People that are never satisfied with what you do

[rvsuper]

There is this lady, maybe 85 years old that doesn't like how I trim or mow my stripes. She says that the stripes are a disgrace to the neighborhood and that I shouldn't do that anymore. Then when I trim, I have to go right next to her house(which is brick) to get the grass there. She says that I will chip the brick and not to trim there. I keep trying to tell her that it won't do anything, but she still won't let me. Every week I come there is always something wrong with how I do things. Anyone else have these type of people?

[BigJim]

Anyone else have these type of people?

Yep,but now someone else mows their lawns and puts up with the aggravation:dizzy:

[rvsuper]

I think I might do that tomorrow. This has been going on for the whole mowing season this year, and I am getting sick of it. I think I might drop her next time I mow over there.

[SLS]

The only thing that feels better, and brings more relief, than dropping this kind of customer is sex. :)

Do yourself a favor and shed this burden.

[JimLewis]

I've been doing this for a while and after having hundreds of lawn care accounts over the years I can tell you without a doubt; there are ALWAYS people like this. No matter how big you get, how good of a job you do, how much you charge, etc. There are ALWAYS going to be people who are never satisfied.

These days my approach is to get rid of them as soon as I can. If not, they will eventually get rid of you anyway. They are never going to be satisfied with anyone's work. They are just sad, sorry little people who happen to have fallen into some money.

Don't take it personal. It's probably nothing you are doing. We all get them from time to time.

[lawnman_scott]

We have all had them, and hopefully dont need to keep them.

[wolfpacklawn]

I had a lady last week that wanted me to take care of her property. I had been doing her house for a real estate company until it was sold to her. I started to walk the property with this lady and I could tell that she was going to be an overly picky, unable to satify, PITA. By the time I finished walking the property with her I just had to tell her that I would not be able to do any work for her because I could tell that I would not be able to give her the time and attention she required. What I really wanted to say was that I can tell you are going to be a PITA and I have enough pains elsewhere on my body. RVLI, there are way to many good customers who will appreciate your work and let you do it without coming out and being critical for you to waste your time with. Drop her and enjoy your work.

[Brickman]

Wolfpack is right.

I have one customer that sets his own price, which by the way is way more than every body else pays for the size of lawn. And he kinda micro manages. I have learned to do his lawn the way he wants to, and keep him happy. We have gotten to be friends now. When his son was killed in a car wreck he gave me about $800 worth of name brand shirts. Some almost new, others with still a lot of life in them. I won't be buying shirts for a long time to come. He gives me a $100 christmas bonus, and often a bonus during the summer. So because of every thing involved I allow him to dictate how he wants it, and it does not bother me any more. The first couple of months were a different story. But now we get along good.

[FrankenScagMachines]

I'm with Brickman, sometimes you have to conform to the customer. I've got one that while the price isn't extremely good, It will do and not just that but she is picky (well in her own mind, she is because the guy before used her push mower and didn't have a trimmer and left streaks between passes with the mower left a mess all over the drive etc) so she thinks I'm awesome. On my check envelope there's always a smily face and "Thanks Eric!" written on it, she thinks I'm great because her last dude was so lousy. So I would probably get recommendations from her. I wouldn't gripe if the price was alittle higher, but after I talked to her I realized she could be good advertisement if I do good enough for her. She loves to come home from work and see her lawn looking so nice now and not have to clean up the driveway!
She was showing me around the yard telling me exactly what to do and what not to do, it was all stuff I would have done anyhow. I acted like I already knew that, but not being too cocky about it, might as well let her think i'm all that much better, but I had some professionaly pride to keep too you know;)

[MOW ED]

Got a guy that comes out every week for the last 4 with a different request. The first week he had a list. He's a good BS'er and he tries to tell me in a way that is disarming. I am very happy with your work BUT......
I write every occurance down in a list and will either use it to increase his rate or to tell him to mow it himself. It is a good payer and lots of bucks from add ons so I am being a little careful.

Like Jim said, there are always gonna be people like this and ya either deal with them or let someone else.

[JimLewis]

Guys, there's a difference between conforming to what a customer wants and doing work for someone who is NEVER satisfied. I was assuming this thread was regarding the latter.

We will always go the extra mile for our customers. If they want it done a certain way, we will usually agree and do it for them. But over the years I've learned that there are some people who are just so crazy that they will NEVER be happy, no matter how hard to try to please them. Those are the people I was referring to. And I assume that kind of person was who the original author was referring to.

[yardboyltd]

If they did it themselves, they still wouldn't be happy, so they think a professional will solve the problem, wrong...

[LAWNS AND MOWER]

I use to have a few of these PITA customers until I sold 1/2 of my accounts about 5 years ago. Now I don't have any of these PITA people. Just not worth it. One lady would always complain. Got to the point that if we drove by her house and saw her car, we would drive on. Would only mow when she wasn't home. Always wanted the yard mowed super short to kill the weeds. Tried to explain to her that mowing short would only encourage more weeds. Still insisted to mow it short. Told her fine. Mowed the yard @ 1 inch. (normally mowed @ 2 1/2 inches). Went 2 weeks without rain after mowing it short. Yard turned to toast!!!!

[awm]

u are dealing w old age. wouldnt matter if u solved your differences . she probably wouldnt remember next wk.
wont get any better ,she will just finally die or be sent to a rest home.
one of my customers died on the 5th of june. on the 20th of june her husband
put a 38 to his head. it just aint easy being old even if u are an angel ,and some are. some are not.

[Alan Bechard]

When my wife has these customers I just ask her how much extra money would it be worth to put up with these folks, then we raise our price till we hit the happy medium, either they are paying enough to make it worth the crud, or somebody else is doing it and more power to them.

Some of them you can never satisfy, There were two that I liked best,

One lady wanted her lawn mowed on a 10 day schedule, every friday.

Another lady wanted her yard mowed every week for $25 and then when we ran into a month with 5 Thursdays in it she said she normally only paid $100 pr month and we were trying to rip her off! She got the cut for free but it was the last.

Al B