[bwi4]

My grandmother suffered Alzheimer’s, but wasn’t ready to leave her home, so my uncle moved in with her.

She called him at work to ask for her checkbook… two men had knocked on her door, convinced her that a tree on her property needed to be cut down, proceeded to cut it and leave it there, then demanded $400.

Uncle rushed home and ran these guys off, refusing to pay, but it was a dangerous scam. All it would have taken is one to distract her while the other helped himself inside the house.

[smaccona]

This is staggering to me for a different reason. Having a single tree cut down (and removed, which I guess they didn’t do) in our neighborhood costs in the vicinity of $4000-$10,000.

[johntb86]

If you have a chainsaw, you can pick the tree, and you're not worried about where the tree will land (it's far enough from anything important), cutting down a tree is pretty quick work. Making it land in a small area is difficult, and removing it is laborious.

[daydream]

$4,000 to $10,000 for a single tree removal is incredibly high. In a very high cost of living area I can have a very large tree removed by a licensed insured removal company, the best in the area, for $1,500.

Are you in the Bay Area? NYC? Those are about the only places I could imagine paying $4k or more.

[Scoundreller]

I suspect over the pandemic and lumber boom, a lot of qualified/insured/bonded arborists ended up getting forestry jobs and in-city arborists became scarce, temporarily anyway. Kinda like what happened to shipping container prices.

[rcpt]

Tree removal and tree trimming are generally different services. And $400 to cut down a tree is pretty typical.

Nothing about that story sounds like a scam to me.

[NikolaNovak]

>>Nothing about that story sounds like a scam to me.

I mean, that's just... naivete? Lack of experience? Wonderful but unwarranted faith in nature of humanity? I was there once myself, so I empathize and understand it, but it's also dangerous.

First, there's no reason random people would be knocking on your door to cut a tree right then and there. EVERYthing about that story should sound like a scam, from the get go.

Second, I'm sure you CAN have tree cutting and removal as different services. As a consumer, why would you, but sure. But - do you really feel this was explained to the buyer ahead of time? Do you believe this tree needed cutting, based on the random strangers' authority? Why were random people walking around with chainsaws?

I get these guys on a weekly basis. "They were just walking down the neighborhood and noticed that [my gutters needed cleaning | my driveway is in disrepair | my roof can use a quick fix | whatever]". Literally every time, as I mentioned, there's an article in local newspaper few weeks later about elderly being scammed.

What honest, reputable businessperson, especially a skilled tradesperson, wastes their time knocking on doors? They are in so much demand they don't even need to advertise, word of mouth and referrals keep them overbusy. We'd all kill for a reputable contractor. Whoever knocks on your door in the middle of the day is not of that persuasion.

[rcpt]

Are you in Florida? Trimming and removing trees prior to hurricane season is a completely reasonable thing to do. It's very common here.

The equipment for tree removal is different. A big truck with a crane that lifts debris into the back vs a bucket truck and chainsaws. And stump removal is a whole other thing.

Not every operation is big enough to own multiple trucks.

[jtbayly]

To drop a, as far as we know, perfectly healthy tree and leave it in the yard?

We had a guy who was doing work in the neighborhood offer to take down a big beautiful Maple tree in our back yard. He tried to instill fear of the tree.

So many people are easily tricked into taking down perfectly healthy trees because they are big. What a loss.

[rcpt]

Ya. If the tree is close to power lines or a roof it's often a good idea to cut it down before the next hurricane. This is super common

Getting it taken away is a different service and requires different equipment.