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Keeps getting under my skin deeper & deeper

5K views 33 replies 23 participants last post by  Tyner Lawn Service 
#1 ·
Ever been at a point where certain senarios just get under your skin worse and worse every time you are confronted with them?

Well boys, I'm here to tell ya, I'm afraid I'm long gone on this issue by now.
Heck I'm not even sure of what's gonna come out of my mouth as a response anymore...

Anyways, here's the deal. I was doing a rather ugly leaf cleanups in one of my areas today. Jobs I would have rather not done, but I really hated to let them get covered in snow and ice tommorrow.

The jobs came out really well, but they were not spicn-span like I prefer to leave them on the last visit... Due to weird fall conditions this year, these jobs have been troublesome to do and now the still have loose ends that need doing, but not enough that all the customers are going to pay extra again to have me come out to make things spotless.

I have some though where I will be out to do this as well as several other neglected little tasks the customers are finally getting around to wanting to pay for. So, I was talking with this one customer (whom I like a whole lot) when I finished up. Just having a general all around discussion of these things.... as I was again cutting him a good deal on the service I had provided.

When he found out I was going to be right next door at a later date over the winter, he asked for a quote to have some shrubs trimmed. So we looked them over and made small talk. I talked about the plants and he talked about how he had bought electric trimmers some time ago to keep them up himself.

These were three large 6 ft ball shrubs. So I was thinking about doing a minimal 'shaping' trim... the fact I was going to be right next door... the fact it would be at my leisure in the dead of winter... and how pleasant a customer he is... and so forth.

I consider that the trimmings will be prickly, but still I figure a tarp and some time.
I think oh, what the heck.... $10 a piece.... $30.
Nah... he's a good ol guy and I don't have to haul the trimmings off-site...

"Oh, I wouldn't charge you but $25-$30 to take care of those for you when I come back out"... is what came out of my mouth.

He quickly followed with a sincere expression and said "that's way to much."
I could tell he sincerely though I was quoting a rip-off price.

I was so surprised by it I didn't say anything.

I guess the silence got the best of him and he broke it saying something about that's why he just bought those electric clippers because he had that one guy come out that time to trim them and he charged so much.

Finally my mouth opened up. My brain caught what my mouth was going to say, and apparently if took everything I had to keep from saying "you gotta be freakin' kiddin' me" because what ended up saying it not so many words was do it yourself. Then I said my farewells and was on my way.

Here it is now after midnight and this is still crawling up and down my spine.

Things like this shouldn't bother me. But anymore, they do. I guess I've worn thin to it and it gets under my skin and stays there a while. It's not that I'm mad at the customer at all. He has been a good one and really I could care less one way or the other about the job. I didn't really want to fool with it for that little anyways. Actually I felt more that I would be doing the customer a nice favor.

Needless to say I was floored when I got a response that was opposite of what I had expected. So I am not angry at the customer or mad about the fact I didn't get the job. What I'm ticked off about is the business environment responsible for the fact this was a sincere opinion.

Unreal.
 
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#2 ·
I feel your pain.

I had a regular customer ask me to trim some overgrown shrub growing on the corner of her house. I put it off all summer, kept telling her I would get to it. She pays good for what I do but any extras.........she really trys to stick it to me. The other day I went over with the chainsaw. I told her the easiest way to handle these things was to cut them down to 3-4' off the ground and let them come back where we could keep them under control. She agreed and I cut and hauled the debris to the curb. Took all of 20 minutes, I even went to the other corner and cut another one down. Had I bid this for a non-regular customer I would have charged 50-60 bucks. When she asked how much, I told her .........ahhhhhhhhhh..........30 bucks. She thought (just as I suspected) that was too much. She had alread made the check out for $20.00 more for the work I just did. I knew this was coming so I told her I would trade for the swing that was sitting in her back yard (nice swing). She said she paid $100.00 for the swing and kind of brushed me off. I chalked it up to another loss but figured I'd make it up down the road like I always have with her. Later that week she told me to come get the swing......said I would get more use out of it than she would!!!

