Akward customer... Advice please!

[garry kidd]

i had a problem with a customer once refusing to pay so i took all the waste back to them they werent in but there was a window open with it being in a ruff area i thought it best to make sure there property was safe so inserted ruffly a tonne of wood chip through said window police appeared half way through the job explained the situation saying it wasnt a safe area so was returning it there so it was safe and that i wasnt going to be responisble if the woodchip went missing the police were very helpful and let me carry on returning there property in a safe and secure location never did hear back but at least wasnt clogging my storage area up and made enough off the firewood lol

 

(im not suggestng any one copy what i did lol )

[john k]

You could just walk away and put it down to experience like some suggest, but why should you? You did the work so should expect to get paid.

 

Direct action is tempting, but I'd agree with the advice most people have given and use the County Court via moneyclaim.gov.uk - it's very easy and isn't expensive.

 

It's not a guaranteed result as it can still be difficult to extract the payment even with a court judgement. In my experience people generally settle pretty quickly when they realise you are serious. If they don't then sending the bailiffs in can be very satisfying.

[alex_m]

i had a problem with a customer once refusing to pay so i took all the waste back to them they werent in but there was a window open with it being in a ruff area i thought it best to make sure there property was safe so inserted ruffly a tonne of wood chip through said window police appeared half way through the job explained the situation saying it wasnt a safe area so was returning it there so it was safe and that i wasnt going to be responisble if the woodchip went missing the police were very helpful and let me carry on returning there property in a safe and secure location never did hear back but at least wasnt clogging my storage area up and made enough off the firewood lol

 

(im not suggestng any one copy what i did lol )

 

that is amazing!

[garry kidd]

turned out they had went away on a long weekend would have loved to be a fly on the wall to see there faces just imagine the smell in the house plus the cow muck that was bound to have bin in the chip as it lays on a farmers field ahwell they probably paid out even more than what they owed me to get it cleaned lol

[GTW]

Hello mate!

 

I had a client that sub contracted a take down to me, I did the job no probs, then he decided he didn’t want to pay me, after 6 months of letters I wrote to him to say I was taking him to court, got a solicitor involved, they wrote to him and still got nothing back, in the mean time I went back to his client for some info.

 

I charged the contractor £700 to remove the large Oak and grind the stump, turns out he charged the client £1400 for the job we did!!!!!!!

 

Cut a long story short it cost me nearly £300 in fees to get the money owed! and the cheeky sod even negotiated it down to £650!

 

I was told I wouldn’t have got the legal fees back and that if he didn’t settle out of court then I should have forgotten it and moved on.

 

After my experience id not get involved for only £125, mark it off mate.

 

Good Luck

[ptrinder]

dump it all back. you'll feel alot better. sod all the police can do.

Had the same thing a few years back with a eucalyptus- took it back to blokes driveway. he paid too!

[BarneyH]

yeah small claims court, I went through the process a while back and it didn't cost a penny, did it through the citizens advice, what a great service they were! fair enough its only a small sum of money but it's the principal of the thing, if you did the job they shouldn't get away with shitting on people. but i would say dont dump stuff on their drive, just brings you down to the same level. Everything above board!

[john k]

got a solicitor involved

 

Cut a long story short it cost me nearly £300 in fees to get the money owed!

 

After my experience id not get involved for only £125, mark it off mate.

 

I definitely wouldn't let a solicitor get involved. There's no need and they'll just make it expensive.

[GTW]

Aye so it seems, I had no experience of these matters at the time tho.

 

Wont happen again

[grumpydavesmith]

Thats awesome garry!! man after my own heart!! In future mate, do what i do dont leave until they do pay. i generally approach the client while tidying up then if theres a problem which there never has, everything can be tipped straight back.

 

I wouldnt give in, write them a formal letter giving them 7 days to pay, then if they dont pay take it all back and issue another bill for same amount plus expenses for removing waste.

 

if that fails kidnap and torture them!!! ( Joking by the way )

 

good luck