How would you handle this?

[G-Mac]

Update on the update...

I had to take my son to work this morning, and on the way back I stopped at Dave's house to pick up a shovel that my son left there.

He had some older guy cutting the grass on a commercial type zero-turn mower.

Mysteriously, Dave couldn't find my shovel, which I knew was a Sears Craftsman.

He tried to pawn off some other cheap "Made In China" shovel on me...said that was the only one he could find...that one must be mine...and I could have that one.

I thought about it for half a second, I said no...this shovel isn't mine...I put it down and started walking to my truck.

I told him when he finds mine to drop it off.

I got in my truck, drove down the road a bit to turn around...when I was going back past his house, he was standing in the road with my shovel...he said he just found it under his deck.

I said thanks and no hard feelings about the lawn...it just wasn't economically feasible for us to do it.

He then told me that the guy doing his lawn was doing it for $25.00.

I guess he got me, huh?

 

[BarbC]

A great deal is when everyone comes out a winner!

 

[gregintenn]

You might consider selling your mower and hiring that guy!

He surely can't make money mowing ANYTHING for $25.

If you're close to me, I'd like his number as well.

 

[G-Mac]

Originally posted by gregintenn:
You might consider selling your mower and hiring that guy!

He surely can't make money mowing ANYTHING for $25.

If you're close to me, I'd like his number as well.

Greg,

It's kinda funny...the price keeps going down...he told my son last week he could get it done for $35.00. He told me $30.00 yesterday...now...today it's $25.00.

At the rate this guy is going, pretty soon somebody will be PAYING HIM for the honor of cutting his grass.

 

[Marshall 357]

Bet he'll be doing it for $20 next week! LOL!!!

 

[rburg]

Originally posted by NMPinNYC:
Otherwise, there might be a few choice words written in the lawn with Roundout. Great idea, right? No, wait, that's no good, please ignore everything I wrote above, my keyboard eraser isn't working right.

If the keyboard erase key doesn't work, use white out!

Oh, before you hit the "post now" button!

 

[perrazi]

can't understand how some people try to take advantage of kids that way. what a complete jerk. hope the dna wasn't passed down to the girlfriend of your son.

 

[rburg]

I'm thinking its turned out for the best. If your son has time and needs the work, he can just solicit other neighbors to do their yard work.

I did that back in the early to mid 1960s. Of course the big, one acre suburban lots got me all of $5. Once the neighbors of that relative heard the price, they wanted me to do their yards, too. Except my mothers cousin Fritz lied and said he paid me $7. So my dad would drop me and the PUSH mower off with a 2 gallon can of fuel. Yes, I was there, often 8 hours. He worried about me, or my mother did. sometimes he'd drop past to give me a canteen of water. Yes, we didn't have bottled water 50 years ago.

We lived up on the next hill for a while. We moved down here and became flatlanders 14 years ago. When my oldest got to about 14, he started cutting our lawn. The guy with the house next door was keeping it as a rental. He asked my son if he'd like to cut it. They agreed to the $10 price. The first cycle was a treat. Yes, I had to help. The front yard was more correctly termed the "front cliff". It had been so long since it had been cut that it took us both an afternoon.

But then the guy knew how much work it was, he'd lived there for a few years. So every week when he was going to cut our lawn, he'd all the guy and tell him how long the grass was, and if he wanted it cut. The guy got tired of the phone calls and just told him to cut it when he cut my yard. Easy.

Then one cycle he cheated my son. It'd been a few weeks and he just said he didn't believe he'd cut it, and every 10 days was too often anyhow. No pay one cycle. Yes, getting cheated is tough on a kid, but its also a learning experience. While he was only 15 I think at the time, he took it like a man. Meaning he got all pissed off and mad.

Move the clock forward. The neighbor stopped buy about 3 weeks later and wanted to know why his grass wasn't cut. Simple. You cheated a kid out of some money. He doesn't want to do business that way. The neighbor gets all POd and leaves, shouting he'll just pay a commercial lawn care company to do it "right".

I similed every time I got home for a few more weeks. Then finally one of the commercial guys was there, mowing the hay. I'm a friendly kind of guy, so during one of his breaks, I wandered over to chat. He was laughing as I approached.

It seems they took one look at the yard, and told ole Nash it was a $50 job. And it had been neglected so long, they wouldn't touch that first cutting for that amount. But they'd cut it the rest of the season if they were allowed to determine when. There was no way it was worth it for only $50 if he let it get that high again. He also said no one else would touch it, given the grade of the hill.

His parting comment to me was how much fun it was to deal with people who don't know what work is worth. Or they don't until faced with either doing it themselves, or paying commercial rates.

In my youth, I earned a lot of my spending money cutting other peoples lawns. I learned a lot about people, too. When you can, you've got to turn down bad deals. The trick is knowing which is which.

Back to the OPs story and my take on it. If someone in this day and age will supply 3 hours of labor, and the machinery, along with the transportation to and from, then only get about the $25 or $30 being quoted, somebody is a fool.
I'm thinking the landowner is a liar. But pride will keep him from admitting he gambled and lost.

 

[G-Mac]

Originally posted by perrazi:
can't understand how some people try to take advantage of kids that way. what a complete jerk. hope the dna wasn't passed down to the girlfriend of your son.

Nope, this jerk is just married to her cousin.

Besides, my son's girlfriend was adopted as an infant...she was born in Romania.

 

[G-Mac]

Originally posted by rburg:I'm thinking the landowner is a liar. But pride will keep him from admitting he gambled and lost.

That's what I'm thinkin' too, Dick.

 

[jimmyj]

Hi:
Your Son should politely inquire why the price has dropped from $50.00 to $40.00.
However, $40.00 is better than $00.00.
Jimmy