"Free Firewood" Scam

[tomstrees]

\"Free Firewood\" Scam

This happened a while back. I contacted a major local tree business on their "free firewood" ad. They dumped a load of wood in my driveway including a large tree trunk with concrete and metal inside. I called them to complain and they said the guy who dropped the load was away and unavailable. What is the best way to handle situations like this?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Re: \"Free Firewood\" Scam

Did you ask for a description of what was going to be delivered?

When I dumped wood I told people what they were getting...whole trees that I cut from people's yards. Some large pieces...raw logs.

It seems like the best approach is to get your saw and start cutting up the smaller pieces first. work your way carefully to the large stuff.

 

[tomstrees]

Re: \"Free Firewood\" Scam

Hi Tom! No I did not. I figured it was going to be mainly sound and good hardwood. Years ago cavities were filled with concrete. Some trees have metal in them. Neither should be dumped anywhere except in a dumpster. Over the years I have given lots of loads of nice hardwood to firewood operations because I had no where to go with the wood, and all this wood was cut up so that log splitters could easily handle it. There are high performance log splitters that can handle anything under 30 inches or so. And then the Supersplit log splitter designed for smaller wood. The thing to do in a situation like this would have been to demand removal of the tree trunk with the concrete and metal. Legal action would involve documenting the issue and then contacting the relevant regulatory authority in the state.

 

[wyoclimber]

Re: \"Free Firewood\" Scam

Dude, its free. I'm always honest about whatever I am giving away but I'm not going to pick out stuff that people don't want when I'm giving it to them for free. If they want to pay for it, then I will happily make sure its quality firewood. If they want it for free, then don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

[tomstrees]

Re: \"Free Firewood\" Scam

Yes free is free but as someone else said, he lets the receiver know exactly what is in the load. Metal or cement in the tree are a huge problem (and threat to equipment) for most people processing for firewood. I removed large numbers of truck loads that I dropped at other firewood dealers' lots for processing; sometimes I had nowhere to go with the wood if it was good hardwood even and just dumpstered it. Demographics come into play too. In northern New England there is much greater tolerance on types of wood than southern New England, with lots here in New Canaan worth 1 million an acre. Hardly any of the high end customers want wood on their properties. So you get paid a lot of money to remove unlike other parts where people will gladly remove it free.