non payers

i did a job for some1 who lives away, the house was her mothers ...... she was reluctant to give me money in advance, now the work is done she wont pay up until she has seen it and is satisfied!
i have invoiced her and told her there is another half hours to be done and weedkiller to be applied... �£5 labour �£2 weedkiller
she objected and i now have done most of the work
and she essentially is refusing to pay
what to do now?
ps i dug a trench to put weeds in, so if i leave it she will probably say that is unsatisfactory!
PS there are only 2 customers who have messed me around be4.. and guess what....... they still owe me money.... tho lesser amounts!

 

ps i will publish her email if she doesnt pay up, so others will be aware!
who said this was dream job?

 

Money owing...I can tell you a tale about that...I have bred and exhibited dogs for thirty years with a modicome of success, in 2000 my dog won a top prize at Crufts, he was in demand at stud for a few months after... I had as I thought a good friend who asked to use him but as she was skint would I wait for the fee? yes I said,she had a really good litter of five which are winning in the show ring and two years on am still waiting for my money... I am now in the 10th month of a small claims action even after being awarded by the Judge in my favour am still awaiting payment.Dishonest people...there are a lot of them out there...Oh I am retired now but watch with interest the goings on.

 

What you need to do, if you have not already done so, is put everything in writing, and POST the letter to her address, RECORDED DELIVERY.
IF YOUR ORIGINAL QUOTE WAS TO BE AN HOURLY RATE, SHE SHOULD SETTLE AT THE END OF EACH WEEK.
IF IT WAS A QUOTE FOR THE TOTAL JOB, IT MAY BE A BIT MORE DIFFICULT.

WORD IT VERY CAREFULLY WITHOUT BEING RUDE. WHICH I AM SURE YOU WOULD

something like:-
I HAVE CARRIED OUT MOST OF THE WORK AS REQUESTED, BUT AFTER NUMEROUS TELEPHONE CALLS FOR PAYMENT FOR WORK TO DATE, YOU SEEM UNWILLING TO SETTLE YOUR ACCOUNT TO DATE.
UNTIL PAYMENT IS RECEIVED FOR THE WORK CARRIED OUT THUS FAR, I REGRET THAT I AM UNABLE TO FINISH THE WORK TO YOURS, AND MY SATISFACTION.
HOPING WE CAN SORT OUT THIS PROBLEM AMICABLY.

YOURS BLAH BLAH

THIS MAY BE OF HELP. HOPE IT WORKS OUT, I WOULD'NT DO ANY MORE WORK FOR HER, IF SHE STILL WONT PAY, THEN GIVE HER UP AS A BAD JOB.
If you do any more for anyone else make sure they know that you require payment weekly, if a regular job, or if a one off, say an odd day, then you want payment at the end of the day.
you may already do this, I don't know, anyway
GOOD LUCK

PAUL

 

yes, at least you could [in retrospect] have asked for pick of litter!
and you can always bad mouth the person at shows [but it appears some peeps have a brass neck!]
gl with your claim btw
even if you see the money it won t be worth the hassle, which is what they rely on of course, but then thay probably think this is good business practice!
ps you must have given the papers .. i had no such facility!

 

Just thought i should have put this under general discussion...Sorry :(

 

No you never... ask for pick of the litter it gets to involved.. like a single pup.. its a mine field. No I will see it through to the bitter end... daughters advise me leave it Mum more trouble than it is worth but that is what people like that rely on. :confused:

