Who's Cut Down The Wrong Tree???

JayD · 24th July 2007, 10:47 PM

Hi Folk's,
John and myself was doing our quotes today, One was for grinding out 6 Coco's stumps,while we were building repore with our customer he piped up and told us that these stumps were a result of a clean gone wrong!!

He ONLY WANTED A CLEAN, Wright, Well he got the clean of his life they cut them to ground level, And he wasn't over them,he liked them!! For some reason he got advice and took it no further! Lucky for the company involved!! He told us who they were and we know of them, one of the bigger tree mobs in our region!

This could have gotton real ugly fast! They were lucky that he thought the mucking around was not worth it, and he just didn't pay them!

This brings me to my question to you all have you cut down the wrong tree?

John and I came close one day with a coco's palm,we were lucky, for us there was only two palms in this street at each end same size same position in the yard vertually identical layout,but we came close,We just rolled on to our next job until we got back in contact with the customer and confirmed details.
So who's came close??

Any takers??

You really have to make sure you understand correctly what your customer wants done!

Be Carefull people.

JayD

Sean Freeman · 24th July 2007, 11:00 PM

Ha, ha no we haven't! But its odd you should start this thread since in the last 2 weeks we've had two accounts of the utility contractor up here doing precisely that...twice....the wrong adress, wrong street, wrong trees!

How would you be returning home from work to think there's something different about the front yard...now just what is it..hmmmm

Shouldn't laugh I know but if you can't read the cutting sheet properly

you really should not be using sharp things in your work.

One of the ex-tree owners had the company grind the stumps and replace the trees with advanced 200lt stock and plant and mulch

treestyle · 24th July 2007, 11:33 PM

when i first started out we had a job with the description of 2 natives near the letter box and 5 stumps in the front yard. remove the natives and grind stumps, get to the address we were given and yep 2 natives 5 stumps, easy we did the job in no time.

couple days later the boss says "you sure you did this one?, the customer has rang and said nothing's been done!" i showed him the job sheet and he confirmed that was it and i said we'd done it.

long story short, he asks the customer to confirm the address and yeh wrong place.

not good, luckily the person who's place we'd destroyed wanted the stumps gone and the natives were only couply years old so he let it slide.

bit of a mess up though, i never reminded the boss about that one. think he was hurting enough.

Houthakker · 30th July 2007, 12:20 PM

This came to mind, a mistake that could have gone terribly wrong. In the Netherlands it is not allowed to take down a single tree over 10cm in diameter without permission from your municipality. Takes about 6 weeks to get, the public is allowed to react also. To many leaves or shadow is not an option!
But getting to the point. A houseowner who had 9 beeches (diam 70-90cm) in a row in his backyard. When I passes by I saw the crane which was going to lift out 3 trees in total. Since I knew the cranedriver I stopped for a small talk. All of a sudden he jumped out of his crane and started running and yelling. What was the case? He could see the man handling the chainsaw through the windows of the house, and he saw in which tree the chain was attached. THIS DID NOT MATCH! Postive note for the treeowner he got rid of an additional tree.

arbdog · 23rd August 2007, 05:53 AM

Bloke i work for nearly did! he had quoted the job a month or so ago, when he got a call to do the job. He arranged to do the job on the saturday morning, the customer wasnt going to be there so she said just get on with it and see her later that day. It was only a small Norway Spruce about 35ft in the rear garden. So saturday morning a bit blurry eyed he turned up looking down the alleyway he sees the tree, gets all his kit set up climbs up and gets anchored up. Comes to the lower branches and gets his saw. Running the saw up when a furious bird (who hes just woke up) starts shouting out her bedroom window "what the **** are you doing in my tree". After a short convisation with the irate woman he discovers that its not the tree and its a very similar tree a few doors down. No harm done,but close! Should have opened his eyes.

groundpounder · 24th August 2007, 04:16 AM

The firm I work for has been in business sixty years, and we run twenty two crews pretty much year round, so yes we have. On one occasion we cleanly and professionally removed an eighty year old American elm, in the client's neighbor's yard! We now require two forms of ID for a tree that is to be removed. A bright green ribbon as well as an orange dot of paint on the buttress. If one is missing,the crew wil not touch the tree until the salesman returns to the site to personally identify the tree.

a_lopa · 24th August 2007, 04:21 AM

Some good notes there groundpounder!

