I would follow up with the employee, along with the time that it happened.

And then follow up with the customer,
Be sure to take some pictures and measurements in case you do submit it to insurance.

And then make your determination you may lose a client, but that’s usually better than losing an employee.

 

I would follow up with the employee, along with the time that it happened.

And then follow up with the customer,
Be sure to take some pictures and measurements in case you do submit it to insurance.

And then make your determination you may lose a client, but that's usually better than losing an employee.

Excellent advice.

 

Dump her. No telling who scratched her auto. She should not be accusing your company did it with no evidence.

 

It really does blow my mind. Only problem is that I have 4 other houses all right next to her and so I don't want to be argumentative with her and potentially lose the other neighbors over it. That seems to always happen whenever I have a problem customer that I drop, the neighbor follows shortly after.

 

Hold on there EL Paso! ...now go on and fetch me my legs. if you really love this girl as much as you say you do...just tell her good bye and good luck.

-the big dig

 

Just be very responsive and kind in responding in person. Is the allegation a mower scratched it? Take the mower that is used with you to compare. Or if it was allegedly a blower or something take that. Compare and take pictures.
Talk a little about what's going on around the community, town events, etc.
Then kindly explain why it wasn't your crew and you're sorry to see her car has a scratch from "something ".
And just leave it at that, get out of there before she says anything else.

 

Can’t be a doormat just because you work for the neighbors. They probably know she’s an idiot more than you.

 

We had a guy say we killed his grass with our trailer gate, I asked him where, show me. Well that was a couple of weeks ago it's ok now. Ya right, idiot.

 

Did you ask your guys? Have a convo about it with them? Did you actually see the car and where it was “damaged” to know if one of your mowers hit it?, it could of been a trashcan- from someone else etc

 

A customer of mine just called and left a voicemail saying she thinks one of my employees scratched her car because "it's in a weird spot and that we cut her lawn on Tuesday and she noticed it on Friday."

It sounds as if while customer suspects, she knows that she does not know that your employee scratched the car. I agree with the advice to ask the employee and to look at the scratch and compare it to your equipment and what activities would have occurred in the area of the scratch. If you can explain to customer why it is unlikely your employee did it, she will probably be satisfied. Take some polishing compound with you and offer to rub out the scratch if it is small enough that you think that could cure the problem. It may seem like a waste of time to have to deal with issues such as this, but that's what being the boss is about.

 

If you offer to fix the problem then you are admitting guilt. He has employee's (plural). I am sure plenty of scratches on mowers. Really would taking an employee saying the did it. Barring a confession, it would be up to her to prove it

 

We've had several of these complaints over the years. I ask my guys to let me know when these things happen (and they do happen!) But I never give them crap for it (unless they are consistently careless) If I know my guys did it, my insurance will pay for it. If there is no way to tell how the scratch got there, then that's what HER insurance is for. Most customers understand this if it is explained to them.

 

Have you talked to your employees ?
7ish yrs ago I get a call from a lady at a place we mow. She thinks one of my workers may have damaged her Suburban. So I drive over right away and look. Sure enough her license plate
Is folded over and there is rubber scuffed on her bumper. I ask Sam my worker and he says. (I barely rubbed it, didn't think it did anything).
I reamed his arse for not "telling me"
Makes us look like we're trying to get away with somthing.
I fixed her license plate and buffed all the rubber off her bumper.

So go talk to your worker's.
Which you should have done the second you heard from that lady.

 

Employees can damage things without knowing
Scratch?
Like from the buckle on a bp blower?
Maybe didn’t know/realize?

Debris that shot from a mower or weed whip far away?

Or could be the neighbor kids bike
Another mower at a commercial place she parked
Or road debris

 

Road debris is a biggee for scratching autos. Dump trucks , trailers etc can throw rocks etc. I have had a dump truck come close to cracking my windshield with a rock. Even trucks coming from the opposite direction can throw rocks

 

A non customer complained we hit her door while trimming. She was parked in the lawn.
I was helping my buddy and it was his employee.
Things escalated quick to a screaming match.
I looked down at her door and yes there were marks....but they had already been touched up with touch up paint.
She backed right down when that was pointed out to her.

 

When discussing mistakes,accidents with employees remember

Getting angry with people for making mistakes doesn't teach them not to make mistakes, it just teaches them to hide them.

 

I was with a company removing sidewalk up against a building for utilities installation. The business owner comes out insisting we cracked his walls and flooded the basement.
So I go in to have a look. The basement is musty and wet. I ask the guy how the mold grew in the last 30 minutes. That ended that.
Next we go upstairs. Cracks all over the plaster walls. I'm thinking oh boy.. after looking real close I ask when the last time they painted -years ago.
I tell them, well these walls have been cracked at least that long because there's paint in these cracks.
LOL people have no shame in attempting to defraud someone. I would admit to nothing short of being provided video proof.

