An Australian dad was left speechless after Jim’s Mowing quoted him a whopping $685 to repair his small backyard, but the CEO has a simple explanation.
Karl, a New South Wales man, claimed he was quoted $685 to clean his backyard in Lockhart, in the state’s Riverina region, in a video shared online this week.
He asked the woman on the customer service line what time the lawnmower equipment would arrive at his house the next day.
As the conversation turned to price, the woman said there was still a long way to go for her lawnmowers, adding, “if you don’t want them, that’s an idea.”
Karl then clarified the price by asking: ‘$685? Is $685 correct?’
“Yes, that’s with GST and travel,” the woman replied.
Karl then asked if that was the price of the services for a year.
“No, that’s just for that first major service,” the woman responded, adding that it would be cheaper once her garden was in the “maintenance phase.”
Lockhart man Karl said he was quoted $685 on Thursday to mow the grass in his “small” backyard.
‘Yes, crazy. So you’ll also be doing car repairs while you’re here? -Karl asked.
“Oh, not a service, no, the first major lawn service, we’re talking about the lawn,” he laughed.
‘Do you want to send me another quote just for doing the lawn and stuff?’ Karl continued.
“The mechanic down the street does all my services, I just have an old Commodore, I usually drop the oil myself and go get a new filter and stuff,” he said as the woman’s patience ran out on the other line.
The woman explained again that she was just talking about a lawn service before Karl stopped joking and hung up.
Dozens of Australians said Karl could buy a “decent lawnmower” for less money.
“(OMG) buy a lawn mower and do it yourself for less than that,” said one.
“You can get a good lawnmower for that price,” wrote another. ‘I bought a self-propelled one for $790 last week. “It literally drives itself.”
Jim Penman, CEO of Jim’s Mowing, has since defended the quote.
Many claimed that for the listed price of the cleaning, Karl could have bought his own lawnmower.
Jim Penman, CEO of Jim’s Mowing, said the quote suggests this is not a normal-sized lawn.
“It may have been us,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Our guys aren’t stingy, but a quote of $685 suggests this is NOT a regular sized lawn that would take half an hour to make.
“More than once I was asked to quote a job that was supposed to be easy, only to find foot-high grass laden with rocks and dog feces.”
Others asked to see the size of Karl’s yard, which appeared to be very small in previous videos he had posted online, saying $685 was too much.
But one viewer said $685 was “really not that high.”
“It doesn’t take much to make a garden overgrow and it takes a lot of equipment and green waste disposal costs to fix it,” they added.
Many argued that the travel time between Wagga Wagga and Lockhart, around 50 minutes, justified the high price.
“It’s the 45 minute to hour round trip they’re quoting too,” one said.