What would you think if your gardener sent this message to all their clients?

[DoggyDooDooDoo]

"Hi all, just to let you know a new service I'm offering -

Poo picking - Happy to clean up after your dog before I start work
£15 first 1-15min
£1per min after that

Thanks!"

This follows an incident on Monday where they got dog poo sprayed all over them whilst strimming a garden that hadn't been poo-picked (as previously requested) before they started work. They had to leave work to go home and shower as it was splattered over their face.

YABU - dog poo is an occupational hazard of gardening and that's an outrageous price to charge for clearing it up

YANBU - fair enough, dog poo is rank and that's a reasonable price to charge for dealing with it before starting work

The trouble with the message is that it is offered as a service so if the customer doesn't elect to use that service he has no recourse to charge.
He needs to rephrase it to say if he has to clear poo it will be charged at this rate.

Perfectly fine. In fact,

I think it isn’t a high enough charge.

Fancy paying for a gardener, but leaving dog crap all over it during the week.

(Assuming the client isn’t disabled and unable to access garden, even so I’d still charge).

Charging people to pick up poo is not a deterrent unless the charge is levied if the gardener has to pick it up, not as an optional service.

I don't blame them at all though. It's rank! It's especially difficult when there are leaves everywhere.

It's not a service - it's a surcharge on those who breach the condition of poo-picking before the gardener arrived.

If it was just a case that a normally diligent owner had missed one (and haven't we all, usually lost in autumn leaves) then I really don't think a note of that kind would ever have been deployed.

Absolutely a fair amount to charge. I would be mortified if I were the client.

Home owners should pick up their own dogs poo and not expect someone else to do it.

Ps I charge my kids £1 per poo 😂

The charge is fine, the message is too nice. Needs to be written to state it's a charge that will be applied if the garden is not clear of animal faeces on arrival, rather than a service that he's happy to provide (because he'd rather not).

I think it’s too friendly - I would be telling people that they pick it up or I wouldn’t be doing the work and billing as normal

I would charge a lot more than that and make it a penalty rather than a service

Some people really are disgusting and disrespectful

In fact I would just find over clients if people did this to me

I think it's a decent way of making sure that doesn't happen to them again. They're happy to do it if the dog owners don't want to, but they're quite rightly going to charge for time and effort.

I think it’s completely reasonable but hasn’t been worded well, it makes me think they are scared to say what they mean and a result it’s a bit wishy washy. If it hasn’t already been sent I’d suggest:

Hi all, Gordon the Gardener here. Just a polite reminder to all to confirm that gardens must be clear of all dog poo before I arrive; I’m sure you can appreciate why. If I have to clear the garden before starting work, a flat rate of £15 for the first 15 minutes clearing will be charged, followed by £1 per extra minute. This will be on top of the usual fee. Thanks all, look forward to seeing you soon :)

Garden should ideally be cleaned before gardener does his job.

What happens if the gardener comes across wild animal poo, or other people’s cats poo?

I'd try to phrase the message in a way that the gardener will leave and not do the gardening if the garden canvas (so to speak) isn't clear of dog dirt.
So something like this "Failure to clear all dog faeces prior to our arrival will result in a flat charge of half a days work and we reserve the right to leave and not do your gardening"

Play hardball here.

The gardener is not trying to expand the services they provide, rather they expect a clean environment to be able to provide the ones they already do.

I find it pretty disgusting that people don't pick up after their dogs every time it shits

I accidentally voted YABU, I meant YANBU.

Would you really be happy doing this week after week for £15 if they decided to subscribe to your "service"?

I think you should just jack it up to a half/full day surcharge to signal it is off limits, and be happy to lose them as a client if they won't pay that.

Phrase it like this

"All animal faeces must be removed prior to our arrival. Failure to do this will result in a fee of half a days work (on top of agreed payment) and we reserve the right to refuse to work should we discover any faeces."

I'm a gardener. I stop going to gardens where the owner hasn't picked up. It's gross. Good on the gardener.

If the gardener has to go home and shower and change it’s costing them money.
Good on the gardener!

YaNBU
Its a polite message and hopefully will encourage people to do it themselves.
Absolutely horrible incident, poor gardener.
Only caveat I would say if owners are normally conscientious but just missed one.
Dog poo can sometimes be hard to spot in leaves or long grass.
As they were strimming, presumably long grass, and didn't spot it themselves until too late maybe that was the case?
I would be beyond apologetic and mortified if it happened to my ( non existant) gardener.

I mean it wind me up a little because I have neither a cat or a dog but being in a newbuild estate where loads have plastic grass the cats use my natural grass front garden as a designated toilet and even though I clean it daily every time I turn around there is another dump there so if we had a gardener I'm sure on occasion they would find the odd deposit which I would resent paying for. But if we are speaking about dog owners just leaving their own dogs mess then completely reasonable.

Sounds completely fair and reasonable to me.

I'm more curious about how the poo ended up on his face. Did it fall off a tree?😂

Totally fair enough - their job is to deal with gardens, not animal waste. If people are too lazy to do it then they should be charged.