Anybody ever get it wrong?

[RobArb]

Have any of you lot ever underpriced a job big time...? Made a real schoolboy error pricing a job up last year and it nearly bit me on the ass today..?

 

Went to look at a tree in November last year ,got a phone call off of someone who has got my number from a widow cleaner i've never even heard of lol, anyway thats by-the-by... well, went to look at this tree and it was absolutely belting down with rain...

 

Got in the back garden where the tree was and was told by the customer that is was covered by a TPO but it had been removed by the LA planning official/tree officer in Oct 08 which would last for 2 years but a new tree had to be planted in its place or within a 5 metre diameter before Feb this year... They also didn't want the stump out just cut low... Anywho's this tree was a Sycamore that on first look didn't look like a bad job apart from the awkward access into the back garden but as it was over 4 plots i had been assured by the client that the neighbours where OK with us using there gardens for better access which i had a quick gander and it didn't seem a problem.. Took a few piccies (i will find in a mo) and gave then my price which i thought was fair as i reckoned i coulda done the job in a day with 1 groundie helping me.. A few days later i get a phone call, "can i come and do it"... yippee i thought...

 

Then we had the bad weather, then christmas then more bad weather, so i finally gets round to doing it today,

 

Rolls up to the job this morning nice and early to sort out the back garden fences and access for the day and looks up at the tree and thinks "S***"....!!!! The tree is about (i know now 50ft) Sycamore thats been topped out before about 10 years ago and has had quite a lot of re-growth... some of the original cuts are now rotten but nothing to drastic to worry about.... There is 4 big quite unsteady sheds underneath the tree, i tiled roof on a small garage, some rather slippy decking, and the tree is actually 3 times bigger than what i remebered it to be...!!

 

So i climb it, take a look around from the top and ponder for an hour and come to conclusion that i have seriously underpriced this job and come seriously underprepared equipment wise.. So i tell the customer straight away the truth that i have underpriced it and its gonna take two days and i can't do it today with the equipment here.. They were dissappointed but i think fully understood, and have asked me for a re-quote and if its reasonable they'll have me back... my quote will more than likely be probably be double at a good price and thats me workin at an absolute minimum wage non profit limit for the mistake i made pricing up in the first instance...

 

it's just bugging me that i've made this mistake as i don't normally mis-price jobs as bad i did this one...

 

So i ask you all this... have any of you lot made any similar really bad errors of judgment that have cost you? Was i right to walk away from the job, hold my hands up in honesty and say i've made a mistake? or should i have carried on and then charged them more? What would you have done/do in this situation...?

[tommer9]

Admit your mistake as you did and be honest is always the best option mate. Keep them in the loop at all times and be open with them. If they are decent people they will understand and appreciate your honesty, and you may have to be a bit more detailed in the quote as for what you are charging them for, so they feel you are being transparent with them and not out to make a post christmas fast buck....Good luck.

[Arborist]

I think you made the right call mate! Id of probberly just done the job because I hate argueing with people and people get funny with money!

Ive under priced jobs mainley gone in cheep when I first started so the mortgauge got paid and had food on the table. Ive also put prices in got the job and finnished the job much quicker than thought!

 

At least your gonna break even instead of loosing money!

 

Dont loose sleep over it mate!

[gibbon]

I think you made the right call mate! Id of probberly just done the job because I hate argueing with people and people get funny with money!

 

 

Worst I did was turn up at the wrong time to quote a job twice and missed them. The 3rd time was the morning after I had been out parting (I sudendly remebered and thought I'd better go), when I got there it was a big job and I realised I was still far too drunk to price it properly. After confessing to the clients (whom I had never worked for, or met) how unproffesional I was and how I should just go back to bed, they told me that they liked me and wanted me to do the job, just send the the bill after when I know how much to charge.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

I once did about £300s worth for £60 but I was a young upstart who had just got his NPTCs and had zero experience. I borrowed a horse box for all the brash and begged a farmer to let me burn it on his ground. If I make a pricing cockup now - then that's my mistake and I do the job at my expense and with a smile. I prefer to learn the hard way - it works imo.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Dont beat yourself up, my bosses father has been pricing for 60 years hes 83! and he still stuffs us up from time to time! me too, we all make mistakes.

 

secret is.. to learn from them!

[Arborist]

When I worked for firms who had stufed up the price they put the pressure on the climber to do the job faster which increases the risk of a accident which is out of order.

[treequip]

Ivy

 

I once monumentally overestimated my ability to rip ivy off a couple of TPO’d Oaks.

 

By the middle of the second day of what I thought would be an easy Friday my body gave up.

 

Never again.

 

Andy

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

When I worked for firms who had stufed up the price they put the pressure on the climber to do the job faster which increases the risk of a accident which is out of order.

 

Personaly whoever and whatever reason the jobs gone pete tong I always feel its my responisbility to up the anti and get the job done. I put more pressure on me than anyone, it is my sense of pride, and its stood me well.

 

i know what your saying though, and left my last firm due to the pressure and obvious fatigue results, it was daily.

 

Fatigue is the killer, always watch out for it.

[Arborist]

Your skilled and experienced and can calculate the risk in the situation you have and know how far you can push your self but in the experience I had, it was for a 2 bit company not long out of college little experience and being the only climber trying to do work on trees out side of my capabilities is dangerous and to have the boss standing on the ground shouting does little for confidence.