Couple HOURS, exactly 3 of them. Chainssawing the limbs off the tree, and two other guys cutting below and putting on a skidsteer and dumptruck.
Iām in the wrong line of work, it seems.
I know, I know!
call the BBB or the local Chamber of Commerce. Make lots of stink about the poor communication on the part of the contractor as to what the cost was going to be and the egregiousness of the charge overall. Call up a couple of other contractors and give them the rough outline of the size of the tree (species, size, location) and what you need done, and see if theyāll give you a range. Most will probably say, āI canāt give an exact amount without seeing the actual tree,ā but you can ask for typical pricing. Youāll probably get 3 or 4 in the range of ā2 grand to 4 grandā, and then you can go to your local newsroom to keep up the pressure. Your goal is to get this guy to refund you some money for the scam or to offer to do some other work for you for an equivalent price.
If youāre really not that worried about the $$, and thinking that youāll just let him keep it, DONāT. This guy is a prick who needs to be stopped. If you want to take a $4,000 bath for the sake of your pride and say you ālearned your lessonā, keep it up anyway and tell him youāll accept a donation to the local wetlands conservation or animal shelter in lieu of a refund. Tell the local newsroom too. He might actually do it.
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Wow. I mean $1.75 is not reasonable, but neither is $175. Yikes. Iām sorry you had to deal with that mess.
I sliced off the tip of my thumb this morning chopping rhubarb.
Strawberry rhubarb jam is delicious though 
5 Likes
Iām calling it a loss. I want nothing to do with this guy. Nor do I want some shady ass scam artist to have anything to do with me.
I should take pix of my brand new poured driveway. There are oil marks all over it due to his stank shiftiness.
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I am not really good at haggling and negotiating so I do a lot of research before I engage anyone. Itās just too tiring dealing with people who see me as a mark.
On the other hand, my mom really likes these things. If the contractor had done this to my mom he would have made her day.
I like the idea of filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. And leave fair, honest reviews on Yelp and whatever other sites have reviews for this clown.
And I donāt always do this, but whenever I leave a business a bad review I try to balance it by thinking about a different business or two that Iām happy with and leaving them (a) good review(s). I donāt want all of my reviews to be negative, but I tend to have stronger feelings about the businesses I have bad experiences with.
I filed a complaint with the BBB once ages ago and they investigated and the business contacted me to resolve the issue. I canāt even remember what the issue was itās been such a long time, but it ended up in a better place than if I hadnāt contacted the BBB. It was something pretty egregious, but darn it I donāt recall what it was.
Yes! Iām a somewhat prolific Google reviewer. Iāve left some glowing reviews for places I frequent like restaurants and I try to review all of my contractors.
Three years ago I somehow managed to hire what may be the dumbest fencing contractor in the state of Kansas, and I left him an absolutely epic one-star review. I must have spent two hours composing that one, lol. I had to wait a few weeks to calm down so I didnāt sound like an unhinged maniac.
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I reviewed a dump on Google maps.
Disappointed in lack of bears.
Took the whole family to drop off our garbage and recycling for the week in the hope of seeing some dump bears. Easy in and out, staff were organized and helpful, garbage in one spot, recycling easy in another.
Unfortunately staff advised us that bears are there only like one day in 100. Iām no dump engineer, but maybe hire more bears?
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Maybe $175 an hour. Not per branch. You coulda done that yourself.
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Yeah, $175 an hour is totally reasonable.
Was there a written bid, or was it verbal?
Not worth it!
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Cut my hand trying to unpack a car-top luggage rack.
I canāt believe just how much blood can come out of one small cut on the hand!!
Did go to the ER just to see if stitches were going to be needed (it was cut that deep, FWIW). They said that the cut was straight and clean and didnāt really need stitchesābut theyād do it if I really wanted it.
I left with just some medical tape and a two big bandages. Was a very interesting night.
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Ouch!
It looked worse than it actually was. Not much pain, just a lot of blood initially.
Now it just itches like the devilās tit.