Welch's Boiler Service, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/04/29) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted], owner
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@gmail.com
Complainant client signed a contract to have the entire lawn mowed weekly. The client wanted to adjust the contract to fit their...

situation. As a courtesy, we agreed to two changes. One was a temporary practical reason(new seed and straw we put down) and the other reason was for a convenience to the client.
We proceded with the changes to the contract that the client requested. As with most service oriented companies, we provide the service based on the amount of time a specific job/service should take. This job was estimated to take 15-20 minutes and was bid accordingly. As a company, we typically project and added 5 minutes for the first service only. This is for adjustments to a new service account because, it is unfamiliar.
Upon reviewing our records, concerns from our mowing management team, the team members who provided the serviced myself, I, as the owner of the company, had to make the client aware that some type of adjustment would have to be made. Our records indicate that this 15 minute job was taking 45-50 minutes. This was not at fault of our team members, management or owners.
The issue is that instead of allowing our professional team members to do their job/provide the service and leave; the clients father would consistently stop them in process of providing the service. Our team members where always courteous and helpful. In addition, the clients father would call his son while the team members where trying to provide the service and want to talk to the team members via cellular phone. The client would talk to them on his cell phone because, he could not be on site. This is because he is an over the road truck driver and needed to talk to them while he was working.
Because of these reasons, I contacted the client, via cellular phone, and explained to him the cost of doing business. I first told him we could no longer afford to work for him due to the reasons already described. As the conversation progressed, I gave him an option of raising the rate, but continuing the service, so that we could afford to continue working for him. The client responded by saying that he should not be accountable for them(team members) taking longer. I responded by letting him know that most clients allow us to provide a service without a multitude of interruptions therefore; allowing us to be a profitable company and simply doing our jobs. He responded by telling me I may be lonely one day, like his father, and just want someone to talk to. He then told me his father just had questions and wanted to gain knowledge about the services we provide. I offered a consultation with his father to answer any questions he may have. The consultation was denied by the client.
To sum this up in a simple way, the ratio simply doesn't make business sense. Time is money and we are not in the business of losing money and with this mowing job we are consistently losing money.
p.s. I told the client that we would help with any other landscape projects he needed in the future. I didn't want a tarnished relationship with the client. More importantly, we want to stay in business and keep our team members and their family's housed and fed.