Lawn mowing - please tell me he was taking the piss!

[TattyDevine]

Running round like a blue arsed fly this week and the lawn was looking pretty lush, but I just didn't want to find the time to do it. I would have let it go, but DH is hopefully coming home on Friday night from a long and unpleasant trip abroad and I don't want him to get up on Saturday morning and look outside and feel a sense of obligation - just a sense of being glad that he is home. Nor do I want to feel that same sense of obligation after a busy week.

So I put out a shout out on our local community group did anyone want to mow and strim a not that big lawn sometime this week.

All the usual crap with people tagging their mates and linking to non lawn related businesses and then an eager chap messaged me and said he could do it today. I gave him my address and he dutifully turned up.

He did the job, was nice and thorough, but was here less than an hour. No talk of how much the job would cost took place before he did the job.

I asked him what I owed him. He said "eighty"

I said "18?"

He said, "no eighty ....errr... is that too much?" (looking sheepish).

I told him that my previous bloke cost £20, which was about 2 years ago.

I pay £20 to get my car cleaned
£15 an hour for my cleaner
I'd expect to pay about £80 if I got an electrician or plumber round to look at something. Or some of bushes chopped down with disposal.

But not a basic lawn mow on a garden of this size. It ain't Downton Abby.

AIBU?

How much did you agree on in the end?

What did he do cut each blade of grass with a set of naol clippers to exactly tge same hight ! ?
£80 Is nuts , we have a guy cut our lawn around the carpark at work and tidy up bushes and hedges and cuts back and dead plants 2x per month he charges £120 per month .

Did you pay it?

Proof read I must proof read

Please tell me you did not pay this ?
Dam I'm in the wrong business.

Ha-ha-ha, £30 would be a reasonable rate for 1 hour, £40 at an absolute stretch for urgency and travel time. No way would I pay £80.

Why don't you say what you paid, op?

Just came on to see if it was a euphemism tbh!!.

80 friggin quid?. Is your name Lizzy??

He thought you didn't have a mower and bought a wee one for the job! ;-)
Way OTT.

I didn't ask the price beforehand because there's only so much someone can reasonably ask for mowing a lawn of that size, in that time. I would say if he wants to ask silly money, he should check they are willing to pay it beforehand or be willing to walk away with no money at all. I think he was chancing it on the basis that I might have said "oh okay then I'll just go and get that for you".

I explained to him that I have previously paid twenty with two different gardening services (sign written van, bring your own petrol mower ands strimmer, pop an invoice through the door professional types). I gave him £25 and he didn't argue.

Hearing what other people pay makes me reassured I wasn't being unreasonable. I ran it by a local friend and she cackled down the line at his brass neck and offered her theory on it. She pays her lawn people £15 a hour for lawn and garden services and she's literally round the corner from me.

Put it this way, if you can get £80 for less than an hours work for turning up to someone's house, plugging your flymo into their electric and mowing their lawn and people are willing to pay it then there's a lot of people in the wrong job

Jesus. I pay £15

because there's only so much someone can reasonably ask for mowing a lawn of that size, in that time

But as you've discovered, your idea of what's reasonable is clearly not universal. Just ask in future, don't assume.

My mum pays £15 and that includes trimming the hedges!

You should always ask beforehand 🤦‍♀️

I dread to think how much elderly people he has done jobs for, over charged and been paid. I would name and shame him.

I'd post on the local group about what he did so he doesn't try and scam anyone else. Someone less switched on or elderly might have paid it.

I think it's a pretty reasonable price. I paid much more than that recently (am in London though)

It's amazing how many people apparently don't ask how much something will be before having it done. There was one a week or two ago about an overpriced day at the hairdresser's. I'd be too worried that they'd ask more than I was willing to pay, and if they've already done the work, you're in a very awkward position.

He was expecting far too much, but yes, always ask before they do the job! It only takes a moment.

You should have agreed first.

For £80 I would want it trimmed and vajazzled.

Though, if it takes less than an hour I am not clear why your husband can't do it. Spending time in the garden at the weekend isn't really work.

Errr you can buy a good mower on Amazon to cut the grass for £80!!!!!

He probably had no idea how much it's supposed to cost, he's young, maybe he never had a job and unaware of normal rates.

My gardener has just done mine front and back, it's a decent sized plot, pretty affluent small city, he charges £16 for both lawns plus cutting back and weeding. Usually takes about an hour and he comes fortnightly.

Gardener dh would have done it for £20. I have a theory as to why he was available on such short notice.....🤔 most gardeners are booked out weeks at a time.

I'm a gardener, charge £15 per hour and have a minimum call out of 2 hours.

That truly is shocking.