Closing the Front Door

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
Be grateful that he’s shown you his true colours up front, and politely decline his work on the grounds that he’s ‘burned his bridges’. And tbh, life’s too short to have to pander to awful people.

Conversely, if you accept the work and he doesn’t pay, don’t be surprised that he’s *still* a bad tempered arsehole.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'd go for B, but cherry pick what he wants done quoting a price for each job. Reasonable price fo the easy stuff and, if you want to quote for more, reasonable + git tax for the pain in the butt stuff.

Recommend a competitor/enemy for the bits you don't want with an appropriate excuse, e.g. not your area of expertise, too busy, A & Co are an absolute whizz at that, etc.

I once did business with a man in the same line as myself. We were comparing notes. I was grumbling about those who turn up late for an appointment and waste my time. "Oh", he said, "That never bothers me. I just stick an extra 10% on the bill. If they are so dozy, they can't turn up on time, they'll never remember what I quoted them initially".
 

shumungus

Member
Livestock Farmer
Last year a guy asked me to quote him to get his businesses compliance in order, a pretty big undertaking with SOP,HACCP, Working Plan, H&S, ISO and all that other good stuff to do as well. He needed this done ASAP.

Gave him a quote to then receive a phone call of him which was just a barrage of abuse, got called all the names under the sun, basically how dare I quote him such a figure, F off.

So... to my surprise when his name flashed up on my phone during the week,
He has achieved nothing, under serious pressure from regulatory bodies and realised maybe my quote wasn't too bad after all but did understand when I said I will have to re-quote him and it defiantly will be a higher figure than before.
I know he would have died a little inside when he phoned me.

What would you do??

A) Middle finger salute.
B) Be a great guy and help him out, Still re-adjust the quote but fairly.
C) Put the arm in and if he doesn't like it.. revert to option A

I like helping people out in their hour of need but this time I'm really just considering option A.

I hate closing the door without opening a window though
I think to post that on here is incredibly un professional, for a business which charges for its consultancy service to have to ask a public internet forum what to do in a simple case is simply staggering. By doing this it severely undermines your business. And to use the terms 'middle finger' and 'put the arm in' on your options list doesn't do it any favours either.
 

Thick Farmer

Member
Location
West Wales
He is a farmer that has diversified into a few different projects over the last few years, hid behind the "simple farmer" line and COVID would have saved him a lot this year from regulatory bodies but time has run out for him and he needs help to get all sorted out. I did get the impression from meeting him that he is very good at acting stupid.

If I didn’t know better I’d say you had spoken to me!
 

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
Last year a guy asked me to quote him to get his businesses compliance in order, a pretty big undertaking with SOP,HACCP, Working Plan, H&S, ISO and all that other good stuff to do as well. He needed this done ASAP.

Gave him a quote to then receive a phone call of him which was just a barrage of abuse, got called all the names under the sun, basically how dare I quote him such a figure, F off.

So... to my surprise when his name flashed up on my phone during the week,
He has achieved nothing, under serious pressure from regulatory bodies and realised maybe my quote wasn't too bad after all but did understand when I said I will have to re-quote him and it defiantly will be a higher figure than before.
I know he would have died a little inside when he phoned me.

What would you do??

A) Middle finger salute.
B) Be a great guy and help him out, Still re-adjust the quote but fairly.
C) Put the arm in and if he doesn't like it.. revert to option A

I like helping people out in their hour of need but this time I'm really just considering option A.

I hate closing the door without opening a window though
A , end of thread
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
I sat in his office last year for a few hours discussing all his requirements, got on well with him.
The phone call regarding the quote completely changed my opinion on him (possibly just having a bad day).
As nice as nice could be on the phone the other day (not my first rodeo, needs my help so has to be nice)

He is a farmer that has diversified into a few different projects over the last few years, hid behind the "simple farmer" line and COVID would have saved him a lot this year from regulatory bodies but time has run out for him and he needs help to get all sorted out. I did get the impression from meeting him that he is very good at acting stupid.

There's just this small voice in my head saying that its going to end up in a "mark that one down to experience"

Sounds like he doesn't know what he's doing and using the farmers "she'll be right" to get him through.
If you work for him you need to be 100% confident you've everything right, as at the first sign of compliance trouble he'll be throwing you under the bus.
 
I think to post that on here is incredibly un professional, for a business which charges for its consultancy service to have to ask a public internet forum what to do in a simple case is simply staggering. By doing this it severely undermines your business. And to use the terms 'middle finger' and 'put the arm in' on your options list doesn't do it any favours either.

Professionalism or respect is a two way street in my world, I’ve done the one way street before.. it doesn’t work.
Whatever I chose to do, he is probably going to bad mouth me, even if I chose to volunteer to do it for free, he will probably complain that it took me over 1 year to do.

I just like hearing people’s opinions and views on different subject matters.
 
In my experience these types will do and say what they want anyway, regardless of whether you are right or they are.

Two years ago I had one of our longest standing customers bawling at me down the phone telling me I hadn’t set one f’ing foot on his f’ing farm for three f’ing years.

Long story short he was wrong and I proved it by sending him a copy of an invoice from only two years previously. I also included a long resume of work done in recent years, some soil sampling not even charged for. The world and his wife all say he’s a miserable barsteward but I had always rubbed along with him fine.

However, I’ve never been given anything even resembling an apology and he seems to be doing his best to slag me off to his farming family relations and his neighbours. His cousin seems off with me even though we’ve got along well for over 40 years, but his neighbours don’t take any notice of him.

So do what you like and don’t worry about his thoughts. If he’s anything like my ex customer he will do and say exactly what he likes regardless of how you put it right.

I just consoled myself with remembering I already have an arsehole so don’t need another one bothering me.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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