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The daughter doesn't have a clue as to what you did or did not do... The lady of the house may have noticed all the labor that went into it... you didn't give a ball park figure, evidently so now you're stuck with her aftershock...

I would let her know that it was definately a fair price, that you are one who WORKS for his money and you have in NO WAY ripped her off, and you are disappointed that she would STEAL a paycheck from a working man... She sounds like a Democrat... walk away and use her name in all future estimates... :)
 
Always give a actual price estimate even if its a range. If your not sure say I bill out at 30/hr and this might take 10-15 hrs.

I'm a solo also and would never take a 2 day job without giving a number! Probably would say no from start since that's too big of a job for me even with a walker, backpack blower, and tarps.

Maybe before and after pics on jobs like this?
 
So you land a leaf clean up job.The leaves haven't been touch all season.The property is a mess. You as a solo get with owners and they tell you what they want done. They give you the green light to start. The total job takes you 14.5 hr Whats your bill for the customer?

14.5 hrs.
4 gallons of 2cycle mix.
Gutter cleaning.
How long have you been in this business? It seems to me you should have been able to come up with a figure of how long it would take you to do the job. By telling the customer that it will take around so many hours at so much per hour would have told the customer that it was going to be alot more than the $30.00 she had in her mind. I say it is your fault for not being specific enough!
 
Can we presume this event did not happen? The title is "hypothetical," which means the situation has been framed as something that could happen, but did not. If it did happen as stated, then it is not "hypothetical," rather reality.

If it was reality, then the last comment was on target, "... it is your fault for not being specific enough." No, you may not know exactly the time and cost the customer will be charged, but you should be able to provide a range, and get an approval for the range. The $30 and $400 is a huge gap. If a range of prices, with a minimum was given, then you and the customer had common expectations. Without having given even a range of prices, the expectations of a final cost was not even established.
 
I don't know everything, and probably not as much as most people here, BUT taking on a large job like that by the hour would make me very worried about pay time. I'd do my best to give an estimate. I've done it enough times to visualize the job. If it turned out to be a little low, atleast they wouldn't stop payment on the check. How much is your time spent fighting to get your money worth? I've done a couple of those recently, and they jumped at my price. They thought it would take me so much longer. I wrapped up two huge tarps, and ran my mower, done. I'm not comfortable with hourly pay at all. On that same street, i gave a man a price, and he said "well, i want to see how long it will take you." I walked. Having said all of this, i think your customer has no idea about the amount of work you did. You have to deal with them on their level, and that is "bottom line". "How much is this going to cost me?"
 
Maybe you could use your own advice in this "hypothetical situation?"

Here's how it works! You get a call from a lead, soon to be customer. You get the basics of what they want, and what day is good to come by.They give your the Address. Using the Address, you go to Google earth and measure the property.This gives you a good idea of a ballpark price.Going by my price guide. You show up to customers home,look over the property and give a final price.
According to you here is how to give an estimate. :waving:
 
Not to bust anyones bubble but customers percieve 40$ per hour to clean leaves is a ripoff. Emergency Room Docs only make 50$ to 60$ per hour.

I would never price something by the hour unless I know the people real well.
 
I think hourly pay works against you. Let's say you've become really efficient and finally have top notch equipment. You're able to do a large amount of work in a small amount of time. Customers imagine a job will take alot longer than what it will be. If you know how to price, you can get them to commit to a figure for the whole job. If you do it really quick (alot less time than what they thought); that's just tough for them. You already have an agreement. I can see how a jacked up rate may help you. To me, it seems like if i do a job quickly, i'm going to get paid less. I'm not saying my way is right; it's just right for me. I think a price in the beginning also protects the customer. What if a worker decides to drag ass, and then bill the customer for it?
 
I think hourly pay works against you. Let's say you've become really efficient and finally have top notch equipment. You're able to do a large amount of work in a small amount of time. Customers imagine a job will take alot longer than what it will be. If you know how to price, you can get them to commit to a figure for the whole job. If you do it really quick (alot less time than what they thought); that's just tough for them. You already have an agreement. I can see how a jacked up rate may help you. To me, it seems like if i do a job quickly, i'm going to get paid less. I'm not saying my way is right; it's just right for me. I think a price in the beginning also protects the customer. What if a worker decides to drag ass, and then bill the customer for it?
Its like this, I do a leaf job for a customer once a year, done it for 5 years now. It took the home woner literally his weeks vacation to do it. It takes me 2 hours, hes happy to pay me 150$.

Ive done some odd stuff in the off season for customers by the hour, only because I know the people and really have know idea the job will take.
 
Not to bust anyones bubble but customers percieve 40$ per hour to clean leaves is a ripoff. Emergency Room Docs only make 50$ to 60$ per hour.

