Gripe about Gouging in Disasters

[OldLincoln]

We had a wind storm a few weeks ago with gusts over 80 mph. I lost a tree and much of my fence but thankfully no major damage. The tree fell on some decking and I told the adjuster I didn't see any damage to the decking, but couldn't be sure until the tree was removed.

So they sent out a tree removal firm consisting of 3 workers, 1 foreman, a truck and chipper machine. They worked hard for just under 2 hours, cleaned up and left. Yesterday I saw their bill for $1,800.

Now this tree was an evergreen pear with wide leafy branches and stood about 30' tall. Last fall I had a 100' very healthy pine tree removed by a different company for $600 and they had to climb it removing branches and cutting it to small logs a drop them in a safe area. It took them over 4 hours and were very professional.

I can see maybe $800 because of the workload, but what's the other $1K for? I know, the insurance company covers it but still. They have to wait for me to okay payment which I wont until I talk with the insurance company and the tree company. They should adjust their charge down to a reasonable level, but likely won't.

[O'Dell]

Sorry about the loss of the tree. The removal company obviously knew the insurance company was footing the bill. I've noted over the years that large corporations aren't as frugal as you and I, or maybe some lower level employee figures it's not worth his time or effort to sweat the small stuff. Maybe you should show them the bills from the two incidents and see if they'll stand up to the tree company.

[OldLincoln]

Would if I could. Problem is, my claim went at warp 2 from my town to Sacramento, to someplace at headquarters back east. I spoke once with each and the last is dealing with so many claims they don't want to hear about anything except close the case.

This is exactly the kind of thing that happens with contractors in Iraq, Katrina aftermath, even Haiti where the bag of a few million just disappeared off the table and nobody noticed. Seems they all treat it like it's nobody's money.

[muggsy]

I had a hundred year old maple and an ash tree removed and a pin oak trimmed. They had to bring in a crane to remove the maple. The job took two days and the charge was $2,400. Your insurance Co. was hosed, Linc.

[John222]

I had the same problem a few months ago. We had a heavy wet snow while the leaves were still on the trees. Did a lot of damage to my sycamore. We called the tree service that we've been using for the last 25 yrs and the buggers tried to gouge me. They quoted triple what they normally do for the same amount of service. We searched and found a different service. We won't be doing business with the original service anymore.

[pocket pistol]

We've had a couple of hurricanes here that led to long power outages... Stores started charging like 3 to 5 times usual prices for neccesities...
That is sad...

[Longitude Zero]

Yikes. Here in OK statutes prevent most of that kind of thing. But only after a declared disaster. If it is not declared the companies can charge the maximum the market will bear. After a disaster merchants are limited to a maximum increase they can charge. Of course if their material suppliers raise prices then it can be katy bar the door.

If every company in the supply chain charges just under the maximum percentage allowed it does not take long for prices to jump substantially. In a suburb of where I live they require a proffessional arborsit to design, plan, manage the removal of ALL trees over 15' tall.

muggsy in that community your bill would have easily been double or triple what you paid due to statutory regulations.

[ltxi]

We had a wind storm a few weeks ago with gusts over 80 mph. I lost a tree and much of my fence but thankfully no major damage. The tree fell on some decking and I told the adjuster I didn't see any damage to the decking, but couldn't be sure until the tree was removed.

So they sent out a tree removal firm consisting of 3 workers, 1 foreman, a truck and chipper machine. They worked hard for just under 2 hours, cleaned up and left. Yesterday I saw their bill for $1,800.

Now this tree was an evergreen pear with wide leafy branches and stood about 30' tall. Last fall I had a 100' very healthy pine tree removed by a different company for $600 and they had to climb it removing branches and cutting it to small logs a drop them in a safe area. It took them over 4 hours and were very professional.

I can see maybe $800 because of the workload, but what's the other $1K for? I know, the insurance company covers it but still. They have to wait for me to okay payment which I wont until I talk with the insurance company and the tree company. They should adjust their charge down to a reasonable level, but likely won't.

Lost a spruce of 30 plus feet a couple of months ago to wind. It came down across some new fencing, stopped just short of destroying it by a crab apple tree supporting the top. Getting it out without further damage was delicate. My tree guy is an ISA certified arborist. He, personally, and one of his really good guys spent about three or three and a half hours getting it out, logged, and chipped. Cost was $750. Considering the skill required, I would have considered $1000 fair for that job.

[Mr_D]

I called my health insurance about an overcharge, they said "Don't worry, you're 100% covered, we're paying it all" So I no longer try to save them money!

[O'Dell]

I had a funny thing happen a few years ago involving a felled tree. It was a healthy 50 foot pine that fell in a storm and damaged my neighbor's fence. The law in Georgia reads that if the tree is healthy, each party pays his own damage regardless of the tree's location. We both filed a claim, me for the partial removal and him for the damage and his part of the removal. His tree service got there first and removed the whole tree which his insurance covered. A day or two later I got a $500 check from my insurance company, and then the fun began. It seems that my company had no mechanism for returned money after the check was issued. After several phone calls, I just mailed back the uncashed check and heard nothing more from them.