To have called out my gardener

[Whenindoubthugitout]

I have had a gardener this year. I have been really pleased and happy with the work he has done.

I asked him to reseed my lawn. Which he agreed to do.
The price he quoted was for 2.5 days work.

he reseeded it within a day, and I asked if the price would be reduced to reflect that it hasn’t taken him as long.

he said that - whilst it was reduced slightly - he would come out and water it daily for me whilst we were away, and that this was reflected in the pricing - which was fine.

we have been away all week, and he sent me a text this morning telling me I was due him the full amount.

however - I have a ring doorbell - and he hasn’t been out all week. (Tbf - it’s rained every day)

I called him out, and said I was unhappy to be paying for a job he hasn’t carried out.

he has now backtracked and said - oh yeah - but I plan to do three more trips (cynically I don’t believe him) and that he just didn’t want to bother me on holiday.

Aibu -to think he is trying it on -and the extra 3 trips are now because I called him out. And if he had initially intended to do these - he would have said so upfront……

I feel really sad. And let down
and slightly stupid for trusting someone to do something whilst I wasn’t there.

Ignore the silly billies OP, you are obviously not being unreasonable or "tight".

It's a shame given that you are happy with his work, but he's clearly not to be trusted.

Hopefully you can find a gardener like mine, who does a very thorough job to a high standard, for a very fair price with never a problem.

Did he have someone come with him to help?
He’s quoted you £600 for the work. You’ve then questioned the price because he said he’d possibly need 2 days but only needed 1 so then he reduced the price to £500.
So you’ve actually paid less than he quoted for the job so I don’t see the problem

Then why pay for tasks not done?
Any why be condescending in your comment?

I agree with you completely. He's charging by the day/half day. So I'd pay him for the one day only. He was being very devious.

I would consider reporting him to both Trading Standards and the police.
He has absolutely defrauded you.
They do it because they think they can get away with it.
Report every time.
I have.

I would definitely pay someone more if they were on an hourly rate and had given me a quote that said what they “expected” labour costs to be. Any quote with expected costs I would assume was going to be amended up or down once actual costs were known.

@PencilsInSpace but then he needs to do the specific job that was agreed for that price???

He didn't need to water if it rained!

I think it was ok that you pointed out that he didn't need to water but whether you are due a discount depends as OPs have said on whether the quote was for the entire job. If so, the fact that the weather did part of the job for him is irrelevant. The full fee is still due.

I think this is a situation where it depends on the gardener's role. He is a regular gardener to you so should be paid at the agreed hourly rate and no more. If this was a one off job then he should be paid what he has quoted. As it sounds like a regular gardener I agree that it should be just his hourly rate. Unless I have misunderstood his job description!

This is interesting - so are you saying £250 doesn't sound far off in your part of the country for 10m x 10m ?

Or £500 doesn't sound far off if it included materials?

Or £500 excluding materials sounds about right?

I think market rate per location is a fair guide. Might also depend a bit on the state of the lawn and if the machinery (to scarify & to drill/aerate the soil) was the gardener's own.

If you ever get your house painted internally, I know I have been quoted by the hour and they inevitably work short days and get things done faster. I don't quibble to reduce the price though because if the job is good and I was prepared to pay that price per room - what difference does it make to me if they blast on?

I would have felt let down too @Whenindoubthugitout, particularly if the working relationship had been good until this point.

I think I would have done as you have, paid him, but then start looking for a new gardener. What a shame, it sounds like he's ruined a potentially ongoing job for himself, and left you with a sour taste, and no gardener! I hope the next one you employ will be more transparent about what he does in return for his wages.

I think all the pricing is a bit off here. Why is his day rate more than his hourly rate (£30 x 7hrs = £210)? £500 (£600!) for a lawn re-seed seems excessive even with regular watering over a period of time - unless it is enormous.

