all cut there will be boom trucks for sale. I dont blame you a bit for standing your ground. I wouldnt take it up the arse either.

 

[MarkB_MI]

We deal with a lot of different tree guys. Some are shadier than others, but I would never say "as long as it's less than two grand" over the phone.

Maybe it's bigger than it looks, but that tree looks like something I'd take care of with my pole saw. But if you want to get a tree cut down RIGHT NOW, you'd better expect to pay a premium price for the job.

 

[paul]

Everything has gone up a lot in the past 5 years. We had a long period of money stability before that, so it is difficult to adjust to rising prices again.

The mistake on your part was giving him a price that was acceptable to you. Less than $2k.

You might have thought that was a joke, but it was a ballpark offer on your part.

So from his point of view you yanked the rug out from under him.

I’m not disagreeing with the rest of your comments but looking back, you set the price he was going to charge for this, that is pretty much on you. These types of custom jobs leave a lot of range of price on them. No idea what he would have done it for, you started the bidding on the high side…..

Be safe, hope you get it done and no damages.

I have a similar thing going on over a machine shed, waiting for a none windy none raining day to work on mine. Getting aggravating trying to find good weather.

Paul

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Everybody is GOUGEING everybody. Since the Ash tree borer is killing Ash trees in Iowa and the price gouging tree services. There are tree services popping up all over our area. Everybody wants the gravey. I bet that when the Ash trees are all cut there will be boom trucks for sale. I dont blame you a bit for standing your ground. I wouldnt take it up the arse either.

You have no idea what people's costs are, and you can't work for nothing anymore. Gone are the days when you do a job at cost to get your foot in the door, because once that genie's out of the bottle EVERYBODY wants it done at cost, and they won't do business with you if you try to charge a fair price with a fair profit so you can feed your kids. No-no... it's "gouging!"

 

[M-MAN]

The $2,000 comment cooked your goose. I had a crew out last spring to take down several trees. Only equipment was Bobcat and chain saw. $700.

Now is always going to cost you extra! Helene laid a big old white oak against and over my brothers house. Tree company wanted $2,200 to bring it down. He called a crane service and laid it on the ground for $1500 with no damage to the roof.

 

[showcrop]

$1500 is the normal minimum for legit tree companies here. Some guys that work for Asplundh will do side jobs for less. With them thou you are dealing with NO insurance, No workers comp and it's OH WELL and out of your pocket if something goes wrong.

Dead trees/ limbs fall where they want, not where you want.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

You have no idea what people's costs are, and you can't work for nothing anymore. Gone are the days when you do a job at cost to get your foot in the door, because once that genie's out of the bottle EVERYBODY wants it done at cost, and they won't do business with you if you try to charge a fair price9th with a fair profit so you can feed your kids. No-no... it's "gouging!"

That's for sure. Was finish grading a lot in a new subdivision; neighbor comes over and wanted me to do his yard but puzzled as to why his was $600 higher. I told him if he got permission from the two adjacent neighbors for me to cross their lots back by the woods where it wouldn't cause any damage, I'd do it for the same price. Otherwise, I have to lay planks down to avoid scratching up the street, chipping the curb and sidewalk to get into his yard.

The neighbors refused.

The client also refused the $600 surcharge saying I was trying to gouge him. I couldn't make him understand that his neighbor was next to a vacant lot and all I had to do was back in there and unload.

 

[used red MN]

Both of the 190's have seized motors. We're trying to juggle money around to fix at least one of the motors. I have a hopeful budget of maybe 10K for one motor...........which is probably wrong.....given my ignorance of what tree work costs.

It's all on hold, until I get the other cataract removed. I need to weld, and I can't weld anymore. The 3pt jib crane has to be reinforced to handle the weight of the motor.

Oh ya, I think I remember your thread about the kerplinked motors.