How would you handle this call

[promower]

I had a guy give me a call off one of my fliers. Him, "Hi I was calling for an estimate on my lawn, I got one of your fliers and it says free estimates." Me, "no problem whats your name, address etc. and what would you like an estimate on?" Him, "Well I pretty much do all my own lawn mowing, it's about the only thing I do around the house. I would like you to come down and look at the property and tell how I can improve it and make it look great. I can handle it from there I just need to be shown exactly what I need to do to my lawn." Me, "ok, so you want me to take care of overseeding, dethatching, or whatever your lawn might need." Him, "well I guess I just need someone to show me what needs to be done then I can do, and if I dont have the right equipment I will just rent it for a day." Me, "Ok, I will have to call you back and look at my schedule but I getting booked up and I'm not sure if I will have time to look at it." Wanted to say free estimates not advice, I'm not coming to look at your lawn knowing I am 100% sure of not getting any work from you. Some people.

 

[tedk]

i would have suggested that he could have me mow his lawn the first few weeks, for free of course, so he could observe and pick up a few pointers.

 

[LB Landscaping]

Call him back and tell him your schedule is full. Sounds like a real PITA to me!!!!

 

[impactlandscaping]

How about a $ 75.00 per hour site consultation fee?? Don't give away what you can sell...

 

[TheKingNJ]

i'd tell him what he needs to do is spray his entire lawn with finali and round up.

 

[Mark McC]

Xeriscape! No muss, no fuss, just laugh or cuss.

 

[cklands]

I had a customer call for a price on slice seeding today. She leaves me her phone number and square footage of the lawn. I call her back and leave a message asking for her address and tell her although slice seeding is priced by the sq.ft. I would want to see the property before I give her a price. She calls back an hour later while I was out of the office. She leaves a message saying that she had the work done last week but was trying to get a price from someone else to make sure she didn't get ripped off. She leaves me her address and asks if I can come out and give her a price. What are people thinking????????

 

[promower]

LOL cklands, you should of told her that why you go look at her property there were a few items you have purchased in the last month that you would like her to go price shop to make sure you got the best price, dont want to pay to much.

 

[Mark McC]

I've received a few calls for "guesstimates" over the phone. Sometimes it's tough to sniff out tire kickers, but some are just really obvious.

I agree with Impact: charge 'em a consultation fee if all they want to do is take up your time.

 

[Turf Medic]

Might be time to add a small line to the flier, "Consulting services available for do it yourselfers"