Big Bad Bob
04-09-2009, 01:23 AM
This is a customer I picked up last winter for snow removal. Seemed like a good customer. Wasn't cheap on the snow removal fee. Talked about getting a mowing bid from me this spring when I was able to look at the turf.
I get a call from her today that she wants her 12,000 sq ft of turf raked. I figure, a minor cleanup. Probably could just blow out the bushes and mulch the few leaves. No, she wants it raked. With a garden rake. She had someone else mowing for the last few years but he retired. The lawn has a bit of thatch but not more than an 1/8th of an inch. I told her it would be better to power rake it and aerate. She didn't want any part of it. She insisted on it being raked and then the thatch picked up, by hand and removed from the site. I guess the other guy did it her way every spring. I told her that hand raking it would be a lot more expensive than power raking and picking up the thatch with a mower. I told her I would come back to the office and work up a bid for both. After thinking about it, I know I don't have the time, let alone the energy, to hand rake 12,000 sq ft so I will just bid the power raking and mechanical removal of the thatch. I have a feeling she's going to want it hand raked so I'll probably lose this whole account.
I guess I'm just not hungry enough to go the extra miles for this one.
How would some of you guys handle this?
PS I have considered hiring a couple of temps to rake it but it would still suck. I really don't know how long this would take so I'm not sure what to bid if I went that route.
I get a call from her today that she wants her 12,000 sq ft of turf raked. I figure, a minor cleanup. Probably could just blow out the bushes and mulch the few leaves. No, she wants it raked. With a garden rake. She had someone else mowing for the last few years but he retired. The lawn has a bit of thatch but not more than an 1/8th of an inch. I told her it would be better to power rake it and aerate. She didn't want any part of it. She insisted on it being raked and then the thatch picked up, by hand and removed from the site. I guess the other guy did it her way every spring. I told her that hand raking it would be a lot more expensive than power raking and picking up the thatch with a mower. I told her I would come back to the office and work up a bid for both. After thinking about it, I know I don't have the time, let alone the energy, to hand rake 12,000 sq ft so I will just bid the power raking and mechanical removal of the thatch. I have a feeling she's going to want it hand raked so I'll probably lose this whole account.
I guess I'm just not hungry enough to go the extra miles for this one.
How would some of you guys handle this?
PS I have considered hiring a couple of temps to rake it but it would still suck. I really don't know how long this would take so I'm not sure what to bid if I went that route.