Hi guys, I don't know if there's another thread about this or not, but I figure there has to be some pretty funny customer complaint stories out there. I've been in the biz about 10 years and have had some where it's all I can do to keep from busting out laughing. A few years ago I had one customer come out and stop me while mowing accusing me of having dull blades and leaving a sh*tty cut because my mower was leaving these stripes in their yard and it looked "just like a baseball field." (since a baseball field is the epitome of poor lawn maintenance.....). They went on to ask if there was a way I could remove the stripes from the yard! Trying to accommodate I went over the stripes in the opposite direction and promptly quit. What do you guys have?
yep, had a woman tell me that i must have put the dandelions in her yard cause she never had them in the past. tried to tell her that 1. you had me stop fert and weed control 2 years ago cause you couldnt afford it and 2. the vacant lot to the west of you is covered with them and every time the wind blows were do you think the seeds go.
nope not good enough i had to put them there so i could charge more to come and spray.
Years ago I got fired by an older lady that insisted on fertilizing her own lawn with a drop spreader. She would stripe the hell out her yard when she fertilized. 2 or 3 days after mowing the lawn, the striped parts that got fertilized would grow way faster than the rest of the lawn, she canned me saying I was only mowing half the lawn!:hammerhead:
this old lady and i mean REALLY old lady dropped me last week because my mower scares her dog... and my walk behind is no louder than any other walk behind ive heard.
hahaha oh man that's bad, I've found dogs to be a very sensitive subject to most of my customers. I had a lady fire me because I left a note on her door asking her to call me when she had a chance to pick up the dog poo in the back yard. The yard was absolutely disgusting, she called me about 2 hrs later and reamed me and told me not to come back...I guess I was supposed to be upset...
hahaha oh man that's bad, I've found dogs to be a very sensitive subject to most of my customers. I had a lady fire me because I left a note on her door asking her to call me when she had a chance to pick up the dog poo in the back yard. The yard was absolutely disgusting, she called me about 2 hrs later and reamed me and told me not to come back...I guess I was supposed to be upset...
I had the best one last week but not about my service. My 94 year old lady that loves to talk wanted me to go downstairs to check the knob that broke on her washer. When i went downstairs to look I heard a beeping noise every minute. The week before she had complained about a cricket in her basement keeping her up and that she had her nephew bomb the basement but its still alive cause she still hears it. She wanted me to clean up some items around her basement windows and AC to keep "crickets" from wanting to get in. So as I'm down in the basement I ask her if she has a smoke detector and she says no. It did it again and I turned around and sure enough hanging in the ceiling was a smoke detector with a dead battery. I told her she should stop hearing it now, but she still insisted she had a cricket. I finished mowing and then got a pair of pliers to help her start her load of laundry and she did say the noise had stopped, but then showed me plastic container that she had put a dead "cricket" in a few days prior that she was saving to show her nephew who bombed. In the plastic container, a shrivled up white flower from a weed in the yard that you would find most typically in clover. I just smiled and nodded and said, yep you got him.
1) Pulled up to a customer's house, got out of the truck and heard what sounded like a tornado alarm or something just blaring, mind you I'm about 50' from the house. I knock, ring the doorbell, beat on the door, about to break in thinking she's dead (old lady) she swings the door open and starts yelling at me. she says "what's that noise?!!!! I don't know where it's coming from. etc. etc.. I start going around the house, upstairs, downstairs, it's echoing around sounds like it's coming from everywhere. Neighbors are coming over, she says she's going to call 911. I'm telling you this is the loudest noise you have heard. I go up to her husbands bedroom who just got put in a home and his damn alarm was going off, at 4:00 in the afternoon. She had JUST put him in a home and apparently he set his alarm. The volume was up all the way and it was some sort of high dollar Bose or something like that. I'm telling you with the front door open you could hear it a block down the street.
2.) Told a lady the other day she had to have the kids go inside when I was mowing for safety reasons. She said she liked to have them watch me work so they could see why they needed to work hard at school and have goals when they got older so they wouldn't have to do this type of stuff........Part of me couldn't believe she said it, and the other part of me couldn't wait to tell somebody about it.
