Warning signs of potential bad customers

Oh, yeah...I like those too...especially the ones that want a discount b/c you might have put some divets in their yard from dropping something from 80 ft. high. They know up front when signing the contract that is a possibility. I had one guy that called and called wanting me to come do his job...we had been through a week or so of rain and I kept telling him the ground would have to significantly dry out before his job could be done. He insisted and I told him that I would not be responsible for ruts, tracks, divets, et cetera...after job was done, he was ticked over the condition of the ground and didn't want to pay. Had to threaten lien to get him to pay in which he finally did...
 
People that don't seem to have a lot of money and Always screen their calls. A good shot of someone dodging creditors' phone calls. Happened to a friend of mine--The old Stiff-er-oo on payment.
 
i got stiffed for $500 last thursday, the most beautiful prune i've ever done too. 100' tall willow oak with a 70' spread, lots of interior green. the tree hadn't been done in 50 years, this was a job prune out guys dream of, hence the price, i just wanted to do the tree. the lady calls me last september and asks for a bid. she wants to take the tree down and i talk her out off it. she waits till last week then starts pressuring me to prune the tree. we had some high winds and i think a large piece of dead wood scared her. i get the time to do the tree on thursday, she called sunday. after i finish the tree she wasn't there. so we left for the next job. i stop back by to pick up the check and am told that the pile we left on the street wasn't worth $500. what she didn't see was the 16 by 8 trailer loaded for bear. the tree looked like a tree and was not lion tailed. i guess thats what she wanted? i still had to pick up the debris left on the street due to a city ordinance and still haven't got paid. what a b---h.
 
Hope you have a signed contract.


I know what you mean about a cheaper price just to get the job. I just finished a large/ HUGE walnut prune that was a lot of work, that I quoted for less than it was worth because of the experience gained and the opportunity to grunt/ climb the thing. We don't get spreading trees like it up here so much in the PNW.

Wish you luck in collecting.
 
No prob...just file a contractor's lien against the old battle-ax...once an account has reached (60) days outstanding here in LA, we can file a lien against the property. Lien is effective for (10) years here, but you have up to only a year to force a home into foreclosure sale to satisfy the lien...I wouldn't think you'd do that over $500! You have to send (in LA) a "Notice of Intent to File a Contractor's Labor and Materials Lien" at least (20) days in advance, via certified mail, to the non-paying client. Usually, that intent letter does the trick and you never even have to file a lien, although, sometimes I have had to! Once you file the lien at your county courthouse, you send the client a stamped and certified copy of the lien. Sometimes, this forces them to pay, especially if they know the lien will be reported to credit bureaus. If they do pay, then you have to file a lien release and send that to the client as well. If all else fails after those steps, then you get a judgement rendered against them. Judgements are reported directly and immediately to credit bureaus and will screw up their credit dramatically. Nothing worse than non-paying customers!
 
The client gives you the verbal to do the job, you schedule it 3 weeks out, then two weeks go by, they get other quotes and then call you to tell you they just got a quote from someone who is $700 less and want you to match the price... even if the quote is from this company:

hey, we are the low bidders!

Hey, these guys even top trees!

I cannot compete with them. Not a chance I am going down to that level. They can have the job!
 
Yeah, man...I hate that crap! As a matter of speaking, just happened to me today. Contract law here in LA states that once a client signs the bid they are given (I keep a carbon copy), that constitutes a contract....their signature is an acknowledgement of a contract. Technically, if they hire someone else to do the job, you could sue them for the amount of contracted work you were supposed to do and win the case EVERY TIME, so my attorney says. But who the hell is gonna do that and get a bad name around town? It still is very aggrevating...guy called me today after giving me the job and said he got a cheaper price...this is 4 days after he had given me the job. Why give someone the job, if you intend to continue shopping prices? If the client is going to shop prices, collect all of the bids first and THEN award the job...people don't give a flip about your gas and time for your bid. Wish we could charge for bids around here, but no one around here will agree to that...so 75% of my calls are a waste of time and my gas...
 
WTF?

Thought this site was about not posting names or links.

I've seen others get a lashings and you get the aawwww poor fella you have to compete agin him.

Hey Cameron where are you? You see this?
 
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WTF?

Thought this site was about not posting names or links.

I've seen others get a lashings and you get the aawwww poor fella you have to compete agin him.

Hey Cameron where are you? You see this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you Ekka?
 
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Why give someone the job, if you intend to continue shopping prices? If the client is going to shop prices, collect all of the bids first and THEN award the job...people don't give a flip about your gas and time for your bid. Wish we could charge for bids around here, but no one around here will agree to that...so 75% of my calls are a waste of time and my gas...

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Yep... that sucks, but it happens!

Regarding lawn damage, part of my proposals deals with waivers for lawn damage, lawn ornaments not moved, sprinkler heads not marked, etc. I can toss you a copy, if you'd like to include it into yours.
 
