Notorious Door Knocker Juliamafina Bloom| Current Affair Footage

Ekka

Watch this, it says it all.

YouTube - Juliamafina_Bloom_Door_knocking_rip_off_exposed

There was also a second follow up story here.

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TrevMcRev

Ekka you're getting more famous by the week

Well done, & i were wrapped you got in the line about regulation like other trades

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Ekka

The crew had worked that Op for a couple days, I was on site about 2.5 hours and drove to Beerwah from Springwood Brisbane but had to go back to Helensvale to hand in my assignments then grind a heap of stumps back in Brisbane.

What a day, I felt so sorry for those people, when they said they (ch 9) had to edit that down to a 4min piece I shook my head and thought what a tough job that would be, they done a marvelous job, hats off to them.

Great crew and they do a great job.

An old guy got ripped $2700 for about 10 alex palms getting cut down.

How's the old lady, they told her $600 then cut 1 poxy palm down and upped it to $800, when she indicated she'd pay they told her another $100 to make it $900 or they would leave the crap there. Absolute scum.

There's hordes of these door knocking scum getting around, you have no idea what the tree business has become and I do not make this up.

It is disgusting to think that the people we pay taxes or membership fees to have turned their back on us in the fashion they have.

I have always said, very easy to fix, in fact it's so incredibly easy to fix all this up it's a disgrace not too. But you have the wrong people in the wrong places, public servants paid regardless or what is happening to you with better conditions than you'd ever get. Organisations that feather their own nests, go take a closer look. Tree protection laws that are a joke.

This is the coal face, say it the way you see it, and let the world see what really goes on, document the cases, take the evidence, lordy there's no help for us when you think about it other than exposure.

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Galbee

Woo hoo go eric! great mate if you can get television coverage like that then what more do you want, people seeing the hacks as the scum they are for themselves

rangitata

Well done Ekka. It was a good watch.
The more these idiots are exposed and the public informed the better.

It shows even Channel 9 have no faith in the toothless tiger that is the QAA or did they ask them for comment and they wouldn't? At the public got the facts and not some charter driven spin.

Your graceful vault of the fence was magic....(commentator of gymnastics at the next olympics)

Ekka

LOL, that was funny. We were running out of time and they had the quote for $1250 for that tree.... (but the prices do change during and after the jobs too dont forget).

The camera crew were looking at the tree saying it was a fair sized tree, they were sort of out the front ready to film and I was near the house. So I ran over to the tree (this was take1) and said it was an illusion, the tree was in a great spot, removable fence panels, power wires on the other side of the road, easy to do and light wood the whole or very large sections could be bombed out and you'd be gone in under 2 hours. I'm saying all this whilst quickly running there then jumping the fence.

So they go, "hey that was great, do it again and we'll get it on camera". So I did and nearly went ass up! Cut, cut cut ... re-take! LOL

Funny how when you do stuff spontaneously and without thinking it works and when you do it rehearsed you bugger it up. But it came out OK'ish in the end. It was an African Tulip tree, easy easy easy in a great spot, I told them I'd love to get more trees like that to cut down, a 9/10 job it would be doing that tree.

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a_lopa

Great work Eric!!!!

And to Juliamafina Bloom

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newguy18

Good to see you on the news again Eric,get thoses scum suckers.ripping off the elderly,900 bucks for a palm removal.Maybe because of your news apperance peopel might start to see that it actually pays to go with qualified tree services.Oh btw another tree [hack]service came to town over night it seems like.lewis tree service 4 bucket/chip rigs pulled in to a best western hotel and guess what,all of the crew is Living there.Just what i need more trouble.Thats ridiculous working /living out of a best western.

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jim1nz

Excellent exposure mate, great clip.

Haha liked ya hop over the fence, classic

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JayD

Great workHopefully this will be an end and a beginning,the end of this outrageous trend for unscrupulus operators taking advantage of the old.. any person in general..pricing the same regardless of who they are!

However I am guilty of having a seperate price for the elderly they allways get a pensioner discount between 10 to 20%!.

A beginning to our industry being regulated and recognised for the profession it is!and the beginning of wiping out illegal operators such as the one addressed in QLD, they also exzist all around the country.

Good stuff Ekka.One down....hundreds to go!

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Done it

Ekka, remember this? I'm doing a pruning job next door this week, [recommended] It's a long road, I've been trying for a while,

Door Knockers Strikes in Parramatta.

Ekka

And the irony is that there's not a mention anywhere around the Oz circuit but here!

I have embedded the video into my website, if anyone else wants to do that but doesn't know how I can do it for them, easy.

If we all have that video readily available it means customers might watch it and tell others and so on.

We have to spread the word and make everyone aware. The regulating side of things sadly will be most likely at State level so bloody hopeless.

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treeseer

Bill, Lewis Tree is utility, right? So they will only compete as weekend workers. Not unusual to stay in a hotel when on a short term contract; you're paying for it in your power bill so no matter...

Lost in this hack exposure is the more basic and widespread problem of fearmongering--goading the worries of old folks and other persons of diminished awareness into fear, so they agree to cut good and safe trees.

What's the background on these cases Eric? Did those trees NEED removing?

Ekka

No, arborphobia.

Elderly people get arborphobic, anything higher than the gutter they think is dangerous and easily persuaded into cutting it down, true!

On the Gold Coast which is full of retirees and I worked there 5 years, they cut everything they can down unless of course the council wont let them.

Elsewhere the tree protection laws are useless and hardly anything is protected so they just get around preying on the arborphobic old people.

The palms weren't even cocos or washingtonias but Alexandra palms, the better ones around here.

The biggest tree was the tulip and the lady was sick of the mess but none that I could see were dangerous by any means and the palm stumps were all nice, no pumped up roots, no decay etc.

