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Petefinny

Hi i have a customer who idid some work for, i had no complaints while i did the work for them but now it has come time for them to pay the bill they are coming up with excuses not to pay me, what do i do now, i cant let them get away with it, anyone had this problem before?
 
What did you do? What excuses are they making?
 
I fitted new washers and seals to and a new expansion vessel to there alpha boiler
 
I send out late payment letters once over the 28 days. The terms and conditions are set out on the jobsheet which they sign on job completion.

Say if they owe me £40 the late payment letters will be sent out saying outstanding balance in red writing £70.

It is a £30 admin fee. This fee will be canceled if payment is recieved within the next 5 working days. If not the new total is now payable. The last 3 I have had go over the 28 days have all paid up straight away. Its suprizing how many people have been on holiday for a month and thats why they didnt pay in the required time.
 
Put Something in writing for a start.
 
Hi i have a customer who idid some work for, i had no complaints while i did the work for them but now it has come time for them to pay the bill they are coming up with excuses not to pay me, what do i do now, i cant let them get away with it, anyone had this problem before?

What are the excuses so far?
 
Do you want this in the open forum ?

If you are on about my post then yeah, it can only be a good thing that customers know they will have to pay and it may stop them from messing around with the payment. Its completely fair to charge an admin fee as you have to generate more paperwork which takes time, the cost of postage, paper ink etc. I thought I would share it as I have found it usefull and if it does go to court you can claim more money back.
 
Be good to have a resident legal expert on the forum.
 
Yes can you put it in the open forum, i fitted the vessel and i left saying that it is fine and i asked them to keep an eye on it, i will be back and sort the bill out once we know everything is fine, the reason why it had the leaks in the first place is because the customer left the filling loop open and it was constanly filling, so i disconnected the filling loop, she said that when i left i did not explain what i had done yet the job was planned two days before and i told her i ordered her expansion vessel and was fitting it as soon as it arrived, she is saying i rushed out the door after fitting it and never explained what i had done and that she was panicking yet she did not ring me once to ask me any questions and the only time they complained was when i gave them the invoice!!
 
Yes can you put it in the open forum, i fitted the vessel and i left saying that it is fine and i asked them to keep an eye on it, i will be back and sort the bill out once we know everything is fine, the reason why it had the leaks in the first place is because the customer left the filling loop open and it was constanly filling, so i disconnected the filling loop, she said that when i left i did not explain what i had done yet the job was planned two days before and i told her i ordered her expansion vessel and was fitting it as soon as it arrived, she is saying i rushed out the door after fitting it and never explained what i had done and that she was panicking yet she did not ring me once to ask me any questions and the only time they complained was when i gave them the invoice!!

Panicking over what? Well they don't seem to be complaining about anything so they have no reason not to pay you. How come they didn't pay you upon finishing the job?
 
could be she is just a panicker, why not go round, talk her through the whole process slowly and check shes happy, when she nods ask for payment. I have one custard, service her boiler annually, tell her its ok, get paid and within one or two days get a call fm her saying the red light was on on the boiler and shes turned it off at the mains. Round I go , turn it all on again, check the supply on light is showing, tell her off and leave! she does it every year!! took a week to be called last month:)
 
could be she is just a panicker, why not go round, talk her through the whole process slowly and check shes happy, when she nods ask for payment. I have one custard, service her boiler annually, tell her its ok, get paid and within one or two days get a call fm her saying the red light was on on the boiler and shes turned it off at the mains. Round I go , turn it all on again, check the supply on light is showing, tell her off and leave! she does it every year!! took a week to be called last month:)

Are you a bit slow? It's obvious she fancies you, get in there!
 
Expanding foam in the flue? JOKE!

The correct answer is: Send them a letter before action giving 14 days notice of your intention to issue small claims proceedings against them, let them know that costs and interest will be addeded to the amount, if no response/payment start proceedings through money claim on line (MCOL). You’ll have to pay a fee that will be added to the amount you seek to recover, then the court will write to them asking for their acknowledgment within 14 days. If they don’t respond to that you can ask the court to order them to pay. If they do reply and dispute the claim each of you will have to fill in a questionnaire and it could go back and forth for months with costs escalating. Even if ordered to pay there’s no guarantee you’ll get your money. You can go back to the court and get more added onto their debt in fees, but quite often these people don’t care. You can spend out more on a debt collection company, but it’s all hassle, paperwork and money that you don’t need to be spending.

The Hulk in you might want to go round and Hulk out a bit, which might work but isn’t reallyworth the risk. In my view the parts are still yours as she hasn't paid for them, so take them out if she has changed her mind and doesn't want them.

I think Kenny Rodgers probably said it best, you got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em,know when to walk away, know when to run…
 
IIRC you can't add costs or interest to a small claims procedure. What's the value of the debt?
As above, write to them asking for payment or a written explanation of their refusal to pay.
 
Don't let anyone get away with it or you will find word gets round that people can get away without paying you.

I had a problem 4 years ago with a customer. Job was under £200. Went to small claims. Never got any money in the end but at least their credit rating was trashed.
 
I fitted a filling loop for a customer charged them £45 before christmas and they still haven't paid me despite numerous emails, first time its happened to me, but looking into it for such a small amount small claims court is not worth it. I may have to just take the hit on this one as I only have the tennants address and not the actual customer. I may try the increasing the bill tactic sounds reasonable enough to me.
 
For small amounts with new customers I insist on payment at the end of the job and if they are hesitating I suggest if I have to fill out and post an invoice it will be more as I will have to allocate office time.
 
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