Be sure and grab your ankles when trying to be nice to someone

This is just a rant - AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!

A sweet old lady, who is a friend and lives about 18 miles from me was having problems getting the guy who mows her yard/field (3/4 acre, lots of bumps-holes-etc) so I opened my big mouth and said I'll come out and take care of it. It's about 3-4 hours work plus an hour or so drive time. I charged her $30 to cover my costs. Nice, right? Not to mention all of the times before this that I went out and shoveled a yard of dirt, cut down trees, did whatever she needed. I guess she liked the price because she talked me into mowing it a couple more times (I guess her regular guy was happy to be out of the loop by now). So finally I told her last night that I wouldn't be able to do it anymore because her field was beating the hell out of my SCAG wb.

Today I got a mildly angry message on my phone saying how I "put her in a spot" by not showing up today. Am I missing something? Geez... I'm about to lose a good friend all because I tried to help out once.

What a shame - and it ONLY happens when I try to be a good sam!

Please, feel free to add to this RANT!

 

No good dead goes unpunished!!

Good luck

 

LOL; that's about right

 

oops! DEED (spell check stopped working)

 

I think I am letting this get to me more than I should...

Every time I see LOL I'm thinkin' LITTLE OLD LADIES!

 

I had a similar situation happen this weekend I tried to be nice to some long time friends of the family. They hadn't maintained their landscaping in SEVERAL years. Long enough to allow a 35 foot tall tree / weed to grow next to their home. My normal rate for this type of work is $60 per man hour. I told them $25 per man hour because they don't have a lot of money to spend. The bill came out to be $900. I recieved $600. NOT happy at all.

 

u r not kidding, nice guys DO finish last. uncle joe asked about some landscaping for his house. i explained that i would not do business with him, however, i would do the job at cost. he insisted on paying, i said no way, just cost. well, uncle joe knows his way to the bar, the racetrack, the casino, but cant seem to remember where the hose is. we lost 5 shrubs. uncle joe wants them replaced, on me. i say sorry uncle joe, it aint happenin. we are not enemies over it, but it definitely has tainted our relationship. u cannot win doing business or even favors for relatives or friends. or even doing things cheap for that matter. i do have some lol that i do at a discount, u think i should know better, but i cant help but feel for the old geisers

 

Finished mowing a chuch yard because other guy quit when it got hot weather. Over the winter talked to lady in charge of yard. She wanted about 5-6 hours tractor work bushhoging and blade work, about 4 hours tree trimming, and alot of other work to be done over the winter. she said she was going to get me to mow the yard the following year because I came on time and was very resonable, I said since this would be a regular account and a church I would do all tractor workfor $30 an hour, chainsaw $20 and other handyman work $15.

Went out to start cleanup about february and another landscaper drove up and started looking around. He started talking to me and said the lady had called him wanting an estimate for mowing? I proceded to load tractor up and go to another job. called her, about signing a contract, she said another guy offered to mow for 10 dollars a week less than me (that was his bid). Told her the prices i had given were for doing the entire job not part.

she proceded to fly off on me you said you would do it for x amount of dollars! I responed that was for the whole job, and she would need to get the new guy to do the work. she started getting louder, he doesnt have a tractor or chainsaw! I reminded her he was 10 dollars cheaper on a $150 dollar yard. she informed me it had to be done by easter. I told her the only way i could do it was if had spare time after my weekly accounts were ready for the summer. She said well forget, and slammed phone down.

Moral: get a contract on anything that involves details.
be prepared to be lied to by anybody
learn to tell quicker stories (fingers are tired!)

p.s. by the way, come easter the yard hadnt even been mowed. And some people bring push mowers and weedeaters do do there familys graves, thats bad.

 

Been down the paths your all describing. Haven't been down those paths in a very long time

 

You mean she didn't needle you for the "Christian Discount?"