Got a quote last week

[Cat_Driver]

Got a quote last week to guy down a tree. The tree is small in my opinion, only about 24' tall, trunk about 36" in diameter.
The guy pull up in a bean new top of the line GMC Denali pick up Duramax I know this wasn't going to end well.

The job was just to drop the tree in place. Nothing near it to damage. Just drop it I'll take it from there. Leave the stump in place.

He quoted $1,200.00. I then said let me get this straight, you want $1,200.00 for less than 4 minutes of work? Then he breaks into well my guys have to drive here then they have to drive back to the shop.

Then he asks, what do you want to pay? I said I'll give you $100.00 a minute cut time and you and I know I'm being generous at it taking 4 minutes. He said he would do it for $500.00. At this point, I was just PO'd at this guy going from $1,200 to $500.00 in two minutes.

I said nope, take the $400.00, or leave it. He drove off.

Why do businesses do this, why quote ridiculous prices. That's rhetorical, I know why because there are people that will say yes to ridiculous prices without any argument.

 

[PILOON]

They want all the toys that everybody advertises.
Marketing has brought this on.
Entitled covers a lot of this.

 

[murphy1244]

Why not cut it down yourself?

 

[Will_C]

If the story is accurate-no possible damage when the tree falls, fairly small, no chipping, just falling etc. I can't believe the man didn't get a saw out of the pick up truck and drop it for $100.

My brother is an excavator. He needs to cut down trees many times on projects (only does it if there are no hazards with the fall) That work is part of his hourly rate for the dozer/excavator/etc.

 

[rgr33]

The title of this post should have been

“ I offered a guy $100 a minute to do a job, and he turned me down”

I am going through the same kind of thing here Cat Driver, the quotes to do a small addition to our house, (no plumbing or heat needed) are downright ridiculous. Unfortunately, my carpentry skills are not good enough to do it myself.

 

[4570Man]

The title of this post should have been

“ I offered a guy $100 a minute to do a job, and he turned me down”

I am going through the same kind of thing here Cat Driver, the quotes to do a small addition to our house, (no plumbing or heat needed) are downright ridiculous. Unfortunately, my carpentry skills are not good enough to do it myself.

It would realistically take way more than 4 minutes to cut tree that big even if you’re not counting travel time.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The safety meeting alone takes time. And putting on PPE.

Licensing, insurance, workmans comp. Holiday pay, often paying injury claims of employees going back years. I could go on and on. WAY more expense to him than the four minutes to cut down the tree. Kind of like the person who wants to buy a spark plug from a BIG store and ONLY pay for the spark plug.

I think he, as a business owner, he did nothing wrong. If he had quoted 500 and charged 1200 that would be wrong.

Oh, and did I mention that after assuming all that risk, GOV BS and employees, that the guy probably expects some PROFIT for doing all that at the end of the day?

 

[Cat_Driver]

Why not cut it down yourself?

I only have a small trimming chain saw. I figured I'd call a guy that has a long bar on his chain saw and drop it in minutes.

 

[Cat_Driver]

It would realistically take way more than 4 minutes to cut tree that big even if you’re not counting travel time.

Min wage here is $12/hr. which is what most employers these days are paying because there is no work. That's about 33 hours of work time is what that $400.00 would garner.

I think there's plenty of fat in there for a drive across my small town that at most takes 10 minutes. So now with travel time, he's got 24 minutes, but let's say with travel time and the cut it takes a full HOUR. His cost $12.00, his profit, less insurance, etc, around $300.00. He could have taken the $400.00 and help pay the wages for a week for his employees. I even calculated paying his guys skilled labor @ $25.00 and he still makes out. Now if you want to calculate the 4 ounces of fuel he uses, the 84 drops of chain oil, etc. NAH, he still makes out.

OK let's talk about travel time etc. The guy then lost money by giving me an insane bid, didn't he? He lost travel time, lost fuel, lost vehicle wear and tear, lost his time again an hour ( now that hour is worth MUSH MORE because he could have used that hour getting a paying customer so the loss is greater)

I ran a business here for 30 years and I would look at making $300.00 as paying a utility bill, paying for fuels for my trucks, pizza for my guys.

Money is money. I never walked away from making money no matter how little it was. As long as I could put money in my pocket I did the job. I lost very few jobs because of the price. If my price was too high we'd talk till it worked out. As long as there was money on the table and a customer was willing to give it to me, I was always willing to take it.