I did.

I think she must have given some thought to the extra shrubs and figured she short changed me quite a bit.

It's funny how some regular customers think any extras should be given to them when the same work down the road will net you a decent $$$$.
 
#3 ·
The one that bugged me was a regular customer that wanted a variety of things done over the winter. I had told him I could give him a better price in the dead of winter. So I meet with him one day in Jan., I figured it would take me 3 days max to do all the work. He said he was 'working on a budget', and would I mind if he bought all the materials himself and had them delivered. I figured, no problem, not much else going on in January.

I told him around 700 and some dollars for materials, roughly. He took out his calculator, started punching the buttons, and smiled and said "Eight-thirty-four" I asked him what that was...he said "My budget is $1,000...after expenses, and assuming you work 3, 8 hour days, that comes out to $8.34 an hour for you"

I just stared at him...I mean, I figured he HAD to be kidding. Then to add insult to injury, he said "Well, you could make more per hour if you get it done faster..."

After staring (glaring) at him some more, he finally said "Uhh...I...take it...that's not good??? How much DO you charge per hour???"

It hurt at the time, but I get a chuckle now when I think about it.
 
#4 ·
Try not to worry about it Envy. Customers will never cease to amaze us. I had a very good customer do the same thing recently. Last cut of the year she wanted be to trim a bush on the side of her house. I explained to her that I charge $45 per hour 1st hour when do trim work with a one hour minimum, but since she was such a good customer I would do it for less. She said that sounds great. When I told that I was only going to charge her $25 she stated that it only took me 10-20 minutes tops. She could not understand. Also, had a customer recently call me for a leaf removal. They asked for the estimate in October. They call me like to days ago, and we have since had snow(looks like we are getting more). I say this simply to go back to my original point. Customers will be customers and they never will cease to amaze us.
 
#5 ·
gee mate i just dont know which of my experiences to tell you but needless to say i no how you feel.its just wierd,sometimes im in the mood or have the time to give a sweetheart deal and then to have in turned down in no uncertain terms

its a crazy mixed up world

it just doesnt happen anymore
 
#6 ·
Just another case in point about my theory of being in this business " I cut their lawns for free and charge money to deal with people" One of the things that keeps me going yr after yr. is the sport of dealing with people. I find that at the end of the season they ALL seem to want to be done paying and are thinking about the expence of Christmas. Even good customers get cheap this time of year. If I am going to raise their leaf cleanup price I tell them while I am still cutting grass in Oct. this post combined with another post tells me you are ready for the season to end. Your ready to hibernate for the winter . Spring will come and you'll emerge from your cave and be hungry again . It happens to me every year. Just recognizing it and knowing my attitude will change with the season is enough to give me piece of mind that this business is still for me.
 
#7 ·
When people do this I say ma'am or sir this is what we charge, take it or leave it! in a nicer way of course.

It gets me when people think 30 40 or even a $100 bucks will make a differnece to me over the winter, regardless i'll live like a king over the winter, and come back in the Spring bigger and better than ever.
 
#8 ·
Envy,
Are you sure he didn't interpret that to mean 25 or 30 bucks each? ( thats what the going rate is with a lot of guys)
you say he said the other guy was so expensive, and you are totally reasonable on that price, it makes me think he thought you ment each.
Just a thought..
 
#9 ·
What 8.34 not enough? Have a customer that years ago wanted a bunch of extras done at 10 an hour. Usually don't but let her know what my operating costs are. Uncle Sam is going to get his 2.50, the equipment is going to get its 6 dollars, trash bags are going to run me another two bucks and still haven't paid for liscensing, insurance, paperwork. So if I drop off my employee who costs me 15 an hour I could come back and pay you 2 an hour to work. How about I just stay home and send you a 12 dollar check.
 