I would never price something by the hour unless I know the people real well.
Exactly right on one point and wrong another. People do think 40$ an hour is high for leaf clean up work. This why I mainly do leaf cleanups for lawn customers only. Spot on, Larry.

Emergency room surgeons make alot more than $50 an hour.
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If I was still using a rake for leaves, like when I started, I would not be able to charge $5/hr and still have a reasonable price... Every time I get a larger blower, the price could actually go down a little bit andit could go even faster if I had a sensible way of loading the truck... :)

The guy that said you're paid for efficiency by use of top notch equipment, not solely by time, has it exactly right...
 
hey if you can get that kind of money then more power to you. it's not about being lazy it's about being smart. i don't only work 4hrs a day. i'm not gonna spend more than 4hrs and one job per day. the biggest yard i have is 3 acres and i'm done in 2 1/2 hrs. i don't need anything bigger than that solo.

around here noone would pay anything near that price or $1800. the biggest paying leaf job i got was $125 here. it took 2 1/2 hrs. that's all people are willing to pay here. most of them just let it go and don't even get leaf cleanup where i live.
 
I don't know any 'facts' about this situation but it could possibly be considered a crime for writing a bad check. Is 400 dollars worth the trouble of fighting it? Probably not. You might try using it as leverage to recoup some of the money. 200 bucks is better than 0.

Not to be harsh, but common sense should have taken over and given them some type of ball park range before you started. Many people don't have 400 dollars in their checking account for an extraneous expense like leaf cleanup.

When taking on a new customer and the has the potential to go over 200 dollars, you should give them a heads to see if they even have the money.
 
Here's what I'm dealing with.The property owner lets her daughter handle her finances.The daughter calls a gives the green light to start the job.Shes asked if I billed hourly.I said yes.I start this past friday.I finish up today.
the total was 14.5hrs. So the mother & daughter meet me at the property this AM. The daughter says when your done,just tell my mother she will give you a check.So I finish up this afternoon. I give the bill/hrs worked and the mother goes into orbit.Sayn she can't afford the bill. She thought it was gonna be in the $30.00 range.(I'm not a 12yr old with a rake)

After talking to the mother,she gives me a check for the bill.Well 2hrs later the daughter leaves a message sayn she stoped payment on the check.How would some of you handle this situation?
my hourly rate is $35 per man hour.

as for handling the situation I would sent a letter snail mail informing them they have 14 days from the date of the letter to send payment or I reserve the right to use lawyers, liens, small claims court or collection agencies to collect any unpaid balances.

then I would sit back and go about my business.
 
Here's what I'm dealing with.The property owner lets her daughter handle her finances.The daughter calls a gives the green light to start the job.Shes asked if I billed hourly.I said yes.I start this past friday.I finish up today.
the total was 14.5hrs. So the mother & daughter meet me at the property this AM. The daughter says when your done,just tell my mother she will give you a check.So I finish up this afternoon. I give the bill/hrs worked and the mother goes into orbit.Sayn she can't afford the bill. She thought it was gonna be in the $30.00 range.(I'm not a 12yr old with a rake)

After talking to the mother,she gives me a check for the bill.Well 2hrs later the daughter leaves a message sayn she stoped payment on the check.How would some of you handle this situation?
Wow she only thought the bill would be $30 what a dumb b^^^h. Your screwed on that one I think. Sounds like white trash to me. I would have given a estimate to her first. I give estimates to all new customers before a job starts. Normal maint. customers of mine don't even ask me for a price on there cleanups anymore which is nice because they know I'm fair with them every year. And I get cleanups like you on a constant basis in the fall my crew of 3 guys does about 2 big cleanups a day, ton's of leaves around my area. Good luck to you on getting your money, let us know how you make out.
 
Here's what I'm dealing with.The property owner lets her daughter handle her finances.The daughter calls a gives the green light to start the job.Shes asked if I billed hourly.I said yes.I start this past friday.I finish up today.
the total was 14.5hrs. So the mother & daughter meet me at the property this AM. The daughter says when your done,just tell my mother she will give you a check.So I finish up this afternoon. I give the bill/hrs worked and the mother goes into orbit.Sayn she can't afford the bill. She thought it was gonna be in the $30.00 range.(I'm not a 12yr old with a rake)

After talking to the mother,she gives me a check for the bill.Well 2hrs later the daughter leaves a message sayn she stoped payment on the check.How would some of you handle this situation?
Small claims court, you should have a cut and dried case if they didn't ask for an estimate. They also cannot get away with writing you a ck and then stopping payment on it....the judge will frown heavily at that. As long as your pricing is anywhere around reasonable, I think you've got an "open and shut" case.
 
Small claims court, ...., I think you've got an "open and shut" case.
From what we read, it sounds that way. Despite getting a favorable ruling from the "open and shut case," the OP may never get paid. A favorable ruling is only that -- collections is beyond that, outside the judge's ruling. I think that is where the case now resides -- not being able to collect.
 
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