I hired this one man company from a newspaper advertising. I requested that he trim all hedges and weed the flower bed. He came over and evaluated my yard but was not asked for and did not provide an estimate (my mistake). Several days went by before work was done on the yard. I was at work for most of that time and only knew he was there by the fact that one hedge had been done. He phoned several days after that and pleaded sickness and promised to get the work done as soon as possible. Once again, I foolishly failed to ask for a price. He finally called me at work after several more days to announce "job almost done." I then asked for his hourly rate and was told $75/hr. I was floored, but said nothing in hopes of keeping the bill down. A day or so later, while I was still at work, he dropped off a bill at my house for 5 hours worth of work. Formerly, when I had time I did the yard work myself, with hand clippers and never took more than an hour. Another hour, at most, could be added for weeding the flower bed. 5 hours is far more than a little fudging.
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