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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:31 pm
by Rich H
Just wanted to vent my spleen.
Doesn't it annoy you when customers take an age to pay you? One customer recently went off to Australia for a month leaving me with a £2,200 builders merchants bill. He came back last week and is still giving me the run-around.
I think I'll try it at Tesco. I'll get everything swiped through and when they tell me the amount I'll promise to pay them next week... 
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:38 pm
by lutonlagerlout
sounds like its time for the best 2 friends a man can have
mr. smith
and mr. wesson
i always try and be frank, and specify a timescale for payments,i'm not interested in divorces,washing machine repairs or school fees
if the jobs done and you are happy pay up
and if someone starts the old retention routine, once the job is completed, i will start taking my materials back up again
retention is fine if agreed in advance,but some people use it as a way of trying to do you out of 2-5%,
you go back after 6 months and there is dirt on the patio and they think you should clean it bla bla bla
rant over
LLL
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:54 pm
by Rich H
Last year I had a message on the answerphone from a lady complaining that there were weeds coming up in the lawn I'd laid for her....
....the year before 
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:35 pm
by Tony McC
The best way to deal with reluctant payers is to use a contract before you start the job, and have the contract specify a payment regime, be it within 7 days of completion, deposit p[us stage payments, or however else you like to work.
A written contract, in plain English, gives the customer confidence in your business and ensure that they get what they asked for and you get what's owed.
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:16 pm
by 118-1187271617
I'd be tempted to put the following on the bottom of all your invoices
"Prompt payment 14 days please
don't even think about knocking any off for retention..try shoving a finger up yer arse and fishing for money"
do these people think shirt buttons are still legal tender?!?!?!
and then the age old question...why is there always so much month left at the end of the money?
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:45 pm
by lutonlagerlout
its strange though, i can almost smell dodgy payers now.
and if i get a whiff of meanness i just swerve the job.
i think in total to date after 25 years working i am owed £50 by 1 plonker,who every time i go to see him someone else has battered him or such( someone set him on fire last time) over other much bigger debts he has run up
and i did a weeks work for "mcmahons groundworks" in the early 90's and they went skint on my first supposed payday 
i dont mind anyone being finickity or demanding but if you try to rob me then i will get very upset,so i avoid this by blanking people who look like non starters,best way
cheers LLL
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:48 pm
by 118-1187271617
did you cross the road to p*ss on him LLL? :p
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:57 pm
by Dave_L
lutonlagerlout wrote:i think in total to date after 25 years working i am owed £50
You've done VERY well, LLL........
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:45 pm
by Mikey_C
As a customer not tradesmen, it really gets my goat when people don't (or try and avoid) paying tradesmen, clearly customer couldn't do, couldn't be bothered or wanted the benefit of others doing work for them. If that person has turned up and done the job correctly as agreed with either a verbal or as Tony suggests written contract, I can't imagine not paying, and it gives us reputable customers a bad name!
Having agreed recently to have some tree stumps ground out, the chap doing the work phoned to say he was coming round earlier in the day than had been agreed, I felt quite bad that the guy had finished and gone before I got back from work and therefore I couldn't pay him cash and had to send him a cheque for £90 which hardly seemed worth his time.
There again I want to build working relationships with tradesman, so I can use them again if needed or so my family can, and nobody has to play “yellow pages lucky dip�!
I am reminded of a discussion I had with a with my uncles best mate who is carpet fitter, he like Mr Lout, said he thought he had an eye for spotting the non payers and also said he couldn't remember not being paid for a job, it was only when I was reiterating what he said to my Dad, that my Dad pointed out, at 6'8" tall (if not more), almost as wide across the shoulders and hands like shovels it was unlikely that a non payer was going ask him to do a job in the first place!!
