quick question

one of my businesses is a tree service. It's not that I charge extra to work in an up scale neighborhood, it's I will not work in any other place. These are the only people that can, on a regular basis afford to pay what I have to charge to make a living. If a home owner wants a reputable company working around their home, vechiles, etc. it is expensive. Tree work is the second most dangerous job there is, second only to commercial fisherman. Workers comp is extremely expensive, a skilled worker demands and deserves a good pay. There are lots of guys out there that are doing this for beer and/or drug money, I see them every day. If you want cheap go find one of them. Just don't complain when a branch comes crashing through your roof or better yet, your motor home and remember, they probably don't have any insurance.

Did you get multiple quotes for comparison?

Had a tree cut down (I kept the wood and split it myself for firewood) about 4 years ago. It cost $700 to have it cut down. They did not give me a break in price because they did not need to chop it up in their grinder. I kept every twig. I just had them cut the logs into manageable lengths I could handle.

This was central Indiana, in the country, with nothing real prohibitive to access the tree or threat of branches falling on anything either.

Personally I think it is a sign of the economy for the past several years. More and more people seem to have gotten in to the landscaping and tree trimming business. It seems that when we are home there are a lot more people that stop by to want to cut our grass or trim our trees. I just tell them that I handle those things and shut the door.
I'm not sure if it is a scam or not but if the guy was a legitimate business, he would have liability insurance and worker's comp payments, in addition to his other business expenses, to figure in his quote. If you got a really cheap quote, chances are the guy is a fly by night hack without any insurance which can come back on you if anyone gets hurt.

blknomad wrote:
I just got a quote from a guy to remove a couple of trees from a family cemetery and it sounded like robbery. This is not the first time a repairman or contractor has don this. I think when they see a class a sitting in the drive they think "this guy is loaded, lets get him" Has this ever happened to any of you??

Sorry, but this just begs a comment. WERE THE RESIDENTS COMPLAINING ABOUT THE TREES??????? Doug

Yes, It is called Affluent area Creep or Zip Code creep. They look at where you live, Type house you have and what type cars you have and determine you have no concept of money. So, they inflate the estimate to see what you do. Doug

I had a dozen trees removed recently and the bill was $4800. That included removing the slash. These were pine trees and they had to top them as there wasnt room to drop them without doing that. This was in California and i am sure prices vary by area.