Homeowners are Cheap!!

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by orangemower

I'm with the other guy. You adding 50% to a bill would yield a customer looking for a new lawnboy.

yeah I'd be looking for someone new myself.

[Big Wes]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

yeah I'd be looking for someone new myself.

What ever, I don't need clients like that and to lose 1 or 2 boneheads won't make any difference to my business. Ya'll act as if I was talking about 50 customers that are going to get charged extra, I'm only refering to 1 or 2 and if I lose or drop 1 or 2 it's no big deal, it's more of a blessing.

Stay in business long enough and maybe you'll catch on someday on how to handle/spot the jerks and ya'll know what type of clients I'm talking about , I bet everyone of you have one or two you wish you never picked up as a customer. I'm just weeding that type out is all.

Have a nice day!

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by Big Wes

What ever, I don't need clients like that and to lose 1 or 2 boneheads won't make any difference to my business. Ya'll act as if I was talking about 50 customers that are going to get charged extra, I'm only refering to 1 or 2 and if I lose or drop 1 or 2 it's no big deal, it's more of a blessing.

Stay in business long enough and maybe you'll catch on someday on how to handle/spot the jerks and ya'll know what type of clients I'm talking about , I bet everyone of you have one or two you wish you never picked up as a customer. I'm just weeding that type out is all.

Have a nice day!

I'm speaking for myself of course but I don't weed people out of my business, ever.

the only ones I drop are the ones that don't pay. I don't consider any client except the no payers a pita or jerks as your calling them.

[Durabird02]

Originally Posted by sms8921

Yes Tom W. got it correct. I quoted them say 30.00 for a weekly service. The property has not been serviced weekly for 4 weeks. I did not quote them 30.00 1 cut a month. To YardGuy the front property was not a breeze. I mowed it at my normal speed, I did not fly through cause I was only cutting .5" off. So the back being way taller than normal actually made the job longer. The part that took longer trimming was the weeds that were along all the plastic bed edging and walks and driveway. Growing onto the driveway and up over the edging into the landscaping rocks. To do a nice job it took me longer this week than normal. Im not crying either....I posted to see if others deal with this alot in their area or not. More like venting and maybe pulling in some ideas. It's funny, I am just trying to be fair to the client and I felt like I was. After all we are in the business of dealing with people, being friendly and providing a service. I do have to say alot of peoples "suck it up, deal with it and cry about it" attitudes on here towards others have me feeling bad for the clients they deal with on a weekly basis...

If you chose to skip these yards, you could have trimmed the weeks you skipped mowing and could have charged them the $5 for trimming rather than charging them $5 extra for a regular mowing. It is up to you to maintain the weeds and keep them from growing in to the beds and in to the rocks. I think this would have been a better approach rather than skipping it for weeks and then charging them extra because you skipped it.

[jmr930]

I understand the problem. I quoted a price based on one cut every 2 weeks. In the middle of July , customer calls and wants to know if we can skip the rest of July because she is going to be on vacation and wants to save some money. So only one cut the first part of July. I went back on Aug. 2. It had been 3 weeks and 5 days between cuts. Of course I had to work harder to make it look nice. Customer offered to pay no more. I didn't press the issue , but I was not overly excited about it. Granted lady is on disability and money is tight for her.

[BestImpressions99]

SMS... maybe it's a northen thing (southern hospitality is all I'm meaning) but I've never had to detail out for my clients anything such as weekly up until here, then every 10 days here, then back to weekly here. We just explain to them up front how during times of the year due to over growth or not enough growth there you will adjust the mowing schedule. Again, not sure if it's the way you bid and put everything in writing or what but if you put it in writing, YES it will hold them to the fire, but it can also hold you to the fire too. Just a thought.

[sms8921]

Thanks guys appreciate all your input!!