#10 ·
Same thing happens to all of us at some point. Some people just don't get it and never will.

Most work for other people. They all have the thought process that everything the owner bills for their time is all profit. They don't understand expenses and the cost of operating a business. That is why they work for someone else.

Oh, next time you will know to quote that at $75-$100 bucks. Its better to be turned down for higher prices than a few dollars.
 
#11 ·
65hoss said:
Most work for other people. They all have the thought process that everything the owner bills for their time is all profit. They don't understand expenses and the cost of operating a business. That is why they work for someone else.
I agree. I think they come up with an hourly wage in their mind that a normal employee gets and want to stick with that. They don't understand the costs and overhead involved. I get this all the time when it comes to snow clearing. How anyone can expect me to do that miserable work for $10 like little joey down the street baffles me.
 
#12 ·
I did a mowing qoute for a lady this spring. She lived three houses down from two other full service clients on the same street. She wanted mowing and trimming only, nothing else..Normally, I would have charged $ 35.00 for her lawn , but told her $ 32.50 if she signed for the season . She had a vacant look for a second, and said that it was too high. I thanked her and started to leave, and she said "the company doing it now charges $ 36.00 per week, and that's too much. You'll bring in those big mowers and be done with my lawn in 10 minutes." I said probably so, but those big mowers cost big $$" She said she thought with bigger mowers someone should be able to do her lawn for $ 15-20.00..
 
#13 ·
jeffex said:
Just another case in point about my theory of being in this business " I cut their lawns for free and charge money to deal with people" One of the things that keeps me going yr after yr. is the sport of dealing with people.
This is very true. I am starting to lean toward this philosophy more and more. I used to look at a job and say 10 minutes for this, plus 5 for that, plus 5 = 20 minutes = $x. Well now I also have to add standard customer implied hassle surcharge + (if applicable) PITA customer surcharge. The surcharges are starting to add up to more than the work rate.
 
#14 ·
Envy, I lost a customer due to a similar issue. The persons attitude really pissed me off (but I was actually glad to be rid of the customer).

The situation was I reluctantly agreed to fix her telephone line (being the handyman that they all think I am). It had been cut somehow so I spliced it together for her. Had to crawl under her house, spiderwebs, humidity etc. Finish up and she asks how much? I say $30 (took me about 1.5 hours). I thought I was giving her quite a deal. She got indignate, said I was only there for half an hour. Said it takes her half a day to make that much money. I felt like saying "why didn't you do it yourself then?". Then (here's the kicker) she confirms that I was giving her a good deal by saying, "the phone company would've done it for $45", but for some reason she is pissed that I wanted $30? I'm thinking " i saved you $15 and your pissed a me? WTF?" She paid me but I never heard back from her again, lost the mowing. My first lesson was to drop the handyman gig, even though I never solicited it to begin with. The other is, don't give a good price to penny pinchers because they won't necessarily see it as a good price, tell them the price and if they don't like it tell them to call around or do it themselves (in a nice way).
 
#15 ·
Remsen1 said:
Envy, I lost a customer due to a similar issue. The persons attitude really pissed me off (but I was actually glad to be rid of the customer).

The situation was I reluctantly agreed to fix her telephone line (being the handyman that they all think I am). It had been cut somehow so I spliced it together for her. Had to crawl under her house, spiderwebs, humidity etc. Finish up and she asks how much? I say $30 (took me about 1.5 hours). I thought I was giving her quite a deal. She got indignate, said I was only there for half an hour. Said it takes her half a day to make that much money. I felt like saying "why didn't you do it yourself then?". Then (here's the kicker) she confirms that I was giving her a good deal by saying, "the phone company would've done it for $45", but for some reason she is pissed that I wanted $30? I'm thinking " i saved you $15 and your pissed a me? WTF?" She paid me but I never heard back from her again, lost the mowing. My first lesson was to drop the handyman gig, even though I never solicited it to begin with. The other is, don't give a good price to penny pinchers because they won't necessarily see it as a good price, tell them the price and if they don't like it tell them to call around or do it themselves (in a nice way).
I don't remember who it was that said this, I think it was Rod father,
best response to a price complainer- "well, I'm sorry to hear you can't afford our service, have a good day." I love it!!
 
