3 On Your Side: FREE Access To Consumers' Checkbook Tree Service Ratings
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If this week's storms have left you with a downed tree or having to tackle dangerous limbs, 3-On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan shares some advice when hiring a tree service.
It happens after every big storm. You have a tree that falls in your yard, on your house, or is on top of your car and someone knocks on your door offering to get rid of it. Well you don't want to hire just anyone.
"Don't go with some firm that just goes knocking on your door. Good tree firms, particularly after a storm, are plenty busy, they don't have to go knocking on doors," says Robert Krughoff, President of Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook, an independent, nonprofit consumer organization.
When Consumers' Checkbook evaluated 73 area tree services on everything from performance to cost, they found big differences. According to Krughoff, "For one particular tree removal job that we priced from a large number of firms, prices ranged from $2,000 to more than $6,000 for the exact same tree, exactly the same finished result."
So that's why it's important to get several itemized bids.
While obtaining bids, keep in mind:
• Estimators can be hard to reach. Be prepared to leave a number where you can be reached in the evenings or on weekends. Keep in mind that, usually, it is possible to mark trees and leave instructions so that you don't have to be home when the estimator comes.
• Because estimators don't always show up as promised, consider arranging for more companies to come to your home than you actually want to see; then call and cancel appointments when you have enough estimates.
• Get itemized, written bids to be sure you know what is being offered.
• For jobs that aren't pressing, consider having the work done in winter, when companies are less busy and there is less debris to haul away.
Included in a bid should be specific language that deals with what's going to happen with the wood and debris. Krughoff says, "Who is going to take care of the debris afterwards? Are they going to cut it up into firewood and split it up? are you going to keep it? Do they take it away? All the details of what's going to happen in both doing the job and afterwards."
Before any work is started be sure to check the company's insurance. Krughoff says, "A lot of things can go wrong. People can fall out of trees, limbs can fall on people etc., so you want to be sure they have both liability and workers comp insurance." In fact you should ask to see certificates of insurance, and call the insurance carrier to verify the coverage is still valid.
For the next week CBS 3 viewers can check out the full list of area tree care services that were rated by Checkbook readers at no cost. That's right, it's FREE!
Simply visit: http://www.checkbook.org/cbs3/treecare
