Estimated quantity of logs from tree sugury

[Big J]

Definite rip off on price (morning's work for three lads) but the pile of logs seems about right. 

 

It's not going to help with this job, but as others have said, get competing quotes next time. I would have put that at £400 max, especially as they didn't need to take away anything.

[Joe Newton]

4 minutes ago, Big J said:

Definite rip off on price (morning's work for three lads) but the pile of logs seems about right. 

 

It's not going to help with this job, but as others have said, get competing quotes next time. I would have put that at £400 max, especially as they didn't need to take away anything.

Who dictates how much a crew should earn? Assuming the client didn't have a gun to his head.

 

If someone's charging a grand for a 2 man day more power to him. It's ultimately the market that decided what we can get away with. 

 

The company I worked for on Monday had 1,200 + v on a job that two of us did by 2pm. We're they ripping the client off?

[Mick Dempsey]

Just get other prices, you only have to step outside and look at a tree in your garden these days to have a tree surgeon on your shoulder asking if you want a price.

 

As for the logs, if I can chip it, it gets chipped, firewood be damned.

[Big J]

26 minutes ago, Joe Newton said:

Who dictates how much a crew should earn? Assuming the client didn't have a gun to his head.

 

If someone's charging a grand for a 2 man day more power to him. It's ultimately the market that decided what we can get away with. 

 

The company I worked for on Monday had 1,200 + v on a job that two of us did by 2pm. We're they ripping the client off?

Given that they were straight fells, I'd have expected a three man squad not to require more than 2 hours, comprised of about 15 minutes to fell them and sned out, and an hour or so to log up and chip everything, and maybe half an hour to tidy up. 15 minutes for a cup of tea. 

 

Most groundies aren't paid more than £100 a day, so assuming two jobs like that in a day, it would still leave £600 profit for the proprietor. The level of technical skill involved in that job is very low and the owner of the trees was ripped off. We've a duty (as everyone does, in all walks of life) not to (gratuitously) overcharge people who are not expert in our field of expertise. Working for a friend this week I coppiced around 60-70 multi stemmed willows. Maybe 200-250 stems all in. Took me two days in total, with all the stems extracted to a point about 400m away. Charged them £400. If they weren't good friends it would have been £700-800. That's 250 stems, not three. 

 

[trigger_andy]

I think he's been ripped off but also think he ripped himself off by what sounds like taking the first offer going. 

 

Also, felling such nice fruit tree's is almost criminal so fairs fair.  

 

8 bags of Chip for three small trees and Brush left? Sounds someone who'd charge a grand to fell three small tree's also felt like dumping their chip was fair game too. 

[trigger_andy]

2 minutes ago, Big J said:

Given that they were straight fells, I'd have expected a three man squad not to require more than 2 hours, comprised of about 15 minutes to fell them and sned out, and an hour or so to log up and chip everything, and maybe half an hour to tidy up. 15 minutes for a cup of tea. 

 

Most groundies aren't paid more than £100 a day, so assuming two jobs like that in a day, it would still leave £600 profit for the proprietor. The level of technical skill involved in that job is very low and the owner of the trees was ripped off. We've a duty (as everyone does, in all walks of life) not to (gratuitously) overcharge people who are not expert in our field of expertise. Working for a friend this week I coppiced around 60-70 multi stemmed willows. Maybe 200-250 stems all in. Took me two days in total, with all the stems extracted to a point about 400m away. Charged them £400. If they weren't good friends it would have been £700-800. That's 250 stems, not three. 

 

Seems like there is more than a few here that think they deserve whatever they can screw out of unsuspecting customers. 

[Big J]

Just now, trigger_andy said:

Seems like there is more than a few here that think they deserve whatever they can screw out of unsuspecting customers. 

It's a terrible way to do business. You only rip someone off once, and a ripped off customer is much more vocal than a happy customer. Given that word of mouth is the best advertising, it's not a good policy.

[Mick Dempsey]

Let’s not forget, we’re only hearing one side of the story.

 

And Big J, I’m surprised that you haven’t mentioned on your précis of the job.

Public liability insurance.

Insurance to the van.

Cost of woodchipper.

The cost of sick pay, holidays, paternity leave blah blah.

Income tax and everything else.

The cost of going to price the work in the first place.

 

If you want to work for friends for fuck all that’s your prerogative.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Mick Dempsey

[Big J]

1 minute ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Let’s not forget, we’re only hearing one side of the story.

 

And Big J, I’m surprised that you haven’t mentioned on your précis of the job.

Public liability insurance.

Insurance to the van.

Cost of woodchipper.

The cost of sick pay, holidays, paternity leave blah blah.

Income tax and everything else.

 

If you want to work for friends for fuck all that’s your prerogative.

I know the cost of running a business, and I have more machinery than most 3 man tree surgery outfits, as well as the insurance to accompany it. 

 

I did two easy (like 6 hours work, lunch supplied) days and felled and extracted 250 stems of comparable size to the ones belonging to the original poster. For a normal customer, I would have charged about double, but I'm happy to do something different for a change and help out some friends in the process. £400 for 12 hours work is hardly FA, especially when considering I went through about £10 worth of red diesel in the forwarder and 2l of petrol for the chainsaw. No other costs at all. 

 

Anyway, it's hard to improve the overall image of arboriculture if there are still people that think it's OK to profiteer off the uninformed and ill educated. If you went to Halfords and they charged you £40 to change a lightbulb on your car, if you didn't know better you might think that's normal. That you didn't know that it was a rip off at the time doesn't make it any less of a rip off.

[josharb87]

1 hour ago, Joe Newton said:

Who dictates how much a crew should earn? Assuming the client didn't have a gun to his head.

 

If someone's charging a grand for a 2 man day more power to him. It's ultimately the market that decided what we can get away with. 

 

The company I worked for on Monday had 1,200 + v on a job that two of us did by 2pm. We're they ripping the client off?

Yes joe.

 

you guys should have been working for bare minimum, barely covering costs, so you can moan about the low rates of the industry and that everyone should be upping their rates whilst simultaneously slagging off those charging decent rates for “ripping people off” and you’d have done that for £50, then back to moaning about low rates again