ever lose a customer you wanted to dump?

[lawnwizards]

i had this customer when i first started out, i underbid it badly. the yard or shall i say mountain was about 60% accessible with a mower, the other 40% was trimmed. anyway, i absolutely hated this yard and every time i cut it i always thought, man i should just drop them. the only problem is that they always paid on time and never gave me any grief. well, out of the blue they up and tell me they dont need my services anymore. i was relieved but also pissed. how dare they replace me. i know they couldnt have gotten a better price and i know they arent doing it themselves. to this day i'm still confused to as why i was replaced. anyone else lose a customer they wanted to dump?

randy.

[LawnTamer]

Yep! Just last week. I am working too many hours. I made a list of my 4 least profitable biggest PITA lawns. I didn't dump them, but I was considering it, torn between having a more manageable work week and the $$$. Anyway, number 2 on my list called and canceled. I'm like YeeHaw! It is a horrible hilly lawn that I was able to mulch all last yr, but this yr he started using Trugreen and I have been taking out like 7-8 Accelerators/week. The cut looks rough, but there is just no way to go from 10" to 3" in one cut and not have it look rough.

[Langford2000]

Yup, Two weeks ago. I had a customer that was just a general PITA. Always paid on time but had one of those personalities that just made you grit your teeth when they came out of the house. Easy mow and good money so I didn't drop him but I'm not losing any sleep now that he canceled.

[txgrassguy]

Not for several years.
Now, if I have a potentially whinny customer I'll speak to them no more than twice then their gone.
On several this year during the bid process I retracted my bid and told them why I wasn't going to accept them as a client. Interestingly enough more than a few changed their attitude right then so I signed them on.
The last one I refused was due to her dropping a lung when she saw my black Lab in the truck. When I asked her what her problem was with my dog, sitting IN my truck, she replied she never liked dogs and thought bird shooting was barbaric. So she didn't get signed on either. While I was declining the bid process I told her PETA really meant People for Eating Tasty Animals - the look she gave me when I drove away was priceless.

[GreenAcresLC]

I lost one a couple of weeks ago. The elderly lady that lived there passed away a few months ago, and her kids immediately told me to start cutting every other week. I underbid this yard in the first place, plus a senior citizen discount. I was thinking, "now I have to do twice the work for the same money". Usually the yard is mulched, now has to be bagged. All was well with them for a few cutting cycles, then they wanted me to go to three weeks. I informed the lady that this would be a problem, she just said: do what you can. I spent over an hour on what is usually a 15 minute yard. The next day, her husband, whom I have never talked to, called. I was 100 miles from home, on the lake with my family (Saturday). He told me who he was, the house number, then just went crazy...."this f***ing yard looks like a hayfield, I don't think you even touched it", and "you missed a spot weed eating", and the best of all "YOU GET OVER HERE NOW AND FIX THIS!!!". Normally, I go to a customers place and fix mistakes if I make them. I told him I was about 100 miles from home, and I would fix it Monday. His reply: "100 miles is only about 2 hrs, I expect to see you here by 4 TODAY!!!" All along the conversation I had explained that you cannot take a yard that is three weeks out, over a foot tall and make it perfect at once. (you can with enough work, but they weren't willing to pay). Well, when he gave me this ultimatum, I freaked. I tried once more explaining my side of the story and he hung up on me. Caller ID is a ***** for him! I called him back, told him "I'm sorry, we were disconnected, the reception is bad on this lake", he said, "no, I F'in hung up on you, and besides that, why are you still on the lake, you should be on your way here by now!!". Didn't freak this time, I snapped. I cannot post here exactly what I said, because I'd likely be banned from LS. Needless to say, I no longer cut their lawn. Now I just drive all their neighbors clippings into their yard via my discharge chute. Sorry to HJ, but felt this needed the whole story to make total sense.

[bobbyge]

if you seriously underbid, then you shouldn't be mowing it more than once. after the first mow, you simply explain that you misjudged the property, and will need xxx more. they take it or they leave it.

[ALC-GregH]

If someone started cussing at me on the phone, I'd hang up on them. When they call back, I'll politely tell them if they can't refrain from foul language and show some respect then there's nothing else to say. If they want a pissing match go elsewhere.

[larryinalabama]

I once had 2 accounts side by side. One house looked like crap and the other was a mow and blow. The houses were about 12 miles out of the way. So the crappy house called and cancelled, Im thinking Im not driving 25 miles round trip for a small mow and blow. I decided to finish out the mow and blow for the rest of the month and was goint to tell the old man when I saw him later in the week. Well sure enough the phone rings and its the old man calling to cancel me, I thinked him for his business and laughed after I hung up.

[blackoak26]

Not for several years.
Now, if I have a potentially whinny customer I'll speak to them no more than twice then their gone.
On several this year during the bid process I retracted my bid and told them why I wasn't going to accept them as a client. Interestingly enough more than a few changed their attitude right then so I signed them on.
The last one I refused was due to her dropping a lung when she saw my black Lab in the truck. When I asked her what her problem was with my dog, sitting IN my truck, she replied she never liked dogs and thought bird shooting was barbaric. So she didn't get signed on either. While I was declining the bid process I told her PETA really meant People for Eating Tasty Animals - the look she gave me when I drove away was priceless.

Well, in case you didn't know. Barbaric bird killers make horrible lco's. I use only Peta certified vegetarian lco's . They eat my clippings and save to cow!! PETA SUXS

[mngrassguy]

I walked into the office one day and saw one of my girls on the phone crying her eyes out. I asked her what was wrong and she put the phone on hold and told me it was Herb So and so. I grabbed the phone and asked him what the h*** was his F***ing problem. He cussed at me and I cussed right back. I told him to NEVER call and make my girls cry again. I told him to talk to me and me only. He said fine.

None of my techs wanted to deal with him either so I ended up doing his lawn myself every time (apps). Each time it was the same thing. He would cuss at me and I dished it right back. This went on for several years. His lawn always looked great and he always paid on time but always b**ched about something.

Then one spring he called and told me how much he hated Minnesota. This was nothing new. He said he was canceling and moving back to Chicago. I said GREAT and slamed the phone down....

My lesson was if I could keep this a** h*** happy by coming down to his level I could keep anybody happy.:weightlifter:

[MOW ED]

Mngrass,
I'd move to your neck of the woods in a heartbeat. Great city and lots to do. I grew up in Chicago and would never move back there. Sucks that you had to deal with such an a-hole.

I had pita customers over the years and one in particular comes to mind. Rich guy that owned an oil distribution company. Only wanted his part of the yard cut every other week. Wife came out and told me to cut the whole lawn one day. He calls later all pissed because he said he seeded. I told them to get on the same page and said that was my last visit. Good money but not worth it. I had a few more but they all get the axe if I don't like them. I want to enjoy my job and dealing with cunstant BS from a holes isn't any fun fro me.

[LB1234]

ever thought of asking the customer why?

Of the two we lost from last fall to this spring one was due to the customer wanting to give the local high school kid some money before heading off to college (can't blame them for that) and the other was because we were getting to expensive.

Another one we lost in the spring after about 3-4 mows spring cleanup etc. I asked and found out he lost his job and he was going to have his son do it for while.

Point is the customer will usually tell you why they have dropped you.

[mngrassguy]

I always ask why. If not to give me a chance to save them, then to give me an idea how I may be able to change my service and make it better.

[Escapeslawncare]

I had that happen to me just recently, they thought I should be mowing in 4 feet of water during tropical storm fayh