Have you heard excuses not to pay there and then !

[-Chris-]

I guess there's no real way to ensure that someone has the means to pay before you start travelling to them, but have any of you guys had the "Oh damn, I forgot to draw some money out of the cashpoint, can you call back in a few days" or words to the same extent? If so, how did you handle it?

 

[Phil]

In that situation say a cheque will be fine, but if they've already tried wriggling out of paying then they will tell you they have 'lost' their cheque book.

The trick is not to let yourself get in that position in the first place, you get wise to spotting the riff raff on the phone, I turned one down this morning, he sounded a wrong un.

 

[-Chris-]

Good tip, thanks. How do you suss them out on the phone?

 

[Phil]

Its hard to explain, it works mainly with the difficult customers rather than straight up non payers, watch out for uncouth speech and awkwardnes, also people who are unresonable.

I class all these as riff raff and I don't go within 10 miles of them.

 

[-Chris-]

Thanks Phil, much appreciated.

Any other tips to try to ensure getting paid?

 

[johnmcginty]

Hi mate,

Lost my check book = i'll drive to a cash point I don't mind. hop in.

Don't get paid till end of month = Ok just write me a post dated cheque and I'll cash it day after your pay day.

I don't have cheque book, I have no money, I have no credit card, I am not going to pay you now you will have to wait. = Get tools back out of van and take everything out , this custard has no intention of paying ! If I have to wait to get paid then you have to wait to get water it's as simple as that. There is only one exeption and that is the elderly, they are vunerable and that is fine I'll pop back on monday.😉

Like phil says sometimes you get a feeling i.e can you just bill landlord. I find if you explain before you start you will generally be ok. 🙂

 

[-Chris-]

Many thanks John, it's appreciated. What sort of explanation do you give before you start, to try and prevent any possible problems later please?

 

[Centralheatking]

We have been at this game almost 30 years now and problems when your
work is competant, on time and you clear up afterwards are few.

When you advertise you will get all sorts of unknown people so :-

Take a deposit - this gets them into the idea of parting with money even if it just covers some materials especially high value items.

Eyeball the house is it looked after ? (unless its a renovation job) look
around for unopened brown envelopes by the ft door

Always check they own the place - do not do work for a tennent
unless the landlord agrees

If its an emergency agree rates etc. as you look at the job with them

Finally our attitude is if we are at all suspicious do not take the job on

centralheatking

 

[Phil]

I tend not to even mention payment terms, if you walk in and the first thing out of your mouth is "I want paying in full on completion" it can put up a barrier and a bad atmosphere.

You don't want to make them feel threatend and uncomfortable in their own house, just be friendly, do a good job, don't overcharge and you'll be fine.

In 2 1/2 years I've been paid for every job, I've only had one slight issue with a very rude household when they failed to send a cheque for £45 for extra's on a £500 job. They paid the £500 in cash but never sent the cheque. I just wrote it off, I don 't want customers like that anyway.

Riff Raff.

 

[stevetheplumber]

best one we had was aguy who asked us for a price and then asked for an inflated estimate so he could borrow it from building society no probs after we had done the job and got paid no probs so we did the estimate for a better boiler
six months later we got called back and it turned out he was the tennant and the landlord wanted to know why he had a biasi instead of the estimated vailant thre tennant had pocketed 400 quid
we told him to take it up with the tenant

 

[Phil]

MMM Interesting.......

 

[johnmcginty]

Very true Phil, it puts up a barrier, I only give a script over the phone of charges and cancellation fees for emergency work.

 

[justlead1]

Hi. On these occasions have a look around the room and claim items until payment is received. I have still got a couple of guitars and a carriage clock
from the bad old days. Good Luck

 

[-Chris-]

Many, many thanks to you all - some useful info there. Forewarned is forearmed so they say. 🙂


If anyone else has anything else to add, please do.

 

[WaterTight]

Move to a nicer area.

 

[Steve001]

A few weeks ago a guy give me a cash deposit, then a cheque which bounced, nice house, loads of nice shiny cars etc. I told him and he give me some flannel, I asked for cash and he said come back tomorrow, I did... he was on holiday...

Hopefully for him he'll pay up when he gets back, thing is he's got loads of work for me to do, and I sometimes wonder why people demand money up front.

Thing is seemed nice folks and all that, I priced up the job (not the house) so why lie people? If you aint got the money to pay for the job, why start it and why feck off on holiday and not answer your phone🙁

Sorry, rant over, cheques are nice but cash is king and wont bounce, just because someone has a nice big house, nice cars doesn't mean they've got any more cash than the rest of us.

 

[dontknowitall]

In my experience the rich are generally (NOT ALWAYS!!) the worst payers, least generous, most penny pinching and worst slave drivers and feel they don't seem to have much trust and have to be in control.

I much prefer working for the less well off and they are generally the most grateful, especially when you charge them fairly.

 

[wheeto]

In my experience the rich are ... the worst payers, least generous, most penny pinching and worst slave drivers ...

How do you think they got there? 😀

 

[dontknowitall]

Exactly - by not being as pleasant as the rest of us!!

 

[Gascat]

i allways
1. agree terms up front
2.get the customer to sign an invoice agreeing to fix and agreed price
3. take a deposit on all jobs.
customers and us like to have things in writing ,saves on aggro all round for everyone.
if you do these 3 things you will always get paid,( as long as your work isnt total pants of course) . i also have a mobile chip n pin machine £40 a month no such thing as a cheque bouncing nowadays.😉