Beware of cowboy gardeners

We used to have a guy around here.
He was a nice bloke and lots old dears were happy at his price and workmanship. He even sold them plants at a reasonable price and planted them out for them.

It took a while, but eventually he was sussed. His way of supplimenting his income was the plants. He would clear a few from each garden where they were plentiful and re-sell them to other customers.
Obviously the next time he visited the doner garden there was a space that he could fill with some plants he had in the van - cheap.

He's still around, He just moves to another estate once he's been sussed. There are hundreds of estates in the area. Happy days!

 

there was another article in the daily mail yesterday as regards Rouge Gardeners ... and was titled 'Daylight Shrubbery'

Daylight shrubbery! The cowboy gardeners who are ripping off householders | Mail Online

 

As mentioned in the Telegraph article, its always best to deal with reputable well established firms who have a good local track record (and are properly insured) for major gardening work.

Good 'jobbing' gardeners for light tasks are never short of work due to 'word of mouth' recommendations.

a-a

 

interesting subject, but there are 2 sides to rouge trading

1st is the guy who is unqualifed and rips you off (as in the newspaper article)

but what about the qualified, fully licenced, landscaper who rips off the old lady by charging excessive rates to mow her lawn?

same thing in my book, but you will seldom see such articles in the newspaper about such cases

Professional landscapers have a 'club' and will always dispise and oppose the people who try to take their work away for cheaper

Sadly, they don't realize that if you never went to gardening school, you can still mow a lawn, design a garden, trim a hedge and pull a weed, and possibly/probably do the job just as good as they do, for much cheaper ...

the proof is on sites like this .... look at the pics that members post of their properties and you will see amazing gardens

 

I've had a few 1 off jobs where you do the work as discussed .... at the end of the job, you get statement's such as:

But you never moved the pile of bricks to behind the garage etc

Now, any one off jobs are quoted, then on the day I start, they are given a contact stating exactly what work will be done .... with the clause that any additional work requested will be quoted and charged over and above

I have never had a problem since

I once had a client who got all stroppy and tried to haggle the price after the work was completed .... I was polite and told her no probs, she can keep the money ....

she backpeddaled, eyes as wide as a saucer and paid me the full amount ... I still do work for her, and have never had a prob with her since

suppose if the amount for the job was a lot, I would not have told her to keep the money

 

This is a subject i have experienced !

An odd-job gardener was arranged, by me, for my elderly neighbour who need a one-off job done.

I saw his advert in the local paper and just took it from there ..... huuuuge mistake, he was an odd-job/handyman gardener and NOT at all what he said in his advert or on his van.
Because he'd under-estimated the job, in its entirity, he asked for a lot more money than was agreed, he left 50% of the rubbish behind and ruined her beds and lawns in the whole process.

Halfway through the job i was having doubts about the guy (could see him work from an upstairs window) but what can you say ? I'm not (nor was the neighbour) the kind of person to tell him to sling his hook immediately so ..... she ended up with a bad job.

Needless to say, i would never recommend him and try, whenever possible, to get recommedations now.

If only the advert and van had been honest and plaintalking though the situation (and expectations) would never have happened because you'd go by the guys experience etc.

 

I think non-gardeners often underestimate the amount of work involved in pruning or moving plants and digging out borders. They think it's easy because they've never tried doing it themselves. Having said this, the old lady who used to live next door to me once hired some gardening help. A big strapping chap arrived and proceeded to chop itsy-bitsy pieces from her overgrown shrubs before carrying them daintily across the garden to deposit them in a sack. After watching him doing this little dance for a couple of days, I could stand it no more. I went round with a pair of sturdy loppers and my trusty secateurs and had the whole lot done and dusted within a morning.

 

But Clara - you took the bread out of this poor man's mouth. He had days of income available.

 

When I moved into the house I'm in atm the hedges and shrubs around the edge looked like they had been vandalised! It has took me ages to get them looking respectable again. I was talking to the neighbour next door one day and he told me that he had been in charge of the garden whilst the house was empty before I moved in. He was complaining that the landlord had not payed him for doing the hedges

 

lmao the cartoon made me giggle