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

This. Whenever I let our dog out I’d watch her and clear up after her straight away. Who wants a lawn full of dog shit?

Very good message

Our gardener doesn’t charge to pick up the copious amounts of cat shit in our garden (it’s a lot 🤢). He knows we haven’t got any pets though but if we had a dog and he charged I would pay

The gardener was strimming. Have you ever strimmed a dog shite? A sloppy rain soaked one at that... It kind of...vaporises 🤢

The only thing about this that would annoy me is that next door's cat poops in our garden, I dont see why I should pay for that when its not something I can control. I do clear it up when I see it but its possible to miss a bit. Neighbours wont do anything about it either which is irritating

Absolutely fair enough and the gardener shouldn’t need to do this. I agree with @1099 and others. If you offer a service they can choose not to use it. If you say there will be an extra charge to poo pick then that will focus the clients more on whether they want to avoid the charge by not being such grim lazy fuckers.

To me the message sounds like the gardener is willing to clear poop, but for a price.

if a deterrent is needed, then it’s either tell them I’ll be downing tools until it’s clear (while charging) or a surcharge like taxis when people are sick in them.

Well done to the gardener

I think the gardener needs to charge more for doing it as some lazy fuckers might be happy to pay. Then I think they need to find some new clients and make it clear that as a condition of working for them they expect clients to pick up their own dogshit. I have a gardener and he’s an amazing, experienced professional, no way would I want him to pick up dogshit when he could doing something productive in my garden.

Exactly! If I see my cat shitting in my garden I pick it up. I pick up fox shit in a morning off the drive, and that’s nasty tar like shit.

I am horrified that people let their dog shit in the garden and leave it there knowing they have someone coming to cut their grass.

Grim.

Well done him. I think that's excellent.

I think it's very fair. But thinking about client psychology, it might be better to add a potential charge for the event of poo being there, rather than charge it as an extra service.
This is because the same unfortunate thing could still happen again, and a customer could just say "oops, really sorry". Whereas if he stipulates this would be chargeable, then they have no choice and HAVE to pay.
Charging for poo pick up before gardening versus charging a poo fee if poo is encountered will have the same effect on customers ie they'd be extra vigilant. However, charging for poo pick up as he currently wishes to does not really help him if someone has genuinely been forgetful. Or
Not sure I've expressed that very well, sorry!

Sorry if this has already been answered-what was the response of the client's responsible for the poospray episode? Did he communicate to them what had happened?

That's disgusting. I would be embarrassed if I had a gardener and left dog poo lying around.
I don't believe dog poo picking is part of gardening so he should charge whatever he wants or he should just state that he will avoid gardening any areas that have poo left there.

I pick up any dog shit as it occurs but do check the back garden before ours comes just in case. He once spent 10 minutes clearing cat shit (we don’t have a cat) from our front garden which ate into the time he’d meant to be spent doing actual gardening. If I’d left any dog shit I wouldn’t mind paying him a bit extra for it, it’s rank and not part of his job.

I think they should charge more than that! But otherwise, totally reasonable.

Yes disgusting.Shit on your shoe.Up to a weeks worth left on a large lawn I've heard of.Picking it up before you do a job just not on.

I think that's a very fair price to charge.
Tangent but - weird how people assume that the gardener is male!

The amount is fine but i agree with the posters who said it's a really weird way of telling people. like a teacher telling off the whole class rather than the one naughty kid.

the clients who don't have dogs are going to just be confused

the clients who have dogs but clean up after themselves are going to suspect the gardener is pulling a fast 1 and trying to charge them for additional services they don't need

And the cheeky poo leavers are already so oblivious about social norms they are just going to read it as an entirely optional service and refuse to pay extra because that's how it reads.

I find it disgusting that people let their dogs poo in their gardens in the first place never mind just leave it there. Yuk. Whole place must reek. We take ours out of the front door for a walk and pick up from wherever it goes.

I think this is the fairest approach.

Or dropping the client.

A fine of £20 also appropriate. I think the message is fine.

Absolutely good for him. I just hope the poor guy doesn't lose loads of business because of it. So many dog owners are really bloody entitled.

I adore my dog. I'm someone who is adamant he is part of the family with access all areas but I never let him poo on my grass. That poor gardener. I'd drop the client if that happened. Who the fuck are the 2% that think you're unreasonable?

I hadn’t thought about people who get neighbourhood cats going in their garden. I guess that they don’t want it there so although annoying to pay when it’s not your pet you are still getting a service.

My dog walker does poo picking too.

Think it's a good idea, most people, especially wealthy people, are v reluctant to spend any more money than they have to, and will take the hint and clean the crap up themselves, I doubt this gardener will get many takers and I don't think that was their intention.

Surprised 'gardening' has become so much of a thing though. People really are lazy bastards nowadays.

This....