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Thought this site was about not posting names or links.



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You mean like this post of yours?

"What knid of feed back do ya'll have on Almstead tree service? "

What does knid mean?
shocked.gif
 
When you do estimates you are a salesperson and that is part of the job. That's the way it is in most businesses and that's why you claim it as an expense on your tax return. As well this is one of the elements that differentiate employees from contractors, risk. What happened is just another piece of experience that will help you in closing more business AND securing the price. People are people and will do stuff that will leave us wondering. Try to figure a way to give the person confidence in your work and price so they won't shop it or at the least some sort of price guarantee in the event they do.

Sherrill has done this and I've taken advantage of it. It may have cost him but he moved inventory and generated cash flow.
 
Yep, TreeHumper...people are people and they do some strange and unusual things...been in business a long time and seen it all. My company will match or beat a competitors' price if certain criteria are met. I don't mind competing against anyone at all around town, but want to be matched "apples for apples," if you catch my drift. If a client calls me back and says they've gotten a cheaper price from "XYZ Tree Service," I don't mind matching it or beating it, as LONG as they are a licensed and FULLY insured competitor (with both WComp and GLiability). Sorry, but I'm not gonna compete with a "jakeleg"....they have no overhead, no insurance premiums, no state/federal taxes, and take all their money in cash...not worth it to me.

NeTree, hey buddy...got the "damage clause" in my contracts...sure do appreciate it though! Yeah, that's one of those things we guys gotta have, huh?

Talking about bad customers, here's one for you guys...most memorable one for me...had a lady about (2) years ago contact me about removing a small pine tree and trimming a live oak in her backyard. It was a climb job...no way for a bucket truck to access backyard. All the debris even had to be log dollyed out of the backyard (hand-toted). The day I go out to do the job, gave her a call on both her cell phone and home phone...left messages and couldn't get in touch with her. So I went on out and did the job...she had given it to me and I had a signed contract. Finish up, go on to the next jobs for that day, and that afternoon, I get a phone call from the woman. She tells me that we did a wonderful job and was very pleased with the looks of the live oak and the great clean-up job we did.

Then, here comes the funny part...she proceeds to tell me that although she is pleased, because I did not get in touch with her by phone prior to commencing the job, that I nor my company had permission to be on her property and that we had illegally trespassed on her property. She claimed that she did not authorize or give us verbal consent to be on her property that day. Needless to say, my jaw about hit the floor. Clearly, I was not dealing with someone running on all cylinders, right?

I informed the woman that her signature on the contract was the consent needed to complete the tree work in her yard...I told her if somebody trespassed, why would they remove a small pine tree, trim a live oak, and then clean-up and haul-off the debris? I told her she was out of her mind...I said to her, "Well, I guess I just randomly picked your house to trepass and come do tree work at, right?" She had no explanation, and then informed me she would call the police...I encouraged her to...I wanted them to see what a nutjob I was dealing with her. She then backed off that idea.

I finally told her that I saw what she was doing as nothing more than an attempt to get out of paying for the job. I told her this was a story she had concocted before I had ever done the job and had this planned out from the get-go. She said she intended to pay me...guys, you know what I did? I told her to take her money and shove up you know where, so she could live with the guilt. I let her know that I would inform everybody what kind of person she was and how she conducted business. I do a lot of jobs in that neighborhood, and they all know about this incident and avoid that broad like a plague!

Anybody else want to share? Or top this one? LOL!
 
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"What knid of feed back do ya'll have on Almstead tree service? "

What does knid mean?

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oopppssss sorry for my typo. Didn't realize this was a spelling bee site. Along with only selet few being able to bash while others get lashed.

I do beg for your forgiveness on placing the n before i in {kind} Number 3 of it sums up what I was asking and should be enough to explain what it is for you.?

If you want to kick me in my nads I'd hope you'd use more of that so called higher education you supossed to have. That thing on top of your neck is not a suppository.
 
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WTF?

Thought this site was about not posting names or links.

I've seen others get a lashings and you get the aawwww poor fella you have to compete agin him.

Hey Cameron where are you? You see this?

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Hollen you know just as well as I do if that guy was a member here at TB with over a 1000 posts they would stick up for the fella. Since no one knows him here let the bashing continue. Go figure
crazy.gif
 
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Wish we could charge for bids around here, but no one around here will agree to that...so 75% of my calls are a waste of time and my gas...

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I don't want to hijack the thread going into this again, but I will briefly point out that, if only 25% of your calls schedule a paid visit, but 80% of them schedule work, you're still working just as much and you don't waste time chasing lowball work.

I resisted charging for the site visit a long time, then came around. Then the economy tanked, we suspended our "no free estimates" policy, and we wasted a lot of time. Now we have reinstated our policy. It's still slow, but at least we aren't driving around writing job specs for the chainsaw-and-a-ladder guys.

k
 
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