is this too much?

[JRS Landscaping]

i just finished a leaf cleanup today it took me 4 hours to do . i had about 10(give or take) yards of leaves to haul away. i gave the guy a price of 70$ per hour to do it ( me and a worker)and he agreed to it. then the guy calls me and tells me he coulda got other people to do it for less.
the final price came to be 280
i paid my worker 40 and it cost me 80 to get rid of the leaves
what you guys think?

[lawnwizards]

thats a low price but if he paid then its o.k. who gives a crap if he could have got someone to do it for cheaper. you told him your hourly rate and he accepted, end of story.

[ed2hess]

It takes a very naive person to pay by the hour to have leaves picked up....not many of those in my area.

[LawnScapers of Dayton]

Tell him next time he can use them.....

[DodgeTruckMan731]

Originally Posted by ed2hess

It takes a very naive person to pay by the hour to have leaves picked up....not many of those in my area.

How do you charge?

[fiveoboy01]

Originally Posted by JRS Landscaping

i just finished a leaf cleanup today it took me 4 hours to do . i had about 10(give or take) yards of leaves to haul away. i gave the guy a price of 70$ per hour to do it ( me and a worker)and he agreed to it. then the guy calls me and tells me he coulda got other people to do it for less.
the final price came to be 280
i paid my worker 40 and it cost me 80 to get rid of the leaves
what you guys think?

Perhaps he's full of it, and is trying to get you to lower the price. Don't do it.

So subtract your dump fee(that's what I'm assuming the 80 bucks is for).

200/4=50. 2 guys, that's 25/man hour. Way too low. I think you should have charged him at least 400 total, if not a bit more.

But that's all besides the point. This guy is a cheap facker. Do not budge on your price.

You DID make him sign an agreement before you started the work, right?

Right?

[justanotherlawnguy]

Thats why I will never give a customer an hourly price. I ONLY quote in total price.
Customers around here would laugh you away from the front door if you quoted them an hourly rate of $70/hr. Granted I make that and then some on nearly every job I do. Its just the customer does not need to know that.....

[Ed Ryder]

I hate doing leaves. I've always done it by the hour... because I am terrible at guessing the time required for leaves.

[Roger]

Many posts on LS speak about "no hourly, ... just total price." The reason given is the customer will not like an hourly rate.

For whatever reason, this thinking implies the customer cannot do the math themselves, "... let's see, ... $x for the job, ... they (he/she) were here xx hours, ... their rate is about $x/hr ...." I doubt very many customers are unable to do the math, and nobody is being fooled.

I always quote an hourly rate, and nobody ever pushes back. As part of the quotation, I include an explanation of "never know what will be here when I arrive." The customer understands (in most cases) that sometimes the wind blows many leaves away, and they are not being stuck paying for work that is not needed.

In ten years, I have had only one person ask a question when he got his invoice, "Your charges for leaf work this season are more than last year." The previous season had much different weather conditions and he benefited from less work needed to get the job done.

To head off the next question (as one post asks above), no, nobody ever signs a contract before starting the work.

[noseha]

Originally Posted by lawnwizards

thats a low price but if he paid then its o.k. who gives a crap if he could have got someone to do it for cheaper. you told him your hourly rate and he accepted, end of story.

don't go back next year. you should charge more. what do you have for equipment?