[Caleb Morley]

What does everyone do about customers not paying?

Specifically the ones that ignore you after you've text or emailed them?

I'm thinking of turning up on their doorstep but I have a short fuse and can see it going south.

[SB Cleaning]

Depends on how much it is?

[Walter Mitty]

What does everyone do about customers not paying?

Specifically the ones that ignore you after you've text or emailed them?

I'm thinking of turning up on their doorstep but I have a short fuse and can see it going south.

If you can't trust yourself to stay reasonably calm, do not doorstep them.  Even if you can stay calm it's not necessarily a good idea because a customer who is dishonest enough to cheat you could also be dishonest enough to lie about your behaviour.

[dazmond]

What does everyone do about customers not paying?

Specifically the ones that ignore you after you've text or emailed them?

I'm thinking of turning up on their doorstep but I have a short fuse and can see it going south.

personally i text them again a week later after sending a text reminder if no payment has been made......if after 3  or 4 weeks still no payment(very very rare occurrence)ill knock there door,get payment then get them to set up a standing order if possible,if not then i dump them....

[dazmond]

some customers might be on holiday,a few times ive sent a text reminder,no reply and no payment for a week or two then they pay followed by an apologetic text....

TBH its not something that happens regularly...most of my customers are good as gold....

[dazmond]

dont let the debt mount up.....i dont let it get to more than 2 or 3 cleans outstanding before i stop cleaning until i get paid again.....

[Shrek]

Iv just had one customer tell me that they’ll pay me this month for last month and next month pay me for this month and so on , so they’re always a month behind. I sacked them off

[Slacky]

Come on guys, isn't anyone going to suggest bamboo or eggs?

[dazmond]

if you knock hard on their door theyll pay up,just make sure you ve got a card reader on you as well.....

[dazmond]

What does everyone do about customers not paying?

Specifically the ones that ignore you after you've text or emailed them?

I'm thinking of turning up on their doorstep but I have a short fuse and can see it going south.

if you employ and your debt is in the thousands have you ever thought about getting the bad payers on gocardless or standing order?

[Stoots]

Before you clean there windows make sure you have full name and address and a contact number.

And even better some proof you clean there windows regular or an admittance of debt owed via text email etc.

I do not clean anyones windows more than once without payment.

After a week they start getting reminder texts, so had 3-4 before next clean due. I would then skip them next time and again text them and tell them why. Keep sending reminders for a few more weeks.....

Then you have done all you can and you now know they are a Messer so they are going to be dumped no matter what.

Your next course of action would be going to the door or sending a debt letter ...which one would depend for me how far away the house is...I'm not driving an hour round trip on a night in the hope of collecting a tenner but if it's just up the road definitely go knock.

If no luck from knocking and or debt letter then you have 3 choices

1. File a small claim - make sure you have a good case as above, last thing you want is to go to court and have it fall down

2. Get revenge - whatever you deem appropriate, good option if you don't have all the above info from court or if you just like this option more.

3. Let it go - the hardest option imo. I've let a few go and they still haunt me to this day I drive past jobs thinking of ways to hurt that person - but maybe that just me.

Hope this helps.

[Spruce]

What does everyone do about customers not paying?

Specifically the ones that ignore you after you've text or emailed them?

I'm thinking of turning up on their doorstep but I have a short fuse and can see it going south.

 

If you can't trust yourself to stay reasonably calm, do not doorstep them.  Even if you can stay calm it's not necessarily a good idea because a customer who is dishonest enough to cheat you could also be dishonest enough to lie about your behaviour.

Very true. The other option would be to take along a trusted friend to keep Caleb in check and a witness to the process.

The other thing Caleb needs to do is not take this sort of stuff personally. I'm sure the customer isn't letting this particular situation get to him so Caleb is only destroying his own health getting boiled up inside about it.
Maybe the customer is in financial trouble and is trying to ignore the situation. None of us know. He could have been laid off work and just doesn't know which way to turn. We have also got a customer who has been in hospital for over 3 months and has only just got home.

If the debt has mounted up then Caleb might learn not to let it happen with any of his customers in future. We will do a maximum of two cleans with long established customers and new customers under 5 years old one clean.

Are the email address or mobile number still active? If the customer is on Whatsapp and he knows their name then by adding the customer to his Whatsapp addresses he will be able to see if that mobile number is active. He could also just ring the number, stay calm and ask when he could pop by and pick up the money,; no threats or raised voice etc.

[Spruce]

Before you clean there windows make sure you have full name and address and a contact number.

And even better some proof you clean there windows regular or an admittance of debt owed via text email etc.

