[colley614]

Hi Guys,

One of my main monthly jobs canceled today. Was a company that have lots of apartment blocks and they called me to question an invoice. When I proved to them that they did actually owe me the Money ( which they did but were trying to pay less than agreed) they said they would pay me and ended the phone call. 5 minutes later the secretary called me and said " These aren't going to be monthly jobs anymore. We'll phone you when they need doing."

Oh well looks like another customer goes in the bin. First time I've put a big customer in the bin though. I'm not getting a phone call in 12 months with a load of grotty apartments that I've priced for doing monthly. I'll phone them back tomorrow and say "well Either I do them 2 or 3 monthly or not at all because I'm not being messed about." I would have said it today but was with an important customer and I didn't fancy getting aggressive on the phone but I could tell the  call was heading in that direction.       

[ronnie paton]

colley i lost my biggest job that was appartments but that was due to being undercut, but 2/3 months on iv got the same amount of work back.

ull get the income back mate

[Richy L]

in the last month ive lost about £5000 a year in commercial work! which is a nightmare. I was undercut on one too!
The thing is, with commerial, its great when you do it, but you can lose them in a flash. Im think of gtting commercial customers to sign a contract now. just so i know where i stand.

Do other people get their commercial customers to sign contracts for a year or so?

[mark dew]

Hi Guys,

One of my main monthly jobs canceled today. Was a company that have lots of apartment blocks and they called me to question an invoice. When I proved to them that they did actually owe me the Money ( which they did but were trying to pay less than agreed) they said they would pay me and ended the phone call. 5 minutes later the secretary called me and said " These aren't going to be monthly jobs anymore. We'll phone you when they need doing."

Oh well looks like another customer goes in the bin. First time I've put a big customer in the bin though. I'm not getting a phone call in 12 months with a load of grotty apartments that I've priced for doing monthly. I'll phone them back tomorrow and say "well Either I do them 2 or 3 monthly or not at all because I'm not being messed about." I would have said it today but was with an important customer and I didn't fancy getting aggressive on the phone but I could tell the  call was heading in that direction.       

colley, hang back and avoid giving them an ultimatum.
It seems like you have resigned yourself to losing the job anyway, so why not just wait for the phone call and re-price the job handsomely due to the new factors.
You have nothing to lose and all work (even one offs), can be very worthwhile as long as you price them accordingly.

[Paul Coleman]

Hi Guys,

One of my main monthly jobs canceled today. Was a company that have lots of apartment blocks and they called me to question an invoice. When I proved to them that they did actually owe me the Money ( which they did but were trying to pay less than agreed) they said they would pay me and ended the phone call. 5 minutes later the secretary called me and said " These aren't going to be monthly jobs anymore. We'll phone you when they need doing."

Oh well looks like another customer goes in the bin. First time I've put a big customer in the bin though. I'm not getting a phone call in 12 months with a load of grotty apartments that I've priced for doing monthly. I'll phone them back tomorrow and say "well Either I do them 2 or 3 monthly or not at all because I'm not being messed about." I would have said it today but was with an important customer and I didn't fancy getting aggressive on the phone but I could tell the  call was heading in that direction.       

colley, hang back and avoid giving them an ultimatum.
It seems like you have resigned yourself to losing the job anyway, so why not just wait for the phone call and re-price the job handsomely due to the new factors.
You have nothing to lose and all work (even one offs), can be very worthwhile as long as you price them accordingly.

Too right.  They're a big customer they can have an ad hoc service.  Price accordingly though and add some more to ease your pain     If they decline, you've lost nothing.  If they accept, you make good money.