Moral Dilema - help

rxbren

so the quote you got from the other 2 people to remove the last 3' is only £25 different from what he quoted to do the whole job
in other words he quoted an extremely low price and you grabbed it with both hands
most landfills or skip yards charge a fixed fee per load so normally ends up as a round number

DevCoder

Out of interest, how much was the lad charging?

Ladyhawk

rca - you seem to be getting a hard time over this which probably is a little unfair.

If this lad was offering a professional sevice, not matter what price he is charging, he should have the tools to complete the job without having to borrow tools off your neighbour. What would have happened if your neighbour hadn't been around? How would have carried out the job? Yes, he is trying to start out and this should be applauded but insurance (which he says he has) and tools should be the fundamental.

rxbren

maybe the only reason he borrowed a longer ladder was to cut it higher up to save the conifer from dying

unfair is someone sweating there !!!! off working hard and people trying to take hard earned money off them

Steve_the_fitter

did you ask the 'proper' tree surgeons how much they would have charged for the full job to make a price comparison?
Youve done exactly what I thought you would do and think your morally in the right to give him £50 expenses!! Yuo havent even taken into account the pretrol it cost him to get to you or the wear on his tools etc. At the very least you need to tell him what your thinking of doing and giving him another opportunity to come back and finish the job.

BaileyB

So say he charged you £250 for the job. The new quotes were for £225 for 3 foot cut off. So if the trees we 15-20 feet to start with the quote would be £500+

rca779

I have to say I am surprised at the grief I am getting on this thread.

I asked for a quote, absolutely no pressure on this lad to give me a cheap rock bottom price. I was VERY clear about what I wanted done and he fully understood. I was not looking at getting the job done for a pittance.

The stuff about dead wood is nonsense as confirmed by two other contractors.

The reason the job wasn't completed was that it was simply too difficult.

If as advised by one of the contractors he had made the first cut at the right height it wouldn't have been that much more work. Yes there would have been more rubbish to remove.

I have one more contractor coming to give me a quote on Wednesday and I will ask him how much more it would be if the trees were the original height.

cyclonebri1

rca779 wrote: »

Parts of the trees had grown to over 20'.
My next door neighbour had asked not to cut them back as they provided plenty of shade for their garden.

TBH, so long as they look green at the front, that's all I am worried about. They are never going to look good on top, hence the reason of keeping them 7' high so that no one can see the top.

I normally trim the front twice a year to keep it neat and tidy and if trimmed to 7' I can control the top as well to stop them overgrowing again!

I must have 2nd sight ;) KS :rotfl:

sunshinetours

rca779 wrote: »

I have to say I am surprised at the grief I am getting on this thread.

I asked for a quote, absolutely no pressure on this lad to give me a cheap rock bottom price. I was VERY clear about what I wanted done and he fully understood. I was not looking at getting the job done for a pittance.

The stuff about dead wood is nonsense as confirmed by two other contractors.

The reason the job wasn't completed was that it was simply too difficult.

If as advised by one of the contractors he had made the first cut at the right height it wouldn't have been that much more work. Yes there would have been more rubbish to remove.

I have one more contractor coming to give me a quote on Wednesday and I will ask him how much more it would be if the trees were the original height.

Then give him a final chance to finish the job as you would like it (and if i was him I would add on the invoice that he didn't recommend cutting them back so harshly in one go for when they die off). Time and clearance costs will clearly be higher cutting tree from 20' in height rather than 10' in height.
Clearly you knew you were getting a cheap job asd you didn't bother getting alternate quotes, an MSE basic principle for any trades work

rca779

sunshinetours wrote: »

Then give him a final chance to finish the job as you would like it (and if i was him I would add on the invoice that he didn't recommend cutting them back so harshly in one go for when they die off). Time and clearance costs will clearly be higher cutting tree from 20' in height rather than 10' in height.
Clearly you knew you were getting a cheap job asd you didn't bother getting alternate quotes, an MSE basic principle for any trades work

I have given him another chance, he's not interested.

I had no idea whether he was cheap or not. My wife & I decided we would pay up to £200 to get the job done. this was based on nothing other than a budget we set. We really had no idea how much it was going to cost. This lad quoted £150 to cut the trees and we remove the rubbish or £210 and he would remove it all.

I really do wish posters here would stop thinking we just got the cheapest quote and thought we were getting a bargin. That simply was not the case. This lad appeared pretty credible when he quoted, it was only £10 above the budget we had thought of and so agreed to go ahead.