[www.mrgutters.co.uk]

hi all


have had a rubbish couple of weeks with people just not paying me am owed about 200 but i leave note after note after note , with self adressed enevelope and just nothing.... problem is i dont have there numbers ?? what do you all do ... also the problem is i dont like collecting in the evening. cos alot of them are good 40 min drive there and back.

any advice ....


shawn

[JM123]

yeah the holiday season is worse, unfortunately you will prob have to go and collect in person, I just leave a note with on-payers saying that its too far for me to come and collect reguarly so ask them to post it.

[Davie T]

With all new accounts I always ask for their full name, address, post code & tel nos. (both mobile and land line).  It gives me all options of contacting them

[brett walker]

I have had 2 customers move out on me this month 1 was a private rent 20 pound and 1 10 pound sold their house to builders, i know its not much money but theyve got my number they could have given me a quick ring.

Brett

[jeff1]

I have had 2 customers move out on me this month 1 was a private rent 20 pound and 1 10 pound sold their house to builders, i know its not much money but theyve got my number they could have given me a quick ring.

Brett

Hi Brett
This is why I have a policy in place now, if a for sale sign goes up, I will only do them if they are home, or have made proper arrangements with me.
I Lost to much money in the past, from people selling there houses, and doing what I call a runner.

[Helen]

always get e-mail and work contact details aswell. if people move they usually take e-mail addresses with them and if you contact their workplace you can find out of they are on hols or have moved job too! We've trained our customers to let us know if they go on hols and never had a problem with payments when people move

[windows_chepstow]

This probably wouldn't be worth it for anything under £100, but shortly I am taking Barclay's Bank to the small claims court over their bank charges.

They've got around 10 days left to settle with me; otherwise I will be taking them to court.

The process, (mind I haven't done it yet) appears to be fairly simple.

I'm looking forward to doing it just to see how the process actually works.

--------------------------------------------

But for smaller accounts, call just the once (or twice) to collect and if they're not in leave a SAE with an instruction on how to pay you.

If you don't receive payment; don't worry about it; clean them next month and repeat the process.  I don't mind waiting for my cash, since I get at least 90% of what I work for paid in the month I clean.

I won't do more than three cleans without payment; but I can't remember the last time this has cropped up.

With repeated bad payers; make the effort to get paid; then drop 'em.

Many guys don't collect at all; but I do; I like/need a good cashflow, but it's not as important as it was to me this time last year, so I will eventually evolve into a non-collecting window cleaner.

Hopefully.

[Moderator David@stives]

Shawn

count yourself lucky if you are only owed £200 i am currently owed £2951, most of these debts owe for no more than 4 cleans, i have one which is for 13 months now and a couple for 7-8 months, but mostly they are for one or two cleans.

I carry on cleaning them regardless i would be foolish to set deadlines and not clean after the deadline, i always get the money in the end.

I had a good day today on the payment front we cleaned £200 worth of work and recieved  £516 in payments, Its a good feeling when i good amount of money comes in.

I have never collected in 6 years and only left an envelope on rare occassions, i had a customer leave a message this morning to say to come and pick up the money has she has left it under the doormat, i think i will phone the council tax people and tell them there payment is under my mat, Do you think it will work,  anyway i cant be bothered to pick it up, it is also an insult as though i have nothing better to do with my time.

In 6 years i have saved at least 600 hours collecting time and about £1500 petrol costs collecting money, so that is about £15000 unpaid working time i would of not been paid for if i collected.

see i am better off already

[thewindowcleaner1]

i am currently owed £2951,

I,m about same around £600 comercial and about £700 domestic, Hollidays and nice weather to blame, I work straight forward policy max two cleans then payment any bad payers I let the Missus loose with the offer of 50% if she gets it
(she's like thrush all over them until they pay up) then i drop them..

I,ve got one at present £100 Comercial clean from about 10 months ago May take them to small claims or may just let her indoors have it all if she can get it (just to give the fella as much pain as he's given me)

[gaza]

FIND A LOT OUT IN THEIR BACK GARDENS

 GAZA

[Paul Coleman]

hi all


have had a rubbish couple of weeks with people just not paying me am owed about 200 but i leave note after note after note , with self adressed enevelope and just nothing.... problem is i dont have there numbers ?? what do you all do ... also the problem is i dont like collecting in the evening. cos alot of them are good 40 min drive there and back.

any advice ....


shawn

As others have said, unpaid or late paying accounts certainly increase at holiday time.  I ask for a cheque to be sent within 14 days.  Most comply but a few are late and several never send a cheque at all.  One of the "never senders" has now been dropped.  When I first switched my business  to a non-collecting one, I did incur a few bad debts.  This happens quite rarely now that I have weeded out the bad ones.  However, the bad debt incurred is far less than the money I would have spent collecting over the years.