I do not clean anyones windows more than once without payment.

After a week they start getting reminder texts, so had 3-4 before next clean due. I would then skip them next time and again text them and tell them why. Keep sending reminders for a few more weeks.....

Then you have done all you can and you now know they are a Messer so they are going to be dumped no matter what.

Your next course of action would be going to the door or sending a debt letter ...which one would depend for me how far away the house is...I'm not driving an hour round trip on a night in the hope of collecting a tenner but if it's just up the road definitely go knock.

If no luck from knocking and or debt letter then you have 3 choices

1. File a small claim - make sure you have a good case as above, last thing you want is to go to court and have it fall down

2. Get revenge - whatever you deem appropriate, good option if you don't have all the above info from court or if you just like this option more.

3. Let it go - the hardest option imo. I've let a few go and they still haunt me to this day I drive past jobs thinking of ways to hurt that person - but maybe that just me.

Hope this helps.

IFTFY 

Everything else 100%

[P @ F]

Just had this happen to me , very rare does it happen these days , in the old days they used to get muddy water from a pressure spayer !
But 3 months ago I went to knock for £12 that had not turned up , wifey came to door and said she wasnt paying as the husband took me on and had now left her , I asked if she was doing the same to the gas and electricity companies then ?
OK , no cash here so I will pay online she said , never came , so each time I did the others in the street I left a reminder slip and it still never came .
I was just about to write it off and pride kicked in , I hand wrote on another slip that being as no payment had been made I was handing the debt to my collections agent and stuck that Higgins blokes company on for good measure , I gave the 20th as the deadline .
The payment hit my bank on the 22nd 
Maybe she googled Higgins and I got lucky , give it a whirl 

[Perfect Windows]

What does everyone do about customers not paying?

Specifically the ones that ignore you after you've text or emailed them?

I'm thinking of turning up on their doorstep but I have a short fuse and can see it going south.

Chase a couple of times then move on. You've spent half an hour of your life finding out they are worthless, why waste any more time?

But beware, because (according to someone on here) people will google you to see if you've ever posted on the internet about your attitude to debt before they decide whether to pay you.  So be careful of agreeing publicly. Because that's what people do. Or something.

Vin

[Lee Pryor]

We now only have about 400 people not on gocardless out of over 5000 but people on here that still go 2 or 3 cleans without being paid really suprise me. If we come round and ANY amount is still outstanding they get called, paid over the phone with card and made to change to gocarless. If we cant reach them or they wont change we drop them. I make it as black and white as that. Why on earth would you let them build up a multiple clean debt!!! Madness.

[Stoots]

Non payers are part of growing a round in my experience.

I've had loads, I've got about 3-4 at the moment who are 2-3 months old and chasing. I've got another 2 from some new canvassed work who are not playing ball Alos... and written loads off plus sent loads of debt letters

Thankfully I'm over the worst of it now and getting to the point where 90% are good payers and the rest slow payers but payers.

Only thing is once you enter dumped a load of customera who are slow payers you then need a fresh influx of customers and no doubt some of them will be slow payers

It's a never ending game and takes a few years to really weed them all out.

However if you are growing constantly bad debt will always be a part of any business...

[Caleb Morley]

Some good points made.

I've decided to write letters first, then follow them up with Thomas Higgins letters if I get no response from my own. Then I guess write them off. I can't take the risk of getting nicked by going to their doors for minimal money (though obviously every £1 counts in a small business).

My thoughts with gocardless as Lee mentioned are that in an ideal world I'd sign everyone up on that but I'm at a stage in my business where I don't have the luxury of turning down new work that wants to pay in a different way.

[Dry Clean]

Celeb I don't have a single customer on Go Cardless and don't have a single customer who's overdue with their payment, like most shiners I picked the odd messer non payer on the way but it never got that bad that I needed to take action such as offering Go Cardless only, that said I can understand why the bigger employers on here do it.
Send them a letter and if they are not seasoned messers you might get lucky but if not forget about them and move on, as Lee said dont let any customer run up a dept as its only asking for trouble.

[dazmond]

We now only have about 400 people not on gocardless out of over 5000 but people on here that still go 2 or 3 cleans without being paid really suprise me. If we come round and ANY amount is still outstanding they get called, paid over the phone with card and made to change to gocarless. If we cant reach them or they wont change we drop them. I make it as black and white as that. Why on earth would you let them build up a multiple clean debt!!! Madness.

some i only put a bill through when they owe 2 or 3 cleans,its not a problem,...i get others who pay me 6 months in advance!

swings and roundabouts....it doesnt bother me one bit...i get paid in the end.....its only a few here and there anyway