 

We had a guy say we were scratching his windshield with our blowers, not with the blowers themselves, but the sand we were blowing onto his car. He said his windshield was made with soft glass so it scratched easy.

 

According to an apartment resident our trimmers were scratching the premium paint job on his BMW by throwing fine bark mulch on it.

 

People don’t realize what’s really on the road
They basically sand blast their car by driving it on the highway.

Drive a Jeep with the windshield down or a motorcycle with a half or no helmet and no windshield ,,, you’ll get a education real quick as to what kinda tiny junk flies around at highway speed.

I had someone “assault” me with their windshield washer fluid one time ... WTH is that?? It stings it stings! Oh is washer fluid and a badly aimed sprayer...

 

I had someone "assault" me with their windshield washer fluid one time ... WTH is that??

I always do that to ppl who are right on my tail. I just hold spray button until they back off. Works awsome.

 

I guess I didn't jump to the conclusion that it was a mower. You did.

Could it not have a been a rock, trimmer, backpack blower, etc? Or is the only option that it must have a giant dent in it from a commercial zero turn or else we aren't guilty?

Point is, go look at it, talk to your workers and talk to the owner of the vehicle, determine whether or not you think you did it, without bias. Be reasonable and don't deny it before you even look at it.

 

I guess I didn't jump to the conclusion that it was a mower. You did.

Could it not have a been a rock, trimmer, backpack blower, etc? Or is the only option that it must have a giant dent in it from a commercial zero turn or else we aren't guilty?

Point is, go look at it, talk to your workers and talk to the owner of the vehicle, determine whether or not you think you did it, without bias. Be reasonable and don't deny it before you even look at it.

Scratch...
In a 'weird place' - thats what the complaint is.
that's not going to be a rock or a trimmer.
If it were a rock, how would looking at it determine if the lawn company did the damage three days after servicing the property?
The only thing you could match up would be the height, shape and paint color of a mower.
I have been doing this a very long time.

If someone was cutting through parking between two cars you could catch the back pack on a car, but that wouldnt be "in a weird place"; that would be in a place almost every car is damaged in a parking lot.

 

i guess i've been lucky in this sort of thing. over the past 10 years i've:

-broken a window- a piece of bed spring was hidden in the tall grass and the mower slung it through the window.
-broken 2 storm door windows. once the edger threw a rock into it and another time the mower threw a rock into another one at a different property.
-broke a window-mower threw something into it.

in every case they didn't make me pay for anything even when they knew i did it. a couple times we weren't sure exactly how it happened.

i mean i get it people think it's the mower's fault but really is it? maybe it's really the person's fault that put whatever it was in the yard in the first place?

i dunno stuff just happens. you gotta work it out with the customer and come to an agreement.

obviously if it's something expensive they are gonna try to get you to pay for it if at all possible so they don't have to.

even on the things i've done i've offered to pay for it or give free mowings or whatever and they just said not to worry about it.

 

i guess i've been lucky in this sort of thing. over the past 10 years i've:

-broken a window- a piece of bed spring was hidden in the tall grass and the mower slung it through the window.
-broken 2 storm door windows. once the edger threw a rock into it and another time the mower threw a rock into another one at a different property.
-broke a window-mower threw something into it.

in every case they didn't make me pay for anything even when they knew i did it. a couple times we weren't sure exactly how it happened.

i mean i get it people think it's the mower's fault but really is it? maybe it's really the person's fault that put whatever it was in the yard in the first place?

i dunno stuff just happens. you gotta work it out with the customer and come to an agreement.

obviously if it's something expensive they are gonna try to get you to pay for it if at all possible so they don't have to.

even on the things i've done i've offered to pay for it or give free mowings or whatever and they just said not to worry about it.

This is something that we do agree on Weeze. If an object is in a yard it is just as much the homeowner's fault as it would be the mower's fault if fault is to be directed. It is the homeowner's responsibility to keep the yard free of debris. It is the mower's responsibility to be alert to avoid debris, but sometimes that debris can hide in the grass.

 

It really does blow my mind. Only problem is that I have 4 other houses all right next to her and so I don't want to be argumentative with her and potentially lose the other neighbors over it. That seems to always happen whenever I have a problem customer that I drop, the neighbor follows shortly after.

Doubtful you'll lose everyone around her. Most people are kind and friendly to their neighbors....but aren't close friends with them.

Ask her if she drove her car from the time you guys mowed to the time she noticed.

Sadly, I experience this quite a bit. Just because we are on their property on a regular basis, it is automatically assumed we did the damage.

 

Scratch...
In a 'weird place' - thats what the complaint is.
that's not going to be a rock or a trimmer.
If it were a rock, how would looking at it determine if the lawn company did the damage three days after servicing the property?
The only thing you could match up would be the height, shape and paint color of a mower.
I have been doing this a very long time.