#16 ·
Trinity, do you have three people in your business. lol.

I have an old lady who and give her a deal to begin with. Well her neighbor has a piece of grass that sticks over on his driveway and needed edging. I told her I would charge since it was soooo bad. She got mad and said I'm going loose my job if I charge her for it. It's not even her side. That's his responsibility. I saw the guy and told hime about it and he said he would egde his side. Whooo saved that one.
 
#17 ·
Another mowing customer, I gave her an estimate for mulch for $500. She says "I will assume most of that is for the cost of the mulch..." She was thinking the mulch would cost me $400 or so, then I would be happy with what was leftover from the remaining $100 after paying taxes and expenses :dizzy:

I'll have to remember Rod's line. I just told her "You can assume what you like, it's a $500 job". Like she didn't mind paying $500...so long as I didn't actually make any profit...
 
#18 ·
HOOLIE said:
Another mowing customer, I gave her an estimate for mulch for $500. She says "I will assume most of that is for the cost of the mulch..." She was thinking the mulch would cost me $400 or so, then I would be happy with what was leftover from the remaining $100 after paying taxes and expenses :dizzy:

I'll have to remember Rod's line. I just told her "You can assume what you like, it's a $500 job". Like she didn't mind paying $500...so long as I didn't actually make any profit...
I kinda feel like that statement to a complainer is about the same as a kick right where it counts, that hurts the ego.
 
#19 ·
Not to offend but all of these things are things they can do for themselves. It might not look great but anyone can cut grass or trim shrubs. People don't respect you for being good at sometrhing they can do. I have heard the same things over and over for labor jobs, If you offer services they know nothing about they give you more respect and don't mind paying for a good job. You rarely see homeowners doing irrigation, electric work laying their own carpet. Treat you customers well but talk just enough over their heads to make them realize you know what your doing and they don't know crap.
 
#20 ·
Duck Dodger said:
Not to offend but all of these things are things they can do for themselves. It might not look great but anyone can cut grass or trim shrubs. People don't respect you for being good at sometrhing they can do. I have heard the same things over and over for labor jobs, If you offer services they know nothing about they give you more respect and don't mind paying for a good job. You rarely see homeowners doing irrigation, electric work laying their own carpet. Treat you customers well but talk just enough over their heads to make them realize you know what your doing and they don't know crap.
They think they can do it themselves, but then they realize that they are too lazy, or are no longer able. The latter are the biggest pains in the azz cause lots of times their screwy recolection is that the job was much easier that it really was.

That is why I employ the do it yourself or call somebody else policy.
 
#22 ·
Duck Dodger said:
Not to offend but all of these things are things they can do for themselves. It might not look great but anyone can cut grass or trim shrubs. People don't respect you for being good at sometrhing they can do. I have heard the same things over and over for labor jobs, If you offer services they know nothing about they give you more respect and don't mind paying for a good job. You rarely see homeowners doing irrigation, electric work laying their own carpet. Treat you customers well but talk just enough over their heads to make them realize you know what your doing and they don't know crap.
If its all things they can do themselves then why ask me? I really could care less about hedge & bush trimming, thats all the less use I put on my trimmer and my prunner. I say feel free to go buy the equipment and do it then.
I hate shubs, trim it then clean up the mess, My arms don't like it anymore, (tendon problems) If I'm gonna do trimming I'm gonna make money doing it. I bet even if these are things they can do themselves that their arms won't handle it enough years to pay for the equipment they need for the job.
 
