In article , "Trey Meeks"
wrote:

So I
contacted the next highest bid, HarvestTree Arbor Care, and asked if he
could get to me quickly, because I had a 30 foot tree in my swimming pool
and it was turning green quickly. He said he would and he did. Even though
his bid was lower that the most other tree trimming companies, I could not
have been more pleased with his services. I even had some fly-by-nighters
walk down my street. They quoted me $500 for a huge chin oak that had fell
in the street. They about died when I told them that I already had someone
that was going to do it for $130. HarvestTree was quick, professional, and
lower costing that most. He will be the first one I call next time I need
trees trimmed.


I would be interested in knowing what the range of your bids were and just
how large the tree that was removed was (height and trunk diameter). How
much time was spent removing the tree and how many trailer loads of trash
did this genrate.

Last year I had to have 3 large dying Hackberrries removed. The bids were
$3500, $2400, and $1800 (with extra for stump removal). Your bid of $130
seems impossibly low. I wanted to see if I could get it done cheaper and
called a trash hauling company who said they would charge about $400 a
load assuming I had it all down and stacked. I was bid $750 (by the low
bidder above) to bring all the trees down and they generated at least 3+
trailer loads of trimmings (I was around to watch only a little of the
hauling). I understand even a pickup full dump charge is probably $25-50
so I do not know how someone can remove a large tree for $130.
Incidentally, the guys spent about 2 1/2 days bringing the trees down and
chopping them up and about a half day hauling. There were at least two
crew memebers for all this time (3 or 4 at some times). Assuming $10 an
hour this works out to at least $500 in labor cost alone.

I agree with Victor that I would want somebody skilled doing tree trimming
(i.e. I was interested in tree preservation), but there are occasions
where you are interested in tree removal and frankly I would be interested
in the low bid here rather than a surgeon.

Roland