I paid to get a tree dropped in my woods, first ever.

[Nealm66]

Tree work is expensive because the labor/equipment and insurance is expensive. Plus it's feast or famine. I had an in-law about 3 hours from me needing a big Doug fir taken down in their small front yard. It was about 4' diameter and school marmed into 3 tops at about 100' and about 150' total. It was about 20' from house and 10' from fence/property line and about 40' from the road/culdesac. I couldn't get to it right away and they had a guy come in for $1200 which was cheaper than I could have done it  doing it for free lol. So many tree services starve out during the slow times. 

[chet]

Most often those guys doing it on da cheap are working for cash and not paying taxes, workers comp on their help, or paying for insurance.  

[gspren]

There's no shame in asking for a discount for cash, senior, veteran, etc. sometimes it helps sometimes not as long as you do it civilly and not demanding. That's my opinion as a senior veteran who often pays cash 

[trapper]

Didnt pay cash.  Tree trimmer that brings me firewood and  I  occasionally saw lumber for free  for came  with his man lift and took down 2 dead ash in my yard for free.   One was leaning toward our house  and the other over an apple tree

[WDFL]

@WDFL

If you'd tried to dicker with me over a price on a tree job I'd have laughed and walked away. If it was so easy you should have done it yourself!

Things that look like it will take 10 min and are "easy" might be just that. But the stated price takes into account the risk and the consequences if something goes wrong. That's what the homeowner forgets. It's all good untill it's not. Like I said glad you feel like you got a deal.
But when it comes to my biz and urban tree work the price is the price. 

Good point.    At the time I didn't have a tractor.  Else I could have raised the branch just enough to remove the stress and cut it.  
They were using a CTL to move branches so that's why I flagged them down.    They used the grapple exactly like I described, had a guy cut the end off, and dropped it on the ground.  

Don't feel too bad for them, when I had a lighting strike a tree I hired the same folks to come cut it down, I only got one quote from them and hired them on the spot because they gave me the good deal a few years earlier.   $2100.

[maple flats]

A few years back, maybe in 2017 I think, I should have hired one cut but I did it myself. The cherry tree was about 34-36" where I cut, and was just a shell and there was an opening of about 13" on one side. The tree was still alive.
I decided I'd use my 8000# excavator to push when ready. I only had about 7" of wood to make a hinge at about 90 degrees from the open void. I cut just 4" deep making a notch and barely straghtened the back side of the hinge, leaving 3" in the center but cutting in on the circle so it could fall. I then proceeded to position my excavator on the opposite side with the blade down, away from the tree, put the bucket up almost to max reach and I put some pressure on the tree. I then proceeded to saw out from the hinge toward the back, first on the open face then on the other face. all went well until I actually broke out the back. At that point the tree broke forming a barber chair, the end of the trunk on the excavator side shot up and rested on one small section I had missed with my saw. The base of the tree was about 12' off the ground and my excavator was caught on top of the now almost horizontal part of the tree and both tracks were off the ground. The only ground contact was the blade I had pushed down on the ground.
It was a harry time but I eventually got the excavator off the tree and was able to drive it around beside the trunk, while operating it from the ground ready to run if needed. I think that part likely took maybe 45 minutes, but I was then able to push the trunk off the top of the barber chair, away from me and the excavator and no one was hurt or worse. However, I'll never try one like that again for sure. When it came down, the part holding everything up fell with it.
That tree had to come down because a shop was being hauled in the next week (An Amish shed 14x28'[) It was not accessable from any logging road and my thought was any climber would have not tried to climb it.