The law on customers

[Mark Bolam]

Beat me to it Huck!

[Treemoose]

Sometimes it doesn't matter how much you explain a job or write it down the customer just will not get it and have a completely different idea in their heads.

[TREE-SURGEON-ESSEX]

How was your quote worded? If you stated that you would fell to ground level and remove all arisings then you are fine. If you said you would remove the tree, you could well end up a victim of your own wording. You need good, clear quotes and t&c's.

 

This is exactly what i said felix as i do every single time. But it was verbal as it was a fallen tree and we did it asap for the person.

 

The thing is if they don't pay then do i bring back 2 ton of their tree which they have not paid for the removal of ?. The stump is tiny and i did not charge for it, i have offered to do it at cost as a gesture of good will as im being the bigger man .

 

The words from the customer was im a little hard up so do only what needs to be done, so i never offered stump removal as that saves on the price for them.

 

Luckily i have before and after pics of the job so even in court my price can be seen as a reasonable price for the work, but it bugs me when you go out of your way for someone do a great job and they try an con you.

 

Felix your a man in the know heres my terms on my website http://thtreeservices.co.uk/business-terms/ does that cover me or do i need to amend asap?

Edited November 5, 2013 by TREE-SURGEON-ESSEX

[explorer arb]

T1: remove Quercus robur (oak tree) to ground height

S1: grind out the resulting stump resulting from T1 to a minimum depth of 30cm

 

clear enough? furthermore the T's&C's printed on the reverse of every page of a quote & acceptance form elaborate into what stump grinding & removal tgh entails, acceptance form must be signed to acknowledge T's&C's before any TPO checks etc are carried out let alone before works commence.

 

if your paperwork isn't up to scratch i suggest you bite the bullet and grind for free, furthermore get onto sorting your paperwork out ASAP!

 

if they took you to court the judge will be making his decision on the balance of probabilities not on proven facts, what that means is it depends on what that single judge had for breakfast or whether or not he has been left feeling ripped off by a tree surgeon in the past. Were you to disagree with his decision an appeal typically costs allot as you must put forward your entire case for appeal in one application, if you wish to reference anything said by the judge or the claimant in the aforementioned hearing you will need to pay between £250 &£1250 for a transcript of the court recording from a court approved transcripter

 

i'm not siding in all this merely stating the systems the UK have to deal with such disputes, like i said my advice is to put this one down to experience and sort out your blooming paperwork!

[explorer arb]

ahh you posted whilst i was typing......

keep some blank quote & acceptance forms in your truck, scribble down the works 7 get them signed.

If it is a super rush & they are not available to sign get conformation via sms or e-mail that they have read & accept the quote & T's & C's

 

sorry to hear you were trying to do them a good turn by rushing the job only to learn the hard way that you need a written conformation of terms no matter what the rush xxx

[Logrod]

How was your quote worded? If you stated that you would fell to ground level and remove all arisings then you are fine. If you said you would remove the tree, you could well end up a victim of your own wording. You need good, clear quotes and t&c's.

 

I think you have to think from the perspective of a non arboricultural customer - for them a tree is a tree including roots, the problems with using a technical term like "arisings" is that this again means nothing to most people and they may have mistakenly understood it to mean "any sticky up things still in the ground"!

[felixthelogchopper]

I think you have to think from the perspective of a non arboricultural customer - for them a tree is a tree including roots, the problems with using a technical term like "arisings" is that this again means nothing to most people and they may have mistakenly understood it to mean "any sticky up things still in the ground"!

 

Then the mistake is their's. If they do not understand a term then it is upto them to ask. Although not strictly in the true meaning of the quote, 'ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law'.

[TREE-SURGEON-ESSEX]

I think you have to think from the perspective of a non arboricultural customer - for them a tree is a tree including roots, the problems with using a technical term like "arisings" is that this again means nothing to most people and they may have mistakenly understood it to mean "any sticky up things still in the ground"!

 

Thats fine but i have not charged them for the stump removal, i have only charged for the tree removal so i have honoured my end of the agreement.

 

The only misunderstanding is they assumed the stump was included but i did not charge for it so they have not had to pay for it. Therefore surely i have kept to the agreement.

 

Its not my fault or liability if they got it wrong just like if i buy an ipad an assume it comes with a case and it does not i cant then refuse to pay for my ipad because i misunderstood ?.

[felixthelogchopper]

This is exactly what i said felix as i do every single time. But it was verbal as it was a fallen tree and we did it asap for the person.

 

The thing is if they don't pay then do i bring back 2 ton of their tree which they have not paid for the removal of ?. The stump is tiny and i did not charge for it, i have offered to do it at cost as a gesture of good will as im being the bigger man .

 

The words from the customer was im a little hard up so do only what needs to be done, so i never offered stump removal as that saves on the price for them.

 

Luckily i have before and after pics of the job so even in court my price can be seen as a reasonable price for the work, but it bugs me when you go out of your way for someone do a great job and they try an con you.

 

Felix your a man in the know heres my terms on my website Business Terms - Tree Surgeon in Essex | T.H Tree Services | Tree Care does that cover me or do i need to amend asap?

 

Looks reasonable. Did this client have a copy of your t&c's and did you draw their attention to them?

[mistahbenn]

Least you have learned from the experience.