[Richy L]

Hey tosh,
Yeah it is in station road! an upstairs flat. I didnt know he had a dog.

He's a right pain! I went there again tonight! i rang the bell about 4 times and knocked (hard) about 4 times too. Heres the thing! ... He came down stairs, looked through the spy-hole thing, and then hid behind the side of the door. He may have gotten away with it if the door didnt have windows on it!!! I could see him looking at me!!!! :

[P @ F]

LEEKSONS , do what i did , just ask them how much excess they have on their car insurance , it works well , i got paid straight away .

 Rich   P @ F

[Richy L]

Hey Rich, He doesnt own a car!
I asked his naighbour, (tosh's customer) when he works, hoping i could have a chat with him before or after but she says he doesnt work!

[dai]

Write it off, forget it. We all come up against this kind of situation. So he hasn't paid you. That gives you stress. Don't let him/her cause you any more. Replace the customer with a better job and get on with your life.
I have one golden rule, if a customer gives me grief to the extent that I think about them when I go to bed, they are history. Dai

[AuRavelling79]

If you are wfp do this:

When he hides you can assume he's not in.

Kindly clean his front door as a "goodwill parting gesture" and pay particular attention to the letter box making sure that you use at least 25 litres of pure water to make it "really" clean. (I find that to ensure that there are no runs you might need to prop open the flap so that you really scrub every last bit of it!)

At Hallowe'en I'm sure some young nuisances will egg his flat - it was them wasn't it?

Disclaimer:- (The above post is of course meant to not be taken seriously!)

[Richy L]

Ive never used the wfp on this house, i may do now!
thanks for the idea! ; )

[Paul Coleman]

Write it off, forget it. We all come up against this kind of situation. So he hasn't paid you. That gives you stress. Don't let him/her cause you any more. Replace the customer with a better job and get on with your life.
I have one golden rule, if a customer gives me grief to the extent that I think about them when I go to bed, they are history. Dai

I'm a bit like that Dai.  I've had jobs before that caused me anxiety.  If i feel irritated 3 times in a row about a pending job, I let go of that job.  I used to keep doing them year in year out and hated it.

[Paul Coleman]

Ive never used the wfp on this house, i may do now!
thanks for the idea! ; )

Whatever you do, don't dip the brush in dog's poo first will you?

[Morph]

Make a little paper boat, put a lit candle in it and float it out on the nearest pond

[Terry_Burrows]

Eggs bring them on with toms and rice all stick great :

once I super Glued a lock up for no payer fun watching them try to get in

[Moderator David@stives]

I would just hold your head up and forget about it.

Show you are a professional and just invoice them then leave it.

Lifes too short to get stressed and get a bad name for doing something petty by retaliating.

Dave

[Paul Coleman]

I would just hold your head up and forget about it.

Show you are a professional and just invoice them then leave it.

Lifes too short to get stressed and get a bad name for doing something petty by retaliating.

Dave

David.  I totally agree with you.  If I let it get to me too much whenever this happened, I'd end up in the nuthouse.  one guy took me for £70.  That took a bit longer to let go of.  I just take pride in not allowing myself to drop to their level.  I considered the small claims court for the 70 pounder as I had proof of non payment but, in the end, I realised I could make that up in less than half a day. I figured I'd rather work for half a day extra than sitting around in a stuffy courtroom with a load of plastic people who make their living at this type of thing.

[Michael D]

Hi All,
          Sorry to hear you have a bad payer. Weed out the bad ones. It`s the only way, I only do 3 cleans then stop until i get paid. Sometimes you will lose out  we all do and will. The next job that comes, add £1 more after you decide on the price.  This week i weeded  8 jobs small money ones 5, 7,8 pounders out of 12 jobs in one area, started 2 at £15 each . i now have 6 jobs and i make more money. Always ask for more ,when they say its to much say. ok fine someone else who will turn up each month.  Michael D

[atoddyone]

hiya
i once had a custamer like this so all i did was tell all of my good paying custerms about him then when i clean he's windows for the last time i just got my old pole that i uesd to ues with my mop on the end put it to some nice muddy water
and away i went at it gave it a lovey drity clean if you like he soon came out and wanted them cleaning witch i did but not befor he payed up what he owed me chager him duble then drop him if he dos not come out then you have a big smile on ya face cos ya got him 

[dai]

This is one method I have used in the past with some success.
When a customer owes for 3 cleans, I ask a neighbor if they can help.
I say "I keep missing Mrs brown next door, would it be OK if she was to leave the money with you for me to pick up"? They usually agree to this. I then put a note through the none payers door telling them that as I keep missing them, I have asked Mrs Black next door if it was OK to leave the money with her, and she agreed.
Now the non payer knows, that Mrs black knows, that she hasn't payed.
Whilst the non payer may not give a toss about you, she usually cares what her neighbors think, and pays up. This method has worked for me quite a few times. Dai

[marc al]

  I like to leave people who have taken me for any amount for at least 6 months, then a rag that has been soaked in brake fluid accidentally finds its way onto thier car bonnet when it is parked somewhere.
  Shame one of my ex customers has got rid of their shiney BMW just before revenge is due, even more of a shame they have replaced it with a 911!!


  THIS IS POSTED IN JEST (maybe!)

[007 or what]

super glue his locks. 

[jeff1]

Hi Guy's

I used to get the same problem, with a couple of none payers, and after giving up trying I would just dump them. and write it of to experiance.

I work in several small villages in somerset and you get to know the other wc's in the area, we meet up occasionally and have each others phone numbers, if one of us gets a bad payer we make contact with each other and put that person on our bad debtors list. if they then try to get another wc in the area they find it impossible. if they try to fob us of with the last wc was no good then we hit them with the bad debtors list, we don't pratt around with them anymore, and the word goes around villages very quickly pay the wc or loose them. we also have a system in place were if you do houses, etc and a for sale sign goes up we only do them if the customer is home, this way you won't loose your last payment when they leave. you get to know which customers will give or send payment, if they move, but i have hardened up over the years after loosing payment to several customers with for sale signs up.
I would recommend to any wc get to know your fellow workers in your area and create a bad debtors list

also like a few of you guy's I used to do them 3 times  befor i stopped doing them for bad payment, only if I know and trust a customer will I do this, apart from that its once and once only,

Jeff
Reflections

[windows_chepstow]

Every month, when I clean the houses next to her property, I always knock, never get an answer and leave a note.  I've been doing this for three months now; obviously I'm not cleaning her windows though.

I'll catch her one of these days; purely out of principle.  I've been nice though.  Had she been an able-bodied bloke, I maybe a little more pushy.

She coughed up last week; I received a cheque. 

Persistence pays!

I just kept shoving notes attached to envelopes through her door each month, after I cleaned the houses around where she lives.

Obviously I won't be back unless she gives me a blood-promise that she'll pay up within a reasonable time-frame.

I've still got another few dodgy customers though that haven't paid me yet from their first cleans.

But I won't let them off.

Be persistent; don't go down the 'vandilism route' is my advise.

[scrimit2]

Ive got this problem too! one customer owes me £48 another £21 and quite a few more like that, one of those customers apaarantly bragged that he doesnt have to pay for windows to be cleaned, to be honest they are complete waste of time the amount of time I have wasted trying to get the money, I could have earnt the money time and again, Ive thought about soaping there windows up, ive also considered making a huge bill and fitting on the upstairs of there house so the neighbours see.

although im most probably not going to get that money now, I thought I would try to stop it happening again, any ideas? apart from limiting times I clean without being paid,

I did consider if I could pass the debts to debt collectors, but really its my word against theres.