I have the same problem here in San Diego. There are a lot of guys doing work for really cheap. It’s bringing down the market value for many service related work.
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^^THIS.
A good friend of mine is a handyman he also does much of the work I do however he charges by the hour a flat rate, but hes older and works much slower than I with less specialized tools and he also charges his hourly rate if he has to go to the hardware store.
So although his hourly rate is less than mine, on many jobs he will make more than me because he is less efficient, customer initially thinks he is a better deal til the end bill.
We both worked on 1 job a few months ago they got him to do the gutters he charge $40/hr was there for 5 hrs made $200, I did a partial house was, was there for 1 hr made $400.
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I get what you were trying to do, but YOU have to be confident in YOUR business as it is. Caving to that kind of pressure like that is wrong for business, in my opinion. Certainly by all means go back and look at your work up sheet to verify that You did YOUR job right. But turning around and telling your customer that “yea, here you go, I over charged you by $300!” Bad, bad habit to find your thought process in. If anything I would have returned the wife’s $105 tip. Which you basically did I guess. But having open communication and reiterating what all that you did for the money and it would have become clear that he didn’t know that you did all that you did do. Man, be totally confident in your business plan.
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Im with @Kyle. No gutters for me. People might get the idea I’m a handyman, lawn care, mantenance guy. No thanks. Talk about drag down your hourly worth. Them guys are a dime a dozen.
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Yeah we don’t want that. You’re already a window cleaning cow milking hay baling farm boy
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Rockin and rollin too… I live in paradise and eat like a king… 
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I hate gutter cleaning the only way I do it is if you have another service, even then I dread it. It’s slow, dangerous, dirty and just a pain
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Agree with a lot of this but there is money to be made in gutters. It is all we do through the winter here in NC.
I have ten years of building a customer base that allows us to stay busy with it. We started out doing them cheap just to get business, but those customers have been thinned out or brought up to current pricing. We average $125 an hour or more these days.
It is dangerous work and not for everyone but I run roofs (roof cleaning) all day, so they are quick for us.
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$35 an hour is insane. That sounds like what I make when I screw up a bid
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Next time, take 3 days to do it and charge $1500
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My hat’s off to you for all of this. I can see where the customer is coming from with the big price for the hours worked. I’m not saying you don’t deserve it, just that I can see where a customer is coming from.
Also, I think you did well to identify that this has been a good customer in the past and that you want them to be a good one in the future. The refund offer was a classy thing to do, like others said, this shouldn’t be a habit but this case probably warranted it. Most importantly you talked to the customer. A polite conversation can go a long way. You both left the conversation knowing more about what the other was thinking. Not only do you get to keep the money you also impressed the homeowner by being a professional. Good work.
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All thoughts and opinions taken on and considered. Definitely not a “practice” to get in to. I can say that initially I lost a bit of confidence in the gutter job, as it’s only a service we provide in person to existing customers if they are accessible to us. My wife and I work together, no employees.
However the final outcome is more to do with keeping a relationship in good standing and not an apology for shoddy work or lack of value.
For anyone else that has an issue like this come up, what I can say is this… Despite an initial kick in the gut feeling,
Face the issue head on, have open communication and make sure the customer comes out of a disagreement feeling like you truly care for them individually.
Cheers,
Ben
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Last week I did an hours worth of 120 feet of gutter for $240. Not a bad hourly rate.
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customers upset over the price is a daily thing for us. Totally use to it.
Yesterday bid $650+ on windows. Got “Last guy was $115”.
We pulled the bandaid off this year and raised everyone to current full price. Probably lost .02% of our base and will lose .15 of them over the year.
Cool with me, keep replacing them.
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I hear ya. I hear ya. I can’t knock it really. It does go well with window cleaning. In my case my hourly rate really took off when I began to speacialize entirely on commercial windows and pressure washing.
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He’s like the unicorn, spoken of but never seen.
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Dude is amazing isn’t he. He was sweet, fast and did amazing work.
Then he got deported or left the industry.
I love the “last guy” comments.
Use to rebuttal now just have fun with it, really don’t care.
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Have slipped a couple of times with last guy comments. When the customer says they couldn’t get ahold of “last guy” I have said with rates like that it is no wonder he went out of business.
Can’t apologise for making a living.
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I did all of 3 gutter cleaning jobs before I decided that I’d rather be on my way to another job or eating venison chili at Twin Peaks and took down gutter cleaning from my HomeAdvisor profile same day. I hate gutter cleaning.
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I say I don’t want to go the way of the last guy; here’s my price. 
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