Is this customer service??

[Jumper]

Had a small stump removal this afternoon just around the corner from my house. Couple seemed nice enough. The tree was one that had broken off during the ice storm, and never really recovered-just a bunch of suckers, and thus about two wheel barrow loads of branches, all very small. It would have been chipped in about a minute. Boss was on site and refused to do it-"It was not part of the quote", well fine go talk to her and make her an offer, and she can accept or decline. Well he left, leaving me to deal with a rather irate customer, who after paying over $100 I am sure, asked for some additional service (for the record I never have chipped anything additional for free). Even after a phone call (I was still there with the chipper and truck cleaning up) to the boss who had left by this time, he refused. I was dumbfounded, and if my own truck was operational I would have gone back and picked it up after work. So business owners, what is the solution here....basically tell her to go to hell, or do it for $5.00, and build a little goodwill-I can gaurantee that this business will NOT be getting a recommendation on this street, and it seems a lot of work here comes by word of mouth. My last company may have had its problems, but I can assure you one way or the other, the chipping would have been done. I was quite embarrassed as this was not a big deal, but perhaps I do not know the BIG picture.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I woulda chipped it. Could be that she dickered him down and they had agreed to the no chipping. I've neen there, they weedle you down then wand exemplary service.

I learned early to start the negotiation prosses with "what can we take out of the prosess to come down to a good level? I'm bidding this as a clean, low impact job. Do you care about divots and drag marks in the lawn? Do you want to do the fine racking?"

 

[kf_tree]

i was just working for the company at the time . this was one of the funniest things i ever saw. the ground man was chipping up a pile of brush. when along comes a guy(from about 5 house's down from where we were working) with a big arm full of brush and pulled weeds. he just threw it on the pile with out asking. so the ground man picked it up and threw it at him as he walked away. i was rolling in the street.
if he would have asked he would have chipped it no problem. but we were not working for him. so he should have showed a little courtesy.
as to the womens sucker sprouts. unless the women did some thing that realy pissed me off, i would have told her to throw the guy a tip and he'll take them.

 

[Jumper]

Further

Exactly spike.......I did not have a prob with these people and if the boss was not there I would have done it. I also have seen people leave their garbage and old house plants on top of piles left for chipping at some condo jobs....it got left there

 

[Jumper]

More

Yes spike...it you sure meet all kinds in the streets where you are working. There is a certain woman at 2998 Hyde here that is going to get a letter warning her not to be so snotty with lowlife labour, because the low lifes might have a long memory and remember where she lives.....and all the screaming she and her husband did to the office secretary was in vain because the company is closed. Incidently the "problem" was a talk show on the truck radio in her "quiet neighbourhood" on a January day, shortly before chainsaws and chippers were flashed up. What a b*tch!

 

[kf_tree]

usualy a firm shout shuts them up. yesterday i was in a dead oak that was real punky when i got up it. i took a big wack off over the roof and the tree shook way more than normal. had my legs shaking. so i asked my rope man to tie on another climbing line so i could tie in at 2 different points. when he was tieing the rope on the cutomer started ?????ing about some of the flowers i damaged. so i yelled down " forget about him just tie the dam rope on" the customer stood at the other and of the yard and never said another word.
one time i was taking down a tree behind an apartment building on a narrow street. the super moved his car so the guys had a place to stack the brush. my chipper truck was not there yet. they came in the back to tell me some one was moving the brush so he could park his car there . so i came out of the tree and asked asked him nicley not to park there. he said you can't save a spot and he's parking there. so i threatened to beat the hell out of him. so his wife called the cops and there was about 10 cop cars there in 3 min. but all the cops were milling around and talking to the other guy. so i went in the back and went back up the tree. i roped a few limbs then about 7 cops came into the yard and told me to come out of the tree. i was only belted in . so i took my climbing line and threw it over a crotch to rappel down. just as i clipped the snap to my saddle one cop started pulling my rope screaming your going up not coming down. so i cursed at him a bit, tied my hitch and came down,( i wish i would have unclipped my belt when he pulled my rope. could have been a nice law suit. ) i wound up getting a summons for saving a spot and diorderly conduct. well as it turned out there is no such law as saving a spot and he filled out the disorderly conduct summons wrong so it was dismissed. i file complaints against him. i know he lost vacation time because of it.

 

[geofore]

service

Have a guy here that charged $50 per stump last year. This year it's $85 per stump. They don't come out for free but that should have been in the deal from the start.
How many stumps do you do a year? If you do them at a loss that could be a heck of a loss by years end. If your doing it to get good PR what's the PR worth?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Every once and a while you bite the bullet.

I had one where I brushed against some faux shutters on a house doing cleanup. The were so rotten some joints fell apart. I never noticed it, bu they called up and wanted new shutters installed. We eventualy did it.