The Tipping and Anti-Tipping Cultures

Eric Frei

Are you noticing anything changing over the last few years?

Lets talk about it, on one hand the marketing geniuses say give better service, even pay $'s to the prospect (not a customer till they pay you for work done) if you are late, free quotes, free stump grinds, free assessments, free advice, pensioner discounts etc etc etc.

So, what are you finding out there, are you getting tips for a job well done or doing extra work for nothing, and worse still extra work for nothing and no thanks for it.

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JohN Dee

"oh while ya here..." "You know.. you can just bzzzzzzt it!" - My reply: "Oh, while your writing it, can you add an extra 0 to the bill?" Lol i've never said that, but I should, LOL. I tell them yeah but it's gunna cost you more. Extra work = Extra Money. Simple as that.

I can probably recollect all the tips I've ever gotten...

The first tip I got was when I was just a groundy, prolly 4 years back $20, nice old lady... I just recently worked for her again and she tipped my groundy this time, suzie, $50, LOL.

Quoted a prune on a Tallow wood once, for an older bloke, quoted him $250 to do it, he said quote me $500, so I did and he did...

Quoted a 1.2m wide blackbutt stump once, told him how long I thought it'd take, but it took longer, at the end of the job there was an extra $150 when I was counting it, pulled him up on it, he said it took a little longer then what I said, so thats the extra for it. Good thing I didn't take a little less time!

I've probably been tipped, 14-20 times my 6 years in the industy... But hey Ekka, do lunches, beer, wine and spirits (I'm building up a mad grog cabinet aye) count? If so i'd have to say 75%

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We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

Done it

This might turn into the Biggest Ever Thread.

I've seen some changes alright, mainly the people here, but they all respect a well done job. I started up here in March 1977 and still have clients from then. Seen a lot come & go, only thinking of quick money, not next year.

People tip in different ways. Money, food, beer, but the best is, recommend to a friend, that's the best tip you can get, it keeps going & going, probably like this thread will.

newguy18

Not very often but i do get a nice thanks.I'm guilty of throwing extra work in at times.

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old schooler

Lee Winger

you rarely get a cup of tea over here let alone a tip

blair duncanson

Leaving the site tidy, if not tidier than you found it, is usually what most clients appreciate. Agree with Done It, recommendation is best, especially in small communities. Usually find that ,'want to be millionaires", try to screw you. The more genuine, working folks, rich or poor normally tip. Think it depends a lot on the area you are working and whether the client appreciates hard work?

quercus

My groundies get tipped al the time. It varies from 5 to 25 euro's. When I worked for someone else I got tipped too. I on the other hand never expect a tip. I'm usually very happy when they pay me on time.

When work is on a roll, and things get done quicker then expected, some clients do ask me if the bill is gonna be lesser. I simply ask them if they would pay more in the event of it taking longer... They shut up after that most of the time....
For some reason, everybody out here thinks that people whom are self-emplyed are always rich. Except for the ones whom are self-employed too of course. We do work for free all the time, and when things do get done quicker, it happens that we do something more then scheduled in that particular contract. I always stick to my price. Even if it takes three days longer then expected. I've never ever told a client that things are gonna be more expensive without telling them in advance. I don't take pre-payments either... Clients gotta pay in full when the work is totally completed.

Eric Frei

I personally find those who haven't sweat or worked physically for a living and usually more demanding, more nit picky, harder to satisfy and expect more done for nothing.

The best I find to work for a fellow blue collar workers and tradies.

However is the "marketing geniuses", such as a recent blurb in the Australia Arbor Age, pressing a culture of the customer expending something for nothing. Suggestions of "we will pay you $50 if we are not there in 2 hours" etc on your yellow pages ads?

Already ads are littered with free this and that, now go through the professionals and other trades ads ... who's giving much away? No-one!

I see a lot of this circulate, a lot of competition at the dollar value of our service. One company here enters you a monthly draw for $500 if you get them etc. Are these publications and "marketing geniuses who most likely don't sweat for a living" devaluing us? Elsewhere I referred to this as a race to the bottom, who's cheapest and gives away the most gets the work.

I certainly have noticed customers demands are increasing and their expectations bordering on blackmail. Blackmail in the sense of if you dont do the extra you may not get paid, will get bad mouthed etc.

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quercus

Out here we don't have those kinds of practices... Fast service does give me an advantage though.

s.kerrone

Tipping ??,I got a phone call last week to have a look and price three tall fir trees.They wanted the trees removed and cut into firewood,I would have to climb them to put a line on them to fall in the right direction.(tight spot) When I got there,I got the how much,tight for money,can you do it real soon?? I gave them a price and changed my plans to help them out.Two days later I got the phone call,found someone else!!(cheaper) no tip either

bigshea13

:yesterday i was offered smoked salmon to remove two large dead firs. he d have needed his own hatchery to cover the bill. i get asked EVERY day to do something in someones yard. i was even asked to adjust a radio antenna{which i did}
they think because we remove the trees on the roadside and around the lines we can just zip in and take out a few for them .......seeing that we re already there.
i tell them my boss is an asshole and that he ll fire us. that usually works. the general foreman i work for is actually a good guy but they dont need to know that

Done it

I get jobs all the time because of guys doing your job. Thanks to you all, it stirs them up, "they wouldn't even come and look at it", so they ring me.

Therrin

I'd say 70% of the time is pretty close.

Sometimes cash, sometimes food, or both. Getting the calls from the neighbors sure is the best though, you've got that right.

