4 seasons lawn&land
06-12-2011, 11:12 AM
So last week I have this long message on my machine from this women, landscape designer of 31 years that just needs a small job done for now but has alot of potential for refferalls and installers for her own jobs. Great, so I call back and she tells me how she goes all over the country for her clients and finds good local companies to contract out to. A bunch of other BS about all her stores and florist division, award winning orchids. Shes laying it on thick. She puts a little too much emphasis on the reasonable rates talk so Im a little leary already but usually pricing by the job I can make average people happy and make a buck still so I give her a price to plant a bunch of daffodills, not my favorite thing to do but I do it. Im there on the job and it doesnt take long before things just arent adding up. The builder at this property that is showing me what to do with the flowers, hes not very "builder-ish" at all. The lawn trimming has not been done this year. Who has a high end landscape designer and no proffesional LCO??? Oh yeah, and theres about 3 times as many daffodills as theres supposed to be and 3 pages of instructions drawn out by this women on how to plant the dafodils! With little sketches showing the bulb and soil level and growth, bulbs 1 inch appart. Little irregular shaped circles representing a random pattern to plant in, and not square. There is a square on the paper with a line through it saying "not like this" lol. Then at the bottom it says "this is not a long job!" Uh oh. So Im about 15 minutes in and realizing whats going on which is obviously that my high end "landscape designer" and "builder" on this property are the home owners and very full of it. Am I smart enough to just cut my losses and leave now? Nope! So I throw these things in the ground FAST cause I know Im wasting my time here. About 450-500 of them which was supposed to be less than 200. Just to confirm the obvious I Talked to the "builder" a little bit. Asked him if he had a wheel barrow I could use. He goes to get and says "but I think it has a flat tire" Goes in the house, and into the coat rack and grabs a hand pump like he owns the place duuuuhh;)
So I did get a great laugh, and good story out of it but Im waiting for the call on how wrong the job was. She did send me an e mail, she was good with the work but she says, "the builder told me you were there for 2 1/4 hours, I knew it would be a short job! So I bet it will cost less than you though" :dizzy: You cant make this stuff up. Then she told me about all the other thing around the property that she needs prices for the client on. Taking down a shed, brush hogging, etc.
Told her Im booked for the rest of the year!
Can anyone top this BS factor of a customer?
So I did get a great laugh, and good story out of it but Im waiting for the call on how wrong the job was. She did send me an e mail, she was good with the work but she says, "the builder told me you were there for 2 1/4 hours, I knew it would be a short job! So I bet it will cost less than you though" :dizzy: You cant make this stuff up. Then she told me about all the other thing around the property that she needs prices for the client on. Taking down a shed, brush hogging, etc.
Told her Im booked for the rest of the year!
Can anyone top this BS factor of a customer?