If you're looking for a tree service that charges twice what the job is worth, sends more people than are needed, and breaks promises, look no further than Westcoast Tree Care. I had the misfortune to call Jim Mosher of Westcoast Tree Care first when I wanted to have my trees evaluated and given any needed care. One of my trees was very tall and split into three trunks at the base, and he told me it was unsafe and needed to come down. The other trees just needed some cleanup. His usual price for the work, he told me, would be $32,000, but with a senior discount, it would be $25,000 ($27,200 with tax). Of course, I was shocked, but I let him convince me that all the local Port Angeles area tree services employed tweakers who would bungle the job and probably bring the big tree down on my house or that of a neighbor. He was personable and glib and I must been dropped on my head as a child, because I signed the contract. That was Mistake #1. The next day, I thought more about it and couldn't get over the shockingly high price, so I e-mailed Jim and asked him for an itemized breakdown of the cost. He called back and refused to provide a breakdown, saying that he would just tear up the check for my down payment rather than provide a breakdown. Huge red flag that I chose to ignore. Foolishly, I did not agree to that. That was Mistake #2. Jim came out again and gave me more of his sales pitch, saying that if I watched the job and felt that it was not worth the price, he would charge me accordingly. A little voice in my head was whispering that a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it isn't printed on, but again, I stupidly agreed. That was Mistake #3. This was in September 2018.
I worried and fretted about the huge bill for months. It kept me awake at night. Finally, in early March, I e-mailed Jim and told him I wanted to cancel the contract. He could keep my $4,000 down payment. Jim never replied and I never followed up. That was Mistake #4, although I don't think it would have made any difference even if I had followed up. Then at 8:30 AM on Saturday, June 1, Jim's crew of six showed up at my door. There had been no reminder call, no reminder e-mail. It was 8 months since the contract had been signed. I told the crew that I had canceled the contract. Jim called, frothing at the mouth, and claimed he had never received my e-mail (although I had sent it to the same e-mail address that we had used to communicate before). He threatened to sue me if I didn't let them do the work. The only alternative, per the contract, was to pay half the value of the contract for absolutely no work. So I was stuck. I let them go ahead.
They "worked" for 11 hours over two days. The foreman took down the three-trunked cedar tree with great skill. Most of the time, there were 2 or 3 other guys just standing around, watching him, or slowly dragging one limb at a time to the chipper. They did some cleanup on my other trees. Jim had told me back in September that they would haul away the wood to give to "the poor" for firewood. I told the foreman that, after digging myself into a financial hole to come up with the money for this obscenely overpriced project, I was feeling particularly poor, and I would sell the wood myself. I also found out after the fact that if this beautiful cedar had been cut into longer lengths, I would have been able to sell it to carvers or for use in making shakes. Unfortunately, these tree experts did not bother to tell me about that option. They also left a huge stump, and although they cleaned up the mess in my yard, they left behind the limbs and brush that had fallen into the alley between my back yard and the yards on the next street over. My neighbors were not happy.
I did the math: disregarding overhead for machinery, fuel, insurance, etc., 6 guys for 11 hours at $25,000 (pretax total) comes out to almost $379/hour per guy. All the more shocking considering that Jim was yelling at me down the phone that if I didn't pay the entire amount immediately, he wouldn't be able to meet his payroll. Seriously? I told Jim that I felt that the job was worth nowhere near what he had charged me - remember your promise last September? I was not surprised that he refused to honor that promise. By now it was very clear what kind of person I was dealing with.
So learn from my mistakes. First of all, choose your tree service with care. Get multiple bids for your project. If the service refuses to provide an itemized bid, don't ignore that red flag. Third, don't sign ANYTHING until you've thought about it long and hard. Do not be misled by salesmanship and bogus amiability. It evaporates as soon as you commit. read more