how'r we supposed to compete

[burrell_]

3 weeks ago i priced to take 2 rotten willow out it was my mates next door neighbour he was worried about them falling on his shed both willows where about 35ft heigh 3ft round at the bottem they had both bin pollared for many years and had about 3 years groth on them. no access to the trees they wanted me to take them down take the waste awy and chip what i could and leave the wood chip there.

i put 380 on the job witch i thought was fair as really i was doing it for my mate.

went to my mates last weekend and the next door neighbours friend was takin down the 2 trees no cost just for the wood took them 4 days lol and they cant take the last truck off each tree down.

what made me laugh was he had the cheek to ask me to take the last 2 trunks down after they messed the job up

[Tom D]

I looked at a job today for a landscaper who puts a bit of work my way, he'd got someone in to look at three take downs, a 70 foot beech over the house a 60 foot pine and a monster noble fir. When the guy saw the fir he said "its too big for me" and offered to do the others for 250 per tree. I looked at them today, i spotted another beech that needs to come out, also over the house, the fir is about 1m diameter at 60 foot, a huge column streight up to around 90 foot, it can all be dropped and chunked though. My price for the 4 trees was well over a grand but because the first guy mentioned 250 a tree I'm not sure if I'll get the job.

 

At the end of the day its all perception, if I had seen the job first they would probably have been happy with my price, now they have the idea that it could be done for less, even though the guy wimped out at the sight of the fir.

 

Thats life though it will always happen, people will always cherry pick the easy jobs, just like I cherry pick the easy site clearence jobs from people who have loads of big kit. I'm sure they feel the same about me with my little 50 hp tractor as you do about the one man bands doing work for £50 and a pint.

[DN22 Gardening]

thanks for the positive comments guys. just wound me up when the pr@ck collered me in the pub.

lets hope he messes up n drops one on the garage. lol

[Tom D]

I should add that I actually got that job since that post and best of all I saw it again in daylight (it was getting dark the first time) and the big fir is not quite as big as it looked.

Just goes to show there's work out there for the right contractor for the job at the right price.

[Gavin]

get that a lot round here

im not the cheapest but my customer service and atention is the best

people want you to make them feel like they are the only one and special being like this wins me a lot of work.

my guys get pissed off though when the jobs done and im still talking to the customer.

they dont moan when i share out the tip money though mmmmm.

[Doug Blease]

thanks for the positive comments guys. just wound me up when the pr@ck collered me in the pub.

lets hope he messes up n drops one on the garage. lol

 

Ring HSE. The guy is accepting payment for the job (£20). Therefore is providing a charged for service.

Edited November 1, 2009 by Doug Blease
spelling mistake

[Jon Lad]

I had a customer, a garden designer who got me to price a job for a client of his who he was re-doing the whole garden for. It was a mix of removals, pruning, hedging and stump grinding. About 3 days work in all.

 

When we were looking at the job I told him the firm I use to do my stump grinding, he said he knew them and had used them in the past himself.

I got the job and booked it in.

When we went to do it he turned up on the job to see how things were going and was fannying around doing bits of small shrub pruning. When I went to tip off he started saying to the lads stuff like "When I come back, I'd like to come back as a tree surgeon, all the money they make" etc etc. When one of them pointed out how high the insurance is, he said "that was just an excuse" and then more of the same.

 

When I came back he mentioned to me once or twice that this job was " a really good earner" for me. I felt like saying, if I hadn't been so slack for work soft cock, it probably would have been double! But we were quiet and I was just trying to keep us all going.

When the lad who does the stump grinding went, he turned up again and said to him "If I'd known it was you who was going to be doing it, I would have used you myself". When I had told him from the off who would be doing the grinding!

When I sent my invoice he told me that I would get paid when he got paid off the client! He hand delivered the cheque to my house 28 days to the day, after the date on my invoice to him!

He also organized all the fencing, paving etc this way. I often wonder if he thought the same about those contractors as he did me: everyone was making a killing except him. Where as really he was the one making the killing putting 25-30% on everyones quotes to him and not paying until he got paid for that part of the job from the client! Total t**t!

[ScottF]

Even though I'm a consultant rather than a contractor most of the time these days, I find it's a waste of time competing purely on price- someone will always do the job for less. That said, I increasingly seem to get the job of re-doing reports which get rejected by councils or even that the customer sees and realises isn't up to scratch.

 

It might take a while, but I'd say that the public's perception of good and bad tree work (and reports) is improving. Eventually we're going to end up with an increasing client base that will pay that little bit extra (we're often talking about the difference of a couple of hundred pounds anyway, aren't we?) for a high-quality job.

 

 

 

I hope.

[Czlowiek Drzewo]

I priced a job about 2 months back. Was a big one. 3 Large sitkas to be felled / 1 massive sycamore to be removed..all 3 have to be climbed and lowered. 3 days work with 3-4 men.

 

The guy asked how we do it and i explained that we are qualified climbers and how we will be rigging / fully insured etc. and gave him fair price on a day rate basis.

 

He laughed at me..said he never knew eople actually do this as a job! ..says he can't afford to get work done..he will go down to local pub and find someone to do do it for few pints and packet of smokes.

 

i told him how dangerous the job is..and a few horror stories about accidents. He just shrugged it off and said he could get up there him self and do it!

 

What a Dober!

[Ian C]

I had a customer, a garden designer who got me to price a job for a client of his who he was re-doing the whole garden for. It was a mix of removals, pruning, hedging and stump grinding. About 3 days work in all.

 

When we were looking at the job I told him the firm I use to do my stump grinding, he said he knew them and had used them in the past himself.

I got the job and booked it in.

When we went to do it he turned up on the job to see how things were going and was fannying around doing bits of small shrub pruning. When I went to tip off he started saying to the lads stuff like "When I come back, I'd like to come back as a tree surgeon, all the money they make" etc etc. When one of them pointed out how high the insurance is, he said "that was just an excuse" and then more of the same.

 

When I came back he mentioned to me once or twice that this job was " a really good earner" for me. I felt like saying, if I hadn't been so slack for work soft cock, it probably would have been double! But we were quiet and I was just trying to keep us all going.

When the lad who does the stump grinding went, he turned up again and said to him "If I'd known it was you who was going to be doing it, I would have used you myself". When I had told him from the off who would be doing the grinding!

When I sent my invoice he told me that I would get paid when he got paid off the client! He hand delivered the cheque to my house 28 days to the day, after the date on my invoice to him!

He also organized all the fencing, paving etc this way. I often wonder if he thought the same about those contractors as he did me: everyone was making a killing except him. Where as really he was the one making the killing putting 25-30% on everyones quotes to him and not paying until he got paid for that part of the job from the client! Total t**t!

 

Jon, he wouldn't happen to based in Tadcaster would he?