It Pays to Price Shop!

When it came time to get the trees cut down, I got quotes from 11 companies. Most quotes were between $8,000 and $11,000. I got one that as a whopping $19,000! No thanks. But then I got a quote for $4,000. All his insurance checked out, and he had already come as a referral from somebody we knew. So he was definitely my choice.

And it turned out to be a good deal, even though it took a few weeks for him to complete the job. (I had told him I wasn't in a hurry anyway). Some of his equipment broke down, and that took some time.

On the downside, my neighbors developed an adversarial relationship with him and his crew. The neighbors claimed they were shooting off loud fireworks, like M-80s, which they later admited to. And his boss promised that it wouldn't happen again. My neighbors also claimed they messed up some shingles when they had to get on their roof to cut an overhanging branch. Luckily, I happened to have pictures I had taken several days prior that showed the damage was pre-existing. The tree crew also managed to pull the neighbors cable line off the house... twice. And the neighbor was using cable for their TV, phone, and internet access. Ouch! Not a good way to make a first impression.

All-in-all, the tree guy was true to his word. He had promised to come back later and grind one of the stumps a bit more. I had to remind him weeks later, and I didn't think he was going to follow through. But he did come back and do it.

The moral of this story is: get lots of quotes. You don't have to settle for the first guy that comes along. And even if most or your quotes are clustering in the same range, you still may find an outlying price that's lower. Beware of the lower price, though. I lucked out here, but I could just as well have wound up with a bad experience.