Hey every one. Im sort of in a pickle. I own a landscape company. I am very successful (i am not trying to brag its just back story) at this. This is my first year as a legit business, but I have been in this field since I was 14 ( i am now 19)
So I had a friend of a family friend contact me about some work and that went smoothly, well he gave my phione number to his father in law. So this is where the problems start.
I met with him in april (or early march its been so long now that I cant remember the exact date), he wanted about $6000 worht of work. Some of this was new landscaping such as new plantings and beds and some was just putting down new mulch and things like that.
Well he turned out to be a jerk. He would call me at night at 10: 30 then complain that I did not answer, then other times he would call me on a sunday and demand that I come work. For example, I usually work saturdays however on this particular saturday it was raining really hard and my girl friend asked me to go to her grandparents house for lunch an hour away from our town. Well he calls me and says and i quote " I demand you come and do the weeding at my house Im having company over and it looks aweful, its your fault you need to fix it now" so I go on to explain that I was away (I had told them not to expect me the day before) and that i would be happy to take care of it monday and for an extra charge as that was not included in the weekly mowing price or the $6000. So fast forward to tuesday of that week he comes out of the house screaming ad yelling demanding to know what was more important then working at is house on saturday (monday was also a rain day) So i finished the project I was on and sent him a termination(sp) of service email that night stating that I would not be compleating the rest of the work and WOULD NOT be collecting the rest of the money ($1500 for re doing a walk way) as I would not be compleating the walk. He also owed me $240 for mowing thar month but I told him to keep the money mostly to get him out of my hair. He was mad about me stopping the work but was happy about the billing.
So fast forward to this morning, I mow tow lawns on the same street as this man and I was doing these lawns today. Well out of the cornor of my eye I see him coming down the road so I went to the back of the house to avoid eye contact with him. He apparently say me and walked into the neighbors lawn (they have had issues with his dog and do not like him) and confronted me about why I stopped working for him he called me all sort of names that I cant post on here. ( the f word was used by him ALOT) he then went on to yell at me and said if I did not come pick the weeds in a garden bed I had made and in the bed against the house that he would be taking me to court. He also accused me of chipping bricks in his drive way which I absoutly did not do (i parked in the street because that drive cost about $30000) and said he would be sending me the bill for that. I terminated service to him in april and he is just now complaing and freaking out about this.
While he was yelling at me I felt threated and was tempted to call the police and I told him if he didnt calm down I would and he called me an f ing baby.
So my question is can he actually take me to court and sue me or is he just mad and being a bully becauce im young and he thinks he can get me to do work for free. There is nothing in writing about money except that i would not be collecting the last $1740 for work that i would not do and for the month of mowing. Now keep in mind he is hated by both neighbors that I still work for.
I did end up learning from all of this thatI need to have contracts and other paper work in place when I do big jobs such as this.
Im sorry for the long post I just want people thoughts on this. And please if you think im in the wrong tell me I want to know.
So I had a friend of a family friend contact me about some work and that went smoothly, well he gave my phione number to his father in law. So this is where the problems start.
I met with him in april (or early march its been so long now that I cant remember the exact date), he wanted about $6000 worht of work. Some of this was new landscaping such as new plantings and beds and some was just putting down new mulch and things like that.
Well he turned out to be a jerk. He would call me at night at 10: 30 then complain that I did not answer, then other times he would call me on a sunday and demand that I come work. For example, I usually work saturdays however on this particular saturday it was raining really hard and my girl friend asked me to go to her grandparents house for lunch an hour away from our town. Well he calls me and says and i quote " I demand you come and do the weeding at my house Im having company over and it looks aweful, its your fault you need to fix it now" so I go on to explain that I was away (I had told them not to expect me the day before) and that i would be happy to take care of it monday and for an extra charge as that was not included in the weekly mowing price or the $6000. So fast forward to tuesday of that week he comes out of the house screaming ad yelling demanding to know what was more important then working at is house on saturday (monday was also a rain day) So i finished the project I was on and sent him a termination(sp) of service email that night stating that I would not be compleating the rest of the work and WOULD NOT be collecting the rest of the money ($1500 for re doing a walk way) as I would not be compleating the walk. He also owed me $240 for mowing thar month but I told him to keep the money mostly to get him out of my hair. He was mad about me stopping the work but was happy about the billing.
So fast forward to this morning, I mow tow lawns on the same street as this man and I was doing these lawns today. Well out of the cornor of my eye I see him coming down the road so I went to the back of the house to avoid eye contact with him. He apparently say me and walked into the neighbors lawn (they have had issues with his dog and do not like him) and confronted me about why I stopped working for him he called me all sort of names that I cant post on here. ( the f word was used by him ALOT) he then went on to yell at me and said if I did not come pick the weeds in a garden bed I had made and in the bed against the house that he would be taking me to court. He also accused me of chipping bricks in his drive way which I absoutly did not do (i parked in the street because that drive cost about $30000) and said he would be sending me the bill for that. I terminated service to him in april and he is just now complaing and freaking out about this.
While he was yelling at me I felt threated and was tempted to call the police and I told him if he didnt calm down I would and he called me an f ing baby.
So my question is can he actually take me to court and sue me or is he just mad and being a bully becauce im young and he thinks he can get me to do work for free. There is nothing in writing about money except that i would not be collecting the last $1740 for work that i would not do and for the month of mowing. Now keep in mind he is hated by both neighbors that I still work for.
I did end up learning from all of this thatI need to have contracts and other paper work in place when I do big jobs such as this.
Im sorry for the long post I just want people thoughts on this. And please if you think im in the wrong tell me I want to know.