 

[not2old]

I had eleven trees felled last year by a pro because they were too close to the house for me to do it myself. All were over 100' and most were over 2' at the trunk. A crew of three used a bucket truck to remove the lower branches on some of them in order to clear other plants or the corner of the garage. It took them about 1.5 hours and I paid $700.

 

[Carl_NH]

Here in NH and NE its about $1-1200 to remove a single tree without issues (like close to buildings/wires), 100' x30" diameter, including cut and chip and clean up. A crew of 2 guys maybe 2 hours.

Most of the tree guys around here will do a daily rate - 2 guys and a chipper about $1200, 3 guys and a bucket truck $1700 4 guys, chipper and crane $2000.+.

CatDriver - I would have have said "deal" at $500 and had it done. but I understand your point.

Off Topic But To that point,

I needed a new boiler 10 years ago, so getting bids, this HVAC guy arrived in a brand new Duramax 3500 and reviewed the project, spent an hour, didn't do a heat loss or any evaluation - you need 110K BTU unit - all the time his duramax was idling in the driveway.

His bid was $1K higher for same material but what bothered me most was the attitude, and if he let his truck idling for an hour, would he care about the efficiency of our boiler - likely not. I went with the guy that spent the time, did the heat loss calculation 70K BTU, and provided a fair quote, but not the lowest but we saved $ long term.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Sometimes your first impression is the most valuable.

I went with a mason who turned out to be first class, because I remember eating in a restaurant with him and his family and was so impressed how well behaved his young children were.

 

[Carl_NH]

Sometimes your first impression is the most valuable.

I went with a mason who turned out to be first class, because I remember eating in a restaurant with him and his family and was so impressed how well behaved his young children were.

Spot on!

 

[Deere Dude]

I said nope, take the $400.00, or leave it. He drove off.

Why do businesses do this, why quote ridiculous prices. That's rhetorical, I know why because there are people that will say yes to ridiculous prices without any argument.

With all the dickering back and forth, he may have been thinking that you may not pay him at all once the tree is down. Then what would he have done? Seen it happen with other contractor work.

That being said, a friend of mine had a 50' 30" dia at the base oak in his back yard he needed down. It was near his house and garage. He chipped or hauled all the brush and left everything in as big of chunks as he could as I was going to pick it up. He charge $400. That seems like a good deal for all that work.

$400 seemed like a fair price. I would just buy a 60CC saw and cut in myself before I would have it cut even at that price.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Here in NH and NE its about $1-1200 to remove a single tree without issues (like close to buildings/wires), 100' x30" diameter, including cut and chip and clean up. A crew of 2 guys maybe 2 hours.

Most of the tree guys around here will do a daily rate - 2 guys and a chipper about $1200, 3 guys and a bucket truck $1700 4 guys, chipper and crane $2000.+.

CatDriver - I would have have said "deal" at $500 and had it done. but I understand your point.

Off Topic But To that point,

I needed a new boiler 10 years ago, so getting bids, this HVAC guy arrived in a brand new Duramax 3500 and reviewed the project, spent an hour, didn't do a heat loss or any evaluation - you need 110K BTU unit - all the time his duramax was idling in the driveway.

His bid was $1K higher for same material but what bothered me most was the attitude, and if he let his truck idling for an hour, would he care about the efficiency of our boiler - likely not. I went with the guy that spent the time, did the heat loss calculation 70K BTU, and provided a fair quote, but not the lowest but we saved $ long term.

Maybe it's just me, but in negotiations, there's a point where one of you ticks off the other so no deal can ever be reached. That tipping can be almost anything when you or the other person is giving up cash for a product or service. It's happened to me on both ends of a deal, selling and buying. Most often it has to do with either insulting or being insulted or perceived to be insulted or insulting.

I've refused to sell to many people because of their attitude and their way of negotiating a deal.

For me, it's rarely about the money if I and the seller or buyer are close enough I'll call it a day and do the deal. It really wasn't about the $100.00 because I did feel the $500.00 would have been acceptable, it was 100% attitude.

Turns out I got another bid and that was for $100.00. Not a typo ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. He would start the next day. Mind you temp all weel have been between 115 and 119 degrees here. I said OK how about you give me a price to trim 1,800 feed of 10-12' oleander bush and cut it down to two feet. HE said $300.00 for everything tree and trimming.

