That sure sounds like a red flag!

Got a contract already?

Of course you do. Hmph. Sounds like "She who is posessed of gonads" needs a bit of a talking to as to who does the scheduling 'round here.

Hope the current client told her to shove off!

As for me, I'm getting a little bit worried, because everyone is on their best behavior this year. Hope this isn't the calm before the storm, but I think that because I've cut back on the # of active jobs I carry, better communication has resulted in fewer little fires. Oh no, now that I said that, I've cursed myself, I just know it...

I'm not surprised. When I give out references,I wonder if the new possible client will ask the references how much I charged
them and then expect me to charge them the same.

So I'm waiting and watching out for the scoundrels.None yet.

I will light a candle for you Greenbeanie and say 3 Hail Mary Margaritas ,in hopes that all remains sane for the rest of the season for you.

More tales from the landscaping crypt.

Chapter Two The Shyster
A well coiffed client who has used my design and installation services now feels she has access to my wholesale nursery vendors.
She tells her maintenance gardener to pick her up a few shrubberies from my wholesaler .
The maintenance gardener tells the client that he cannot purchase from this particular nursery because he does not have an account there and that only a licensed contractors purchase from this wholesale distributor.

The client tells the maintenance man to put it on my account and if they ask tell the nursery that he works for me.

Fortunately my wholesaler , Landscapes Unlimited in Petaluma CA, knows me and my crew well and when the maintenance man says he works for me the sales person behind the desk calls my office to verify.

Needless to say the wholesale nursery throws the maintenance man out and I make a phone call to the client to get her side of the story.
She concurs, she sent the maintenance gardener up to the nursery to purchase plants on my account and didn't see the harm in it.

Not.
.. and that was the end of that working relationship.

Yow. The nursery I work for will not allow a non-authorized worker to buy or pick up plants on behalf of an account holder. Ever. Each account includes the name of the owner, plus employees who are authorized by him to purchase/pickup products. If the individual's name isn't on that list, we don't even accept signed letters from the contractor, handed to us by the unauthorized individual. The contractor-owner him/herself must accompany the worker.

Here's one from the other side...

One of the contractors I work with fired their head mason last Tuesday. He was telling clients that XXX was too busy to do the job and that he could do it for them OR he would quote the job and PRETEND to be working for XXX OR he would drive his truck, with his signage on the side to a project and make sure it was the most visible. He even went so far as to tell a prospective client that he was insured by XXX when he is not. He called me last night to see if I would design a job for him....NOT!

If at all possible one should arrive at a place where experience serves to mellow out the next shock but just when you think you have seen it all, well blow me down!
You know the consultation where no one is taking notes and you wander about suggesting possibilities. I did one recently that I have been trying to convert into a proper job. The lady called me today to ask if I would supervise the stonework that was going in as per my idea. "Stonework? Idea?" says I. She had several consultations, I discovered and then picked what she fancied, some gave free consultation others charged and is now having her gardener/handyman put in this dogs dinner of parts.
I once installed a garden to assist in the sale of a house (warning bells) and the final invoice was a long time up. "Please come to the house on Monday morning and you will be paid in full" the lady said, I arrived to an empty house. I did a good job but I could never find her or my money.
One time a lady called me to say that I had killed her grass, I had no idea who she was. One of my employees, in my truck had used my account to buy inapropriate lawn treatment.
Well enough for now, drink up Michelle.

Oooohhhh.... keep that candle burnin.....

Yeah, that lil' trick of sending the unlicensed, probably unqualified maintenance gardener to the wholesaler, is prolly one of the most common ones I've heard. That's why I *love* it when my wholesalers are badassees about having a Contractor's License. Hey, I didn't want to have to get the thing, but it's the law, and I worked hard and pay a lot in insurance to keep the bloody thing, and if Larry the Lawnmower Guy can just waltz in and purchase wholesale material with no markup for my (former!) client, it sorta defeats the whole purpose, don't it?

Yay for Landscapes Unlimited! Annie's is a stickler, too.

On the other hand, I just got dissed by Valley Crest today, because the very perceptive saleswoman on the phone could tell I was just after one Chionanthus retusus multi in a 36" Box, and she blew me off faster than a snowflake in July.

Sigh.