Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Moles?! & basic lawn mowing tips and secrets Lakewood, Colorado - Residential Lawn Care


Moles? Yes, Moles. I have a Question that needs to be answered.

I finally got a mowing video made. Shows a few Lawn mowing tips and overall a day taking care of a mole... Read More
for mowing service details: http://www.errandandtasklabor.com/home/featured-service-articles/colorado/residentiallawncare

Just a day mowing with some basic lawn mowing tips and secrets




Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Concierge Services In Colorado

Concierge Services In Colorado

Here's how I could explain it

Many people ask, "what is a concierge? or what does a concierge do?". This is easily explained if you've ever been to a 4 or 5 star hotel or a hospital with a concierge. Now, one no longer needs to be at the location of one of these place to recieve concierge service. 

Still not familiar with a concierge? It's probably also easier to describe a concierge to those who have no first hand experience by explaining that a concierge acts as a personal assistant that will do anything and everything that they can for you as long as it is legal, moral, and ethical. 

With a job that is so broad in range, it takes having to know at least the most common concierge  requests to get your mind wrapped around the concept of concierge service. 

Here's a list of concierge service requests: 

  • Personal shopping - meals, party supplies, gifts, grocery, pet supplies, recreational marijuana*, office supplies...etc.
  • Courier/item pickup & delivery - gifts, mail, pharmaceuticals, documents, cable equipment returns, recreational/medical marijuana*, meal delivery to work...etc.
  • Handyman service - drywall hole repair, assembly help, fence repair, home remodel, painting, home improvement installation ...etc.
  • Waiting service - waiting for lines or service installer/repairman such as for cable installs, vehicle repairs, plumbers...etc.
  • In home pet care - not every animal could be put in a kennel while you're away.
  • Cleaning - move-out cleaning, general dusting, general cleaning, window washing, remodel cleaning, office cleaning, foreclosure cleaning...etc.
  • Landscapes - residential lawn care, hedge trimming, shrub trimming, fall clean up, spring cleanup, raised beds, timber stairs, rock installation, garden tilling, mulch installations, garden planting, drip irrigation installation, snow removal...etc.
  • Vendor research and general research- Craigslist hunt, Angie's list hunt, Home Adviser hunt, material cost research for any project you have, labor cost research, whole project cost research, trip/travel cost research, restaurant research, item and service hunting... etc.

Many of the services listed will be covered and explained in detail. We'll go over details about bids/quotes, and technical information



* Since we keep getting asked about the subject: CO ONLY and MUST adhere to ALL CO laws, service user is required to verify age by ID before service, and all containers must be unopened. CO residents can be delivered up to 1 oz, non residents up to 1/4 oz.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Lawn Care Warnings: If You Accept TaskEasy's Policy

What Happens If You Accept TaskEasy's Policy?

Bullet Dodged

So, luckily I had not accepted TaskEasy's terms since they were the company who had reached out to me. If I would have accepted their terms, I would be in a whole world of upset.
Apparently it's TaskEasy's policy that "the customer is always right" and every single one of their customers apparently has the right to rip you off three times if they want, before TaskEasy cuts off the client. TaskEasy then forces you through contract to upkeep this crazy policy that they came up with.

Why It Shouldn't Be Any Skin Off My Nose

What is awesome about everything though is, I was able to get paid without accepting their terms and conditions which makes me think that as soon as they find out about this, they're going to try to patch it up.
From what I understand they use their terms of conditions to force you to give free redone labor which shouldn't be an issue if the person isn't trying to exploit the terms. But if they do exploit the terms by trying to get free labor that means that they can rip you off three times before anything is done about it.
Task Easy does not have two systems separated. one system for contractors that they contact, and one system for contractors who sign up and accept their terms and conditions. That's why this mess happened. They treated me like I accepted a contract.
So what ended up happening was, I realized I never accepted their terms since they reached out to me and found me on the Internet where I have all of my terms posted at www.ErrandandTaskLabor.Com.
I sent in my Invoice with all of the information about my terms ( I could refuse my guarantee for a free redo if things are being exploited for freebies) and then I called to let them know the invoice was sent to their email. They tell me the manager who is to deal with my issue isn't in and will call me back tomorrow. Still no pay, but at least I've got interest collecting if they skip out.
Here's TaskEasy's site so you could look for their policies for yourself.

Yet again, take care everyone and stay tuned for the sequel.  

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Lawn care: TaskEasy update 10/20 What Happened With Today's Call?

TaskEasy still didn't call me about them not wanting to pay me. I'm calling them in the morning and getting the mailing address and sending and emailing an invoice.

My relationship with them is they called me and are my client. I don't care that their client didn't pay them. Because that's not my client. You're my client if you call me. That means you're responsible for payment.

You don't get to just make your own rules in a contract when you ask for my service. I never signed a contract with TaskEasy. I even avoided accepting the terms in the app. I did this because if you call me for my service. You're going to accept my companies policy and terms.

I didn't ask TaskEasy for these jobs. They found me on the internet where I have my terms posted everywhere: www.errandandtasklabor.com

Monday, October 19, 2015

Lawn Care: TaskEasy Refuses to Pay For My Labor? #2

update 10/19/15 to story: TaskEasy Refuses to Pay For My Labor?

TaskEasy Gets Even Funnier...

It starts without a call back

So I called TaskEasy because I didn't get a call back yet. and they tell me the person who was suppose to contact me is in a meeting about my issue. So that seemed like good news. and that I would get a call back when things are decided.

They finally called me. I get an immediate apology about something I forgot to tell all of you. I totally forgot to tell you the other ridiculous things that happened with this job before TaskEasy refused to pay me. 

