Poll

What would you do?

This poll has expired. Voting is no longer possible.
18 votes were received.

Keep new company	11		61%
Fire new company, rehire old company	7		39%

---

Late last year I hired a small company to spray my yard for weeds each month. By small I mean the owner does the spraying, and has an assistant with him to load up hoses and keeps tanks filled etc.

A couple of months ago I notice weeds really picking up, seems the "weed guy" has not been around in over 6 weeks. I call and I am told due to lots of rain (true) they are behind and working as quickly as possible to catch up. Yes, we have had a lot of rain lately. Another week goes by and I call again and am told they will be by next week for sure.

That week goes by, no show. half way into the next week I decide to call another company and they come out 2 days alter. Says no major issues, we'll get those weeds under control in 2 months.

So all seems good until today when a find out the first guy fell behind because the owner caught COVID and spent 10 days in the hospital and while trying to catch up, is still not up to full strength and can't work full days.

Sad to hear the first company guy got Covid-and I hope he recovers fully.

That being said, your needs continue. Who knows when and if he'll ever be able to return to his regular schedule.

You made the right choice based on your available information. They should have been honest with you and I don't understand why they weren't.

---

Damn that's harsh. The man gets Covid. Spends 10 days in the hospital.He's still weak and can't work a full day of manual labor. He misses one monthly spray of your yard and you fire him. I understand seeing some weeds in your lawn is upsetting but geez cut him some slack. He almost died and is recovering while still working as much as he can to keep his business afloat.

There is an unfortunate stigma with Covid. I understand why he didn't want to tell customers. Especially in a profession where he goes on people's property.

---

Regardless of how sympathetic you feel for the first guy, he did not tell you the truth of why he was behind. All companies fell behind because of the rain. He had the additional problem of COVID that he kept a secret for fear of losing customers.

He had the option of sending his helper out alone and notifying his customers, but he did not. That is poor management and should cost him business.

---

Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

In the scheme of things, just how important are weeds?

Fill a spray bottle with vinegar and epsom salts and do it yourself? It works fine on my weeds, when I spray.

Quote
Lizabeth
In the scheme of things, just how important are weeds?

Fill a spray bottle with vinegar and epsom salts and do it yourself? It works fine on my weeds, when I spray.

And, it cuts down on the poisons that we are putting into the environment.

---

--------------

Embarassing myself on the Internet since 1978.

poor management; agree and not being honest with you, a paying customer.
Original contractor should have either hired more help or subbed out the work
until they are back to full capacity.
Above all, you were not valued enough as a customer so they misled you.

Move on.

---

39°36'17"N 75°44'43"W

The search engine that doesn't track you.

Quote
Lizabeth
In the scheme of things, just how important are weeds?

Fill a spray bottle with vinegar and epsom salts and do it yourself? It works fine on my weeds, when I spray.

That works... as a non-selective herbicide. In other words, it'll kill everything you spray it on. Weeds in a yard need a selective herbicide that kills the weeds, and not the grass.

I'd stay with the new one unless/until you have an issue. If you do have an issue, you could go back to the original guy.

Thanks for the replies so far.

I was trying to fight the weeds by myself but it was a losing battle. The professionals can spray an entire lawn 1/6th acre in 15 minutes while it took me 1-2 hours to spot spray the weeds I saw.

Wife has always said that the definition of a weed is simply something you don't want in your garden.

FWIW, I don't ever have my yard sprayed; it's a yard. I'd rather deal with the occasional onions (the weed that has apparently adopted me) than spray it with a lot of chemical @#$%& just to keep it flat and all the same color. That's environmentally irresponsible but just IMO. YMMV.

---

(BTW, it's spelled < y'all >.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2020 10:23AM by Zoidberg.

How about getting a weed torch and stopping release of herbicides into the environment.

---

"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

I'll cut a guy a lot of slack if they're straight with me... But, the first guy wasn't, and you made a decision based on the story he told you.
I might hire him back, after telling him "if you'd been straight with me from the beginning, there would have been no problem... next time, just be honest.".
But I might see how the second company performs for a while, too.

---

Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

--

--
Eureka, CA

Spray the whole yard with weedkiller, nuke it brown. Then buy a Wagner Paint Gun and five gallons of green paint.

Green lawn, evenly "mowed", 15 minutes of painting a few times a year.

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.”
-- François de La Rochefoucauld

Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional.

Quote
Ombligo
Spray the whole yard with weedkiller, nuke it brown. Then buy a Wagner Paint Gun and five gallons of green paint.

Green lawn, evenly "mowed", 15 minutes of painting a few times a year.

Agreed. Or AstroTurf it.

Or do what we do: Maintain a cut meadow—it looks something like a grass lawn from the street vantage point.

Quote
Article Accelerator

Quote
Ombligo
Spray the whole yard with weedkiller, nuke it brown. Then buy a Wagner Paint Gun and five gallons of green paint.

Green lawn, evenly "mowed", 15 minutes of painting a few times a year.

Agreed. Or AstroTurf it.

Or do what we do: Maintain a cut meadow—it looks something like a grass lawn from the street vantage point.

Artificial turf is not cheap. I've looked into it. Installed, it runs about $10/sq ft for the cheapest one. If you want decent quality, it goes up from there.

My yard is full of weeds. But they're green, and when I cut the lawn, it looks good for several days before you see all the weeds.

We're going into fall/winter, when I overseed the lawn with ryegrass. My yard will look awesome from December through about April. Then the ryegrass dies off, and I'm back to what I have now.

Quote
modelamac
Regardless of how sympathetic you feel for the first guy, he did not tell you the truth of why he was behind. All companies fell behind because of the rain. He had the additional problem of COVID that he kept a secret for fear of losing customers.

He had the option of sending his helper out alone and notifying his customers, but he did not. That is poor management and should cost him business.

In reality, that probably wasn't an option. In many states, you need to be licensed to apply weed killer, etc. Not just on a company basis but also an individual one.

.....would Vend.......Diagram help.....????

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Did you actually fire the guy, or just hire someone in his stead.

If he did a good job prior, I'd be tempted to hire him back, as a lot of businesses have died for no other reason that being impacted in some way by COVID, one of which is the lack of customers.

We don't know if the assistant in licensed, if one is even required in this case, and if there was any attempt to continue while the boss was OOC.

He'd get a short 'you should have been straight with me' and then it's goldfish time.

I don't think you were wrong in any case.

But you could help out the first guy, if you were of a mind.

If there's a contract involved with the second guy, then it's not so easy.

---

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

Everybody matters or nobody matters.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Had he TOLD you that from the beginning, your decision would have been a lot easier. Why don't people just communicate?

.....fear.......had he told you, chances are most people would have left and used someone who had the ability to get it done, and not wait for when he was better........

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

he could have said a medical issue without going into details. But yeah, based on what you knew, you took the right decision, even though it was not fair. Nothing is fair in this world.

you can always hire him back in a few months.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2020 10:30PM by space-time.

......just remember mercy......and kindness......

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

I can understand wanting to weed a garden, but spraying poison on a garden seems dangerous. I'm eating things from that soil. Spraying poison on grass seems even stranger.

---

**************************************
MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

.....the grass is always greener.......

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!