Too Much Money!

[Jerrys Lawn Service]

Has this ever happened to any of you guys, we go over to do an estimate at a lady's lawn today and she tells us she wants her yard cut every week and I tell her that it will cost her $30 and she says I'll give you $35. Who am I to argue? The yard was only going to take us 20-25 min any way.
Some people just have to much money!

Jerrys Lawn Service

[Richard Martin]

I had a similar thing happen twice last year. One guy was paying 30 a week and all of a sudden he starts paying 35. He still pays 35 to this day. Then another guy pays 35 and he usually just gives me 40 and says "Keep the change".

Gotta like it!

[RYAN]

I wish I could find a few customes like that. Mine are usually the opposite.

[Jerrys Lawn Service]

Hey Richard, it must be a Maryland thing!

[greens1]

Does this guy wear a red hat and live with some raindeer? LOL
Jim L

[bdemir]

Does she have any relatives out here n michigan!!! I need some customers like that. lol

I think that is a great customer to have and you should take care of them aextra special and maybe even ask them for refferals and they would probably go out of their way to help you. Most generous people want you to be happy and in return take good care of them also. This is what one of my cutomers did and they like to be thanked and appreiciated thats all. Nice to see good customers.


Bedros

[ronslawncare]

i messed up a deal like that last year .he was a weekly serviced customer who always through me 5 tip so it was like geting 35.00 the whole summer i did him.. and then he asked me to power wash his deck i told him i dont do that but my friend that was there said he would.guess what he never should up to do it i lost those fives .

[B LAWN CARE]

i told a lady i would mow her yard for 25 and she told me no way i will pay you 40 i said yes mam good cust to this day

[NoDownTime]

I charge one of my customers $35 per week and at the end of the season she always says thank you and tacks-on $150 to the bill. I wish even one or two of my other customers would do this!!!!

[eslawns]

I had one lady who agreed to let me do the lawn for $30/wk. After I cut it the 1st time, she paid me $40, and every season increased by $5/wk. She also sent a card at Christmas with $50 the first year, and $100 each year since. Last year she got a divorce and had to move. I miss her. :(

I have several (15 or so) who send anywhere from $50-$100 at Christmas, some tip at Easter and Thanksgiving also.

[lawnman_scott]

thats happened to me about 5 times, but customers have talked me donw about 500000 times lol

[65hoss]

I had a guy ask me last week what I would charge for cutting. I said $65. He says its worth $75 and he would pay me that. Well, I did turn it down. After doing his leaves, I realized this guy would cost me way more than the extra $10 he was offering. Let some other fool deal with this guy.

[yardsmith]

I got lucky like that last year.
Had a customer that wanted price for mowing reg. lawn & down in the banks of a holding pond every 2 weeks. I gave him a price for each (1 for reg. mow & one for mow + banks), & he said how about $xxxx amt. as a flat rate, & do the banks every 2 wks. The xxx amt. was about 25% higher than my bid! Did I argue? What do you think.........

[Grateful11]

I did some clean up work for my wifes Aunt and told her it would be $70, well she said I worked too hard and gave me $100. I wasn't going to argue with her. I did some bed work for a lady last Sat and took my 2 boys. She made them Pizza and brought them drinks and the bill was like $195, I supplied the materials, and she rounded it off to $200. Then she got me some more work at a another location.

[Charles]

YOu looking at this thing all wrong Jerry and we have had many post on this subject. Start your time and expenses when you start driving toward the home. Keep up with your unloading and loading times. You said US. It take us 20 to 25 minutes. Thats a good amount of time for more than one person. There alot more things you have to look at in your cost when running a biz that you dont get paid for directly.........see previous post. You deserve every penny and more. I had a washing machine repairman come over in and out in 20 min. he had a 45$ service charge, 20$ labor plus the part.. Used a couple of hand tools is all. Running a biz is not like an hourly paying job and if you dont charge enough and run legal you dont make beans in the long run

[Edited by Charles on 04-05-2001 at 10:21 PM]

[jaclawn]

Many years ago, I had a guy stop me on the street, and give me his address, and said "I'll pay you $40 to cut my grass, check it out and let me know if it is OK". It was a fair price.

We had a character around here a few years ago that built retaining walls. His ad read" Retaining walls, You set the price". I am sure that there was some entertaining conversarions going on between him and his customers. Nedless to say, he is no longer advertising his services.

[Greenkeepers]

Do they have family in OH????

[sgreanbean]

i had a customer last year that was real happy with our work. it was a friday and i was gonna let the boys go home early, the guy comes out with a 24 pack of miller lite! we get back to the shop and open it up and its full of old style light! its the thought that counts!

[awm]

Give the lady 5 dollars more in service . Thats what she wants.

[cajuncutter]

I have 2 customers that are just great!! I wish I had more like them. One started out giving me 100 for x-mas then every year after the first it has been 200. The other doesn't really give money for any ocassion. However she just wants things done and doesn't want me to bother asking her if she wants it done. I just do the work send the bill and she trusts my ethics. I never have and never will "screw" her over by over billing or doing something that doesn't need to be done. Also her husband likes toys such as BBQ pits lawn furniture hammocks and water fountains for the yard..things she doesn't want around but just lets him have them knowing sooner rather than latter she will get rid of them....who better to dump this stuff on? :D good ole lawn boy. Recently I called her to ask about the New Braunfels Bandera grill sitting in the back yard. I explained to her that my pit finally gave out and that I had noticed that the one in her yard has just been sitting there with a cover over it for the last year. Knowing that her husband is not a real big cook I asked if she thinks her husband would might want to sell it. She laughed and replied by saying "who George Forman of the neighborhood? He never grills..I will talk with George and see if I can not get rid of this thing..I want it gone" Hang up and less than 5 minutes later she calls back and tells me to come pick it up. I was there with in 15 minutes to retrieve it. I took the cover off only to discover it had never been used..retails for 289 at the home depot. One other thing I got was a 4 tear ( i know the spelling must be wrong) water fountain. We installed it in the middle of a pool pond that we built 2 years ago. Foruntain retails for a grand and it comes with all the pumps. They called me this past monday and told me they wanted it gone by the 16th of this month so they can have a hot tub installed. Now I am stuck with this monster and no where to put it. Guess I will put out an add for it and sell it.

[Evan528]

My customers actually set my price for landscape installations. At the initial consultation I ask them how much they are willing to spend. I tell them if that will be sufficient to do a nice job or whther i need more to work with and do my designs acordingly. I used to just do a design and let them know a price and I wound up wasting alot of my time. My price would be 5,000 and they only wanted to spend 3,000. This method has worked out very well for me!

[Jerrys Lawn Service]

Charles, in responce to your post, all of our clients are within 5 min of my home. The route is extremely tight not much windsheild time. When I started this 10 years ago thats the way we wanted to keep it close to home, there is plenty of work for us , by us I mean my wife and myself. The reason I started this thread was because it struck me funny that day and wanted to share it with everyone.
Thanks
Jerrys Lawn Service

[Charles]

Jerry, I wasnt putting you down. I was saying you deserve as much money as you can get and even drive time is not all you should include in your pricing. Even the woman by giving you more money knew that you had underbided her lawn.