GRRRRRRRRRR...I hate when a clients says...

I hate it when a client says....ole boy will do it for xxxxx amount...

I had a potential client about 100 miles from me call and inquire about charges to come out to do a predator removal job..

So I quote him a price and tell him, this is my flat rate daily fee that I charge state wide for predator jobs..


He scoffs and says, I have a local guy that will trap predators for 25.00 each...

I politely tell him that's a great price and that he should go with his local guy if he thinks the guy can get the job done to his satisfaction.

He then asks why I charge the amount that I quoted....Sir, I have overhead,insurance, vehicle maintenance , equipment costs, lures and baits as well as out of town lodging, and Sir, that's what Professionalism costs. I'm not a local guy and I don't plan on being on your property trapping for a month, my predator jobs usually last a week to 10 days at most.


Ok rant over.....

I'm with you.

The fact that he has someone to do it for $25 ea and he is still shopping for a better price tells me you don't want him as a customer

I guess if a mouse was considered a predator, we might do those for 25 bucks apiece.

Do you charge by the pound?

That's the biggest problem with doing work 100 miles away. It's usually too expensive. Some local guy, even if he isn't that good, can always beat your price.

sqs has just made one of the most important points to any business, but especially ours. Location, location, location. I've mentioned

this before and it needs repeating. We continually take business away from the largest companies because of service, not price. In

some cases we have charged more but offered more constant service. While we are not like car maintenance shops, where I can take my

pick of a dozen in a few miles from the office, I bet wildlife/pest control customers would love it if they could!

Or, he's lying thru his teeth trying to BS you into reducing your price.

I recall a Tman thread were someone was willing to trap for an apple pie...

love the ones who call middle of the night wanting something removed, then tell you they have a friend/relative that will do it for free.

I've got this pain in the butt gal, that tells me where to set the cage, what bait to use, and how to set it. Yesterday she tells me

that the trap is sprung with nothing in it. So I check the cage, and sure enough, I've got a grey squirrel in it. I was so mad that I

almost got rid of her but divorce is so darn expensive and it's hard to hire decent secretaries.

LMAO!

I run a lawn care business, and I get responses along that same line. Yes, they could do it cheaper, but especially in a small town, you get what you pay for.

I am at times setting equipment that at times can cause injury. I have animal alive in a trap that can do severe injury. When your dumb bunny loving neighbor kid trespasses and gets ripped up by the cute little coyote she was trying to pet and release from the trap, do you want my insurance or joe blows cheap price?

Do you know why divorce is so expensive?


Because its worth it!!

Not for Paul....he lucked out with his sweetie.

As long as it has a good slice of sharp cheddar cheese on top. Wisconsin of course.

I am going to try that....sounds good.

Yep your gonna hear that from time to time. Had my own service company for a time and the other guy in the county that did the same work was cheaper. He worked it as a sideline job and if he said tuesday at 11 o'clock on monday it might be next week at 11 pm. Got alot of his customers because of it and had alot of repeat customers that would wait two weeks for me to work them in rather than call him. Just smile and tell the shopper to go with the cheaper price and wish them luck, more often than not you'll hear from them again. Jim

What Jim and ADC said; in a word, professionalism!
you could get somebody to, say, wire your house for $10 an hour...but I wouldn't go to sleep there.

Always someone who wants it for nothing, but I do get sympathetic when I give a price and they say money is tight. Some would love to have the work done but just can not afford it. You do have to remain steady. One local guy charged for summer beaver a while back, $50 but would trap for $0 in the winter for fur. I spoke with him and said, let me get this straight. You get $50 to catch a beaver and burry it in summer, but to catch it, skin it, stretch and market it in winter you are happy to get $20 and nothing for your service. I told him that he should decide who he wanted to be, an ADC guy or a fur trapper, which if I remember correctly he did not like. When work is done for nothing the client figures the work is worth nothing.

When a client says, "you get something for the fur in winter," I don't disagree, but point out the service in solving a problem is where the charge comes in. If I do handle the fur after hours, if there is such a thing, I point out that for that extra money I do a lot of extra work. But, if they would like, and don't want me to make the extra bucks for the extra work I'd be more than happy to pile them where they want them. No takers yet.

I have trapped for 'other considerations' a number of times but I don't do wildlife control for the fur. I have no problem with those that do. It's a great way for fur trappers to get ground to trap.

I will trap Beaver and Muskrats, no charge if in season, if they don't want them removed right away. My kicker is, I offer Pest Control Service on their house. I get a paying customer and I get fur to trap for fun. I do offer a price to remove the animals for damage control. I've only done this two or three times.

You usually get what you pay for.

I am not in the animal removal business but maybe some day. But when I get told someone else can do what I do for cheaper I just remind the of one simple thing. "Skilled labor is not cheap. And cheap labor is not skilled" then I let them know when others mess it up my basket price is 30% more than before just to fix someone else's oops and run.