With the advent of the Internet, with so much information and inspiration available for all to see, the nature of customer understanding has altered greatly since I started landscaping over fifty years ago. In my early days, there was relatively little choice in ‘man-made’ products in the landscape world, with only a few manufacturers of concrete paving products, a few Builders Merchants selling local stone materials and the ubiquitous ‘York-stone’ in either new riven, with hand fettled edges or reclaimed in varying thicknesses between 2” and 6”.
Customer’s choice was therefore limited, and most projects were built using concrete slabs and local brickworks, although some manufacturers such as Marley were producing compressed sand walling blocks as an alternative to coloured concrete. Bradleys (now Bradstone) were making a pretty decent concrete walling block in a choice of one colour – buff – with a range of nine different sizes and a dozen different moulds, then being the nearest thing to natural York-stone walling.
Fast forward half a century, and the landscaping world is full of information, with literally hundreds of different products on the market, in just about every conceivable colour, size, thickness, shape and material. Customers today are far more sophisticated in their outlook on life, especially when it comes to matching information with price. Personal research in the choice of products often leads home owners to select and purchase their own materials, direct from the Suppliers or Builders Merchants.
Often though, their research does not extend to the use to which the product they have purchased is intended. They go for an ‘attractive’ material, without understanding how it can be used on site in the location intended. They pay for the material themselves, to save money and cut out the ‘middle man’, by-passing the contractor and their profits and overheads.
They engage a Landscape Contractor, and advise them that they have already sourced the paving materials (or whatever – for the sake of this article, let’s assume we are talking about paving) and require a labour only price. This price to include all labour, tools and equipment.
The contactor duly supplies a price to carry out the proposed works, and a start date is arranged.
PROTECTING THE CONTRACTOR
At this stage, the Contractor becomes very vulnerable for problems, unless their Terms and Conditions make absolutely clear how they have costed the project. A Method Statement must be drawn up (which should form part of the contract) in which every element of how the works should be carried out written down, complete with provisos and caveats included to protect the Contractor.
Taking a worst case scenario, the paving has been organised and arranged by the home owner, to be delivered by a Builders Merchants. The contractor has never dealt with this firm before, and is not known to them. He has no contact details, nor any personal contacts within that firm.
On the day promised for delivery, nothing turns up. No Builders Merchant lorry. The landscaper has staff on site, with everything ready and prepared to start construction work, but no materials to work with. The customer has left for work, and the contractor has no way of contracting the supplier.
When the materials finally arrive the following day, they come in the wrong order. Packs of paving first, with ballast, sand and cement promised for the next day. The paving will have to be unpacked and moved elsewhere to allow room for the aggregates. Already the contractor is double handling the paving, and is at risk of causing damage and breakages through poor organisation and logistics.
The packs of paving appear to be of different ages, and it turns out that the customer ordered the particular slabs because they were on offer. On closer examination, they turn out to be the same material, but some packs are calibrated, whilst others are not, meaning that a lot of additional and uncosted cutting will be required. The customer of course, had no idea that there was a difference. The Merchant had assured them that they were the same product.
Nearing completion of the project, it seems that there is a shortfall in the amount of paving needed. When the subject is mentioned to the customer, allegations of breakages that must have occurred arise. The client had no idea that there would be a shortfall due to wastage when cutting to size and shape and had only ordered the exact amount required for the job.
Feeling aggrieved, the customer orders additional paving, only to be told a) that was the last of that stock, or b) there is a three month delivery on the next batch. When that eventually arrives, the colours do not match due to the natural shades inherent in natural stone, hence the need to mix packs when laying. The whole job looks unbalanced due to the colour variations, and the customer is decidedly upset with the contractor for not advising them.
I appreciate this may be an exaggerated story, but all of these events have happened on more than one occasion one a single site, and I become involved as the independent Expert Witness appointed to provide the Court with a written report, as the customer has decided to sue the contractor, and the contractor is counter claiming against the owner.
FAR REACHING RAMIFICATIONS
In cases such as these, which are becoming increasingly common, even if not quite as dramatic as the story above, they are the cause of a great deal of worry and concern to the Landscaper who only agreed to take on a labour only project, thinking it would be an easy job, with no major outlay, and could be fitted in between other, more expensive schemes.
Not only did the contractor have no control over events, the project and aftermath of the problems caused by the lack of experience on the part of the customer, but they also became liable for a lot of extra expense in wasted time, job progress and efficiency, plus implications for their next diarised projects and future programme.
Double handling, material deliveries in the wrong order, lack of control over the suppliers, wrong product sizes, different product colours, and a host of other problems that were not the direct fault of the contractor, with little or no real scope for a decent profit on the labour only price to recover the losses. Bear in mind that the contractor has made no profit on any of the materials – any such money has gone into the pockets of the customer. Unless the contractor has made provision within their Terms & Conditions to charge for time wasted on site due to delays, the only profit on the job will be whatever additional money the contractor has been able to add on to the labour rates for the project.
For this reason alone, it is extremely important that a professional set of rates is established for any scheme where the customer wishes to provide the materials. By allowing the client to take away any opportunity to make a profit on materials, all costs – including labour, transport, overheads including sick pay and holiday pay, AND PROFIT will have to be included in the Labour Rate for such projects, whereby your rates will appear extortionately high to the uniformed customer.
Plus of course, the expense and worry of a Court case claim against the company for whatever costs the customer decides to try to reclaim.
This subject has arisen many times in recent years, and materials such as plants, walling, timber, statuary, water features/fountains, and many other ‘objects’ that the customer has purchased and engaged a Landscape Contractor to carry out works on – with similar stories of delays and mis-information regarding every kind of problem.
These Court Claims and costs may include other allegations concerning failures under the Consumer Protection Acts for defaults and defects in the project.
Protect yourself, with care and attention to the wording of your quotation, extrapolating and highlighting anything that involves matters over which you can have no control. Include a Day Rate for all unexpected works, including delays and sub-standard quality of product and service (e.g. deliveries in a timely manner) and any costs that may be incurred through no fault of your own.
Alan Sargent
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