You need to get a detailed statement each time for the entire job - labour and materials and vat and look over it properly. This kind of thing gets messy otherwise, but more usually I have had a conversation where the tradesman says something like - it won't cost more than £X to get all this done, so there is leeway for you to pay only for the actual job done. You then pay more if materials are more and if it's demonstrably taken longer than he anticipated.

However, the problem is you agreed to the job as he described and he has an expectation that a quote for the job will be paid (is this cash in hand?). I think the most you can do is ask what he is going to do to make up the hours that weren't used for watering, but that would be on his good will really.

You were happy with the price of £500 for the new grass.

you got new grass, so pay the fee.

It’s a lot of money for something he didn’t do.

Why on earth should you pay it?!

Oh turns out I am entirely wrong, a day rate should be higher than hourly!

Price included new grass and watering.

She got new grass.

Not watering.

So pays him for what she got.

The police 😂😂😂😂

Unless it's poured down for an hour or so each day, it's possibly not enough watering for a new lawn though. They need a lot of water until the roots establish

Isn't that somewhat different from what you originally said?

You originally said "... I asked him to reseed my lawn. Which he agreed to do.
The price he quoted was for 2.5 days work."

Now you are saying that exactly what he said was that it (ie everything involved in the job of reseeding your lawn) would take up to two days and cost £600?

I would say that he has clearly given you a total quote for doing the job and he was not quoting on the basis of the estimated man-hours the job needed at an hourly rate.

If you thought £600 was excessive and you weren't prepared to pay that much then either you should have tried to negotiate a lower figure there and then, or just turned it down and got somebody else to do it for what you considered a more acceptable price.

You could always have agreed with him that that you would pay on the basis of an hourly rate plus materials - but that lacks certainty as to how much the job would cost.

Digital ID: Snuck In Against the Public’s Will! Labour Twist Their Manifesto to Push It Through ~ Ana Boulter

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XYu-gitmG1E

If he was including the cost of waste removal and potentially an additional labourer then that is definitely a quote for the job and not for hours worked.

Or were you expecting him to cover those costs himself out of his hourly rate?

in his message he mentions getting someone to give him "a hand" - did this actually happen? or did he do the entire job alone on that one day? I'm not sure why a second person would have been needed to reseed a comparatively small area of lawn. How much moss/ thatch was removed? And where did he take it to?
I think you should ask more questions/ get more clarification from anyone you employ as a gardener in future. I wouldn't use this guy again. I'm writing this as someone who's been paid to do gardening work.

You are not being unreasonable, and sadly this is a lesson I learned with our old gardener. He was a very chatty person and would often be chatting to passers by. He used to charge for two hours. I once observed him chat for 45 minutes, and then proceed to charge me for the two hours. He did this a lot.

He was also exceptionally unreliable. I canvassed people who told me this is pretty much what to be expected around here. There is another gardener who was well known round here, who took a lot of money as a deposit off an old lady, and they never came round to do the work. Someone disgusted, named him on a public Facebook forum and he still wouldn’t give this woman the money back.

It’s a bit like tradesmen, sometimes you get someone marvellous. And sometimes you get someone a bit dishonest and unreliable. If he’s quoted you for 2 1/2 days work, and he hasn’t done 2 1/2 days work, I certainly would not pay him for it. Obviously he needs to be paid for the grass seed. But not for the labour that hasn’t been done.

I think he’s a cheeky beggar, to be honest. He lied to you, saying he’d been out to water the lawn and wanted £250 for the privilege, when you could prove he hadn’t done the work at all. That would be the breakdown in the relationship for me.

If you’ve paid £250 already, I’d try to agree to make it up to £300 or so and call it quits.

He has treated you, a regular paying client very badly. I’d be sure to tell all the neighbours.

I think if you are in a financial position to pay a gardener £30 per hour, and paying for someone to reseed a lawn, it sits awkwardly to then say ‘it’s a lot of money’ as justification for quibbling over the price.

Thats not to say you are wrong. Just you won’t win many friends.