Jobs you walk away from because of the owner

[Kel71]

What "sets you off " that you just walk away from a job?

 

[old guy]

Back in the 70s, a friend & I were cutting a lot of the Dutch Elm stuff.
We were all rigged up to pull & cut a large Elm which had great potential to destroy a guys house, when he came out with a camera & took pic of us & the tree & his house. We were just firewood hacks with no insurance or anything.
It went well but probably one we should have backed off of.

 

[Jeffsaw]

I have a hard time working for rude people. Cheapskates are no fun to deal with either. Sometimes I’ll give a high estimate and hope they don’t call back or will refer them to an expensive tree service. There are too many good clients out there to have to work with jerks.

 

[capetrees]

Went to work at a condo association for the property manager trimming some branches away from the road and buildings. Small job, was going to do it for nothing. As I was working, one "lady" comes out and sees the crew, me and two guys, standing there waiting for a branch to drop as I cut it. She proclaims " I hope were not paying you guys by the man!" and continues on. We continue to cut and she comes by again, "who the f%#k are you guys working for anyway?", I told her and off she goes. A couple of limbs later, "when are you f*#king guys going to finish?". We then went to go trim some final limbs in front of what I didn't know was her store. "Oh great, you guys are gonna cut the only f*#king shade I have in this f*#king store?! Don't cut anything till I make a f*#king call!", This is all around 9 am! At that point, I told the guys to pack it up, we're leaving. We cleaned up, packed up, got a coffee then got in the truck to leave. As we drove by the store nice and slow on this very narrow one way street, she comes out to the truck as we pass and says we're clear to cut the branches. I tell her, as we roll by, almost face to face, "Suck my di*k"

Coffee all over the windshield from the inside from the guys laughing

 

[Kel71]

I can't stand dealing with drunks or druggies. I just won't do it. Some times old people are a little tight on their purse strings. Things don't cost a nickel anymore.

 

[Oldmaple]

Had a potential customer once ask me how come it costs so much to take a tree down. He was willing to pay 4 or 500 dollars for this particular tree. Told him it would take a day and you would have more in direct labor costs than what you are willing to pay for that tree. You'd be in the hole without the costs of running saws, driving trucks up and down the road, etc. Told him to check Craigslist and maybe he could find a couple of guys willing to split $500 for a weekend of work. Then he started moaning about them probably not insured, messing up his yard, etc. Glad he wasn't interested. Missed appointments bug me too, two chances then I go on to the next job. Two quotes without getting any work (one this year, one the next for example) and I won't quote the next job. People will use your quote to get someone else to lower their price.

 

[Jakers]

Had a potential customer once ask me how come it costs so much to take a tree down. He was willing to pay 4 or 500 dollars for this particular tree. Told him it would take a day and you would have more in direct labor costs than what you are willing to pay for that tree. You'd be in the hole without the costs of running saws, driving trucks up and down the road, etc. Told him to check Craigslist and maybe he could find a couple of guys willing to split $500 for a weekend of work. Then he started moaning about them probably not insured, messing up his yard, etc. Glad he wasn't interested. Missed appointments bug me too, two chances then I go on to the next job. Two quotes without getting any work (one this year, one the next for example) and I won't quote the next job. People will use your quote to get someone else to lower their price.

I get that all too often this time of year. Irritating to say the least. I also have a similar estimate rule, 3 strikes and you're out or you'll pay very dearly. I once told a guy that I'd take his small tree down for $10k because I was tired of wasting my time on him

 

[Benjamin S Pendleton]

I instantly Jack the price up when the home owner starts telling me how to trim a tree. I own one the highest rated company in the area and your gonna tell me how to trim your tree? That's gonna be 300 extra for putting up with you!

 

[Little Al]

I always walk away from a request to go look at a job the customer says I guess I/we should do it this way whats your take on it as you are the expert & when you put forward your thoughts etc. & then he/she argues with me I usually say "well you know how you're going to do it a walk away

 

[northmanlogging]

Constant nagging questions about the price, can i do it quicker, can i do it cheaper, who else can i recommend...

Know what here's my price take it or leave it, by the hour because you keep changing your mind, later i got **** to do.

Skin heds... ****ing nazis think I'm one of thiers or something? So i make up some astronomical price mention something about being booked fer 6 decades and bog off before i do something rash

 

[Cupocoffee]

I had a customer call me and wanted me to come right away to give him a price to grind a bunch of stumps. I arrived at a million dollar home and the customer was middle aged and very sweaty from working in his yard. He had an area of about half an acre with tons of 6" trees which had been taken down with a forestry mower. There were flags all over the place. The stumps were almost at ground level but he kept hitting them with his mower and broke his riding mower. He wanted the stumps ground to an inch below ground. They were all very close together. I asked him how many flags there were and he said, "There are 270 but I'm not going to pay you over $1,600." I told him that is somewhat less than I would normally charge but I would do it for that price. He wanted me to come out and do them on the next two days. I told him I would like to start now and I should be done in around four hours. The man EXPLODED on me and went into a diatribe like ... "Just who the F**K do you think you are? What are you worth as a man? Tell me what you are worth without your little machine, your little truck and your little trailer?" This went on and on and on. I said, "Sir, you asked me to come and give you a price ... YOU named the price and I accepted." He said, "But you're charging $400 an hour. No man alive is worth $400 an hour. I'll give you $65 and hour. There are tons of mother fu**ers out there that will die for $65 and hour." I told him that would be doing those stumps for a dollar each and I wouldn't do it. He berated me all the way to my truck while texting on his phone at the same time. My wife asked me what I would do if he called me back. I told her there was no way he would ever call me back after the way he talked to me. Guess what? He called back a couple days later and talked to me like nothing had ever happened. He asked if I was still good with the $1,600 price. I said, "No sir." He asked what it would take for me to do the job. I said, "Sir, you don't have enough zeros in your bank accounts to get me to come back to your property." He cussed me again and hung up. He would have been one of those people who would have never been satisfied anyway. For anyone who says they would have given him a cussing, I had to bite my tongue because he would have been all over Angies List, Google, and Yelp telling people I cussed him. In my ten years of stump grinding he is the only customer who has ever been ugly to me.