After a lifetime of doing our own mowing, we started using a landscaper to do a weekly cut last summer. As I have no previous experience with this type of service, I’m curious what you all think about this situation.
He comes once a week. Our designated day is Monday, but some weeks he comes on Tuesday, instead (if it was rainy on Monday or just sometimes with no explanation).I find that slightly inconvenient (the latter scenario), as I make a point of cleaning up the the dog poop from the yard and making sure the hoses are coiled at the house and out of the way in preparation for his arrival…but, whatever…small thing I don’t sweat too much.
Twice this summer he has texted me to say he’s not coming this week. It happened today. Yesterday was rainy, so I didn’t expect him. Today it was rainy in the morning and then cleared up. I got a text before noon saying “not coming because of the rain - see you next week.” I guess with two wet days there is no way for him to make up his Monday and Tuesday customers during the rest of the week?
We will end up doing it ourselves tonight or tomorrow evening, since by the weekend (when we’ll be spending time out in the yard), it would be in desperate need of a cut and edging and I’d have a hard time enjoying it. He will bill for only 3x/month, so it isn’t that I think I’m paying for something I’m not getting. I’m just not getting something I am willing to pay for. I am curious if this is just a normal thing that happens when you hire this type of service, or if others have experience with their service making up the rainy day at a later time during the week?
In my experience, that’s not normal. My guys come on Tuesdays, but if it’s pouring on Tuesday they’ll come on Wednesday. Once, in eight years, they forgot us one week, but I called and they apologized and resumed their reliable service.
Every service will handle things a bit differently, but we’ve used two different lawn care services and they both made up rainy days as soon as our lawn was dry enough to cut (usually within the week).
Our lawn guy comes weekly. If he can’t do our lawn on the designated day, he comes another day. But if it rains too much a few days in a row, he doesn’t come that week…because it wouldn’t be great for our lawn area to have his riding mowers on sodden turf. Our yard always looks fine…and that is what matters to us.
We’ve experienced lawn services that come as soon after their designated day as possible once the grass is dry and others that skip a week. Since this bothers you, why not call your yard guy or talk with him the next time he comes to ask if he can prioritize coming every week. He may have other customers who do not care and won’t mind him skipping a week. On the other hand, he may be short handed and choose to fire customers who he thinks are too demanding. These days that’s happening.
Before H retired, I wanted to be sure our yard service didn’t come on the weekend and explained that to them. It was never a problem. Once he retired, I called the owner and told him that if they needed to push our yard back to Saturday, just text me an alert and it would be fine.
By this time of year, our grass isn’t growing as fast and I don’t mind if they need to skip a week. We pay the same amount each month regardless of the number of times they mow, but it works out. The guys come in the fall and winter to blow leaves, pick up storm debris, etc.
The service we use at our second home is not as good as the other one, but it’s okay. We pay this service per visit. When we’ve had rainy weather, I’ve texted that it’s okay to skip edging to save them some time as they try to catch up. When the grass needs mowing weekly, the edging could be done every other week and still look fine.
Not normal in my experience. Our service comes on the same day every week unless it’s pouring or there is holiday. Then it’s the next day. They will email before holiday weeks with reminders and will email if they are going to be delayed because of weather. We’ve never had enough rain that they skipped a week entirely.
Our lawn guy comes on random days. The dog poop issue is a concern to our neighbor who has the same service, but the lawn guy has a big clientele so I don’t know he could keep to a same day schedule given rain and drought. Given lack of rain, I am happy when he comes less often. I’m sure there are services that can better stick to a predictable schedule.
If it rains ours comes another day- has never missed in the few years I’ve used them. I hired them after our lawn mower broke and I have no intention of owning another one so if they don’t show up it will be a mess.
We have the guys come only once in two weeks - is usually not a problem. But this year, with the constant rainy July - oh my!
They usually come on a wednesday - they adjust the time/day depending on the weather. And no, I’ve never had them skip a week in all the years they’ve been doing our lawn.
My only grass mowing situation is in the country and the curb appeal standard is very different. As long as it looks as though the property is occupied, that’s fine with us. A weekly cut would be more than we need in any event, but for the last couple of years drought has been a bigger problem than rain days and the grass just doesn’t grow that fast.
I do it because once the mower has driven over it, it’s impossible to pick up. I have two dogs and a small backyard. I try to get out there a couple of times a week and get rid of it or else it becomes too much
Our service sometimes annoys us. They charge by month, and hubby kindly (with concern for small businesses during covid) took their option to pay-ahead for the year. Alas, they still send him monthly bills, which of course he does not pay, They try to come weekly, but the rain has been a challenge. We are at the point that we are just happy when the lawn gets mowed. The neighbor kid is thinking about starting a business next year, and we are big cheerleaders for that idea!
My lawn guy( my husband ) usually doesn’t get to it weekly and I really don’t care. We live in a nice older established neighborhood but in general it’s not the kind of neighborhood that your neighbors are going to get bent out of shape about your grass unless it is really out of hand. I am on our local Nextdoor and there WAS a discussion/complaint recently about a house with very tall grass. Turns out the homeowner was doing some kind of No Mow Month kind of thing to encourage bees or something like that. Can’t remember exactly. The grass eventually got cut but there was definitely curiosity (including by me) about why the grass was so high.
My sister gets her grass cut weekly and sometimes there’s a delay , usually because of weather. But she is always called or texted if the guy can’t come and he usually does it in the next day or two. She lives in a pretty modest house but her neighbors all keep after their lawns. It seems somewhat dependent on your neighborhood standards (as well as your own) about these kinds of things.
I never know when the lawn service will come. They come on alternate weeks and they are very reliable about that, and they usually come on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Sometimes they come in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. I’ve had lawn service as long as I have lived in my house (33 years), and this is the second or third company I have contracted with, depending on how you count it. (The owner of company #2 was very good but retired and sold the business to company #3). I really don’t care – the main point is that in my world, the lawn gets mowed and hedges get trimmed without my having to think about it. I get slightly miffed when they come on Wednesday and miss the recycling day, but so far the world hasn’t come to an end over the fact that some weeks my compost bin sits full for a whole 6 days.
You can negotiate whatever arrangement you’d like and can discuss what behaviors are problematic for you. If not missing weeks and/or arriving on a particular day of the week is a priority for you, let him know about it. However, there may be a higher price for greater demands.
For me personally, it’s not a big deal to me if the grass goes an extra week without being cut or he arrives on a different day of the week from usual. I’m more concerned with quality of and ability to perform other services besides basic grass cutting/edging… the types of things that I couldn’t do myself.
I’ve had some gardeners who missed days for a variety of reasons and often didn’t make it up, similar to what you describe. It was my experience that this tends to be more common if he needs to make a long drive, you are his only client in the area, and your rate is lower than other clients
However, my current gardener is quite consistent and reliable. His usual day is Friday, and he arrives consistently nearly every Friday morning. I believe there hasn’t been noteworthy rain on his usual day since January. If I remember correctly, he arrived on Saturday that week. He also missed a day for foot surgery in the previous year.
I’m the lawn PERSON at our house. Like if I had carpet in the house I like to see the vacuum lines, I get satisfaction from a freshly cut lawn. Up until the last couple of weeks I’ve been cutting nearly twice a week because we’ve had so much rain!
My neighbor has a lawn GUY. Earlier this week he was literally cutting it (with more than a standard lawnmower) in the middle of a storm. I kinda thought that was over the top!
