American Dream Landscae And Maintenance

Description of Work: The owner is a young man with good intentions – and somewhat overzealous. He started taking care of my lawn the first week of July and did a good job. I authorized him to clear some rocks from one side of my backyard to another for $200. He charges $80 month for the regular lawn service, however it is $100 if there 5 weeks in the month ($20/week). Before receiving an invoice to pay from, I set him up as a vendor with my bank so that he would receive payments directly from my bank. On 7/21 he came to my house to take of the rocks and informed me that he had received a check for $80 but reminded me that there were 5 weeks in July that he should be paid for. Honest mistake, so on the same day I went online to authorize an additional $20 and a separate check for $200 for clearing the rocks. I told him we would be away for vacation the coming week and I would discuss with him about other projects I would like him to take care of upon our return. While still out of town, I took a moment to check email/voicemail and found that he had left a “collection call” message on 7/27 because he had received my check for $20 but not the check for $200 and went on about how he needs the funds in order to pay his worker who assisted him. I was quite taken aback that after going out of my way to set up payments for his services even before receiving an invoice, he was making demands for payment for something that I had not even received his invoice for as of yet. So I emailed him to let him know I would check with the bank upon returning to town on Monday and in the meantime cancel our service. I felt it was inappropriate for that type of call at that point in time and wished him luck with his business. End of story. But not for him. I went to check email yesterday for a message that I was expecting and found a couple of text messages from him stating that my email to him is proof that I owe him and his worker is a witness and threatened court action. Unbeknownst to him I have over 15 years of experience in civil litigation. His further elucidations were just sophomoric rants from a young immature person who does not know the value of customer relations. For his trade he is okay at what he does. He needs to learn a more respectful way in approaching a customer with imaginary billing issues. Especially, when the customer at no point disputed or inferred that he would not be paid for services contracted for and had planned on adding on additional projects.