The Green Industry's Resource Center

ProCare Lawn Service · #1 04-08-2005, 10:40 PM

Well to start it off I go into my regular job today (fire dept.) and check out the veihicle I am assigned, and in the process of checking it out I go to pull it out of the station and a f@#king rookie has left the door open on one of the ambulances parked beside it. Needless to say i nearly ripped the door off the the ambulance and scrathed the hell out of the fire truck.It was partly my fault b/c i did not do a walk around before pulling out.
If that wasnt bad enough i get a call from one of my partners that not one but two of my mowers are torn up.One has a busted gear box the other slung a rod.Well I go over to see whats going on (not far from the station, I took an ambulance) and when i get there I drive right over some freshly laid brick and screw up about $300 dollars worth of work. This area of the driveway was not marked off and you could not tell that any work had been there today no equipment sings or flagging.
needless to say today was a bad and costly day. Oh by the way I got my a$$ cussed out by the owner who also happens to be my biggest customer. Three props worth about $1500 a month.

ProCare Lawn Service · #2 04-08-2005, 10:58 PM

Anyone else have days like this?

Dstosh · #3 04-08-2005, 11:03 PM

Think about it this way..it can only get better tomorrow. Crap happens man..live and learn thats my theory.

LLandscaping · #4 04-08-2005, 11:06 PM

Sound like you had a rough and costly day. I had a day like that this past Wednesday, one mower broke down and we were backing the truck down our drive way and the cable rapped (we lock our equipment up when we are away from the truck) around our Toro 21 got wedged under the trailer tire bending the mower handle. Luckily we were able to bend the handle back in place and didnt have to replace it. Do you like your Scag Tiger Cub and your Cougar? We have two Scag Tiger Cubs both are 48/ 19hp kawasaki's. Hope you have a better day tomorrow and make a lot of money.

Brianj · #5 04-08-2005, 11:10 PM

yea bad days like that come around sometime like that, i had a bad day like that this week, my mower broke and my helpers cost me money by being slow and my battery went bad and almost exploded in the truck, it stunk the truck up with acid , but dont do what i did, come home with a bad attitude and take it out on wife, thats what did and i shouldnt have, i had to apologize the next day

ProCare Lawn Service · #6 04-08-2005, 11:18 PM

I love the cub but the cougar is a little shall we say "fragile".

StealthDT · #7 04-09-2005, 12:30 AM

How many disaster stories do you have time to read? Here's a short one....

I was in the topsoil sifting business with six single axel dumps. We had some pretty strict rules on dump truck ops, especially on private property. Anyway, rules are made to be broken or forgotten. This one rule was to get paid before entering the property or dumping. My driver backed up, dumped, left the truck running in neutral in the front yard without setting the brake while he collected the check. the next thing he heard was the mailbox getting run over. The truck crossed the street, went down a steep driveway, broke thru a brick wall at the end. It then rolled onto a wood deck over a 150' deep ravine. As soon as the bumper hit the rail, the deck collapsed and the truck crushed a gas grill under the deck. The right rear tire got hung on the last rail post of the steps 10' down the hill. That broken post is the only thing that saved me from calling in a helicopter to lift a totalled truck out our local grand canyon.

I got the call, went up there, the driver was a basketcase, and nobody was home at the house. So, theres nothing to do but start pulling wreakage out from under the truck. 'Bout that time the school bus drives up full of brats laughing and running for cameras. As i'm pulling pieces of gas grill out, the guy who owns the home drives up and starts walking over with a look of WTF???

He gets close enough to see what's happening and I say.....

"You're gonna LOVE your new gas grill"......

The driver fainted. Then I made him back that rig out between the houses and trees while stairing down into hell.

Todd's lawncare · #8 04-09-2005, 12:42 AM

i would have gave you mine . Got a call this ,morning my brother blew him self up today at work he will be ok but still.......................

AlpineNaturescapes · #9 04-09-2005, 12:46 AM

Not as bad as yours. My new mower developed a PTO Clutch issue last week. A repair I did to my 50" last year never really completely took, so today I try to tighten down the end cap of the hydro motor to spec, and one of the 4 bolts breaks - if this mower goes down, we have nothing to mow with but 21ers. No way with all our accounts. So we are using the old 50" with only 3 bolts on the R hydro - replacement is "several weeks out." This hydro has been consistently running a little slower than the left. Not exactly :blob3:

alpine692003 · #10 04-09-2005, 02:28 AM

Yep, I get days like that..

1) Customer calls from a commercial site, saying you need to do a better job cleaning up.. I was like uhh.. okay no problem..

2) Residential customer calls, saids I would like you to use a reel mower on my property.. I send out my guy and he said, uhm we dont use reel mowers and we dont specailize in lawn service..

So it looks like 2 customers are going to be dropped/fired soon..