A lesson

[angharad_gam]

If a random stranger comes to your door and asks if you would like any gardening and/or maintenance work done then whatever you do, don't ask him to chop down some trees you've been thinking of getting rid of for a while. Because he will:
a) chop down a large part of the cherry tree that you did not ask him to chop down, and that was swathed in bird netting and hence clearly desirable in some way
b) charge you $800

Still not happy.

Comments

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

$800!!! That's ridiculous, esp for a job that wasn't done properly.

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

Yep. I'm pretty sure our Jim's Mowing guy would have charged half that, if not less. Plus he didn't give a receipt, just disappeared off into the aether. Highly dodgy.

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

That is fubar'd. Why did A agree to let this dude do it in the first place?

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

I expect the $800 didn't get mentioned up front and A probably just thought 'how convenient, I've just been thinking about this', rather than 'hmmm, this sounds suspiciously like those dodgy guys who get lambasted on A Current Affair for ripping off the elderly'.

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that makes sense. Is the cherry tree salvagable in any way or do you think it'll die after it's surprise castration?

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

I think it will survive. It's probably about 25% of its original size, and I suspect it will eventually regrow. But it's annoying because of the loss of all the cherries and because we're probably going to be moving, so we won't be here when it does.

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

Oh no, all the cherries are gone too? That's awful!

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

Most of them. Dude didn't come in and say 'so you want to get these cherries off the tree we're about to chop up?'. And even if he had it wouldn't have helped as they are not ripe enough to be picked yet. Actually it would have helped because then A could have gone 'what? no, don't cut that tree!'