when to throw in the towel

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spencerhenry

ArboristSite Operative
Joined
Mar 8, 2004
Messages
270
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31
Location
colorado mtns
i delivered a face cord of wood to a woman in aspen a week and a half ago. it was half aspen, half red oak. the oak i buy, but load and then stack myself, the aspen i cut, split, load and unload, by hand. when i load the truck, the ugly dirty, wet, or otherwise crappy pieces get tossed away. the aspen i loaded for her was from the sunny side of the pile, had been cut and split long enough ago that some of it was starting to turn silver, it is dry wood for sure. two days after i delivered the wood, she calls me and says that the wood wont burn, that she puts a bunch of georgia fat wood and a few pieces of firewood in the fireplace and it just smokes and then dies out. i suggested that she try some of the firestarters that you can buy at the grocery store, the waxy, oily bricks that look like they are made of sawdust. several days go by and i get another call from her, she says she has spent over $50 on firestarter and still cant get it to burn, she even hired some brown boy to "clean" the wood. he tells her that the wood is the dirtiest he has ever seen, and that it is full of bugs. he tells her that the bugs are a mite that birds carry, and the wood is covered with them. now i have sold thousands of face cords of wood over the years, and hand cut, split, load and stack all of it. i have seen an occasional beetle, caterpillar, or spider, but all the bugs i have ever found wouldnt fill a pint glass. also having hand loaded and then stacked all this wood, i know it isnt covered in dirt. i told her that aspen bark when it decays creates a gritty black "dirt", but that is wood, it has bark on it. but the reality is, that this wood was CLEAN, alot of it had no bark, all of it was dry. so tomorrow i am going 10 miles each way out of my way to take her some kindling. but i have told her that i want to see how she is building the fire, because i have NEVER had anyone have this problem before. in fact, most of my customers are either referrals, or repeat customers, and several customers have already burned enough wood, that they have called back and ordered more.
i have spent at least an hour and a half on the phone with her, every time she leaves me a message, it is about 5 minutes long. in the half hour long conversation with her today about bugs, she told me that she used 2 of the firestarter bricks and still could get a fire going. last night at the neighbor ladys house, i used 1/16th of a brick, 3 small pieces of pine edgings, and 2 large pieces of split aspen. i lit the firestarter and walked away, 10 minutes later i poked at the pieces of wood, and another 5 minutes later it was a roaring fire. 1/16th of a brick is about 1.25" cubed, not much.
i hate to just ignore her, but i am about to get to that point. i told her that tomorrow i would bring my moisture meter and check the wood, and if it is wet, i will replace it. but i checked a dozen or more random pieces tonight in my pile, the highest meter reading i got was on a piece of pine at 17%, most of the pieces checked were at 11 or 12%.
 
If it were me, i'd go back with cash in hand, and load up the wood and give her a refund. I'd also never have any wood available should she ever call again. I assure you....... she is the type that will NEVER be happy no matter what you do for her.
 
Ugh...This takes me back to when I was a landlord. Look lady, I'm not Wal-Mart. Gheez

You have your finger on the pulse better than me. I would support your decision to drive back there and haul every last bit of that wood out of her house and give her the money back. Its just money after all...this won't make you or break you in the long run. Then again...if you told her to take a hike I would support you decision as well. Maybe if you are over there you should take a few pics for your own defense if she takes you to small claims court.

The more I think of it I would go get that wood and sell it to someone else...someone who is worthy to burn your fine work.
 
As all have said,give her money back,load wood and come home.I have done this a few times with some of my customers over the years.in the long run you will be better off.
 
she has been nice, just a pain. i will give her that option tomorrow. at first i thought she might just be calling me because she wanted ME to come back to her house. it has happened before, hell thats how i met my last girlfriend. but it has gone on too long for it to be her wanting to get me inside her house. i am not usually a very patient person, but for some reason i have been very patient with her. if she still has a problem after tomorrow, i will offer her money back, or just move on. i just hate driving all the way to aspen, the sales are slow enough that i only need to go up there about once a week or less. it is about 75 miles round trip.
 
If it were me, i'd go back with cash in hand, and load up the wood and give her a refund. I'd also never have any wood available should she ever call again. I assure you....... she is the type that will NEVER be happy no matter what you do for her.

Makes a person wonder why she didn't go back to the place where she got it last year. Some people play mind games just to get a discount. They see someone else selling wood for less and think it will be the same as yours.

My good name would be worth more than a load of wood. Load it up and someone else will be buying it down the line for more than what she paid for it.

Oh! Bring a can of bug spray with you. That lady needs help... I hope she doesn't have a husband.. Poor Guy!!
 
I'd go back with cash in hand, and load up the wood and give her a refund. I'd also never have any wood available should she ever call again also.
 
It sounds to me like she just doesn't know much about building fires or wood. I've never heard of anyone "cleaning" their firewood.

I would go over there and watch her try to build a fire. Then show her the right way to do it. If the wood lights up, problem solved. If she still isn't satisfied, or if it wont light up, buy the wood back from her.
 
This is in Aspen right?....... where all the rich people live ?????....... should I say more?.....
 
is she using a wood stove or fire place? when was the last time she had the chimney cleaned - could be a draft issue

heck if you've been nice so far why not light a fire and see what happens

or give her a refund
 
Real Easy:

Tell her you're coming over to light a fire with her with the wood you delivered. If it lights, say goodbye.

If it doesn't, you have 4 options.

1. Give her full refund, take all wood back, lose her number.
2. Give her 25% money back, apoligize, tell her she can keep all the wood at the discounted price and lose her number.
3. Tell her you're willing to give her 50% off the next cord and you'll give her 25% back for this one but she can keep this cord too. So she's getting 2 cords for 40% less than what you would normally charge her.
4. Run, run out of the house, lose her number, change your number.


I'm beginning to tell people that I'll give them a few pieces to try out.
If they like it, they can't complain about a cord. If not, then they won't buy from me. Simple.

Maybe its a draft issue? Keep us posted on what happens!
 
You guys are all nicer than I am.If you know you have a quality product then I sure as shootin wouldnt drive 75 miles to prove it to her.I would tell her to punt and hang up on the old gal.Hate to say it, but it has been my experience that a lot of folks just love to have someone to gripe to who will listen.It may be your patience that has her calling back time after time.

I had a similiar experience some years ago.I went over to the old gals house and brought a pint sqeeze bottle of diesel fuel with me,the way I start a fire in my house.Threw some wood in her stove,sqeezed half a pint of diesel on the wood,dropped a match and slammed the door.20 minutes later it was 75 in her house.

Turns out she had no idea about kindling wood, expected to throw full sized chunks of red oak in the stove and light it up with a barbecue lighter after she left the pile that I had delivered uncovered on her driveway for 2 days in pouring rain.
 
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