Well, it happened to me. I have had a contract for the past 5 years. About two weeks ago, I got a call from the owner. He told me he sold the building, and that the new owner wanted me for plowing and grounds maintenance. He gave me the guys number, and said snow was forcasted, and that I was still expected to plow the job, only to bill the new owner. I called the new owner, who was glad to hear from me. Said he was going to call me to be sure that I'd be plowing for him too. It was a sunday night snow, and he wanted to be sure monday morning all was clear. I did it. Monday all was clear.<br>Thursday, it snows again. I head over to the job, plow it, and clear all the walks. I was pushing back some piles, when another contractor pulled in. I have seen him around before, from one town over. I had no idea why he pulled in, broke down? Someone I knew working for them? Well I found out soon enough. He introduced himeself as did I. He said the new owner signed a contract with him for year round grounds maint. efective Feb 1st. I plowed for the new owner on Jan 31st. He made no mention that he had someone from the next day on. Being the dependable contractor that I am, I had the job done, when "the other guy" got there. :>

<br>So he asks how much I was charging. I figured I could tell him since I lost the job. Seems he maintains other offices the new owner has. When I told him how much I charged, he said I was way too low. For 5 years I've had the contract, and it's always been a big earner, considering it's size. I have a feeling I may get the plowing back.<br>I mean it's a lot you can park about 30 cars in, with minimal lanes to get in and out. Not big at all. Took about 25 min on a typical storm, doing the walks myself, and applying salt with an AgriFab walk behind.<br>The salt cost me less than $15. My price was $200 with salt. Was I really that low? Over the 5 years I did it, I was getting year round work, inside the building, as well as grounds maint. I installed a sump pump, etc.<br>I can say with a new owner I would want to up the price a bit, but l;ike I said, I don't feel I was that low to start. A good deal, yes, lowball, no.<p>So what I'm getting at, is between the 31st of Jan, and Feb. 3rd, i recieved no calls to 2 different phone numbers, and no pages to my pager. This guy didn't take the time to tell me he hired someone else. A little different than your predicament Bill, but if I got there 1/2 an hour later, I'd be in your shoes.The new plow contractor fully understood what happened. We agreed that he was plowing it from now on. Luckily, I plowed or salted that lot 6 times this season, so I got the bulk of the income from it. Winters nearly over here. The sad thing is the grounds were due for a renovation this spring. <br>Now the kicker is tonight I get the check from the old owner. On the invioce he wrote to please contact him about repairing the fence in the spring. There was a fence that fell down during one of the snows, when we had high winds. Guess him fixing it is part of the sale. He said to bill him for it, not the new owner. Guess I'll be making money off the old owner still in the spring. Sorry for the rant, but I was going to post about what happened to me anyway, may as well be on this thread.<p>~Chuck<p>----------<br>Chuck's Chevy Truck Pages - Snowplowing Central<br>http://members.aol.com/csmith669/plowcentral.html<br>