So, we had a new lawn laid in May. Due to issues with our brand new lawnmower (that's a whole other story), we decided to pay for someone to give it a first cut, whilst trying to resolve our lawnmower issues.
A few days ago, the gardener sent by the company we chose turned up. He'd brought his lawnmower with him. I didn't see it initially as it was in a sort of bag, but I saw not too long after he started that it was a VERY old fashioned mower. Didn't have anything on the back of it to collect the grass and but for the fact he plugged it in to our sockets, I could have sworn it was some sort of manual machine - super super basic looking. It seems his plan was to cut (the fairly long) grass with this rickety old mower and then use a rake to collect the cuttings. We were being charged an hourly rate for this, by the way. So this method naturally would make the process a whole lot longer (gardener was quite old too, so not the quickest). I wasn't aware mowers of the kind he brought still existed. So expected an efficient job done by a professional.
Very quickly I could see he was really struggling to cut the grass, even though he said he was fine. Just said the grass is more dense/lush than expected (even though we had explained it was a brand new lawn).
He ultimately completed 2 passes of the grass and it was looking terrible. Supper messy, like the grass was being hacked at. He then started a third pass right in the middle of the garden. Did a couple of rows and then blew a fuse. I gave him a new one, but it didn't work. Realised later that he'd tripped our fuse box. Anyhoo, he said he would come back in a few days to finish the job, but it's going to cost more than the £60 currently agreed (which was already up £20 on the initial quote, as it was taking him longer than he expected).
He then left, didn't do any more raking or anything at that point.
It was left looking so bad - the middle strip in particular, that we decided to call in someone else to do the job. This new guy ultimately completed the job and said that (a) for a first cut of the new lawn, the guy had gone way too short on the middle section and that it risked killing the grass cutting it that low that early (that part is very brown right now). Also said he shouldn't have left all the cut dead grass on top of the lawn, because that could also damage it.
That being said, he thinks the super low section will grow back ok eventually and he has removed almost all the dead grass cuttings, so thankfully no long term damage (we hope). He will be back to do a second cut in a week. We have not yet paid the first guy, but have of course paid this second guy to finish the job properly.
My question is, WIBU not to pay the first guy, as he did such a bad job? Or perhaps reduce what we pay him?
We are not loaded and the lawn was a big purchase for us (especially whilst I'm on mat leave) and he almost ruined it. And had his mower not blown a fuse, he probably would have ruined it. And acted in bad faith leaving all that dead grass there.
Or should we just pay him the full amount and chalk it up to a bad experience?
If you made it to the end - thank you! Just didn't want to drip feed.