So annoying lol

[CHEESE2009]

This is from Monday... I was interrupted SO many times!

Part 1

I go to cut a lawn, and the guy (client 1) comes out saying how he could get me to fix his neighbors lawn mower. So I had a look to be nice, said it could use a new air filter and a new spark plug. My client then said, "You should bring it to the shop you use, just put it in your trailer".

I said, "No. I want space in my truck and trailer today".

The client insisted on leaving the lawn mower outside, saying I should come back later to pick it up once I'm done for the day.

Part 2

The same client stops me again halfway through the job and says, "can you cut my lawn just a bit shorter?"

So I did just that, and I hit a water main.

Part 3

I go on to another client (old lady, client 2, same street) and both of these clients come out to chit chat with each other, and they are standing in my GOD DAMN WAY.

Me: Move over please, you're going to get dust and grass all over yourselves standing there.

Client: You can cut the sod now, and cut this part shorter too!

Me: They (the city) just put this sod down last week, it's not ready.

Client: No no, it'll be ok.

Me: Can you guys move?

My clients move a few feet, still in my way. I wave for them to GO AWAY, they were seriously 4-5 feet away from me, and my tractors chute.

They decide to only take a step back... So I think to myself, "screw this" and I just start mowing. A big cloud of grass covered them, and they backed off out of my way. I even scalped the sod very nicely.

Part 4

The old lady (client 2) comes out and stops me, and says, "You can raise your mower up actually".

Me: Told you.

Part 5

As I'm mowing, the client stops me. I shut down the tractor for the 1000th time, and she says, "I'm just going out for an hour". Like I really needed to know that?

Part 6

I'm on to my third client. The same guy (client 1) stops me and says, "do you want something to drink?" - I say "no".

Part 7

I'm stopped again minutes later, and the same guy (client 1) stops me and says, "here you go, here is some water". So I have to stop everything and find a place to put the bottles of water.

Part 8

I'm on my fourth property. The same guy (client 1), "Are you sure you can't take the mower now?".

At this point, I wanted to pick him up and throw him into the back of my truck and drive off a bridge.

I say, "When I have the time, not now".

-


Basically, why the hell would I help out one of my clients neighbors to go front the bill to have his mower repaired, when the neighbor isn't even a client?

This main client of mine is such a p.i.t.a. He speaks on behalf of all my clients on the street and I have no idea why they let him. He is a real estate agent who thinks he calls the shots because he can get his neighbors 'deals', yet I would have offered his neighbors the same price without him. He's got a real big head.

-

Part 9

I receive a phone call, "You forgot the lawn mower".

Then an email, "Memory jog, the lawn mower".

-

For the love of god, this man needs to get a life.

[Lopes Lawn Care]

man what a pain in the a$$. i would have had a melt down. haha. i've got a customer like that. I call her the ring leader. Huge pain, wants everything for cheap. always raves about the work but has never once given me a tip at the end of the year and complains if i charge her $5 extra dollars for something. Only reason i keep her is cause she got me 6 of her neighbors and if i cancel her all her friends will follow her.

She's old and broke a hip so at least she can't come out and stop me every 5 mins. :)

[Hedgemaster]

Cheese,
I would like to thank you for reinforcing the fact that I have the bestest clients on EARTH!

The worst of them only asks if I can take her trash to the curb when I'm in the neighborhood. I want to go kiss them all.

[WeekendWarriorLawn]

christ on a cracker! is this guy new or what? real estate game, terribly picky & bothersome...

[Sprinkler Buddy]

Just tell him you have a $25.00 pick up fee and the same for returning it. I'm sure he'll tell you it's okay, "I'll take care of it." Lol I know people. Lol

[Grass Doctor]

have u really take a deep look at him, really i say he likes you :D in a weird way i mean you know :confused:

http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/00/46/43/00001/ed-cartoon-fri-29-jul.jpg

[stevef1201]

Go to pick up the mower and hand him a bill
1. pick up 25
2. estimated repair 25
3. drop off 25

total 75

then tell him you need that money up front because your not real sure of the cost of repairs, and he will ahve to pay the full cost of repair beore you drop it back off.

you should make your money regardless.

[Steve]

Has anything else come of this?

[Ryan's Lawn Care]

hahaha wow i was about to die reading about this. i would have gone crazy.

[CHEESE2009]

Well he expected me to come back in the evening, I had to dodge a few of his persistent phone calls and emails.

Then today came along (Monday), and he didn't come outside for once, THANK GOD!

Such a pain in the arse.

-

WORSE

Another client on that street confronted my guy and told him that she wants her lawn cut at 4.5". I told my guy that that's f'ing crazy, and we do not do that.

