Gardener WWYD?

[wencit]

We have a gardener who we pay $75 every two weeks. Sometimes he finishes early on the days we have to pay him and isn't around when I come home (such as what happened a couple weeks ago), so in the past, we've mailed him his checks without a problem. He called us a few days ago and asked if we mailed him his last check, and DH verified that he did. Our gardener said he still hasn't received it, and as of this morning, it hasn't cleared our account yet. I'm thinking maybe it got lost in the mail.

I know that banks charge pretty hefty fees for stopping checks, something on the order of $20. Do you think it is our responsibility to pay for the stopped check? I hate to pay so much for something that wasn't our fault, but it wasn't our gardener's fault, either. We like this guy and feels that he does a very good job on our yard, so we want to keep him happy.

What do you think?

Also, does anyone else run into this situation, and how do you deal with it (gardener finishing the job early before you can get home to pay him)?

[mamalia]

Could you call the bank and explain the situation? They might be willing to waive the fee this one time.

FYI, we have our gardener set up as a vendor in our bank's automatic bill pay program.

[BeachBum]

I would go ahead and pay him and not stop the check. Just tell him that if it shows up not to cash it. Even if did cash it, I would guess he would still show up to do your yard next time and I just wouldn't pay him the following time.

The stop check fee is for your protection and has nothing to do with him. You still owe him for yard maintenance and the right thing to do is pay him immediately.

As for how to deal with the situation in the future, I would probably just ask him what he would like. Maybe leaving the money in an envelope under the door mat would be reasonable.

[bubbaray]

I would pay him with either a new cheque or cash. If the first cheque is cashed by him, tell him it is advance payment for the next visit.

My cleaning lady is typically here when we are not. I leave a cheque or cash for her. For a gardener, I would leave a cheque and leave it under a mat at the back door or some other agreed place.

I wouldn't pay for a stopped cheque, especially for such a small amount.

[wencit]

Thanks for the replies! It turns out my husband wrote the check out to the wrong person so our gardener couldn't cash it. I'll write him a new one tomorrow.

From now on, I'll definitely be putting the check in a safe place where only the gardener will know about it.

[egoldber]

Speaking of odd gardener payment stories....

Our gardener comes approximately every 7-10 days depending on the weather. He seldom comes when we are home. He writes it all down in a little notebook. All last season he never asked for money. At the beginning of this year, he came knocking on the door, asked if we wanted him again this year, and oh by the way, you owe us $XXX for last year. Is that not the oddest way to run a business or what? FWIW we are very happy with his work.

[wencit]

That IS weird, Beth!

One of the gardeners we cut before we found our current one charged $50 to mow our lawn every other week. When we asked about trimming bushes and hedges, he said that was on an "as-needed" basis, which was fine by us, but we wanted to know how much extra it would cost. Then he proceeded to go through every last tree and bush on our property and approximate: "$1 for that shrub, $2 for that one, $5 for the tree over there, $3 for the bush..." and so on. He went on to explain that the prices weren't fixed, but were rather "flexible" (depending on his mood, I guess???). It felt like we were at the mercy of his whim and that he was trying to nickel and dime us. Talk about a weird pricing structure!

Uh, no thanks.