Man, that dispatcher was looking out for you. Had a guy at a yard in Memphis point out my straps were crushing a plastic bumper cover once and I felt like a total rookie. It's wild how easy it is to just trust that a strap looks tight and call it good.

Wait, they charged you 35 bucks for a locker and it doesn't even come with basic security? That's like paying for a fancy hotel room and finding out the door doesn't lock lol. At this point you're better off just sleeping on your backpack in the park.

Same thing happened to me about four years back, big red oak with a co-dominant stem over a driveway, and the guy only wanted a trim. Wind storm came through that fall and dropped half of it on his truck. He called me the next week ready to pay whatever for cables. That check felt good but the whole thing still bugs me, because I could have pushed harder on the brace option the first time instead of just saying no to topping. Now I measure every V crotch before I leave the bid, takes two minutes and saves a lot of regret.