Honestly, I don’t believe I’ve ever charged by the hour. I have occasionally provided a price range (minimum- maximum), but mostly just quote a set price.
The wording in the estimate for this job was very specific in regards to removing a lead / limb that was dead either down to a healthy branch growing off of it, or down to the trunk depending what I saw when I got up there. As a matter of fact, on this job I quoted a price range rather than an exact quote to allow for the potential difference in labor / time depending where we ended up cutting it back to.
During the estimate, I asked the client if there were any other concerns and they didn’t have any, the focus was this one specific limb. They replied to the email containing the quote asking if it included other deadwood, because they thought there might be some other stuff higher up in the canopy. The quote didn’t include that, but I said while we were up there we could remove some additional deadwood, and what the added cost might be.
The individual who I had been dealing with was sick I guess on the day we came, so we didn’t actually have the opportunity to speak in-person. I removed the limb per what was outlined in the estimate, and while up there removed some additional deadwood that could’ve been a hazard to the surrounding area, including a significant portion of a top. At no point did the client state they wanted all the deadwood removed from the tree.
Did we get every single piece of deadwood? No. But I thought we did a pretty good job clearing out some additional stuff not included in the original estimate per our discussion.
When I followed up with the client a few days later, they replied stating how they would’ve liked more deadwood to be removed, but acknowledged that they didn’t really specify that beforehand. My responses to her included a breakdown of what we did remove, asking her what additional deadwood she was referring to, offering to meet with her in-person to look at the additional stuff she might’ve been concerned with, and pointing out that considering there were some significant sections that were unhealthy (parts of a top, etc.), removing deadwood wasn’t necessarily a long-term solution if the tree had an underlying issue going on.
She declined to have us back out to address any further concerns or do more pruning, so we sent the invoice and the job is done.
Communicating via email or text, it’s hard to sometimes read people’s tone / attitude.
At this point, I think it’s probably best just to let it be. I didn’t charge for the extra stuff we did. I could’ve, but chose not to.
Do you ever have the occasional customer service experience like this?
Do you ever have the occasional customer service experience like this?