Tricky customer Quibbling price after emergency job, what would you do?

[Agent-Arb]

Hahaaaaaaa [emoji106]

[Mark Bolam]

Result mate, really chuffed for you, and fair play for not caving in.

[struie]

On 22/10/2018 at 16:18, Con said:

Please don't let him get away with it without a fight.  Tell everyone what he's up to as well. If I was one of the builders I'd be giving him some too. Too many hard working people get ripped off by his type. Stand up to him and hopefully he will think twice next time. 

Good luck.

i would vote for you their mate

[Jcarbor]

Evening all, the other morning about to have a yard day I got called out to an emergency. A mate who does the odd day gardening at a big country hall. He’s seen this fair to medium size unsafe tree, & it’s a building site so builders & plenty of rubbish/rubble/wood with nails lying about in piles under & around it. Mate was talking between me & owner & reckons the guys ok, so I went.
 
Hours drive away. 6 hours later, safely down, snedded & cut into chunks a triple stemmed 50-60ft chestnut. 2 stems failed, & last one cracking & delaminating towards greenhouse & hedge. Had to use couple of ropes, Land Rover to pull & a tether off one of the failed stems laying over the ditch out the back to make it down safe. Customer didn’t want any damage. Would have took half the time to just drop it & make safe.
 
Price agreed verbally with customer before leaving site, but not before starting - nor over phone before I set off in first place (I know, I know).
 
Got email next day from customer. After agreeing to my price face to face, he’s now an expert as he’s rung local tree surgeons asking how much to fell a tree & got prices ranging from £95 to £200. Says I need to revisit my pricing as I’m completely out of market range. I’d said £450 - justified by; the danger, the safe completion, turning up with & using £20k+ worth of kit & 20+years experience.
 
I replied saying I shudder to think what he’d have got for 200, nevermind 95 knowing it was pretty involved to have done it safely. But was respectful & explained my overheads for him so he could see what he was paying for.
 
This morning he comes back with that he’s insulted, & knows how business works as he used to be very high up in legal for a main bank. He’s only prepared to pay £200 non-negotiable, one time only offer.
 
Never had a non-payer yet. Nor a haggler after the event !!!
 
What have you got folks, anyone else had this?
 
Thanks

£95-£200! What part of the country are you?There lies the crux of the problem, too many people working for f@@k all money for ejits who don’t know the cost of things in the real world, tell him to stick his money up his ass and take it as a lesson learnt. Even your £450 is a cheap price for reactive work, its less that we charge for a planned day.

[Ian C]

£95-£200! What part of the country are you?There lies the crux of the problem, too many people working for f@@k all money for ejits who don’t know the cost of things in the real world, tell him to stick his money up his ass and take it as a lesson learnt. Even your £450 is a cheap price for reactive work, its less that we charge for a planned day.

Bang on the money there imo

[Jcarbor]

Bang on the money there imo

Might need to lower my prices then.

[Agent-Arb]

Might need to lower my prices then.

[emoji23]

[Agent-Arb]

£95-£200! What part of the country are you?There lies the crux of the problem, too many people working for f@@k all money for ejits who don’t know the cost of things in the real world, tell him to stick his money up his ass and take it as a lesson learnt. Even your £450 is a cheap price for reactive work, its less that we charge for a planned day.

Deepest darkest Derbyshire mate, where ‘still burn tyres for streetlighting as it keeps the dragons away.

You do have a good point tho. The costs come down to overheads. In this neck of the woods you have to price against folk who’ve got their old mans farm (& tractors) at their disposal, which helps keep their costs down. Not knocking, just saying. So if you are more expensive, then the phone don’t ring on some jobs. You’re right about reactive work too. Like I said before, this would have been 600 but the customer was already paying the groundsman for the day & due to it going through a mate I didn’t put extra on for it being emergency work. Tho probs should have. I wonder how many would have took their chances & climbed it? It would have took a fraction of the time, but a big hike in personal risk. It popped pretty sharpish when doing the back cut, quick enough to make me glad I was long enough in the tooth not to let my ego try & take over by climbing it.

Even at this price for a standard day for 2, prices haven’t really gone up for years when costs have. Luckily, there’s plenty of trees to go round and people will pay their money & take their choice on who they have in. Tho like I always say, you can’t re-fell a tree.

Cheers

[danroker1987]

Theres loads of these out there ! there easy to deal with , if they dont want your price initially then get someone else , there always room for a bit of barter and a deal but some of these people want it for nothing ! simply walk away!  8 times out of 10 you will win as you walk ! 

 

in this case myself would be inclined to say keep your money ,Thank you very much .

 

He will probably pay you the original price by the time the conversation ends.if he doesnt you can walk with your head held high,

 

Hes just trying it on mate ! hope you get sorted  

 

ps tell him happy new year aswell , just to rub salt in the wound  kill him down with kindness! 

[spudulike]

Nice outcome and at the right time of year. Does it mean you want the rear handle a bit earlier now no rush seeing as we had a gentlemen's agreement on it.