My first untold mini story

The apology was for Task Easy sending me an email to tell me that I should avoid going to this "freebee" fall cleanup because there was an issue collecting payment from the owners before the job even began. I had a bad feeling about this job as soon as that happened. Should've known it's that gut instinct that was trying to tell me that something is wrong. Then I get a call on the day the appointment was supposed to be. TaskEasy is asking, where are you? why didn't you show up yet to the job. I immediately change my route around for this job and reschedule while explaining to the client what happened. I explained that if payment went through, TaskEasy was suppose to call me when the issue was solved and they hadn't done so. I schedule them two days later.  

The second untold mini story

When I had gotten to the rescheduled job I had rang the bell while one of the tenants was home. His dog was at the front window barking and I could hear him talking to the dog. so I'm standing  there waiting to introduce myself while equipment is being unloaded. I ring the bell again and wait some more and by the time everything is unloaded no one comes out. I start thinking it's one of those antisocial people who order things online so they don't have to interact with you. I pick up and start the other blower and get to working too because at this point I'm burning daylight and waiting for nothing.

So back to my ridiculous  phone call

After TaskEasy apologizes to me for that, I get asked a series of questions, as if any of my answers mattered in a deciding factor. Questions like "did we specify any description of fall cleanup when we offered you the job? (nope I figured it was our standard fall cleanup), How many people helped on this job? (3), etc..". 

They then tell me that the way they "install" the idea of fall cleanup to their clients is: that the job will be handled by raking, bagging, and hauling off instead of mulching [Excuse me Task Easy, but we have a verbal contract that consisted of only the terms FALL CLEANUP!] As my client, you're responsible for telling me what you want. I can't read minds. It's a super power that apparently I should have been trying to develop if I'm going to even be eligible to be paid my TaskEasy.  

The Representative also says I should understand that they quoted 4 hours of labor to the client and the client was unhappy because we weren't there long. The Client says we were there for less than 2 hours. I tell the TaskEasy Representative that means we more than exceeded that time because if he payed attention to what I said; we had 3 man hours going at a time and we were there for way more than a hour so 6 way more than their 4 hour quote. Still sounds to me like a cheepo.

The Real Punch Line!

After all of this, He continues to tell me that they like my video but I still didn't take good before documentation. And get this:

"if I can go back out to the property and redo this fall cleanup for free." and then they'll pay me. If not they won't pay me.

That's right another freebee! hahaha lol. It was hard to even stay on the phone with him at this point lol. I tell him what I really think about what's happening with the client(he's a pay dodger) and I tell him my second untold story situation and with the client. And that with having experienced this client's behaviour which set with me strangely, I'm not going to trust going out there for them to complain and get another freebee. I then tell him I talked with the wife when she got home and she knew we were leaving and she didn't say a thing.  

Deja Vu 

The representative then tells me because they didn't know about that information before, that he's going to call me back tomorrow. AGAIN!!!! lol Here we go.


So apparently when dealing with TaskEasy client complaints, the contractor is guilty until proven innocent.

Here's a video someone made on fall cleanup.

Top Notch Lawns:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJzRO0ptcMo
  

Saturday, October 17, 2015

A Lawn Maintenance Thank You Letter

 

It's letters like these that keep a business owner uplifted. Thanks Marcy and Edith for the kind words. It was a pleasure to care for your lawn.

Friday, October 16, 2015

TaskEasy Refuses to Pay For Vended Contractor Labor?

TaskEasy Refuses to Pay For My Labor (Final Status Still Pending)


What happened when TaskEasy sent me to do a fall cleanup?


I get called this year by a company called TaskEasy to do residential lawn care and other landscape activities. I've gotten few good lawn jobs from them.

So far I had clients who didn't understand lawn care and wanted me to reroute my whole mowing schedule to fit theirs, clients who stop paying mid contract, clients who think they have a "lawn to mow" when they actually  have a yard full of weeds (weeds wouldn't be a problem if TaskEasy let me be the one to quote the area and see that it shouldn't we quoted as a lawn) and I finally experienced TaskEasy refusing to pay me.

I get called one evening and get asked if I could make a fall cleanup and lawn mowing visit to a property. Obviously I took the job went out and worked hard on the leaf removal and vacuumed mulched the leaves and mowed the lawns.

A day passes before I check up on the job through their app to make sure payment went through. To my surprise these TaskEasy clients won't pay TaskEasy for the labor I did and now they say they won't pay me. I called TaskEasy and asked why the task was rejected and I was told that they said I only mowed the lawn and there is no evidence that I cleaned up the leaves.

Then, get this, TaskEasy backs them even though I sent before and after pictures. This was because there were pieces of leaves in the in the foreground  of the picture that were left broken from the mulcher.

Before

After

Watch the video to see the walkthrough I had to go and do to reverify the next day.

Video

I sent TaskEasy the video on the day it was made and they said they would call me back.
Btw still no call from TaskEasy after my reverification (10/14/15). I'll update this post if they pay me or skip out.

Update 10/16/2015

I call and they say a "team leader is reviewing it" and will contact me. Never was contacted so I called at 8:40pm before they close at 9pm because I figured they had forgotten. No answer, phone rings and rings and rings. then I get the voice mail. Hung up and called back again. Same thing. lol so I left them a message saying I guess you guys closed early today (Friday) without calling me about the video I needed to have reviewed.

Update10/17/2015

I called them this morning and get this;
Apparently  team leaders don't work saturdays and they're closed sunday. So the team leader left yesterday early without calling me. So the nice gal says she'll personally make sure they call me monday with the status of everything... hmm we'll see if they do hahaha. I'll update Monday

Monday's update 10/19/15