'I went back and got every leaf off of her property': "Lawn Karen" complains about her yards' appearance

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 10, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

"Wealthy homeowners tend to be the most difficult customers," one landscaper revealed. Instead of hiring a landscaper to make their yard beautiful using the talents they've honed, some wealthy homeowners want to micromanage the whole process. Why spend a leisurely afternoon catching up on a TV show or pursuing your own hobbies, when instead, you could bother the landscapers as they try to beautify your house? 

U/Nowjamessays*** has a ton of stories to share about their richest clients, who usually are the most picky clients as well. And they clearly aren't alone in this predicament: commenters shared their own stories of all the times they've had to deal with nosy Karens while mowing and leaf-blowing. Just leave it to the professionals, folks! And as one commenter suggested, sometimes it's better for your business if you drop the worst of your customers. You'll have more time for customers who respect your work, and you won't have to deal with nitpicking about every last detail. 

After you check out this lawncare expert's story, plus the intruguing comments, read about this bumbling electrician who managed to drop several really valuable items down an 800-foot hole, where they could never be retrieved for him. 

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    Cheezburger Image 9906957824
    via Aaron Burden on Unsplash
  • 02
    Lawn Karen S So I make a living doing landscape maintenance, mostly for commercial properties and wealthy home owners. Unsurprisingly, the wealthy homeowners tend to be the most difficult customers. I could probably write a book with the amount of ridiculous requests I receive.
    via u/Nowjamessays***
  • 03
    I added a new customer, Karen (real name), to my weekly route recently and the first visit to her home was yesterday. Using google maps, I bid the property for one hour of work. When I showed up, the place was a mess. It hadn't been serviced in months. I spent two hours making
    via u/Nowjamessays***
  • 04
    this place look about as perfect as it could. I cleaned up two half dead palm trees, trimmed all the bushes, mowed, edged, string trimmed, and cleaned up all the leaves I was able to.
    via u/Nowjamessays***
  • 05
    An hour later Karen calls my company (me) to complain about the work done. Apparently "they" blew leaves into the corner of her property and left them. Well, that's complete but okay, I'll entertain the nonsense. The leaves in question were already in the back corner of the property embedded in the pine straw as they'd been there for quite
    via u/Nowjamessays***
  • 06
    awhile. Standard practice is blowing out any LOOSE leaves from garden beds and mulching or bagging them, which had been done. Karen didn't really want to hear reason when I tried to explain this and insisted I send someone out to get the remaining leaves.
    via u/Nowjamessays***
  • 07
    I went back and got every leaf off of her property, including over 75% of the pine straw. Of course she called again to complain about her missing pine straw, at which point I reiterated the same thing I told her before. I let her know I'd be happy to replace the pine straw for $400. I haven't heard back yet.
    via u/Nowjamessays***
  • 08
    TheHumanPickleR... As a landscaper who deals with wealthy clients often, I can confirm that this 100% happens on a regular basis. People with the most money never want to spend it then at you for not doing extra work they didn't pay. for. "Hey while you're here for maintenance can you trim. my Bismarck palms?"
    via u/TheHumanPickleRick
  • 09
    Like, no, Reginald K. Richman, that requires separate equipment that I told you was necessary but you didn't want to pay for. Then they'll try to find some trivial thing to avoid paying. altogether. I had a lady get mad at my guy for not mowing to her property line, but then she couldn't show me where the property line actually was.
    via u/TheHumanPickleRick
  • 10
    SaintUlvemann Just gonna say: pine needles are, botanically speaking, leaves. So in addition to the fact that you couldn't remove the leaves without disturbing the pine straw, if you hadn't actually removed all the pine straw, you would not have been fulfilling her request to remove all the remaining leaves.
    via u/SaintUlvemann
  • 11
    [deleted] And you didn't lose a customer, you stopped someone wasting your time, trying to get you to do extra work for free and constantly moaning and whining. This whinge to get free stuff and the customer is always right rubbish costs businesses far too much nowadays. Best thing is to cut them off as soon as possible.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    Potential_Outside... I ran a landscaping business in the 80's (yes I'm old.) The most difficult customers were the doctors and lawyers. Slow to pay and always complaining. I had one lawyer that would write a bad check to us every month. I became friends with a teller at his bank. I asked her to let me know when he had sufficient funds to cover the check.
    via u/Potential_Outside_58
  • 13
    We would then run it through. We put up with his for about a year. The broken straw was when we ran the last check through, he went ballistic and threatened to sue us. I said fine. I'd report him for writing bad checks. That was the end of the conversation and he as a customer.
    via u/Potential_Outside_58
  • 14
    b-sharp-minor I had an IT business at one time. I didn't make any money selling hardware, but, for regular clients who didn't want to research and buy their own equipment, I would research, order and deliver it and I would tack on a few bucks for my time - not much because they were paying for the installation.
    via u/b-sharp-minor
  • 15
    One time I did this for a customer and gave him my bill. The next time I went there he gave me a hard time because he looked up the equipment and saw it was less than what he paid. He accused me of "trying to make money."
    via u/b-sharp-minor
  • 16
    Swimming_Bowler... Hmmm. Not bad, but I would have brought everything back that I trimmed, cut, collected then dumped it on her lawn. It would have been worth giving her money back just for the stroke she would have had. Ok, I wouldn't actually do that, but I would have a wonderful time fantasizing about it.
    via u/Swimming_Bowler6193
  • 17
    [deleted] I'm in a similar situation, sole prop, wealthy neighborhood, I charge hourly for everything. Whatever they want. Same part of the country likely, by the description of the plants...
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    Yo aga Terrible-Border68... Drop her. Sometimes the cost of doing business isn't worth the cost of not doing business.
    via u/Terrible-Border6885

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