But we are allowing it this time, just so we can tell the client off when her neighbors receive service and she doesn't due to all the water retention in her lawn :D - We don't mow wet, sorry!

It's the only way she will listen, I'm not going to bother arguing with her yet. I just wanted today to be over.


4.5" , she's god damn insane. It'll be up to our necks soon, and this means there will be patches of uncut grass and clumps after every mow, WHICH WE WILL NOT PROVIDE A SECOND PASS TO CUT DOWN.

"Oh, I see there is some places that the mower didn't get, can you go over it again?"

HELL NO! BEND OVER!!!

[bluebird]

Suck it up cupcake!
**** dude those arent problems worth writing about.
be happy youve got the customer and move on.

[CHEESE2009]

Suck it up cupcake!
**** dude those arent problems worth writing about.
be happy youve got the customer and move on.

Oh, it's good to know that they aren't problems worth writing about.

Thank you for your insight.

But really, if you haven't noticed, I always write about what's going on, regardless if it is or isn't a common problem for people on this forum.

-

Just to assist you, I can redirect the posters from my thread to yours, where you talk about your stolen mower. I guess the best thing you can do it suck it up, because we can't help you get your mower back, but we will do our best to understand the situation and humor you :)

Everyone check here bluebirds thread (http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=16407).


I hope my point has been made.




<3

[bluebird]

just sayin atmo.
Thank you for your insight.
these chigger bites suck too .

[Steve]

Each person will be annoyed by different things and also have a different tolerance level for annoyances.

I bet there are a lot of forum members that read this and get something positive out of it knowing that somewhere, someone else is annoyed by their customers too and they aren't the only ones.

[jrayb39667]

I love reading Cheese's posts. I think all of us have at least one annoying arse customer. I have this one guy. I cut his & his sisters yard. Hers is about 5 miles away from his. If I go cut his first he rides all over the yard in his truck stopping me and saying get in i wanna show you something, i say nah i'll just walk to where you're going but he insists that i ride with him...... so we'll ride like 50' and he shows me a stinking hole I need to watch out for... so we go back to my mower and if i'm lucky he'll only stop me 2 or 3 times. We cut his sisters yard right after his... Guess what... he follows us there and rides all over her yard too doing the SAME EXACT thing he does at his yard.... I learned after the 2nd time of cutting their yards to go cut his sisters first then cut his. We cut his yard today and he never left the porch!!! I asked him if he was feeling well and he said he was fine. The only reason I keep him is because he is an elderly, handicapped man and is super nice.

[Island Lawn Care]

wow im lucky. never thaught about this but my person to person customer interaction is low. 95% of the time the owners are not there where i mow. almost all the houses i cut are vacation homes that are only used a few weeks/months out of the year. i was told once by the homeowner stop Weed wackin after about an hour and a half session once. it was on a residence thats a 4-5 hour 1 man job. they told me to come back later when they wernt home. i said OK.....no prob! and came back in a couple days and started all over. but i think they relized the hard work thats put into keeping their place lookin nice.

thats about my only disasterly disturbing disturbance in 2 years of distributing cut grass

as far as the freebies...take them anyway! it makes the customer happy. they want you to have it if they offer it. its almost a form of Butt kissing. They feel all warm and fuzzy after "helpin" you out.

[CHEESE2009]

It's difficult, there are so many retired folks in my community. They all need someone to interact with, and unfortunately that person ends up being me.

Having my guy slave away while I'm stuck talking can be a drag. It messes up our system. In some areas, like Mondays, we can get stuck talking to about 7 of our elderly customers a day for 5-10 minutes each, they have nothing better to do.

I have a client who came out side to inform me that he used to make scarves, and if I ever wanted a scarf I should ask him. - this conversation about scarves lasted forever, then it was a conversation about his dead wife, and how he feeds his dog coffee, and how he grew a large tomato once. Then it begins, he talks about every single plant in his garden, then his grandchildren, then his neighbors, etc.

^ all of this gets repeated every time I maintain his lawn. He has memory issues so he must tell me the same story all the time, and often forgets who I am.

Now imagine that this is only one customer, but I have several like this. You can see why I want to rip my hair out. LOL.

Ringing a doorbell to say hi to a client, just to have good 'client relations' is never simple as just saying "Just wanted to say hi" - no - this could put me in a trap where I'm stuck chit chatting all damn day and not getting any work done. They will want to talk to me about their family and how well they've all grown up, and about their previous jobs, about the year 1000 when my clients were probably born and had to run from dinosaurs daily.