People really piss me off

[mcwlandscaping]

Well, last saturday i was suppose to dethatch 5 lawns, because of rain on friday night i didn't want to risk it. So i moved it to this wednesday as i have early release from school. So, i just got off the phone calling two of the people about the new date and the first one all of a sudden thought that the price was half of what i gave him (which was low to start with, lets leave it at that) and then the second said that he did it himself! So, its beginning to look like ill just drop the other ones since it isn't worth it for me to rent the unit.

I count on this money for the JRCO rake im having put on my eXmark on friday and a new set of gas hedge clippers and then i get shafted, this kind of thing really pisses me off,

thanks for letting me rant though, this is the first bad thing thats happened so far this year!!

[chimmygew]

Why didn't you call them on Friday or Saturday instead of today?

[mcwlandscaping]

i just found out last night of the weather, i had told them ide be doing it this saturday, its not like i said i wasnt comming

[mcwlandscaping]

well, just went to a 10 yard mulch job that was suppose to be today, well, the supplier never delivered the mulch....wtf is up with my day!!

[MarcSmith]

i just found out last night of the weather, i had told them ide be doing it this saturday, its not like i said i wasnt comming

you found out today (Monday) about the rain on Friday...:confused: would'nt you have found out about the rain on Saturday when you picked up the dethatcher from the rental place? and then made the decision not to dethatch on account of wet/sloppy conditions, at which point your next step was to contact you clients and inform them of your professional decision that dethatching the wet lawns would not provide acceptable results and that you would move them to Wed Afternoon.

The fact that you had already spent the money you did not have was bone head move #1. Following up on a missed appointment 48 hours after the fact was bone head move #2.

If/when you bid on a large commercial property and the bids are due on one day, are you gonna go to the property manager two days later to expect for your bid to be considered when its late?

I know you are young, and it sounds like I'm being harsh, but you still have a good chance to learn from these small mistakes.

Now don't be hypocritical towards the mulch guy...maybe the he cant deliver for two days because of the rain which caused him to miss jobs and deliveries on Friday and Saturday......Sound like something you(supplier of labor) just did to the homeowner (client).

[bobbygedd]

see that? these clients are treating you like a PEE ON!!! they have no respect for the lawn guy. so let me think.....if it was raining, you knew it was raining, and i knew it was raining, and even marcsmith knew it was raining. but, the customer expected you, to call them, and tell them, that it was raining. respect needs to be earned. this is why, you should have got a deposit on all of these jobs, and if they played games with you, they lost thier deposit. do business like this and stick to your guns, and we all shall prosper. anybody in thier right mind knows, that any type of outdoor job, is effected by weather. why should you need to call them? how do u make up this loss? now you need to bone the next customer, to compensate.

[mcwlandscaping]

Mark not trying to be disrespectful in the least bit here, just explaining things, one:i didn't already spend the money, just was ready to once i got it...2: i had told them last thursday (two days before the scheduled event) that it was going to rain and at the time of that call i rescheduled to this upcoming saturday, then last night when i found that it was going to rain again this comming weekend, i moved it to this coming wednesday. These people were well informed well in advance of everything that was going on, in my opinion...oh called the mulch place, they said it will be there in a little bit, this place doesn't deliver on weekends, i was just told that it was suppose to be there in the morning and it wasn't, so thats all strightened out now. TO make up for the lose dethatching customers, i just followed up on dethatching for some of my regular customers and i just got three more, so things are looking back up! I can't believe that it works so well but ranting on here and hearing what others have to say about the problems really makes me feel better and causes me to understand how they could be avoided in the future...thanks guys...Mark, once again, not trying to be disrespectful as i really do learn a lot from you and your posts on here. If what i explained didn't really cover what you talked about in your first post, please PM me to clarify a little more as i would really like to learn as much as i can from this,

thanks
mike

[sheshovel]

I agree with MarcSmith..don't spend your money before you make it..and treat your clients the way you would like to be treated

[MarcSmith]

Mike,

if you read my post, based on the information you provided in your first post, It sounded like you had already spent the money and had not been in contact with the clients at all. your most rescent post provides a lot more information.

five phone calls would have cost you 30 minutes of your time, and irregardless of how bobby handles clients, these five calls could have kept that money coming into your pocket and would have kept your clients informed as to your status with the weather and their lawns.

In many cases we are considered the hired help, even in my current position, some people consider me the lawn guy... But I never fail to follow up on something scheduled or an appointment, its what sets us apart. always gotta be proffessional, and it means you have to have thick skin sometimes.

But venting is a good thing. Its nice that I can vent here, rather than bringing my frustrations home.

I rescentlely got drawn in to a pro-life/pro-choice nd a violation of freedom of speech demostration becasue i was enforcing GU policies by removing unapproved banners and flyers posted in improper locations. Kids break the rules, and I'm in hot water.....I'm glad my wife is not around....

[chriscraft]

Spring is the worst time to dethatch , its wet hard to pick up and really plays havoc with new and emerging shallow root systems. It is better to be done in the fall if at all. The majority of homes that want dethatching would benefit more form aerations and they are 1/2 the price and 4 times less labor

[lawnwizards]

Spring is the worst time to dethatch , its wet hard to pick up and really plays havoc with new and emerging shallow root systems. It is better to be done in the fall if at all. The majority of homes that want dethatching would benefit more form aerations and they are 1/2 the price and 4 times less labor
not to be rude, but how many times have you said this???? i've read it about 30 times in the past month... people could do a search on why you think aerations are more benefitial then dethatching... give it a rest already... :drinkup:

[Az Gardener]

He keeps saying it because its correct, and he is trying to help and evidently not everyone has got it yet. If they did there wouldn't be these reoccurring questions about detaching.

[MarcSmith]

I dethatched and slit seeded portions of the campus this spring. with the warm dry winter i did not see much germination happening but we had a cooler than normal spring so I am hoping that with the irrigation and spring fert, I'll get something to come up in time for graduation....

[Green-Pro]

The extreme drought we experienced here last summer has left many lawns with very severe patches in yards that are for all purposes dead. We aerated and dethatched/power raked last fall, and seeded, because of this. We are still booking a huge amount of work for this and the power raking is the process we are selling the most of mainly for the same reasons Mark mentioned.
Truth be told I'm not in favor of exposing soil in turf during spring time using any method, it invites to many weeds. I caution the homeowner on this, usually up sell a weed & feed program along with the renovation. In the end the lawns here simply took to severe a beating to not do anything with them.