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

Completely fair!

If people don't want to pay, all they have to do is pick up the poo before he arrives.

Sprayed with poo! Urgh, poor gardener!

I would double the poo price, but apart from that, good message!

I'm a massively keen gardener also. I've never seen a cat poo on the lawns. The neighbours twat-cats hide it in the flowerbeds.

Dogs should be banned

He's absolutely right.

Poor bloke. What a disgusting thing to happen.

I can't imagine not making sure an area is clear to work in -- be that poo, rubbish or anything - before someone came to do a job. Definitely worth making it clear to clients this isn't acceptable.

Oh there's always one 🙄

Maybe someone enterprising will start a poo-picking-up business.

So people could book the poo-picker to come hours before the gardener arrives!

@FallingStar21 I never cease to be amazed by the lack of reading comprehension on this site. Seriously, an upper end primary school kid could do better.

As the OP explained in her post, the poor man ended up with dog shit on his face because he was strimming the garden. The shit (presumably) got caught in the strimmer’s blades and the centrifugal force threw it upwards onto his face.

Absolutely fucking vile.

We have a lawn maintenance service and they remind clients ahead of each visit, that the lawn must be clear of dog poo, leaves etc. Otherwise they won’t treat it.

I have 2 dogs, they poo in a designated area at the back of the garden, regular as clockwork, so one of us picks it up immediately. I would have no problem if a gardener sent me that message. Who wants dog or cat shit on their grass ?

🤣 but the question is, how much would a poo picker charge? What's a reasonable rate for the task?

Completely fair.

I think the gardener's message has been sent as a deterrent . He probably knows they won't want to pay any extra and is hoping his message will serve to make them clear up their dog shit .

It’s a high charge… which will hopefully motivate people to clear up the dog shit.

In the company I work for if a team turn up and there is dog poo in the way we cancel the job because it's a health risk and will only go back once the dog poo has been removed.
Your gardener friend is not being unreasonable it's disgusting!

I did think £15 for possibly 1 minutes work was a bit much but on reflection, given the consequences, I agree with it and it is an unpleasant task.
My only concern would be, what if it's a hidden poo? I assume the poo that caused the offense was hidden. So it becomes more of a 'penalty' for missing one. That said, it would hopefully encourage owners to be proactive in their poo picking!

I'd be worried about clients leaving a weeks worth for me!!

Having previously strimmed through piles of cat and dog faeces myself, I absolutely agree with this.

Domestic dog poo is not an occupational hazard for gardeners. I'm outraged on behalf of the gardener. £15 is nowhere near enough.
If you're the gardener OP charge more!

I think it's fine to send if they're having multiple issues with people not cleaning up after their dog. That's disgusting and people shouldn't leave their gardener with a garden of poo to clean.

If it was after a once off situation where a usually good client had cleaned up by missed one then I might think it was a bit of a knee jerk reaction.

It is multiple issues not a one off, and clients have previously been asked to poo-pick before the gardener arrives.

Most Gardeners clear the area first. I’d find a polite note explaining dog poo wasn’t part of the service absolutely fine but that message is odd. To be honest I’d probably just find a gardener that did the job without this kind of messaging and spoke directly to the owner concerned. Too much agro.

Good on the gardener. If I was one of his clients I'd absolutely read into it that someone hadn't cleared their garden and think it was fair enough.

If it were me, I'd ask for as much as I thought I could get away with!

The gardener doesn't really want to pick up dog poo, they want to garden.

So charge a lot.

It will either act as a deterrent, forcing people to pick up their own mess OR the very laziest amongst them will have to pay a small fortune, definitely making it worth the gardener's time to do so.

I'd think it was perfectly reasonable.