Customers say the darnest things!

[Bermy]

I had the neighbor of a customer, a guy that trains sumo wrestlers say after he saw riding the crane hook, 'That's man's work"! Fiona isn't around, is she?

Ha ha, show him my avatar!

 

[Limbrat]

Did that lady have on white rubber boots and a pink shredded sports jersey...and a pot on her head?

Absolutely! And those are called oyster boots in this neck of the woods

 

[Ax-Man]

Did a couple of removals over a church this evening and a lady that was watching came up when I finished and said, "I've got a tree that's dying to meet you". I cracked up and immediately thought about this thread. That's got to take the prize for me.

That is a good one. I got a good chuckle out of that one. Nice to see people with a sense of humor.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I think the ground crew is awesome

 

[Mick!]

Customer after I cut down a dying tree: “was the tree in a bad condition?”

Me: “well it is now”

Every. Single. Time.

 

[stig]

Excellent!

 

[Jonny]

I was coiling up my climbing rope today and the sweet little old lady asked me if I needed to plug it in somewhere.
“ No, but thank you Ma’am “

 

[CurSedVoyce]

 

[Page]

I didn’t read everything in the thread but one of my favorites is just after felling a tree, the customer comes out and says “you gonna clean this shit up?!”

 

[lxskllr]

“you gonna n this shit up?!”

"Was that in the contract? I don't remember seeing that. Good luck!"

 

[flushcut]

I swear to god if one more customer tells me their tree was struck by lightning I'm going to loose it. Five in a week must be some kind of record.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Client today, informed me last night, his picture of how the tree work is done when we start at 11am. Last conversation we got pushed to a 10 am start. Conversation before tgat was a schedule change since he booked the rental on the days we had scheduled for the work. We have a meeting at 930. See how that goes.

 

[flushcut]

Bourbon. It works.

 

[lxskllr]

and after you're done, you can use the bottle to beat some sense into the client.

 

[Wood Collector]

I love the good old ones during storm damage clean up that are like what happened or can I get out this way. I've done the good old well if you can drive your car through that log then go ahead. Have had a few from the neighbours of the while your hear could you look at this. A few times its ended up turning into more work and more $$$$

 

[flushcut]

The snow ball effect. That has been me since last Thursday. "while you are here" "my neighbor wants a bid". I raised my price. Me "your tree is stable and not damaged I'll get to you some time in September"

 

[Mick!]

There is a technique clients use to talk down the extra so the price will be negligible.

Phrases like:

Shin up there and knock the top out of that tree (meaning a full reduction in height and width)

Get that one branch off the tree over the neighbour’s would you? (once you’re up the tree, expect a lot of “and that one, and that one, while you’re up there that one as well”)

Could you clean up that tree a bit? (I said to the client “what, with a sponge and water? upon cross examination ‘clean up‘ meant a full reduction of a great big cherry)

They think that by describing the extra as nothing, that’s what it will cost.

 

[Frankie]

Tell them you do “tree work” NOT “free work” !!! Gets em every time

 

[Mick!]

Doesn’t have the same ring to it in French.

I take doing freebies/extras on a case by case basis.

I don’t care for clients telling me how easy/quick it’ll be.

 

[Patrick A]

Background: Client's husband is losing it. He is 80 something and seems to lose his short term memory. I was there three day's in a row and everyday he sits on the deck, recognizes me from many years ago as opposed to the day before and says: You know what: "your tree business is a growing business "and he chuckles as he repeats the words: growing business

 

[Frankie]

Yes I suppose “nous travaillons dans le arbres pas du travail gratuit” isn’t quite the same ... n’oubliez pas de porter votre masque !