My app.config contains the following tags
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings />
<client />
</system.serviceModel>
When I remove them the application works on machines that don’t have the version 3.5 of the .NET Framework, until it is needed.
Does removing them cause any other side effect besides delaying the application crash? Can I consume webservices in machines with the proper version of .NET Framework even without them?
Yes, you can remove that. It looks like WCF bindings have been added then removed. You don’t need to keep the empty stubs. Also, you should find that this relates to 3.0 and above, not 3.5 and above. Meaning: it will only fail (if left in) on 2.0/1.1 machines.