Am I Supposed to be a Free Service?

I am still amazed at what people expect me to do for free!

Got a call a day or two ago. Lady wants me to come get a dead deer out of her private pond. My wife took the call. Lady tells her that her own dogs killed the deer, now it's floating in the pond and she wants me to come out and remove it. My wife tells her I can do this but there is a fee for the service.

"Oh." she says. "Well, I'll have to call my daughter. She actually owns the property." Then she never calls back.

Really? She wants me to come out and remove a dead deer floating in her pond, that her own dogs killed and thinks I'm supposed to do it for free???

What is wrong with people??

Another one that called just yesterday.

Lady tells me, "There is a stray dog that was hit on the highway in front of my house. You need to come get him." And she spoke so matter of factly like it's my job to remove dead animals from the highway.

I tell her, "Yes Mam. I can do that but I do charge for the service." She seemed to be astonished that I would have the audacity to charge a fee for working. Flustered she asked me "Then what do I do?" I so bad just wanted to tell her, "Dig a hole!" I advised her to call DOT.

I'm listed on Google biz. Only lets you put under certain categories what's in system for what type of biz you are. So I'm under animal control closest I could get..which I do just on the wildlife side of course which isnt a option. So I get fair share of have dead cat or dead deer calls or even plain cat and dog calls. Amazes me too that they think it's free but I just explain I'm not paid by state or city.

People think I work for the game commission. Had a guy call me about moving a rattlesnake . When I told him what I was gonna charge, he told me he thought i worked for the game commission. Didn't have me do the job.

We used to get a lot of calls like that. I think it had to do with one of the companies trying to find us leads. We dropped the service and most of the calls stopped. I'm convinced one of the key words for searches must have been, "free". They swore this was not the case, but they had way too many of those folks for it to be a coincidence.

Happens very often, As Limestone stated, Those lead companies will say anything to get their fee. What really kills me, The area I"m in, Lots of money around & it's always the ones with the multi million dollar homes that are looking for the free services.

Or, want 1/2 the fur check!

Had a farmer try that after season was over so I said sure let me figure things up. Wrote out my time, trap cost, bait cost, fuel cost and then gave him a bill after I deducted "his" half of the fur. He was astonished of the cost of things and let it go but still has me back every year to thin critters out.

yes Kenneth, FREE, since some folks think we work for the govt.

I explain up front, "I am a private biz, just like if you call an electrician or plumber."

THAT usually gets their attn.

While they were in violation of a leash law probably!

Occupational hazard if people call the division of wildlife(or your state's equivalent) or the local police/sheriff department and they give them your number.

If that was the case, the free calls wouldn't have dropped so fast when we dropped the lead service. We were literally having people call in because they saw a weasel running down the street or there was a hawk in their gas station parking lot.

There will always be some, but it was crazy.

Yea, I had a call Today. A landowner has a huge Beaver Problem and his neighbor referred me. I would love to trap that location (just a mile from home) but I told him this is a business and I charge for it. He opted to find someone to trap it for free. grrrr

Those people aren't the clients you want anyway. There has to be a competitor that you enjoy referring the more unique calls to, lol.

people would ask is there anybody that does it for free? I used to say sarcasticly "you mean like a charity?"

Now I just keep repeating my price if they don't understand and say : "do you need us to come out?"

Why yes, yes you are. After all, it's the Holidays. LOL. get them (calls) more and more lately. keep notes- time, date, who you spoke to and issue. I keep records of every call. Trust me, comes in handy down the road when they call you back to finish the job. Sarge

SAME SCENARIO ALMOST EVERY CALL:

1. These nuisance callers usually describe an exaggerated version of the situation. They also present it like they are doing me a favor by letting me drive to their home and catch or remove the offending animal.

2. Then I tell them that I run a private business and this is how I make my living. Therefore I charge $XXX for this type of situation.

3. They then say that the situation is more or less resolved (magically in the last 3 seconds) because the animal left, died, was carried off by a dog, or their brother in law will take care of it.

4. Then for the big finish, they say if they need help with this or another situation in the future they will certainly call me.

5. I politely say thank you for calling and I hope it works out for you. It would be great if they would quickly and concisely say: you charge too much, I have no money, this problem is not with that price, or the person who gave me your number said it would be free.

Had the same myself last summer with a deer, a more mature lady rang about a dead deer in the garden , knowing the deer in the area would only be Roe which are small { around 30 lb when dressed out} i took on the removal job for a mere £50, thought it would only take a hour or so to sort it out and bury it, on arrival i could see the offending creature laying on the lawn but as soon as i got within 10 yds of it the smell was unbelievable one of those that hit you rite on the back of the throat and turns your eyes to water, back to the van , gloves , mask, feed sack, then the fun started as i tried to put it into the sack the whole thing dropped in pieces, vomit in the mask now, nearly chocking, sh1t why did i take this on, eventually all bagged and into the van, go and knock on the door of the three quarters of a million pound house to find out she only had £3o in cash or i could wait for her to post a cheque,muggins here took the cash, 2 mile drive to my mates farm with all the windows open and a clean mask on to get rid of the sacks of slime, then to the hardwear shop for air fresheners it took 3 weeks for the smell to go from the van and cost me £20 in fresheners, as they say you live and learn.

One hates to be rude but I’ve gotten close to it. The idea that they accepted the bid and then gave you the song and dance about not having the money beckons to have the “package” left on the doorstep. They called you. They accepted your bid. They owe you when the job is done. Not at their convenience, but at yours.

Unfortunalty that's true for most businesses too.

It's always the rich ones that are hard to collect/get your payment from. Sometimes older customers tend to act like it's your privilege to work for them that you charge to much and should do extra work beyond the agreement for no additional charge.

I never ran an ADC business but do run a part time tree trimming business. Ther is always that 1 job out of 100 that makes you question why you bother.

Question, do you have the word “service” in your name? I think that sometimes gives people the misimpression of a government service. I’m not speaking from experience, just a theory. Then again some people are entitled and want the most they can get for the least no matter what.

When it comes to nuisance furbearers, I hate it when a customer seems to think fur is a highly profitable commodity & that we can make our $ by selling the pelt.

We don't have service, but we do have control in the name. I figure it gets confused with animal control.


And some think we are a state agency or something. Really, once we got rid of a paid lead service our calls for free services went down to almost none.

A guy contacted me w/ a beaver problem today. I know the spot he's talking about, & he has a serious problem. It's backing up h20 & starting to affect 3 homeowners along the creek, him being 1 of 'em. He starts by asking how much I'd charge to remove the dam. I explained that removing the dam probably wouldn't solve the problem. Before I could even work up a quote he proceeded to say he couldn't even afford $15 per beaver. After hearing that I chose not to quote removing the dam. He was friendly, but acted bewildered I wouldn't do it free. I gave him the link to our state trappers association list of nuisance trappers. He said he'd call them. Wait til he finds out they charge $50-100+, & he tells them he can't afford to pay anything. Part of me felt bad for the guy. He has a serious problem with these beavers, & is an older gentleman that said he doesn't have the health to remove the dam himself. But I don't have time to be a free service in this situation. I kind of wonder how many landowners though claim they are poor to try to get a better deal. If he was smart he'd probably talk to the neighbors & try to pool their $. The stream is a trout stream with Public Access. He complained WDNR wouldn't help him so he's going to call USDA's APHIS. I think a lot of landowners don't realize that fur is near worthless & that the govt won't come take care of beaver problems for them. He said he'll try to lay out with a gun @ dusk & solve the problem that way if need be. With the dwindling fur market & likely decrease of trappers, more & more property owners'll be in for a rude awakening.