Originally Posted by 4X4
Re: RogerWilco's post
My buddy is an arborist and he's got just as many stories about chintzy home owners as home owners have about guys who overcharge.
From his perspective, as an independent guy, with a 4 man crew, and a dump truck, a real chipper (this thing would turn a man into a pile of chunks in about 5 seconds), various chainsaws, climbing gear, and all the hand tools that an equipped crew needs, safety gear, workers comp, insurance, and a book keeper, he has to charge a certain rate to be profitable.
Before anyone says "well if he doesn't make money, he should go out of business", I will clarify that he does make money. He makes a decent dollar just like anyone else, but he does it by sticking to jobs that homeowners are willing to pay for his services.
If you want a professional to remove that 70' spruce in your yard, call him and he'll do it for what it's worth. If you think that's too much, then call one of those jokers with a chainsaw and a guy from cash corner. You might save $250, but if that guy drops the tree on your roof, he probably doesn't have insurance (because he's probably not certified), and you're going to wish you called someone that knows what he's doing.
So when he goes and quotes someone $900 to remove a tree, and that person tells him that his brother in law is going to do it for $600, my buddy politely leaves, and laughs later when he drives by and sees wood and brush all piled up on the person's lawn, because the brother in law ran out of time in a day and couldn't load all those branches into his pickup truck and take 6 loads to the dump. He, on the other hand, will complete a job like that in half a day, and leave the site clean, and clear of debris.
Basically, if you want a job like that done right, you call a pro. And if that pro can't schedule you in for two and a half weeks, because it's May, and the season just got underway, well, TFB. Everybody wants everything done yesterday (me included), but with seasonal stuff, only so many companies can exist, and they all get busy at the same time. Well, the good ones do. Old Chuck with a chainsaw is ready to hack down your tree any time, for half the price.
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