So as many in here know I sell a lot of firewood. I also have a sister who lives real close who has a fireplace and loves a good fire. She has an able bodied husband, 27yo and 22yo son who are also able bodied. 2 of the 3 know how to run a chainsaw. She makes good money (not rich by any means but lives comfortably). Most years she asks to buy wood and always says charge me as a regular customer. I can never do this as she’s my sister but it always bugs me the males in her house can’t get enough wood without me. I know what I will do this year as I do every other year. Returning customers pay $260 a cord this year. I would like to hear how others would handle this.
Charge her like you do your regular customers. Give her a discount if her husband and sons step up and do some of the work.
I’d give my sister a discount regardless of the character of her husband and children. Maybe bump up your regular price and charge her $260.
That's a tough one, I think I'd charge regular rate given the fact that her men seem unwilling to put any effort in. If they help load the truck, split some for you etc. whole different story then.
I'd also charge her the regular price. If the males in her family won't step up then she pays regular price.
I have one sister who makes big bucks, is an arrogant SOB and I wouldn't want to sell her firewood for any price. I would tell her to get it some where else, in fact, she does. I have another sister who is broke, could have all she wants for nothing. To make this interesting, they share a house. LOL. Unless you owe each other favors, if she says charge regular price, charge regular price. Sounds like she knows what it is worth. I hate owing favors. Too often you get nothing in return.
Last year a gave a stepdaughter & boyfriend a half cord for free and they let it sit unstacked for two months. He then complained it wouldnt burn. I just dropped a face cord for them last Sunday...$100. Her mom...my GF agreed i should charge this time. He is a lazy SOB and nobody likes him. Both are able bodied. I sold another step daughter the same and had to deliver to RI...four hour round trip. It was mostly for gas money. Unless the two help out...charge them with a small discount unless she is good to you. Trust me i hate charging family too. One other idea is to have the two of them help process the wood you give her...and dont charge if they do help.
Does she stack it? load the stove room? loads the stove? deals with the fire itself? cleans out the ashes? cleans the chimney? pays the insurance? dust the house after the season? clean the glass door? Missing stuff here you know rider but you get where i'm going with this. I'd just give it to her. Can pick your friends but stuck with extended family members.
It is natural and right to want to help a sister. But sometimes the spouse can make this difficult. Perhaps I would sell to her at the regular price and give a discount depending on how much help you received from her spouse and son. No help; no discount.
It would really be dependent on the person. Some relatives are there when you need them, others are “busy”. Without knowing specifics, I’d charge her full price, as that’s what she asked for. Do the sons and husband all have full time jobs?
Charge her going rate. I have a sister that probably would freeze to death before burning wood. She loves animals, mother earth, and all things growing....one of them.
Yup, something as simple as "I'll charge less if you guys help"...and let them figure out who the "you guys" is gonna be...
Is the problem the guys of the house don't know where to get enough firewood or too lazy to do it? Depends how close you are to your sister, but if it was me I would say something like, don't you think it's kind of sad you have 3 people in the house who can get the firewood, but you're depending on me? Then offer a cord of rounds and say here's next year's firewood. It's yours but the guys need to process it. This year I'll supply you for my going rate.
I like the way you think on this & can appreciate how you feel about it. I also feel that you are losing sight of who you are doing for. If your sister is asking then it’s for her, if she chooses to share the warmth & ambiance of the fire with her husband & the boys that’s her choice. I could get pretty fired up about a situation like this if I thought too deeply on it. Ask me how I know this.. If you can’t feel good about giving it away for no charge because of the peripheral aspects then by all means charge for it. If you can financially afford to give her the wood & can feel good about giving to your sister then do so & do your best to put the peripheral aspects of it aside. Now if the peripheral aspects start throwing in input from the peanut gallery that’s when things would get re-evaluated for me.
Reminds me of my landlords situation. He is 80 and able bodied. Two of his sons live with him as well as a 12 yr old grandson. His other son lives next door. He burns most of the Winter. They just started scrounging wood including green! . Ive offered wood as he lets me store it there to which all have said no! Ive offered rounds and same response. They have to borrow a splitter to process it. Caught him taking my wood recently which i didnt care as it was crap sitting around. Five able bodied individuals and add in his employee makes six and nothing gets done. The youngest son who lives next door gets stuck doing the upkeep and honestly the place is a dump. He is beyond cheap too. Ive wanted to put a couple pallets down to leave rounds/nuggets etc and he says no...WTF!
My little brother likes to have fires out in his fire pit. He gets about a pickup load about once a year. No charge for him. When Chaz goes out to drop some trees he will come up and be his spotter. He will also buck up some logs and bring it to the house. So we feel it is an evan trade.
At this point all of the work has been done because it’s seasoned. It took me 15 minutes to load it in my dump truck. I brought her $325 worth (more than a cord of oak) and charged her $250. She won’t take it for free this is know. Her husband and one son were it there to help her stack it surprisingly
Like someone else said, are they lazy, or do they not have the knowledge/skills etc to handle the wood situation themselves? Are they the kind of folks who dont ever want to do manual work and get dirty? Some people would automatically offer their help and assistance to help you since they want/need the wood, while some people it never even crosses their mind. Have you ever talked about or hinted on the idea of them helping? To me, there are obviously big parts of this situation that you know and understand, that we on the outside can only guess or presume by the tiny bit of info you've given. I think I would somehow bring up them helping, either to reduce the price, or for free wood depending on how much they help.
