how'r we supposed to compete

[DN22 Gardening]

saw a customer in the pub last night and got a right bollocking.

quoted him £300-00 to take down an ash n a syc in his garden.

thought it was a fair price

 

a "mate" of his at work has just done it for £20-00 a tree

 

said he'd done it just for the firewood.

 

the trees were fairly straightforward fells, but when asked about insurance etc, the bloke shook his head, called me a conman and walked away.

 

wtf are you supposed to do ???

[Alinicoll]

What can you do. Sounds like a fair enough price you put in. There will always be someone prepaired to work for peanuts. Don`t take it too personally, the guy is an idiot.

[Rupe]

Count to ten and then get yourself another Pint!

[Andy Collins]

Move on...bloke sounds like the sort who would be a hassle client anyway. There's always going to those who will do the job for the wood etc, dont worry about it.

[WeeDee]

There will always be people who 'benefit' from cowboys - because in this instance the bloke in the pub came out on the happy side of a Cost/Benefit equation.

If an accident had occured the same bloke would have understood that the cost (ie. accident) outweighed the benefit.

We must work within the arena of hundreds/thousands of 'calculated' events - and stay within safety margins.

Unfortunately, the one-off customer just sees the single chance to save pounds, and as you know, not everything can be measured in pounds.

Good luck.

[gingertreeninja]

know how you feel mate! quoted a guy 350.00 to dismantle a 70ft oak stem in his back garden and remove a 10ft fir from the front garden. he wanted no damage to the grass or bushes under the tree so every bit needed rigged. phoned him to see what day he wanted it done and he told me he had someone else coming to do it far cheaper!!!! i thought i was doing it cheap mainly because i wanted the timber for milling. this keeps up i will be out of business by christmas

[PeteB]

I was faced once with the comment "that's a bit steep"! I came back with "you'll happily pay your garage upwards of £375 for one man to service your car in half a day but you won't give me £450 for three men for a whole day doing dangerous dirty work for which I have to get insurance for"

 

That has worked in the past, otherwise take it on the chin and walk away, that's business for you.

[Giles Hill]

Sounds like he's a paranoid Watchdog viewer!

[Paul Smith]

I like to tell the client about plumbing! I ask them what they would do if they had a dripping tap?

 

9 out of 10 they tell me they would call a plumber as they can't do plumbing. I then explain that 1 man will turn up with a probable call out charge of £50, he will have with him 2 spanners and a 25p washer. he will turn the water off remove the washer and replace it within 15 minutes max!

 

For this he they will probably get a bill for £100 on top of the call out!

 

The usual reaction is " I am not a plumber!" to which I add your not a tree surgeon either! and my price is for 2 men, a chipper and 1 or 2 vans for the whole day!

[ScottF]

There will always be people who 'benefit' from cowboys - because in this instance the bloke in the pub came out on the happy side of a Cost/Benefit equation.

If an accident had occured the same bloke would have understood that the cost (ie. accident) outweighed the benefit.

We must work within the arena of hundreds/thousands of 'calculated' events - and stay within safety margins.

Unfortunately, the one-off customer just sees the single chance to save pounds, and as you know, not everything can be measured in pounds.

Good luck.

 

Well put that man!