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Sean Freeman

Both these statements are so very true it is sad.

Major shift in emphasis and perspective required to get home owners to recognise the massive values provided from their trees, not just to themselves but everyone in the community around them.

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Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
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a_lopa

Agreed i had to talk a 70 yr old lady out of a 100yr old oak t/d yesterday because of leaves+"getting to big"

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Ekka

And sometimes the tree is miles away from their house, they think it's going to fly 100m to get them or something!

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newguy18

I'm really not sure,i just saw them yesterday and have never seen or heard of them before and i stay pretty well up to date on my competiton.

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rangitata

To true Ekka

My favorite is when you go to a new bushland development, and the client complains about the leaves on the roof....My normal responce is to ask what did they expect when they just built their new home within the bush

Ekka

First up this morning I rang the Dept of Fair Trading to get the case going.

It's a whole new case this one now, the last case he did go to court but the details they would not disclose to me.

So, gave then the details of the footage, youtube etc. Found out around 5pm from Channel 9 that they had been intouch with them for all the details, locations, names, footage etc.

Seems he's just got his 2nd case.

This is one of hundreds mind you, and it shows that what I was doing as a lone cruisader was the accurate thing to do.

In public places go for it, video, photograph, get details, addresses, rego numbers, business cards etc ... anything you can lay your hands on. Interview people and gather the evidence, then post it, anonymously if you choose and then you email and link it to the govt so action comes.

This is people policing, and I assure your organisations dont help or get involved.

Read this entire thread to see how the QAA works up here.

Chatswood Hills State School Tree Issues| NT school tree kills boy and were advised!

Plus here's an article about them.
QAA|Queensland Arboricultural Association Incorporated| unqualified members and selling credibility

My motto, if it's to be then it's up to me.

Difference now for me is we have this forum, back in 2005 and 2006 when I was having a go had nowhere to go, no avenues of exposure that were effective but now it's a different kettle of fish.

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treeseer

Good Treezine article there Eric. Factual and nonemotional.



I support your effort to improve the orgs' accountability. All org members should be involved in this, for their own benefit if nothing else.

rangitata

Here are a couple of photos of a "door knockers" work.

The homeowner got charged $1000.00 for this and had to clean up the debris themselves because....wait for it..... the climbers said "he was very tired from climbing that day an didn't have the engery to clean up". They still paid him though.

Both of these trees have now been removed. Look at the shed displacement

Attached Images

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	IMGP3555.JPG (174.9 KB, 66 views)

Ekka

That customer got ripped off!

If the customer has details we'll post them, lets name and shame these bastids! IMHO unlike QAA, we'll actually do something not just print lies in the Australia Arbor Age.

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newguy18

Stick thier names up here,i say as we collect names of door knockers and hacks we start a thread or a sticky that gives a list of companies homeowners should avoid.

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TrevMcRev

The one crucial thing unfortunately missing from the news story was the door to door approach, pressure tactics, intimidation, and blatant lies that these people use to get work.

A dearer price is not all that wrong. In a way they are charging what legit tree companies should be able to charge for the risk, equipment & people required to do this work, but too often can't because of heavy competition due to it being an un-regulated industry.

There really isn't anything wrong with being expensive as long as you provide value for cost. We are often the dearest quote people get. Many won't accept. But those that do perceive value in our skill, expertise & service as being worth a little more.

The only winner in being the cheapest quote is the customer, and really, they dont win either if you have to deliver substandard work via reduced quality, less thorough pruning, less thorough clean up, more collateral damage to surroundings etc, less/un-qualified staff, cash deals, avoid tax/insurance/workcover in order to make a profit from the job.

If the average treeguy knew half as much about business as they do about cutting trees they'd realise they are working for the benefit of everybody else but themselves.

The "doorknockers" not only deliver very substandard work at over inflated prices but use stand-over tactics to pressure people into agreeing to let them do it right now, tell lies that the council sent them because it was dangerous, put prices up once the tree is done, don't remove the waste or want extra to do it, tell you it will get done tomorrow but you must pay now - and they don't come back. IF you dont do it on the spot they keep coming back hassling you.

This is what i have seen as the real problem with the islander doorknockers down here anyway.

Full credit on getting any kind of tree awareness story into mainstream media though. Were they made aware of this stuff too or just about prices?
Maybe a follow up pointing this out would be worthwhile.

Recently we had to "finish" what the doorkockers left behind.
Cost the customer an extra $800 to get rid of the wood left in big chunks, branches badly piled all over the place including nextdoor, cut down stumps left 1.5m high & grind out stumps. Every 3rd house in the street had tree debris left behind!

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Sean Freeman

Those are very good points Trev, its the same up north, the door knockers are far cheaper than anyone else, and this is what gets them much of their work. But they expose themselves and the homeowner to elivated risks from often unskilled, nearly always unqualified and uninsured work practices.

I would also concurr that my experience has been that door knockers generally attempt to convince the tree owner that the work is essential due to some made up danger that they percieve the tree representing. Its pressure sales under imposed duress they create imaginary urgency so there is no time for the tree owner to carefully consider what is being offered....as such they very clearly contravene the Fair Trading Act. (they also are often in breach of a great many other bits of legislation)

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Sean

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran


http://wanderingarborist.blogspot.com/
http://veterantreegroup.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/VeteranTreeGroup

rangitata

Didn't get a name but the lady did say they were of "islander" descendancy. She was out and and her Husband organised it (he would of got an ear bashing as she wasn't happy)

The real stupid thing is that its a rental property, and they are tenants

newguy18

Man yuo guys really got it bad,if someone did it around here,i'd take them out in a field somewhere.

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