Dirty stunts pulled by customers

[Able Fella]

Not really a rip-off story but fuuny. A customer contacted me enquiring for a quote for some tree work, I was happy to oblige and made an appointment, when the time came about I made my way to their address, parked up and knocked the front door, elderly gent answered the door and said " morning, come up stairs", I thought that he needed me to have a look at trees from the windows which isnt unusual, he took me into the bedroom where his Mrs was laying in bed, he then said "there she is", to which I replied "what do you mean?" he replied, "you are the Doctor arnt you?" I said no im here to have a look at your trees.....long story short, his wife had been ill and they forgot about our appointment, I continued with the quote with a huge smile on my face and an occasional snigger.......and I didnt get the job! brilliant!

[Gray]

i topped some pops before right next to gipsy site, they were fine about a few nubs landing on the caravans , but after half a day the one guy was pointing and shouting for me to stop cause he'd had enough and shouting somthing about a gun and my arse, the groundy looked very worried and begged me to stop, but i couldn't resist and with one final cut the top shot down like a dart emiting more nubs buds and bits than a swarm of angry bee's. i nearly wet myself when they bounced off his now very purple bald head, quickly the others stopped him getting his gun and took him down the pub, i did say that i just couldn't resist to the groundy but he was dribbling and rocking back and fourth, all was good though we both shared my lunch , ham salad.

[mistahbenn]

Ripping yarns, these, ripping :_

[tommer9]

I have pulled some right dirty stunts in my time.......none of them were customers, and most were gone by the morning though......

[oldwoodcutter]

For the first time in yonks had a customer turn on me last month.A load of big connies down to ground level and pop reduced by 1/3.At the pricing stage ide given her 1 to leave everything for them to burn up,and another to clear all away.She chose 2nd,all well and good you may think.

 

After 2 days of chipping and carting away i was chucking lengths of pop onto trailer when she says dont bother taking that,our neighbors got a woodburner,he'll clear all that up,which he did when we'd gone.

Finished during 3rd day when ide arranged payment,then mr miggins appears for first time and says she has chequebook and has gone out,come back saturdy at 12.

Went round and mr chummy is now mr aggresive asking me what were the 2 prices that ide offered,when i told him he said 'but you didnt clear it all away,you didn't take the poplar.Then it dawned on me what he was up to.

He threatened to take it further but i kept calm and said he should have charged his neighbor not me.Before he burst a blood vessel i offered him £20 discount which he accepted,turned into mr chummy again,paid up, shook hands and went inside.Happy days.

[Chris Gagen]

@ tommer

[corylus]

Slight deviation but....

 

Removed a wind blown birch which was resting gently on front of house. We had quoted for 2 1/2 days (complete removal) as we thought we would have to hand ball it all a fair distance. Old lady was happy for us to proceed. However by a bit of careful quad and timber trailer use managed to remove off site to the farm next door (mine) in one long day.

 

Next day boss man went round to give her the bill and said as the job had gone so well (we still had all the brash to deal with etc but off site now) he would drop the price. She wouldnt hear any of it. Was very happy with the job.

 

However..............a couple of days later dis-content had spread. Apparently according to a neighbour who had been gobbin off in the pub, the old lady's son was furious about her been ripped off, and the job anyway could have been done for £20 and the firewood by one of the chaps in the village. General badmouthing all round...

 

On hearing this the lad I was subbing for (who was trying to get established in the area) went to see the old woman. She knew NOTHING of it. Said she hadnt seen her son! AND was very sorry on her neighbours behalf no less.

 

So the lad goes and has it out with the gobsh**e, who apologises and promises to put the record straight.

 

Dunno what the moral is here but the chap in question moved and has cancer. Sometimes wonder if there is a god. (BUT I still have a sneaky feeling he nicked my zubat!!!)

[weldersunited]

Have had a few over the years- as I have said in other posts, Arb work isn't my main source of income- that's steelwork, anyway...

 

We quoted a local guy to install some steelwork at £x which he readily accepted. He asked us how long we anticipated the job to take- to which we replied a couple of days. We managed to install all in one very long day and the guys I had working for me really pulled it out of the bag. It ended up being one of thiose jobs that just fell together. Customer came to pay the bill and demanded a reduction because we'd done it quicker. I replied that if we had taken 3 days would he have paid the additional day? To which the answer was a resounding NO! He paid but only under threat of court action.

 

Another one was with a very large national building contractor.... The painting specification changed to a much higher spec after the QS had placed his order with us. We advised him of the price increase and had an email back telling us to proceed with the paint as specified.

 

Point blank refused to pay for it and claimed that the email acceptance of our price was in fact nothing of the sort and he was merely instructing us to apply the correct specification, not that he was agreeing to pay for it.

 

Guess that these people are about everywhere in every trade!

[Le Sanglier]

Have had a few over the years- as I have said in other posts, Arb work isn't my main source of income- that's steelwork, anyway...

 

We quoted a local guy to install some steelwork at £x which he readily accepted. He asked us how long we anticipated the job to take- to which we replied a couple of days. We managed to install all in one very long day and the guys I had working for me really pulled it out of the bag. It ended up being one of thiose jobs that just fell together. Customer came to pay the bill and demanded a reduction because we'd done it quicker. I replied that if we had taken 3 days would he have paid the additional day? To which the answer was a resounding NO! He paid but only under threat of court action.Another one was with a very large national building contractor.... The painting specification changed to a much higher spec after the QS had placed his order with us. We advised him of the price increase and had an email back telling us to proceed with the paint as specified.

 

Point blank refused to pay for it and claimed that the email acceptance of our price was in fact nothing of the sort and he was merely instructing us to apply the correct specification, not that he was agreeing to pay for it.

 

Guess that these people are about everywhere in every trade!

 

 

That is allways a bit of a minefield, have had the odd contretemps with clients, won some, and lost some.

[felixthelogchopper]

That is allways a bit of a minefield, have had the odd contretemps with clients, won some, and lost some.

 

If you quote a job price, that is what they accept or decline. How long you take to do it is irrelevant as the information provided is advisory, not contractual, unless it is a condition of the quote.