24th July 2007, 10:47 PM	#1 (permalink)
JayD Over mature heritage tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Sydney Posts: 941	Who's Cut Down The Wrong Tree??? Hi Folk's, John and myself was doing our quotes today, One was for grinding out 6 Coco's stumps,while we were building repore with our customer he piped up and told us that these stumps were a result of a clean gone wrong!! He ONLY WANTED A CLEAN, Wright, Well he got the clean of his life they cut them to ground level, And he wasn't over them,he liked them!! For some reason he got advice and took it no further! Lucky for the company involved!! He told us who they were and we know of them, one of the bigger tree mobs in our region! This could have gotton real ugly fast! They were lucky that he thought the mucking around was not worth it, and he just didn't pay them! This brings me to my question to you all have you cut down the wrong tree? John and I came close one day with a coco's palm,we were lucky, for us there was only two palms in this street at each end same size same position in the yard vertually identical layout,but we came close,We just rolled on to our next job until we got back in contact with the customer and confirmed details. So who's came close?? Any takers?? You really have to make sure you understand correctly what your customer wants done! Be Carefull people. JayD __________________ Free Tree and Green Industry Link Directory

24th July 2007, 11:00 PM	#2 (permalink)
Sean Freeman PDF King & Arborist Extrodinaire Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Townsville Nth Queensland & Gold Coast Sth Queensland Posts: 1,671	Ha, ha no we haven't! But its odd you should start this thread since in the last 2 weeks we've had two accounts of the utility contractor up here doing precisely that...twice....the wrong adress, wrong street, wrong trees! How would you be returning home from work to think there's something different about the front yard...now just what is it..hmmmm Shouldn't laugh I know but if you can't read the cutting sheet properly you really should not be using sharp things in your work. One of the ex-tree owners had the company grind the stumps and replace the trees with advanced 200lt stock and plant and mulch __________________ 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

24th July 2007, 11:33 PM	#3 (permalink)
treestyle Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: North Brisbane Posts: 128	oops when i first started out we had a job with the description of 2 natives near the letter box and 5 stumps in the front yard. remove the natives and grind stumps, get to the address we were given and yep 2 natives 5 stumps, easy we did the job in no time. couple days later the boss says "you sure you did this one?, the customer has rang and said nothing's been done!" i showed him the job sheet and he confirmed that was it and i said we'd done it. long story short, he asks the customer to confirm the address and yeh wrong place. not good, luckily the person who's place we'd destroyed wanted the stumps gone and the natives were only couply years old so he let it slide. bit of a mess up though, i never reminded the boss about that one. think he was hurting enough.

24th August 2007, 04:21 AM	#7 (permalink)
a_lopa Over mature heritage tree Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Drouin Posts: 877	Some good notes there groundpounder! __________________ Free Tree Industry Link Directory Drouin tree lopping, land clearing and stump removals

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30th July 2007, 12:20 PM	#4 (permalink)
Houthakker Sappling Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Sweden Posts: 39	This came to mind, a mistake that could have gone terribly wrong. In the Netherlands it is not allowed to take down a single tree over 10cm in diameter without permission from your municipality. Takes about 6 weeks to get, the public is allowed to react also. To many leaves or shadow is not an option! But getting to the point. A houseowner who had 9 beeches (diam 70-90cm) in a row in his backyard. When I passes by I saw the crane which was going to lift out 3 trees in total. Since I knew the cranedriver I stopped for a small talk. All of a sudden he jumped out of his crane and started running and yelling. What was the case? He could see the man handling the chainsaw through the windows of the house, and he saw in which tree the chain was attached. THIS DID NOT MATCH! Postive note for the treeowner he got rid of an additional tree.

23rd August 2007, 05:53 AM	#5 (permalink)
arbdog Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: england Posts: 101	Bloke i work for nearly did! he had quoted the job a month or so ago, when he got a call to do the job. He arranged to do the job on the saturday morning, the customer wasnt going to be there so she said just get on with it and see her later that day. It was only a small Norway Spruce about 35ft in the rear garden. So saturday morning a bit blurry eyed he turned up looking down the alleyway he sees the tree, gets all his kit set up climbs up and gets anchored up. Comes to the lower branches and gets his saw. Running the saw up when a furious bird (who hes just woke up) starts shouting out her bedroom window "what the **** are you doing in my tree". After a short convisation with the irate woman he discovers that its not the tree and its a very similar tree a few doors down. No harm done,but close! Should have opened his eyes.

24th August 2007, 04:16 AM	#6 (permalink)
groundpounder Sappling Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Centennial Co. Posts: 21	The firm I work for has been in business sixty years, and we run twenty two crews pretty much year round, so yes we have. On one occasion we cleanly and professionally removed an eighty year old American elm, in the client's neighbor's yard! We now require two forms of ID for a tree that is to be removed. A bright green ribbon as well as an orange dot of paint on the buttress. If one is missing,the crew wil not touch the tree until the salesman returns to the site to personally identify the tree.