#23 ·
PremierLandscaping said:
I wouldnt worry about it. Last year I used to worry about crap like that. But this year I dont take stuff personal anymore. It causes way to much stress and anxiety if you do take it personal.
Yeah, that's just it. I'm to the point that most things I don't take personal anymore... including this situation.

I'm not mad at the customer and I'm not crying over the lost job certainly.

What I'm ticked off about is market conditions that are in place out there that make the customer have a sincere feeling that my charity price was way overpriced.

My guess is that the guy had been used to getting all 3 of these monster things done for $10-$15 up until a year or so ago. Probably the one guy quit doing it anymore, he called someone else who came and did the work. Once finished he asked for more than expected, but obviously less than $25-$30.
 
#24 ·
stumper1620 said:
Envy,
Are you sure he didn't interpret that to mean 25 or 30 bucks each? ( thats what the going rate is with a lot of guys)
you say he said the other guy was so expensive, and you are totally reasonable on that price, it makes me think he thought you ment each.
Just a thought..
No, this guy knew I quoted the price for the whole job.

However, this does not mean that you haven't provided me with the perfect excuse to call him just to discuss it a little more. I might just do that to see how much info I might be able to pump out of him. I'd like to know what he has been lead to believe is a fair price to have the job done. I'm guessing $10 or something.

To be honest with you though, when I came home, I was discussing this with my wife, and I thought she would have a cow thinking I offered to trim them for only $25-$30 EACH... because she knew the size of them and the fact I charge more for the big stuff, the overgrown stuff, and the prickly stuff... and these shrubs were all three.

When I told her "no... you won't believe this, but that's what I quoted to do them all and he said that." She was as blown away as I was.

To be honest, if those were mine, I'd GLADY pay someone $30 plus a nice tip to trim them.... even though I do this stuff for a living.
 
#25 ·
Envy Lawn Service said:
No, this guy knew I quoted the price for the whole job.

However, this does not mean that you haven't provided me with the perfect excuse to call him just to discuss it a little more. I might just do that to see how much info I might be able to pump out of him. I'd like to know what he has been lead to believe is a fair price to have the job done. I'm guessing $10 or something.

To be honest with you though, when I came home, I was discussing this with my wife, and I thought she would have a cow thinking I offered to trim them for only $25-$30 EACH... because she knew the size of them and the fact I charge more for the big stuff, the overgrown stuff, and the prickly stuff... and these shrubs were all three.

When I told her "no... you won't believe this, but that's what I quoted to do them all and he said that." She was as blown away as I was.

To be honest, if those were mine, I'd GLADY pay someone $30 plus a nice tip to trim them.... even though I do this stuff for a living.
I hear ya Envy,
I hate big and thorny bushes, ah heck i hate trimming bushes, but I do it anyway, for regulars I give decent deals, like your offer, on anybody else, it will cost them.
 
#26 ·
Envy, I know where you are coming from. I took on this little old lady's yard because,#1. she was a family friend who had helped me and my family out tight spot long ago between jobs. 2. a fellow church member who I just plain wanted to help out #3. it was across the street from where I was already doing 2 yards. I charged her $20 as a token amount because she would not "stand for me doing it for free" she said before I started. Before I got through,her next door neighbor came over and we started a conversation. She had told me that he had been doing her yard for 2 years prior. I said "well, John, I sure hope I'm not taking away a sideline job of yours. If there is any problem with me doing it I will talk with her and you can continue doing it"." How much was she paying you John?" John said with a grin,"ah she wasn't paying me anything, but I was getting those cheap trash bags from "Lowes" so it didn't cost me very much to do it".

That was 3 years ago, and each time I go to mow it, I just know old John is looking out his window with a big grin on his face.

She has told me several times that she has prayed for me to find a better paying job. She does not realize that this is what I have chosen to do in my retirement, and I guess she doesn't realize that she could help answer that prayer. But, honestly, I can say that I have enjoyed being able to repay a debt to her many times over.
 
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