CRAP… WHY DO WE FALL FOR IT? September 22, 2021

The message needs to be made clearer that you don’t get anything …. for nothing.

A few years ago, my mum had a knock on the door from a wandering ‘tree surgeon’ who asked if she had any work needed doing. She did need a couple of overhanging branches removing from trees close to her house, so she said ‘yes’ and a few quick chain saw strokes later, £150 quid cash and all was complete. The contractor offered to remove the branches for an extra £100 and everyone was happy.

Wellllll…. everyone was happy apart from mum’s neighbour who discovered the branches had merely been lofted over the fence into their garden.

I had to then employ a reputable contractor to remove the waste for an additional £300.00.

This is typical of today’s society.

We recently lost a maintenance contract that we had been doing prior to lockdown – to a cheaper contractor. Just because I’m a sore loser, I visited the various sites some three months after losing the work. To be honest, I don’t think they’ve been visited …completely overgrown and in a real state of disrepair.

Yet dear reader, the client isn’t that bothered – nobodies complaining (the planning departments are understaffed and over worked and haven’t got time to follow these issues up) – the client has ‘saved’ money …winner winner …

But it’s just crap, isn’t it?

Why bother doing anything well when nobodies that bothered.

Where are the clients that want craftsmen?

Where are the clients that are bothered what people think of their sites?

We price our projects on doing a proper job for a reasonable price. We don’t make a fortune but we never ‘rip anybody off’. We have traded successfully for over twenty years and we tend to keep track of every site we’ve ever worked on.

Others want a quick buck, a fast return ….and to shut down and start again before anything bites them in the bum.

 

Very frustrating.

 

Mike C

What’s in a name? September 8, 2021

I’m proud of my name. It’s been with me a long time and through most of that period it’s stood me in good stead.

I did go through a phase of wanting to be called Clint (Eastwood obviously) then there was the Steve (McQueen) year …

…but generally – Mike Clough – seemed to suffice.

I’ve tried to remain faithful to this name and haven’t done anything embarrassing or illegal to tarnish the association with the use of the name.

It’s mine, so I’ll try and keep it clean and useable.

Well …

Is it mine…?

It would appear that one of my competitors thinks that it’s actually their name and they can do what they like with it.

So, they have out a tag on the use of my name so that if anybody enquires about ‘Mike Clough’ this tag diverts people to their website.

When you get to their website it even refers to ‘Japanese Knotweed Solutions’ – which I had thought was the name of MY company.

I really cannot imagine the type of person or company that would do such a thing?

Clint Clough