AIBU: Called out my gardener on Facebook

[WilmaFlintstone38]

I've had a gardener several times over the past few years. I wanted some work doing and messaged him twice over the last couple of months giving him my holiday dates. No reply to either message so I just presumed he didn't want to do the work and started looking around for someone else.

He did message me when I got back from holiday to say he'd come round Saturday 6 July. This is just for a recce. I messaged him that morning to check what time he was planning to arrive as I'd got shopping and things to do. He came back with "I might have to rearrange". I gave him up as a bad job.

This morning I'm looking on the local Facebook forum and he's advertising for work. I replied saying that I was still waiting for a date. It was a woman managing the page who replied asking me to call her so she could "put you on our system". Cue a series of messages, ending with me stating that I'm a long standing customer, have been communicating with Fred and I'm already on the "system" but waiting for him to respond.

Less than 20 minutes later Fred comes back with a date over the upcoming weekend. So he wasn't too busy, and they're looking for work but pissing off loyal customers!

Have I made him look stupid?

You have hit the nail on the head I suspect. I have a small garden and have had a succession of gardeners start off with assurances that they won't let me down etc then become progressively more flakey and seemingly unwilling to do my garden. I am a nice customer and pay their going rates promptly so I can only assume that they get fed up of small jobs and stop prioritising them. I understand why they might do that but I always try to be flexible and accommodating re when they want to fit me in, but it still seems they flake off eventually and I have to seek a new one.

Luckily I've now found a good one on recommendation.

You have embarrassed him, yes.

It's tricky. I work with a lot of gardeners and landscapers, and very often, they are dyslexic or have other issues around organisation/written communication, and often, no, they don't manage this side of the business themselves. Or they do it badly.

If it really bothers you, yes, absolutely, find someone else. Or if he's a good gardener, I would get in touch and say, 'look, we seem to have had crossed wires - I'd got in touch a couple of times with you and not had a response until I saw your facebook post where you said you were looking for work. What's the best way for me to get in touch in the future, please?' If he is decent, he will be able either to tell you that he prefers contact through FB (or whatever), or he will apologise and explain that he dropped the ball, or possibly both.

I would also keep in mind that gardeners do look for different types of work. He may not need any more clients who want the odd site visit or, say, one day per week of maintenance. He might be advertising in the hope of getting a bigger contract with a larger garden where he can do three days a week. I'm just giving these as examples. You can't really judge him for advertising for work when you don't know that your kind of job is what he is trying to secure.