Warning on some scams
Some of the typical types of things you'll come across and some ways of making sure you don't get caught out.
We're qualified, you can trust us, big Ads. Ah, the lure of the big company with the big ad boasting all those great things. You think you can trust them? You better check their qualifications. Here's a real video from a news crew who followed the story through where a fake lied to people and removed the tree, a 90 year old oak. This does happen, these people want money and want to feed their machinery to make it. See for yourself by following this link of to the Cartwright Tree Care Threads at Tree World. Within the first post is a video, there's also a link to another thread on those scammers be worth reading.
Web based businesses that aren't really a true business. Lets face it, all you need to do is register a domain name. In fact many hosts will give you one free if you take out a hosting
package with them. Hosts can be anywhere in the world. For a few bucks anyone can have a website up and running giving the image of a true business but really, they only exist in cyberspace
This exact topic is in mention on an arborist forum group, have a read and you'll see for yourself the scam in action. Pay particular attention to post 13 by Ekka ... link to forum
Door Knockers and soliciting tree workers that "con" you into a good deal. The "that's the price now" or forget it deal. You'll feel pressured into a decision. You may even find that the price is dropping as they try to get you to commit to the work. Many times you'll end up paying too much anyway, they're seldom legitimate and usually have no insurance. It is forbidden to have these visits on Sundays and public holidays. Here's a link to the Qld Office of Fair Trading regarding the laws on these doorknockers, have a read it is surely worth it. Here's a link to a prosecution that went thru where some-one was scammed. So frankly, be extremely careful. I have personally seen hundreds of trees destroyed for life by these scammers, seldom do they have insurance and if they claim they do you better ring the company to check. Get proper ID, full names, written quotes, landline numbers, vehicle regos and then cross your fingers.
Do you have or can I see the other quotes. Now this is a classic trap. You may think you're gonna get a good deal, play off one company against another, but seriously, there's many different ways of doing a job with many different types of machinery and individuals skill levels. It's pretty hard to compare apples to apples if you have never personally done it yourself. Another danger is that some inexperienced operators have no idea what to price so they need to know what others are doing. Finally, are they desperate? Will they hide if things go wrong? If they're always undercutting to get their work be rest assured they wont have the best knowledge, tools and staff.
We're insured, you're safe with us. Well you'd think so but it's not always the case. You see, you cannot force them to make a claim. Even good companies have a $1000 excess so small damage has to be paid out of the companies goodwill to do the right thing. There's a thread running on a forum about this well worth reading. Here's a direct link to a video that's 17minutes and 84mb long in wmv format (same video as on the forum) of a victim that had her shed smashed when the gum tree next door was being taken down, consider the inconvenience and stress you'd have to deal with this. Click here.
The council will pick it up and tomorrow some-one will grind the stump. So a mountain of branches, logs etc sits out the front of your place on the footpath. You got what you think is a discounted price right? They also dont have their own stump grinder and promised you that one will come by tomorrow .... but days pass, no stump grind and the stack of debri out the front is starting to decompose. On this forum you'll see a video and the extra it cost the customer to get it sorted.