>>Nothing about that story sounds like a scam to me.
I mean, that's just... naivete? Lack of experience? Wonderful but unwarranted faith in nature of humanity? I was there once myself, so I empathize and understand it, but it's also dangerous.
First, there's no reason random people would be knocking on your door to cut a tree right then and there. EVERYthing about that story should sound like a scam, from the get go.
Second, I'm sure you CAN have tree cutting and removal as different services. As a consumer, why would you, but sure. But - do you really feel this was explained to the buyer ahead of time? Do you believe this tree needed cutting, based on the random strangers' authority? Why were random people walking around with chainsaws?
I get these guys on a weekly basis. "They were just walking down the neighborhood and noticed that [my gutters needed cleaning | my driveway is in disrepair | my roof can use a quick fix | whatever]". Literally every time, as I mentioned, there's an article in local newspaper few weeks later about elderly being scammed.
What honest, reputable businessperson, especially a skilled tradesperson, wastes their time knocking on doors? They are in so much demand they don't even need to advertise, word of mouth and referrals keep them overbusy. We'd all kill for a reputable contractor. Whoever knocks on your door in the middle of the day is not of that persuasion.
Are you in Florida? Trimming and removing trees prior to hurricane season is a completely reasonable thing to do. It's very common here.
The equipment for tree removal is different. A big truck with a crane that lifts debris into the back vs a bucket truck and chainsaws. And stump removal is a whole other thing.
Not every operation is big enough to own multiple trucks.
To drop a, as far as we know, perfectly healthy tree and leave it in the yard?
We had a guy who was doing work in the neighborhood offer to take down a big beautiful Maple tree in our back yard. He tried to instill fear of the tree.
So many people are easily tricked into taking down perfectly healthy trees because they are big. What a loss.
Nothing about that story sounds like a scam to me.