I hate it when I am lied to. Since I always try to deliver great service, I try to cover owner requests quickly. Usually this covers small stuff where strata permission isn’t required.
For example, one owner didn’t like the depression in her lawn following the removal of a small tree. So I got some soil and renovation mix seed and fixed it. I also took a few minutes to water the seeds. Done. No big deal.
Buddleja
Butterfly bush is now considered an invasive plant but it has attractive purple flower spikes. It usually gets reduced after flowering.
This morning I ran into an agitated oriental lady. Last week she had asked one of our workers to reduce the height on a butterfly bush. Now we had gone through her area and pruned various shrubs except this one Buddleja shrub. Evidently the request wasn’t passed on. And no one bothered to tell her that the shrub had yet to flower this season.
Incidentally, always train your crew members to collect information with owner requests. Such as name, unit number, and phone number. The information should be recorded somewhere when the request can’t be done on the same day.
Unit #68
I noted the butterfly bush and unit #68. It would be an easy task after lunch. Or so I thought. When I showed up at the back of unit 68 after lunch, properly hydrated, I ran into another woman watering the garden. Initially I thought that maybe she was home staying…..No way!
As it turned out she was the real owner of unit #68 and she clearly didn’t want me touching anything in her yard. What was going on? Clearly the oriental lady had asked me to prune at unit 68. Savage lies!
Strata wars
Strata properties have to deal with occasional problems. Recall that the owners own their units. But the grounds outside are common strata property. Eventually the owners plant their own stuff and as the plants mature conflicts arise.
In the end we left the Buddleja and one overgrown Sambucus racemosa alone because the real owner of unit 68 enjoys her privacy. I can’t wait to run into the oriental lady…..I hate getting set up with lies.
