I had a meeting set up for Saturday morning and the guy calls this evening around 9:00 p.m. and cancels the appointment.  I asked him if he found someone else, and he answered yes.  The other guy had done some work for several of his neighbors.  At least he is honest; I hate to lose the work, but no big deal since I have no time invested.

Now at 10:00 p.m. I get another call.  First, do these people know what time it is, haven't they ever heard of business hours?  This call is from a guy that I met with last weekend and started to look at his property.  He says that he wants me to hold off for now and he will give me a call back when he has decided what he wants to do with his property.  

My first response was that if he found someone else to please let me know.  Well he says no, but I have a feeling that he is lying.  It took a little over an hour to get there, an hour to get back, and I spent five hours at the site.  

Oh yeah, this is how I know, some friend of his that is "not quite in my business" told him essentially the same thing that I did in reference to his property. He also stated that he thought that my fee was way to much, I had to remind him that I did give him a discount when I would have not for most people.  

Should I do it for nothing, just because someone else might be cheaper does not mean that I am gouging the customer, although this is what he thinks.

So will he call back, I doubt it.  Now I have to try and get something out of him for my time.  I have been lucky in that I have had only one real ass in the past few years, but to lose two in the same night, an hour apart.  Now that just sucks.

If you are curious, I do forestry consulting work and sell my services, so no real physical product involved.

I just needed to rant before I go to bed.

Goose

Friend of mine had this problem, lot's of miles and several hours for an estimate, no job.  Figures they just wanted to use it to get the insurance money, then not do the work.  Now he charges $200 just to go out, and credits it back if he gets the work.