[windows_chepstow]

Scrim,

Don't stress about it. 

If you're in the area each month, do as I did, just keep shoving 'notes' through their door.

In the end they'll pay up, if you're persistant enough.

If they don't, just write an explanation note out and stick it in your accounts.

Make it tax-deductable.

If you've got to go out of your way to travel to these customers, don't bother. 

Make it tax-deductable.

At the end of the day, doing it this way means you haven't wasted your time.

The customer has only ripped off 'society'; rather than you.

[AB windows]

The best way i have found of getting money off unwilling customers is to soap up the windows every time you clean the round and refuse to remove it until you get what your owed!!! They'l soon come and open the door when they see you walking off!

[Richy L]

i dropped a note in his mouse today, telling him that if mapments were not settled i would be contacting a debt collection agency. i'm hoping this will scare him into paying.

[AuRavelling79]

i dropped a note in his mouse today,

Bet that made him squeak!

[gaza]

SAE IS THE ANSWER  TIED TO A BRICK

 GAZA

[Richy L]

im going to type that last post again .....

i dropped a note in his house today, telling him that if payments were not settled i would be contacting a debt collection agency. i'm hoping this will scare him into paying.

[steve k]

I never let them get away with it...I do not go out of my way, but when passing will put a SAE and reminder note in. I have a woman now who owes me £10...did them once, got paid there and then...went back 4 weeks later , done them and left a SAE for payment as she was out.
I have had no reply to several reminders left at her house and I KNOW she was in when I called to post reminders.
(I never work Saturdays BUT...!) I am going there today after reading this topic and cleaning with a soapy applicator then take my time putting kit away...if they come out, they are getting charged for 2 payments (£20) including the soapy one. I will ask for money up front and then get in van and drive away.
I will tell her that the payment is to cover the missed clean and my time and travelling...they can keep the soapy windows and find someone else.

[mark dew]

I have had a couple of people who were late in paying and i'm sure one of them was in when i went to collect.
Went back the following day and no answer. Went in the evening, no answer.
So i went knocking the following week after 10pm.
She wasn't impressed and neither was i.
Got paid and kept on the job. We did have words though.
Don't ever let them rest!!

mark

[Londoner]

Its always going to happen that you get these sort of customers. At least in our business you only get knocked for a few quid.
How would you feel if you were a builder and got knocked for thousands?  My friends son does kitchens and bathrooms and he can tell you stories that would make you realise that the odd tenner here and there is not so bad.

[dougster]

I have a simple method that pees the customer right of. I have only done this three times, and what a treat. pour some water over some soil, and make a ball of soft sloppy mud then climb my ladder and smear all the windows with the mud. Around here window cleaners dont go on your patch unless you ok it. So this means they are either are going to climb some ladders themselves and clean them or ask you. Then you say pay me what you owe me, plus double for the mucky windows and the money there and then or no clean windows.

Works a treat ,pees them off and gets your money back, and they think twice about doing it again, cheers dougster

[simon w]

Leekson I've had this problem in the past and i know it's a pain in the A** but you really need to collect your money from this time waster you've done the work for him & you deserve to be paid for it!

dont clean his windows again but dont tell him this untill you've got whats owed to you. call around to see him and tell him that you have carried out your side of the bargain, ie you've cleaned his windows to a high standard & now you need to be paid for the work you have done if he says he's got no cash on him then tell him you will take a cheque. make sure he know's your not impressed with his attitude & that you want the money he owes you in order that you can both close the matter and get on with your lives.

Once he's paid you "if it's by cheque make sure it's cleared in your account first" tell him that you will no longer clean his windows as all bad debtors are taken from your residential lists. you'll soon replace him with a better customer.

Good luck & dont give up you've done the work now he has to pay...

[colin.k]

had this problem myself.but this was small business customers. think the best
solution is to form a regional blacklist within your own area ,these scum just do the rounds with other cleaners .for warned is for armed so to speak.
can only work for the better for everybody.

colin.

[baldeagle]

I've not read all the previous replies to this one, so my apologies if these have already been put forward.

1. Write a "final demand" informing him that you will be placing his name on "The National Window Cleaners Debt Register"
Yes, I know, but he doesn't, does he!

2. This second one might be favourite, because the first almost certainly won't work, if he hasn't paid up the now.

Send someone else round there, [preferably large-ish], at a different time to when you normally go, who doesn't look like a window cleaner.
If curiosity gets the better of the bugger, and he opens the door, your mate sticks foot in, [into the door, I mean!], and say's he is your collector.

3. I think I saw this on one of the previous that I did manage to read.

You can, at the end of the day, submit it as a "Bad Debt" on your tax return; I'm just doing my second one from startup, and I've got one for £12 [same house, two cleans].

Baldeagle in Staffs

[B&S Cleaning]

I have always put a note in with customers bills on second visit where money is owed, asking for prompt payment & saying I wont be able to call again until account up to date. This has worked a treat for the past 3 years, I have only had to drop 3 customers in that time.

[rosskesava]

If I have hassle getting payment I dump then, whatever the amount, and then I forget them.

The majority pay up fine but those odd one or two, forget them. It is not worth the hassle.

My attitude when losing a customer that mattered was to get more customers as then the lost non paying customer becomes irrelivent.

A few weeks ago a bloke asked me to do his front door and a bay window and as we were doing a whole pile less than 20yds from him I did the windows and put a 'WE DONE YOUR WINDOWS SO PLEASE SEND A CHEQUE' through his front door. Last week I saw him while we were doing the shops next to where he lives and he made some feeble excuse so I told him he was a pathetic, useless, feeble little worm and to keep the tenner. He was never intending to pay or maybe he hoped we would somehow not actually expect to get paid.

It's not worth the hassle. Just forget non payers.

[gaza]

super glue  the keyhole  if they wont come to the door they like to stay inside

 GAZA