Problem customer

[Stevie Mac]

ARBOR COMMANDO NINJA

Was that a Seagal or Van Dame movie?

[JonnyVine]

Jon

Take everyones advise buddy and take it on the chin, anyone that says he's never ....... up I will call a liar, its only a days wages we are talking about and to be honest, I would say it is common sense and decency to refresh the situation with a short phone call a day or two before.

Twelve months is quite a time, If you had been doing the job every year for 3 or 4 years then I think you would be right to fight it.

On the other side of the coin, she must be quite a nasty piece of work to react the way you say!

My advice would be, give the cow a call at a respectable time and in your best patronising voice, tell her you are sorry for the misunderstanding and you hope she is happy with what you have done and to have the job on you for any inconvienience or distress you may have caused and should she ever need an arborist in the future you will be happy to offer your services.

If you succeed, you will be able to heave an extra couple of quid on to all subsequent bills and claw a bit back!

Edited September 7, 2010 by Andy Collins
Language

[Rupe]

I think others put it better me than me! I was a bit harsh, sorry, but I agree with what I was tryign to say, which was to shock you a bit into realising that no one is siding with you, however much of a right on guy you might be.

 

The bit I don't get is this......

 

In the fisrt instance the tree had been neglected and you trimmed them and put them right, and did a good job, so thats fine.

 

Then a year later they are not goign to need the same amount of work doing as the have only had a years growth. SO how much are you charging the second time round? Have you quoted for that? Has it been accepted?

 

If you you had done the work the second time round at a new rate and then set that rate for each subsequent yearly trimming and that had been agreed then it might be ok, but your talkign about a new contract of work on trees that you don't actually know how much they have grown in a year. So just turning up is not going to work.

 

The hardest bit about tree work is organisng the customers. we are all good at our jobs and I'm sure you do a great job every time. But thats the easy bit!! Learnign to cope with customers is hard, and phonign them up to make appointments is a pain. E mail works really well though and I do nearly all quotes and organising using e-mail.

 

So my best friendly advice is this, drop this one and get e mial address for all customer in the future. The drop them an e-mail 2 weeks before to confirm and don't do the work until they have given the go ahead.

 

Also then, e mails are saved so you have a record of them agreeing to you working for them on such a day.

[Jon Lad]

You are right, I'll let it go. I should have confirmed in advance. Life's too short.

I was shocked at her reaction, off the dial really, and have never had some one tell me point blank they aren't paying me for work I've done and I've been self employed 9 years and doing tree work 18.

 

I went up there today to see her or her husband but they weren't in. I had a good look at the trees again and they've had a very good job done there for free, which is annoying to say the least.

 

The weirdest thing is that during the phone call last week when she tore me a new one, the last thing she said to me was "I may use you again in the future when I've calmed down and I'm not so cross with you". I think I'd rather give up tree work!

[Dave Martin]

You are right, I'll let it go. I should have confirmed in advance. Life's too short.

I was shocked at her reaction, off the dial really, and have never had some one tell me point blank they aren't paying me for work I've done and I've been self employed 9 years and doing tree work 18.

 

I went up there today to see her or her husband but they weren't in. I had a good look at the trees again and they've had a very good job done there for free, which is annoying to say the least.

 

The weirdest thing is that during the phone call last week when she tore me a new one, the last thing she said to me was "I may use you again in the future when I've calmed down and I'm not so cross with you". I think I'd rather give up tree work!

 

WRONG ... she was obviously having a bad day and in my humble opinion she is in the right. If she offers you more work grab at it and you no doubt will be a very big man in her eyes and more than likely will be highly recommended by her.

[Andy Collins]

I got annoyed with one client who had "forgotten" to pay me,despite having an invoice) and wrote a very nice and polite letter to her (seriously:001_smile:) thinking this would prompt her into paying. Well, it worked! She paid up straight away, hand delivered infact, with the snottiest letter, stating that "we always pay our dues, always" Then I spoke to a few people after, and it turned out that they were seriously struggling financially, the development business they owned was in dire straights, the financial advice business he ran was struggling too, the mortgage on their 1.1million pound house was in arrears. i have since declined work there, I dont need the hassle, and I dont need them to leave me in the lurch when they run into their next bit of trouble.

Ya live and learn, and you can never know what's happening in their rivate lives.

[Stephen Blair]

jon, its a business decision mate, nothing more. Doesn't mean you are wrong just in this situation you are doing the right thing. Learn from it, get stuff in writing, get something written in on your quote what YOUR rules are so they then have to agree before they sign it. After that then you will be fine.

[Rupe]

You are right, I'll let it go. I should have confirmed in advance. Life's too short.

I was shocked at her reaction, off the dial really, and have never had some one tell me point blank they aren't paying me for work I've done and I've been self employed 9 years and doing tree work 18.

 

I went up there today to see her or her husband but they weren't in. I had a good look at the trees again and they've had a very good job done there for free, which is annoying to say the least.

 

The weirdest thing is that during the phone call last week when she tore me a new one, the last thing she said to me was "I may use you again in the future when I've calmed down and I'm not so cross with you". I think I'd rather give up tree work!

 

Good for you. DOn't write her off just yet, you might get a chance to re couperate your losses from her, even if its through referals.

 

Peace....

[Lorry thompson]

I had a customer saying she wasn't paying me a short while ago mate, we done a really nice reduction and a pollard she said she hated the pollard but it was exactly what she asked for and I explained how bad it would look. It started with her saying her husband was really angry and that he was rough etc I just kept my cool and il meet her husband at the job to talk about it. I got a phone call saying sorry for any inconvenience and thanks so much for the work and she's passed my number on to two other people. Turns out she was heavily pregnant and hormonal ( her words ).

[ad15]

was that my mrs lorry?

 

good on you jon lad,, but as others say, don't write her off, it's all a test,, if you pass she'll love you forever and refer you to all her crazy friends..