We began service for this client in 2004 under an annual agreement. He signed and initialed all pages of the contract when it was reviewed with him in detail. His signature is evidence that he both understood and accepted our program. In the end, the customer did not follow the rules of the agreement.

If it is a matter of non-preformance, there is a specific process to follow that allows our customers to advise us of a concern, and us a specified period of time to resolve the issue. This is so customers do not arbitrarily cancel based on a subjective point of view, but provides a forum for client and vendor to work together on a solution, before it results into a cancelation. The thing about individual's trying to cancel over non-preformance is they never come during the summer months, but when it is slow, as was the case with this customer.

It is ture we have annual contracts. This is because Landsacpe Maintenance is a cyclical business relative to costs. For example, if a customer hires us in June and wants to cancel in November, we loose money. By arranging the agreement around a 12 month period, we can cover our costs, and generally make a responsible profit.

We followed the contract, and we actually did a cost to profit anylasis for this customer at the time he cancelled we reduced the early cancellation clause from $390 down to $107 because we wanted to leave the door open for later on down the road. Both parties agreed at that time and the customer did not object.

In closing I would like to also provide one other fact. In our industry the average attrition rate is about 15%. In 2006, and we are pacing out for 2007, we had an attrition rate of 5%. This means with 600 maintenance accounts, we will only loose 30 clients due to their being unhappy with our service. This is a testament to our overall quality and that in the end, you can not please all customers. Some customers have un-realistic expectations in where they can never be pleased. We both understand and accept this reality in business.

I would encourage anybody interested in a high quality service to call us and find out for themselves what we are all about. Keep in mind this is one customer out of six hundred, and other then a credit card billing mistake back in 2005 in where a customer filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, this is only our second formal complaint of this nature.

Brad Jordan
President
Absolute Landscape, Inc