Had a lady ask me to round up along her back fence then 2 weeks later wanted to know why i wasnt weedeating that area any more ........ cuz its dirt lady!! Same lady was upset my grass was sticking to the side of her house ........ it was cobwebs! lol Yes she was 88 years old !! gotta love that $40 check in the mailbox every Friday though .....Money Talks louder than she does lol
1) Pulled up to a customer's house, got out of the truck and heard what sounded like a tornado alarm or something just blaring, mind you I'm about 50' from the house. I knock, ring the doorbell, beat on the door, about to break in thinking she's dead (old lady) she swings the door open and starts yelling at me. she says "what's that noise?!!!! I don't know where it's coming from. etc. etc.. I start going around the house, upstairs, downstairs, it's echoing around sounds like it's coming from everywhere. Neighbors are coming over, she says she's going to call 911. I'm telling you this is the loudest noise you have heard. I go up to her husbands bedroom who just got put in a home and his damn alarm was going off, at 4:00 in the afternoon. She had JUST put him in a home and apparently he set his alarm. The volume was up all the way and it was some sort of high dollar Bose or something like that. I'm telling you with the front door open you could hear it a block down the street.
2.) Told a lady the other day she had to have the kids go inside when I was mowing for safety reasons. She said she liked to have them watch me work so they could see why they needed to work hard at school and have goals when they got older so they wouldn't have to do this type of stuff........Part of me couldn't believe she said it, and the other part of me couldn't wait to tell somebody about it.
back a few years from age 5 to 9 i would watch the guys cut our lawn because i loved the stuff, they guy would even let me ride on the sulky with him. i loved it. he even let me do it once by myself and i was like OH YA. but now i do it so i get to live the life every year.
These are great I only had one. This guy calls me up prolly 2 or 3 weeks ago to do the grass. First time it was cut all year, needless to say grass was over 3 ft in back and about foot in front. Mowed and bagged front went around back not knowing thats how high it was first reaction was holy sh*t! I can't get mower back there so fire up weed wacker n trim it all. He calls me later saying I never cut it. So I went back over to explain that I can't get my mower back here to cut it. Ended up having the grass clippings all over his back yard.
i just started this business 9 months ago and my advice is to advertise in your local papers place flyers in grocery stores hair salons quickie marts pizza joints laundrymats ect. i have around 60 accounts i keep the good ones and lose the bad ones i work 15 hours a day and i kick butt by keeping up with maintenance being prepared and using my time and money wisely always improve yourself your equipment your time your handling of the lawns and customers and you will succeed # 1 advertise constantly to so you will be able to only have good customers and easy lawns and let the bad customers be someone else's problem.
i would pull up to her house on my off day in my porsche and inform her that my jaguar is in the shop and if she was so inclined to do so i would teach her kids about running a business.
i just started this business 9 months ago and my advice is to advertise in your local papers place flyers in grocery stores hair salons quickie marts pizza joints laundrymats ect. i have around 60 accounts i keep the good ones and lose the bad ones i work 15 hours a day and i kick butt by keeping up with maintenance being prepared and using my time and money wisely always improve yourself your equipment your time your handling of the lawns and customers and you will succeed # 1 advertise constantly to so you will be able to only have good customers and easy lawns and let the bad customers be someone else's problem.