Was workin on my own one day and this doctor guy took me out for a steak for lunch. TD on a large-ish pine by myself. When we got back I was fat n happy and didn't feel like moving an inch. Oh the drudgery a good steak can induce!!

Had people bring lunch out, some invite me into their homes to wash up and eat. It's almost crazy. Made at least 2 good friends so far.

Like John, one guy had asked me about "hitting up one more pine" before I left, he said how much? I threw out a quick $150 from a hundred yards off without looking too hard. Ended up being there another 3 hours, thing had a ton of leaders comin out of it.
Finished up tired as a rat and the guy gave me $400. Said he used to do "treework" but stopped after just a couple clients and that he could appreciate something that he can't do. Pity they aren't all like that.

Oh, one crazy lady called me back to agree on a bid, said she'd even throw in a $50 tip, then called back 2 days later and cancelled.

blair duncanson

Spot, on. Is it because there are too many'",cowboys,"" out there, devaluing your work and the clients are too nieve to see the importance of getting quality arborists?? Perhaps introducing the importance of proper treecare to pupils at school, may break this trend??

JohN Dee

That is it, the long term plan. We need the bloody government to have a very light/basic but detailed enough tree biology part in the curriculem. Heard on the news a little while back ole' Keven Rudd gunna make a national curriculem... Reckon he's gunna include any tree awareness? Not likely. Our best bet would be to volunteer our precious time at the primary schools preferably on Arbor Day.

Hey Ekka, coppers and firies are good payers aswell. That's because the majority of them are tradies on their other 4 days off.

__________________
We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

Eric Frei

LOL, coppers are great.

And all male Gay customers too, seriously... but I worked for a few female gay couples .... wow, touchy if it's the dominant man ones day off, can be a man hater.

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JohN Dee

Lol, I don't think I've ever worked for a gay...

__________________
We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

quercus

No-one enters my planning without handing me a signed estimate first. When they do, it's possible that I re-arrange some things to get it done quicker.E-mails are a legitimate form of agreeing with the contract. They hold their value in court when it comes down to it.

newguy18

Are you saying you got beat up by a girl?

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old schooler

Done it

Is having buckets of water tipped on you included?

I started to take down a C.Laurel once in front of a block of units, I was only about 15' up when everything got wet, looked up: blue sky, nobody around, turned saw off, wet again followed by "Keep away from that xxxxing tree".

Gay couple [female] on the third floor balcony were chucking buckets of water at me, just then the owner turned up, one proceeded to abuse & push him around the car park for a few minutes before sanity prevailed and they went back upstairs. He was a nice guy, chinese about 60, it didn't bother him.

When we were finished they came and apologised, [in tears] I could understand, it was a nice shade tree but in the wrong place. My groundie that day was an off duty cop, he never said a word, UNTIL he got to the pub, next time I called in everyone in town had heard about it.

Camphor Laurel Menace

Eric Frei

LOL, cops can be pretty canny avoiding trouble at times me thinks.

Just saying, with a lesbian couple there's usually the dominant man style butch one ... can be a man hater, lucky you just copped buckets of water not pots of hot oil.

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Therrin

I dunno Ekka, the thought of two lesbians coming at me with a bucket of hot oil really doesn't sound all that bad



Now if it were guys... I'd be GTFO and forget about the contract. Lol.

treevet

I had a regular gay client years ago that used to always want to put his creepy hand on me when we talked. I instructed my gm to stand btwn us at all times no matter what. It went around in circles like a mexican hat dance, but it worked Hey if he paid when we were through, I d prob work for Charles Manson.

My opinion from the beginning has been if you do 1 then 2....then even 3 or 4 free throw on things ....then they ask you to do a fifth, if you do not do that one they are pissed off anyway and it was a total waste to do the first 4. No freebies. If they don t respect you for that you got the wrong client.

Sean Freeman

WAY tooooo much info Ken and it should be warm oil BTW...you can heat it up later...just kidding

Therrin

Hey now, if it's already hot when they bring it, I can adapt

Talk about a helluva big tip.... heh


Maybe I'll have to stop joking about being in the tree business for the girls =)
I'm not holding my breath in the meantime though.

arborjockey

My 2nd tree job for myself I dealt with a couple that were two houses over and beating the s!!! out each other. I usually mind my own buisness but it went on and on. You know when you bid one of those jobs that you figure out a 1/4 of the way through it you under bid it? Real Bad. It was one of those and i needed the $. So already not in a good mood, I storm over there and in the process of hastily opening the sliding door I ripped it off the hinges. So I walked in, door in hand, to tell him to knock it it off only to find her on top of him teeing off on his unprotected nose. I set the door down, pulled her off, and told him to leave and he got in my face to which I pulled out my handsaw. When I told him I'd cut his hand off if he didn't leave he got the point. Now I'm on my 2nd day of my 1 day job and here comes the idiot on his moped. To my amusement for the next 15min. I watched her rake the asphalt with him. He was aparently drunk and she took advantage of it. Polynesian girls are tough. You aussies know about the Moures,mauries, maures? (If thats how you spell it)

Eric Frei

Maoris


But the Tongan's give them some too!

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ronnyb

Tipping- isn't that a city in China? Haven't seen a cash tip in a while.

quercus

hahaha cut his hand off... that'd be a sight!!

Done it

I got paid for todays job last week plus a $20 tip, [owner not going to be home] Everything went ok until I ground up this mess, busted 3 teeth on my grinder, at least I got a tip.

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