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:53 pm
by lutonlagerlout
thing is, you have to remember trades talk to each other,i have never had any real animosity with any other builders(except pikeys) and word spreads like wildfire of a bad payer
an acquaintance of mine keeps asking me for sparks,spreads and chipies numbers
now i know for a fact that he is going to do his level best to knock them ,so i just reply that they are all busy
and so now he has to get agency people in,at added cost.
when i use any trade i always make sure they get paid on the button but i expect high standards
that way when i ring them they come back every time,
and a little tip to all you punters reading:
cups of tea and biscuits might cost you a fiver over the course of a job but the goodwill it spreads amongst the lads will pay you back in spades
all those little chargeable extras have a habit of getting done gratis if the tea and biccies flow (within reason of course)
contracts are a great idea, but because we don't canvas work most people know from their friends or relatives that it will get done as per the quotation
cheers LLL
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:54 am
by Dave_L
lutonlagerlout wrote:and a little tip to all you punters reading:
cups of tea and biscuits might cost you a fiver over the course of a job but the goodwill it spreads amongst the lads will pay you back in spades
all those little chargeable extras have a habit of getting done gratis if the tea and biccies flow (within reason of course)
Very very true Tony. You want that stump hooking out Sir? No problem.
99% of jobs we go to we find the kettle works. Makes all the difference.
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:17 pm
by Rich H
Doesn't it just. Nowt as queer as folk, though. The little old ladies are the best I find. You've no sooner put one mug down than another appears.
Did a job for a dutch couple last year. Both at home most of the day (she looking after the kids, him plugging away at a laptop) and not one cuppa over the week. Before we cleared the trees there were a number of 'natural latrines' but once they came down there was nowhere to go. When I asked if we could use the toilet, he said, "I'd rather you not, there is a pub down the road." I told him that was ridiculous and that I'd have to charge him extra time and he relented with a certain reluctance. He did pay on time, though...
In general, don't you find it's the bloke with the flash car that's slow to pay and pensioner in the little bungalow who's got the money out before you even start?
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:53 pm
by IanMelb
The chap that I got my T&G cladding from is a joiner by trade and a good mate of one of the chaps I work with. He'd offered me the lumber a while back and the price was more than fair and he even offered me the use of his work van to borrow for the weekend to bring it the 100-odd miles to where I live.
I didn't need the cladding until a couple of weeks ago and had nowhere to store it and he was OK having it at his place. I spent ages trying to get him to give me a firm price so that I could let him have the cash and I'd collect it when I needed it.
In the end, the only time I managed to get a final price off him was when I went to get it and had the cash out, ready to count.
He said I was one of the very few customers who wanted to pay him 'too quick' and take delivery 'whenever' - it's usually the other way round.
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:11 am
by matt h
Rich H wrote:Doesn't it just. Nowt as queer as folk, though. The little old ladies are the best I find. You've no sooner put one mug down than another appears.
Did a job for a dutch couple last year. Both at home most of the day (she looking after the kids, him plugging away at a laptop) and not one cuppa over the week. Before we cleared the trees there were a number of 'natural latrines' but once they came down there was nowhere to go. When I asked if we could use the toilet, he said, "I'd rather you not, there is a pub down the road." I told him that was ridiculous and that I'd have to charge him extra time and he relented with a certain reluctance. He did pay on time, though...
In general, don't you find it's the bloke with the flash car that's slow to pay and pensioner in the little bungalow who's got the money out before you even start?
The only people who i find difficulty with are people with money... they dont want to part with it. Anyone even mentions retention and my bill increases by 15%, and fifty % up front if you dont mind, the balance in regular installments... Still chasing one millionaire for £14,000 through the courts... I know I'll win, as the job was outstanding, and he has no grounds for complaint, but by the time the courts have settled it I will be lucky to see pennies. He even looks like Fagin IUNWIM. Managed to get some money when I caught him unawares one time.. another builder put him in hospital a few weeks later, which was just deserts imho Still,my next visit to sheffied could speed things up
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:22 am
by Dave_L
Nothing winds me up more than people owing me money.
Money is a very emotive subject at times!!
You're right, it's the older people who want to pay you cash round the back of the house as you leave the job who have got it right.