Thanks a lot...that was very helpful. What type of equipment should I buy? How much is advertising? Its good to finally get someone with a little insight and a head for business on this site. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
i bought an ariens zoom 34 after reading internet reviews it's easy to transport,maintain,cuts well,and gets into alot of tight spaces and backyards that bigger o turns can't pass through.trimmer is an echo pas230.i bught it because it has the ability to add 13 different attachments like a pole cutter and hedge trimmer this machine will save time and money as well as allow you to add extra attachments for various jobs which will make you more money.advertise in your local paper have it read yards starting at $15 that will get people to call and obviously when you give them an estimate if their yard is worth more you charge them accordingly i cut yards up to $70 from this ad it also doesnt hurt to add exrerienced references and insured shop around through american family insurance i pay $31 a month place flyers in supermarkets laundrymats pizza shops quickie marts and use the samse technique yards starting at $15 i have @ 60 accounts and only cut 4 lawns for $15 and tey are very small success is easy as long as your willing to work your ass off stay positive and don't give up
i bought an ariens zoom 34 after reading internet reviews it's easy to transport,maintain,cuts well,and gets into alot of tight spaces and backyards that bigger o turns can't pass through.trimmer is an echo pas230.i bught it because it has the ability to add 13 different attachments like a pole cutter and hedge trimmer this machine will save time and money as well as allow you to add extra attachments for various jobs which will make you more money.advertise in your local paper have it read yards starting at $15 that will get people to call and obviously when you give them an estimate if their yard is worth more you charge them accordingly i cut yards up to $70 from this ad it also doesnt hurt to add exrerienced references and insured shop around through american family insurance i pay $31 a month place flyers in supermarkets laundrymats pizza shops quickie marts and use the samse technique yards starting at $15 i have @ 60 accounts and only cut 4 lawns for $15 and tey are very small success is easy as long as your willing to work your ass off stay positive and don't give up
Thanks a lot. I'm gonna look into an ariens zoom. Thats a good idea to say lawns starting at $15. Then when you get there you give them the real price. Im gonna stay positive.:waving::drinkup:
"I don't feel comfortable with you pruning with me or my husband not at home. What happens if you fall off the ladder. I don't even know if you have insurance."
"I understand. If I pulled up with a lettered truck, and 2 employees, and if my name was in the phone book, would you feel differently?"
"I don't feel comfortable with you pruning with me or my husband not at home. What happens if you fall off the ladder. I don't even know if you have insurance."
"I understand. If I pulled up with a lettered truck, and 2 employees, and if my name was in the phone book, would you feel differently?"
screw her. that means she pretty much called u because she thought she could get u for cheaper than a "company in the yellow pages!" haha whata joke. the yellow pages are a ripoff and nobody even uses them anymore. they just go online. i pay $2.99 a month to be advertised thru 100 different search engines including google+yahoo. my name pops up from anyone searching locally for a lanscaper. My advice would be to get rid of this customer. she obviously doesnt have the confidence in u or the respect u deserve.
I am hiring you because my last company left the gate open and my dog got out, then he drowned in the pond down the street
I had a lady tell me after I trimmed her bushes that they looked like poodles and that if she had wanted her bushes to look like poodles she would have called a mobile pet groomer and to never cut them that way again
the best one yet this year is I had a lady fire me because I was mowing too soon after her sprinklers watered and we were "stealing/bagging up all the water she had just paid for to water her lawn" Therefore I was really just making it more expensive to water the lawn. Old ladys crack me up
I've had some pretty good ones my favorite has to be the guy who explained to me last year that we had to stop aerating because his kid thought the aerator was one of the monsters from transformers and was going to change into a robot and kill us all not as much a complaint as it is hilarious
1) Pulled up to a customer's house, got out of the truck and heard what sounded like a tornado alarm or something just blaring, mind you I'm about 50' from the house. I knock, ring the doorbell, beat on the door, about to break in thinking she's dead (old lady) she swings the door open and starts yelling at me. she says "what's that noise?!!!! I don't know where it's coming from. etc. etc.. I start going around the house, upstairs, downstairs, it's echoing around sounds like it's coming from everywhere. Neighbors are coming over, she says she's going to call 911. I'm telling you this is the loudest noise you have heard. I go up to her husbands bedroom who just got put in a home and his damn alarm was going off, at 4:00 in the afternoon. She had JUST put him in a home and apparently he set his alarm. The volume was up all the way and it was some sort of high dollar Bose or something like that. I'm telling you with the front door open you could hear it a block down the street.
2.) Told a lady the other day she had to have the kids go inside when I was mowing for safety reasons. She said she liked to have them watch me work so they could see why they needed to work hard at school and have goals when they got older so they wouldn't have to do this type of stuff........Part of me couldn't believe she said it, and the other part of me couldn't wait to tell somebody about it.
I've had some pretty good ones my favorite has to be the guy who explained to me last year that we had to stop aerating because his kid thought the aerator was one of the monsters from transformers and was going to change into a robot and kill us all not as much a complaint as it is hilarious
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