Since he didn't speak any English all this was done via Google translate. I repeated EVERYTHING for $300.00, he said YES!. I said NO I will not pay you $300.00 I will pay you $500.00 for the work. Of course, he was stunned, but then so was I. He wasn't an Illegal because he works for a local nursery and here in Ca. you need to prove you here legally. He showed me his paycheck when I asked him to verify.

7am the next day he was on time and hit it HARD. He was a tiny guy but worked as an army of men. He would cut and trim I would remove the trimmings with the tractor. This went on till about 2pm, he left for lunch. He came back at 5 pm worked to 8 pm. Remember 115, 118 degrees. This went on for three more days until the finale of cutting the tree down.

At one point his chainsaw broke down, and he never skipped a beat and was using a hand saw.


The job was complete way way way beyond my expectations. The deal was you cut and trim and I remove and clean up. I paid him what we agreed on and as he was walking away because I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop and he says " NO I MEANT $3,000.00" I called him back and gave him a hefty bonus.

I even told my wife, it's so hot even the AC in the tractor can't keep me cool how is this superman working like a dog in this heat and only taking brief water breaks.

These were the oleanders before he cut them down.




These were the oleanders after he cut them to size.



Him cutting the tree down




The Temps here today

 

[mmancuso13]

You sure got your monies worth...

 

[skipperbrown]

I got a quote of $1200 to cut 4 limbs about 4" in diameter from a Live Oak that needed to be removed before starting the addition to my shop. I contemplated the cost of the service ($300 per limb) vs. me ending up in the ER if I did it myself. I decided it was worth the risk and in 30 minutes I had set up my ladder, cut the limbs, trimmed to necessary size for garbage pickup, and hauled it to the street. You may want to buy a nice chainsaw and do it yourself. In the end, you'll drop the tree and have a nice chainsaw to boot.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I got a quote of $1200 to cut 4 limbs about 4" in diameter from a Live Oak that needed to be removed before starting the addition to my shop. I contemplated the cost of the service ($300 per limb) vs. me ending up in the ER if I did it myself. I decided it was worth the risk and in 30 minutes I had set up my ladder, cut the limbs, trimmed to necessary size for garbage pickup, and hauled it to the street. You may want to buy a nice chainsaw and do it yourself. In the end, you'll drop the tree and have a nice chainsaw to boot.

Already got it cut down - look at the post above for a price less than a fill up of diesel in my truck.

One thing about getting work done, there is always a person that will do it for less money. All service providers place a different value on a dollar. To some a few hundred dollars isn't worth their time. To others, a few hundred dollars feed your family for a week.

I agree about letting professionals do dangerous work. For me cutting down a large tree is dangerous. To others, they just walk over, run a chain saw through it, and then take a sip of coffee.

Even with a new shiny chain saw I wouldn't do it just like I wouldn't get behind a race car in a race just because I know how to drive.

I'm like you, I appreciate my arms, legs, and toes just where they're at.

 

[Cat_Driver]

You sure got your monies worth...

This brought up another issue that I never calculated with a high bid for a job.

A high insane bid or bad attitude prevents that person not only from that job but any job from that person or company ever again. Think about that. The person that I sent away lost any future business from me and who knows what that might add up to? The guy that did the work GUARANTEES the first phone call I will make and get every bit of future business from me and again that could be a lot of work now that I know and trust him and his price is low. Actually too low, but I'd rather pay a higher rate to a person that works as har5d as this guy did, and be glad to do it.

This again reminded me of how I ran my business. There were plenty of times I took a job that was below my standards and price but I liked the people so I did the work. Time and time again that bad job always turned into long term contracts that included really high prices and some low prices jobs, but they were loyal to me as I was to them. So that one bad job turned into a great paying event over the long term.

So many companies want to make it all on one job, one call, one event and then wonder why they aren't busy all the time.

 

[4570Man]

I got a quote of $1200 to cut 4 limbs about 4" in diameter from a Live Oak that needed to be removed before starting the addition to my shop. I contemplated the cost of the service ($300 per limb) vs. me ending up in the ER if I did it myself. I decided it was worth the risk and in 30 minutes I had set up my ladder, cut the limbs, trimmed to necessary size for garbage pickup, and hauled it to the street. You may want to buy a nice chainsaw and do it yourself. In the end, you'll drop the tree and have a nice chainsaw to boot.

A tree and ladder is a terrible combination and very likely to result in the 3rd possibility the ER. For future reference consider a pole saw or rental lift or on the cheap one of those rope chainsaws would work.