Always astonished by the public!

[skyhuck]

She asked once, didn't push it and didn't threaten to shoot anybody, did she?

 

Yes and I believe he politely said "No" , which was fine, IMO

[Stephen Blair]

TBH, I don't think the "right sort of person" would ask. QUOTE]

 

There is nothing wrong with asking, you for one dont take any nonsense and stand your ground, in an assertive polite way:001_cool:

 

I asked a nice lady called Marie from Orange if i could get free texts yesterday, she said 'no' had a lovely jordie accent and was really nice, £6.75 later and i have FREE texts:sneaky2: lol

[skyhuck]

I asked a nice lady called Marie from Orange if i could get free texts yesterday, she said 'no' had a lovely jordie accent and was really nice, £6.75 later and i have FREE texts:sneaky2:

 

How are they free, if you paid £6.75???????????

[Stephen Blair]

How are they free, if you paid £6.75???????????:

 

exactly:lol:she was polite, concerned, i paid the £6.75 and left feeling happy. She did her company proud.

If she had been rude and told me to go and phone vodaphone and stop being a free loading vulture it wouldnt of had the same happy result, she kept the customer happy and still got a sale:001_smile:

[felixthelogchopper]

Yes and I believe he politely said "No" , which was fine, IMO

 

Which is also fine, but I still think it was a missed PR opportunity. IMO, the fact that she didn't push it suggests to me she wasn't a free-loader. Then again, hindsight generally tends to be more 20:20

[Mesterh]

As Bob says it depends on how they say what they say not what they say, I think:confused1:

 

If she was half joking and having a bit of a laugh she woulda got a nice 'no'but also a bit of an explanation (plus we would of used the blower to get rid of as much dust as possible anyway)

 

If she was serious then it woulda been a firm 'no' with a bit of well why did you park your car right there when you knew something was wrong and the emergency work has taken longer because we had to take care not to damage the car etc etc.

 

Either way there would be no chance I would pay for a car wash!

 

I mean come on if we are talking about being extra nice and possibly getting work from it (which I don't agree with anyway) then do you go and knock on eveyones door when the wind has sprayed sawdust 20 houses down and covered cars and paths in a bit of dust?

 

I reckon a fiver a car plus 10 minutes would soon add up.

[Shane]

An interesting set of comments, many thanks.

Beaing a child of the 50s I was very flattered to be called a young wippersnapper.

I think her demenour (if that's how you spell it) was OK, she may have been asking a bit tongue in cheek and I would like to think that she still left in a reasonably amicable state of mind.

I do not believe in being rude to people just manage their expectations, treat them like adults and concede no ground you shouldn't.

The other extreme was a lady who apologised for asking if my stumpgrinder had fired a stone through her french window (using boards which were too small).

She was so nice about it I was genuinely pleased to replace it. AND i've done work for her for six years since!

Everyone is a potential customer - but do you really want them ALL?

[Stephen Blair]

Some desicions are head ones and some are heart ones. Some should be set in stone, some shouldn't.

If you are the company owner, and you know how much is in the bank, how much work you have, how many trees are in the street that you think you could get to work on, you have the experience behind you, some good some bad then an on the spot desicion is perfect.

If you have staff on site they should be briefed on what they can or cant say on given situations, i tell anyone working for me, to keep folk out our work sight at all times and they must NEVER give answers to things they dont know.

Now that we are in constant comunication with blue tooth headsets its much better, my lad is great anyway but before you know it you could be cleaning everycar and window in the street OR you could also get a couple of £k from a lady just wanting a chat:thumbup1:

[armchairarborist]

we were dismantling a pop and the sawdust was flying a fair distance, looking over some garages there was a new rangerover being valeted on a driveway and as the valeter drove away the motor was totally covered in sawdust, i went and knocked the door and explained what happened and the guy laughed, i offered to use his hosepipe to wash it off and he made us all a pot of tea:thumbup: only funny folk are funny with you

[APC]

The best one we do is throw a very small "hissy" fit. If a member of the public (taxpayer) tells us to stop working or making so much noise then we just shut down n pack everything up lol. The look on their face as they get onto their high horse only to be dealt a massive blow by the boss who is normally on site checking trees for further works is an absolute picture. Sadly on 4 occasions we have had to phone for the local plod to come out n sort out the mess. On 3 of those occasions physical contact was made between the agressor and my colleagues. One of my colleagues on one occasion had to go to the local hospital because of a broken nose.

 

Seriously Matt, your team seems to find itself in all sorts of hairy situations on a regular basis. It's quite scary really. I work at a park situated between 3 of the worst deprived wards in the UK (bottom 10% in country for crime, education, income, inequality, health, employment and environment) and we don't get ourselves into half as many scrapes as you guys!! Having said now, I'll probably get a bat around the face in the next few days!