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Got called out for using a 30 foot ladder on a two story drop and I still think the guy was wrong
Last Tuesday I was running a new drop on a two story house on the south side of Fort Wayne and the homeowner kept hovering, telling me his cousin who "does this stuff" said I should be using a pole and hooks instead of leaning my 30 footer into the soffit. I've done maybe 400 of these and a pole gets you nothing but a sore shoulder and a coax that sags by the next summer storm, so I kept my ladder and finished the run in 35 minutes flat. He posted a two star review anyway saying I "looked unsafe" even though I had the feet on a level pad and tied off at the top. Here's where I'll eat it, I didn't explain the tie off to him or hand him a card, and that's probably why he went to the keyboard. The thing is, everybody in this trade now acts like a ladder is a sin and you should just throw a bucket truck at every job, and that's fine until the truck can't get past a privacy fence. What do you all actually do on a tight two story with no driveway access, do you eat the time and pull the pole or just take the ladder and deal with the lecture?
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samjohnson19d ago
Think the real problem here is you can't win once a customer decides you're the "unsafe guy." Dude was already judging you before you touched the house. On a tight drop with no truck access? Ladder, every time. But the second they start hovering, that's your cue to just slow down and show them the tie off, because the job's not the work anymore, it's the review.
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