AITAH for finishing a job I was hired for by a neighbor
I (36M) have had my company for 13 years. My company does gardening, and in the winter we go around to our customers houses and get rid of snow and put salt of sidewalks and driveways.
I have been going to my customers (we’ll call her Kerry) house for about 10 years now. Our area gets really bad snow during the winter to the point where the snow freezes and turns to ice. Kerry is an elderly woman who lives alone and her children don’t live near her. She doesn’t get out much, apart to go for grocerys. Last year she fell on ice outside her home during our first snow fall of the year her home and she had to get a hip replacement.
This year, she asked if I could come to her house to clear the snow/ice 3 times a week. For reference, I normally only go once a week. Of course, I said yes. She has passed on my name to many people in our area and she is the main reason I have so much work. Gor the reason, I told her I would stull charge her the same, despite the extra work.
Recently, I have started doing work for Kerrys neighbours who just moved in next door. It’s a young family, a husband and wife and two children under the age of 10.
One day when I was putting salt on Kerrys driveway the neighbour (we’ll call her Jessica) came over to me and asked if I could start clearing snow from her driveway twice a week. I said yes, and told her the price. She got mad and started shouting at me because she heard from Kerry that I only charge her for one day a week. I explained to Jessica ehy I only charge her once and she seemed to understand.
Since that day, Jessica has been complain to me daying I’m not doing a good enough job on the one day that I go to her house. I said that if she didn’t like the quality of my work, we could go our seperate ways. She said no, she wanted me to keep doing the work.
A few days later, we had a blizzard, so I went to Kerrys house to clear the snow. I was about half way done when Jessica stormed out of her house screaming at the tip of lungs that I needed to stop what I was doing. Confused, I asked why and she said her daughter (who has autism) was extremely upset due to the scraping noise of the tools I was using.
I apologised and I explained that my sister has autism so I know how difficult it can be. I said I would do my best to try and stop the scraping noise, but I asked if her duaghter had ear defenders or headphones she could wear while I finish up the work. Jessica screamed at me again saying I had to stop the work now or she would call the police because her daugher shouldn’t feel uncomfortable in her own home. I said I’d have to continue the work. She stormed inside.
I carried on with the work anyway, I was nearly done when the police showed up. Jessica stormed outside and explained the situation to police officers. The police asked me a few questions, but saw no wrong doing, and let me finish up.
So, AITAH for finishing a job I was hired for by a neighbour?
