MOW ED
09-15-2009, 08:22 AM
Let me set this up for you and see how you would have handled it.
I have a long time customer who has a small commercial building that I have taken care of for about 14 years. I do the full boat there, mow edge, fert and weed. He moved his personal residence to a water front about 3 years ago and asked me to bid on it. It is a sloping property that is irrigated by water from the river. I usually work solo and know that there was an LCO already mowing here and of course my bid was much higher than his. No problem. The customer did ask me to do the weed control application at this property because this other LCO is not an applicator. I have been doing this for the last 3 years both in the spring and in the fall.
I was just there last week to spray and I use my Walker that has a boom set up on it. Now I know that the property is difficult and I went in the afternoon so it wouldn't be as wet as if it was in the morning but there was one area on a slope that is constantly wet. In spite of me being very careful I spun a little there. It is an area that isn't full growth because of the slope. It wasn't a big deal. The lawn as a whole was being mowed pretty high and when I was there it needed cutting but I was there to spray which I did. I adjusted my track and in doing so it matted the long grass in a way that made it look flatter than usual because it was not in the same track it was mowed at but it did not damage the lawn.
I come home the next day and there is a message on the machine from someone claiming to be at this address telling me that I tore the grass up and I should be more careful on the lawn. Initially the tone was OK but as the message progressed this a-hole started to become agitated and started to say how he can use a big "frickin" mower on this property and not do any "frickiN" damage. Basically being a jack off. He did leave his number if I had any questions.
I was mowing that day and tried to call but I went out to mow and even went back to the property to look. I found nothing out of the ordinary except that this guy did mow even though my signs were posted for a 1 day reentry which he ignored.
Oh I had questions but after 4 calls he didn't answer. On the fifth try later in the day I left him a message to not call me with this kind of complaint ever again. I went on to say that if the homeowner had a problem with my application or something he felt was wrong then the homeowner should call, not the lawn guy.
I know my message got thru because he called the homeowner and talked to the wife. She relayed to the husband that we were having words and he called me.
He said that he knew I was there and he did walk around that night and had no problem with my application. He said that he didn't know why this a-hole took it on himself to call me. I explained to my customer that I have no problem with a concern as long as the person is respectful to me when voicing the concern. This was not the case. As a matter of fact if this guy talked to me like that in person, other issues would have arisen. We will leave it at that. My customer went on to apologize for this jackoff and said he is very happy with the work I do and absolutely wants to retain me. He said he would talk with this guy and tell him to back off. I told my customer that its a done deal as long as this guy keeps his mouth shut and he doesn't contact me again.
Long story but I had to vent. Its funny how tough some guys talk behind a phone (or computer). Bottom line is that if he would have just said can we talk about the issue I would have had no problem. I would guarantee that if any of you had a message left like he did, you would have reacted.
So I am moving on, I see this a-hole around but I am done with this. Hopefully he learned a lesson. We will see.
I have a long time customer who has a small commercial building that I have taken care of for about 14 years. I do the full boat there, mow edge, fert and weed. He moved his personal residence to a water front about 3 years ago and asked me to bid on it. It is a sloping property that is irrigated by water from the river. I usually work solo and know that there was an LCO already mowing here and of course my bid was much higher than his. No problem. The customer did ask me to do the weed control application at this property because this other LCO is not an applicator. I have been doing this for the last 3 years both in the spring and in the fall.
I was just there last week to spray and I use my Walker that has a boom set up on it. Now I know that the property is difficult and I went in the afternoon so it wouldn't be as wet as if it was in the morning but there was one area on a slope that is constantly wet. In spite of me being very careful I spun a little there. It is an area that isn't full growth because of the slope. It wasn't a big deal. The lawn as a whole was being mowed pretty high and when I was there it needed cutting but I was there to spray which I did. I adjusted my track and in doing so it matted the long grass in a way that made it look flatter than usual because it was not in the same track it was mowed at but it did not damage the lawn.
I come home the next day and there is a message on the machine from someone claiming to be at this address telling me that I tore the grass up and I should be more careful on the lawn. Initially the tone was OK but as the message progressed this a-hole started to become agitated and started to say how he can use a big "frickin" mower on this property and not do any "frickiN" damage. Basically being a jack off. He did leave his number if I had any questions.
I was mowing that day and tried to call but I went out to mow and even went back to the property to look. I found nothing out of the ordinary except that this guy did mow even though my signs were posted for a 1 day reentry which he ignored.
Oh I had questions but after 4 calls he didn't answer. On the fifth try later in the day I left him a message to not call me with this kind of complaint ever again. I went on to say that if the homeowner had a problem with my application or something he felt was wrong then the homeowner should call, not the lawn guy.
I know my message got thru because he called the homeowner and talked to the wife. She relayed to the husband that we were having words and he called me.
He said that he knew I was there and he did walk around that night and had no problem with my application. He said that he didn't know why this a-hole took it on himself to call me. I explained to my customer that I have no problem with a concern as long as the person is respectful to me when voicing the concern. This was not the case. As a matter of fact if this guy talked to me like that in person, other issues would have arisen. We will leave it at that. My customer went on to apologize for this jackoff and said he is very happy with the work I do and absolutely wants to retain me. He said he would talk with this guy and tell him to back off. I told my customer that its a done deal as long as this guy keeps his mouth shut and he doesn't contact me again.
Long story but I had to vent. Its funny how tough some guys talk behind a phone (or computer). Bottom line is that if he would have just said can we talk about the issue I would have had no problem. I would guarantee that if any of you had a message left like he did, you would have reacted.
So I am moving on, I see this a-hole around but I am done with this. Hopefully he learned a lesson. We will see.