If someone was cutting through parking between two cars you could catch the back pack on a car, but that wouldnt be "in a weird place"; that would be in a place almost every car is damaged in a parking lot.

you've been doing it so long that "wierd place" instantly means it was nobody on the lawn care team that day.

Fraid not.

My point all along is how some of you folks instantly deny this without having a clue, without looking or speaking to the car owner, how on earth can you jump right to denial, you haven't even seen the damage!

Because she has already tried and convicted his company. In her mind his company is guilty. Read his opening post. She didnt say maybe or ask him to look into it. She is accusing. Telling him he covered it up by not telling her. I would think he would have asked his employees before making this thread

So....because she is very certain that the crew did it, that means that they must not have done it. Because she knows that they did, you think it automatically means nobody did it? THat's the stuff i'm talking about, pure denial before talking to the crew or the owner of the vehicle, bad business if you ask me.

This reminds me of the lawn provider at my day job. One day they swung their trailer into a parked car that was owned by my coworker. He happened to see it, we waited, intentionally to see if anybody would notify us. They left a note on the car, we called the owner of the company, he said he was charging his employee for the damage and wanted to bargain a cash settlement much less than the estimate to repair the bumper. I learned from how this owner handled his employees and the damage, I learned not to operate like that. You don't deny, or ignore the damage, you don't tell the victim of damage that they are punishing their employee, and you certainly don't try to bargain a couple hundred on a 700 bumper repair.

https://www.lawnsite.com/threads/le...-me-run-this-by-you-lawncare-trailer-scrapes-car-and-how-it-was-handled.467881/

 

you've been doing it so long that "wierd place" instantly means it was nobody on the lawn care team that day.

Fraid not.

My point all along is how some of you folks instantly deny this without having a clue, without looking or speaking to the car owner, how on earth can you jump right to denial, you haven't even seen the damage!

So....because she is very certain that the crew did it, that means that they must not have done it. Because she knows that they did, you think it automatically means nobody did it? THat's the stuff i'm talking about, pure denial before talking to the crew or the owner of the vehicle, bad business if you ask me.

This reminds me of the lawn provider at my day job. One day they swung their trailer into a parked car that was owned by my coworker. He happened to see it, we waited, intentionally to see if anybody would notify us. They left a note on the car, we called the owner of the company, he said he was charging his employee for the damage and wanted to bargain a cash settlement much less than the estimate to repair the bumper. I learned from how this owner handled his employees and the damage, I learned not to operate like that. You don't deny, or ignore the damage, you don't tell the victim of damage that they are punishing their employee, and you certainly don't try to bargain a couple hundred on a 700 bumper repair.

https://www.lawnsite.com/threads/le...-me-run-this-by-you-lawncare-trailer-scrapes-car-and-how-it-was-handled.467881/

I agree completely, ESPECIALLY that you don't punish an employee for an honest mistake. You reinforce the fact that he did the right thing and left the note, and point out to all employees to be careful, but not to cover up an incident.

 

Customer accused us of weedeating a hole in his irrigation PVC at the valves on the side of his house. Apparently that's what his irrigation guy told him.

So I went there yesterday to inspect this damage and it was already fixed with new PVC. I asked to see the PVC damaged section and he said the irrigation guy took it. I asked him if he saw the damage and he said no, but his water bill was $100 more for last months bill and the side of his house was all wet... and said god knows what the next bill will be. And he doesn't know what the repair will be yet as he hasn't received the invoice.

He went to say his friend does lawn care in Georgia and he understands that this business is hard to find quality employees and the turn over rate is high. I said "true, but I have been the only one that weedeats his property as I have my helper mow his yard".

I know I didn't hit it. My helper said he never bumped it with the mower, but regardless, I didn't deny breaking it. I just said it's never happened before and I've been doing this a long time. I concluded with "I need to see the damaged part" and asked him to try to get it back from the irrigation company.

Without being able to see the damage, should I take responsibly? Honestly, I already think the irrigation company my client uses is a hack job. this company couldn't even be bothered to secure the green caps down with the secure screw, which causes the mower to vacuum up and suck caps off and shred them. Like this one GREEN CAP LINKY

 

you can't weedeat a pvc pipe in half. if you can it must be the cheapest plastic pipe ever made. trimmer line will just hit it and do nothing. it may make a few grass marks on it or something but it's not gonna cut through it to make it leak.

 

tn turf, without being able to see it and acknowledge it, you are basically free and clear. They repair a broken section that the sprinkler man blamed on the mower man. Could haven't happened any old way and since you can't see it, you're not liable. Those caps are always floating around on my properties too, pain in the but.

 

if it's a very profitable account then you'd be better off to just pay it out of pocket.. but if not, then don't lose any sleep over it and deny it (as professionally as possible) and see where it goes. if she drops you then oh well, it's the nature of the beast (as they say)