 

i don t have her address , but only the address of the garden where the work was done.
i think she set this up from day1 to be honest,
I will ask the neighbours for her address and make sure they know why .... the house is worth over �£250,000 btw
there is a great deal of garden rubbish which is currently nearly all in bags round the back of the house.......... it would take me about 2 hours to bring it round to the front and spread it around!
here is the first email today, [yesterday i invoiced her for �£40]
todays labour �£35
i ll need another half hour tomorrow to tidy up ....... and some weedkiller needed
labour �£5
weedkiller �£2.00

total �£77
could you send me a cheque please
miss j allan
2a silverdale gardens
largs
ayrshire
KA30 9LT
The work done for neighbour is minimal, you could ask him for �£2-�£3, but that would be about it.......
removing the roots of hedging plants and clearing border would probably take another session of �£35-40,

here is my last email
"i refer to our recent converstation
i now wish to be paid for the work done
i do not expect to wait two months for payment for two days work
if you think �£2 is too much to pay for weedkiller then i am sorry, i will not use it
my charges are very reasonable
and the standard of workmanship is remarkable
no other gardener would accept these conditions, which are unreasonable imo
i trust you will pay up for work done and you can do the remaiunder yourself"

[ 21. February 2006, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: The Lady Gardener ]

 

that should do it, but if she wont pay after all your efforts then she will never pay, just dont finish the work..if you cannot get her home address then send it to her work address, or better still take it to her work address, and hand it to the receptionist and tell the receptionist that it is an unpaid bill that she wont pay..it will soon get round her freinds,,eh what! also eclose copies of the emails with dates

 

not very polite , but these peeps make me sick

 

Non payment is a total frustration in any line of work and there are, sadly, people out there only too happy to take advantage.

The really annoying thing is she is quite probably justifying herself to all her freinds who will listen that you did a bad job and is therefore damaging your reputation to boot.

Going to court is expensive, time consuming and most likely a waste of energy you could be spending on a new contract and developing your business. Some you just have to put down to experience. :(

I must admit I have been fortunate, most of my customers pay cash on the nail and are the souce of repeat buisiness and personal recommendation to others. 99% of folk are a real joy to work for.

 

unfortunately she lives "in the highlands", i think ive been set up !
she was pretty "hyper" today when i mentioned her neighbours ["its between you and me"]... and i expect mail is forwarded to her address ........
i have no intentiopn of doing any more work for her , and i will ring round all the other gardeners to find out if she s done this be4!
as regards terms ect, on the phone she was desperate to get me to come over at once to discuss "landscaping"
i went over and looked round , i said i charge �£35 for 3 1/2 hours roughly, no extra for poly bags ......... we went over what needed to be done ........ which was quite a lot, discussed each plant , in all about 40 mins!
i said i d buy her some plants, rem "landscaping"] she said no
there was a huffing and puffing over payment as i really wanted the money at once [rem i d already spent 40 mins], she agreed to pay by cheque or by transfer ........
They all want to know how much per hour, so this was essentially the rate agreed
it is not up to her to decide whether it was a satisfactory job.... i m the expert not her!

 

my dander is up
i ve no intention of going down without a fight
if she dont pay up ill damn well make sure all her neighbours know and all the other gardeners locally
but id like to give her some work to do ..... i suppose i can empty all the poly bags as i bought them, and they are my property

 

I'd be tempted to just cut my losses and regard it as a learning experience. If you add up the costs of pursuing your client it probably isn't worth it. Like Nixon says, remember the good clients.
What I would suggest is that when dealing with clients that you are not 100% certain will pay up, is to use a written contract stating exactly the work to be undertaken and the itemised costs. You would then have a bit more leverage in the event of non-payment. However even with a written contract pursuing a debtor could still be more trouble than its worth.

Keep your dignity and integrity and don't decend to your client's low level. Worms like her are fortunately few and far between.

A few accidental spills of persistent weedkiller around the garden might not go amiss though! Might make you feel a bit better too.

[ 21. February 2006, 09:54 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

nah
my customers are mainly oap s & i get most biz from word of mouth, but i can ask fed of small buisinesses to pursue this if necessary
however i dont want to let it go
ive told her i will be talking to both neighbours tomorrow
if she ignores that i can only pass it on to FSB
but i want to know ,,,,,,,,,,, just how akward i can be with all the garden refuse which is neatly stashedaway in my bags!