Payment on completion

[armchairarborist]

only had to 'lean' on one person before:001_cool:, usually get paid straight after job with hand written invoice on lettered paper straight from the truck..

[plippy]

Mark, you haven't been knee-capping your late payers again, have you?

 

:lol:only the ones across the river that he works for:laugh1:

[felixthelogchopper]

:lol:only the ones across the river that he works for:laugh1:

 

Late payers deserve it, whatever side of the river they operate

[plippy]

Late payers deserve it, whatever side of the river they operate

 

agreed, i do some work for a quarry company in rainham, essex ( sorry felix ) and they tryed telling me they pay every 45 days and i said ' i dont think so ' and left it at that, i got a call the next day that they would do a bank transfer the second the work was complete:thumbup1: some issue over the local tree surgeons having webbed feet and dresing in black:001_tt2:

[felixthelogchopper]

agreed, i do some work for a quarry company in rainham, essex ( sorry felix )........... some issue over the local tree surgeons having webbed feet and dresing in black:001_tt2:

 

No offence taken, Phil, Rainham is practically Kent anyway. I live over in Leigh and work out of a yard near Maldon, both well away from there so fill your boots. We tend to see more web-footers in Hardwoods camo out my way

[Rob D]

For private customers I always finish the job, ask if everything is completed to satisfaction and then if they're not already writing a cheque politely ask if I could take payment.

 

The very odd case if a person asks to pay in a week I equally politely say yes and request a pre dated cheque.

 

If they're not in on completion invoice left saying 'please ensure paid within 7 days - I am a small business and cash flow is always a problem'.

 

Usually a phone call at day 8 produces a 'really sorry meant to do this the other day'. If no payment in 10 days keep calling until you reach them. Ask again were they happy with job? Well please can you then pay for it as I shouldn't need to chase, etc. etc.

 

Only had 1 non payer in 7 years (owner of a hotel who in between me doing job got done for fraud and was put in prison... hotel then went bankrupt.

 

The only ones I have had to really chase are the ones who try and get discounts and offer cash..... but if you call them politely on a daily basis from different phones in the end they run out of excuses and pay.

 

But generally this end of the country had very few problems with late payers prob only 1%.....

 

 

[richyrich]

i find mercedes drivers are maybe amongst the fastest drivers, but the slowest payers.

old people are the slowest movers, but the fastest payers

[plippy]

i find mercedes drivers are maybe amongst the fastest drivers, but the slowest payers.

old people are the slowest movers, but the fastest payers

 

definetly true that

[Taupotreeman]

Cheers for all the input guys. I've only had one person who didn't pay and then did a runner on me. Fortunately it wasn't much that was owed. I also had one large company who didn't pay for six months. I finally got a credit collection agency involved who got straight onto the company's accounts department. Turns out they weren't going to bother paying and didn't think I'd get a credit collection agency involved because the amount was so small. And there in lies the problem. To get a credit collection agency involved the amount owed has to be worth the cost of the agency and generally, the amounts are less than the cost of the agency and the customer often knows it. I do like the suggestion of 7 days, reminder, 7 days and then a pay up in 24hours or the account gets filed with a collection agency but if the customer knows his legal stuff he (or she) will just sit on it. A friend of mine has several accounts that don't get paid for up to 6 - 9 months. I don't know how small businesses survive with that kind of payment plan.