"Olly" wrote in message
...
On 3 May 2004 09:33:54 -0700, (Mike Lyle)
wrote:

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...


If the guy is using his own electric/ petrol hedgetrimmer £10 ph is
cheap ! I charge £12 ph for hedge/ grasscutting in Bedfordshire
but only work very locally to keep travelling costs down.
This is also my rate for general garden maintenance etc. & using all
my own tools + machinery . Extra charge for taking away rubbish.
I think that is pretty good value as the advice + knowledge comes
free !

I think so too

There are *gardeners* & Gardeners.

Oh. soooo true (-;

Someebody wanted a veg.
patch dug over - I told them to get a fit youngster at £5 ph ( if they
could find one ! )
BTW Plumbers around here won't look at anything for less than £60
Four years ago I needed a new lock on my garage door in a hurry as I
didn't have a key ........... standard Henderson type. He wanted £80
for a five minute job and then ddn't bother to turn up ! Finished up
doing it myself for £20...

Given that there are many who might be reading this thread out of genuine
interest in case of future projects, then might I point out one or two
things to try to avoid.

I have a customer who previously took on some landscape contractors. They
provided a price , to do some tree work, but the it went more like, say, '
Gardeners; 'That'll cost £30 quid to mow the lawn'
'Ok' says the customer and they get on with it.
Afterwards they present him with a bill of £55.
'But you said £30!!', says the customer
'yeah!' says the gardeners, it's £30 plus another £25 cos we had to hire the
mower.... how else did you think we were going to do it?'

In another instance, a customer was in effect conned into accepting a
maintenance contract.
& it was the same aherm, wonderful contractors
They provided a seasons guarantee for work done (life of plants mainly)
However, in order to administer this arrangement they (off course) needed
permission to pop in regularly and do what ever needed to be done to ensure
this work was successful.
So, they turned up and did what amounted to general maintenance. Even cut
the grass, which the customer thought was jolly nice of them...but boy oh
boy... that customer (husband+wife) had no idea that somewhere in the small
print they had accepted liability to pay for this maintenance form of
assurance.

That said, I may as well point out that £12 per hour for labour which is
every bit as skilled as knowing how to fill out a form, is more than dirt
cheap when said form-filler can get , oooh £180 per hour (-;

Patrick