[nevil]

I am spitting blood today. It takes a lot to get me going but I flipped my lid this morning.

I had a call from a customer who wanted a rental cottage cleaning earlier this week. Tiny cottage. One room 10 x 12 another at 8 x 8 and a flight of stairs. Wool loop pile. She asked how much and I told her over the phone. I said if it's straight forward and good access between £75 and £85. That's fine she said. So I did the job, sent them the invoice. Then today her husband called me saying he thought the price was to high. He went on to say that his cleaning lady does carpets and would have done it for £50. Of course I told him all a bout quality. He didn't want to hear it.

I said surely the time for all this would have been when your wife called me when we talked about price. He replied she said that money hadn't been discussed. Implying that I was making it up. I told him that I have never claimed to be the cheapest CC about but that also I am not the most expensive. He wasn't interested.

Then I popped around to confront him, I don't mind people negotiating that's fine. But telling me that I hadn't already given them an indication of the price was essentially calling me a liar. I lost it,shouted, yelled told him he was out of order for questioning my honesty then trying to re negotiate the price. He wanted to pay £ 50 and no more.

Haven't calmed down yet. Pretty safe bet I won't be doing any more work for them but I think I am better off without them.


edited to add the invoice was for £80

[Colin Day]

Book yourself a week at the cottage, when you come to leave, just offer them a reduced price at what "You" think it's worth and play them at their own game.... Oh, and make sure you spill plenty of lucozade on the carpet

[Matt Seymour]

Fortunately something like this has yet to happen to me, but I'm sure it will at some point.

If it were me I'd go back with a water pistol loaded with Lucozade and squirt it through the letterbox!

[derek west]

personally, i'd of taken the £50. £25 for a lot of stress and sleepless nights just aint worth it, and lets face it, numptys like that are few and far between. you didn't put it in writing (i'm guessing) so move on and either learn from it or carry on trusting your custies knowing full well that once in a blue moon, it will happen again.

lifes to short to stress.

chillaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mon.

[benny d]

Just hire a hit man...Job's a goodun 

[clinton]

Same as derek really mate id move on thankfull we dont get many people like that so its a good thing we dont ..

[garyfindlay]

swings and roundabouts really, but I`d bet its not the first time they have done this

[gwrightson]

If you had discussed the price I cannot see were the problem lies, stick to your guns.

and I would have asked why the hell didnt you get your cleaning lady to do it then!!!!!

Only really had one who wanted to try it on , his wife had distorted a draylon suite with a steam cleaner, Pointed all of the problems out when surveying ,no problem as long as you can clean it, went ahead with clean,few days later  husband then saying you have ruined the suite over the phone to me ,  went down took a look discussed what we had already talked about with his wife. he even said " every body who has been in our home has said , whay has happened to your suite " as if  visitors would make a point of this.  :
So i hit him with, well thats exactly why i took numerous pictures of it  he didnt know what to say and then shut up

since then, i know of 3 other tradsmen who have had problems with him . just a tryer who wants some thing done for nothing, sounds like you got the same Nevil

[nevil]

Too right gw.

I couldn't bring myself to be bullied into a corner by this guy. I am pretty straight forward to deal with and I struggle to deal with folks that aren't. If I had taken the £ 50 the guy wanted to pay it would still leave major doubts over future dealings with them. The money isn't really the issue here it's the fact that these people tried to get one over on me in a sneaky and dishonest way. Don't enjoy the confrontation but I am not hiding from it. It's a principle thing. I could go down the road of covering every base doing it all in writing. It just seems like an extreme measure to me and not one I really relish.

[derek west]

Future dealings with them?

really?

[Neil Williams]

Future dealings with them?

really?

That would be me and them finished forever.
If I cock something up then fair enough that's my doing and I'll make it right, but over the years I have gone down the route of County Court submissions to get my money and the working relationship is well and truely over at that stage.

[wynne jones]

These are what I call fire and forget situations. The main thing is not to let it affect your ability to get on with your work whilst at the same time put wheels in motion to get the money you agreed.

So you send them an invoice with terms to be paid and that you pursue all claims no matter how small through the courts on priciple.

Then, forget it. Get on with what you are doing. If you get paid fine if you don't give it up and most imortantly mentally LET IT GO.

Otherwise you will lose a lot of time sleep and money. Surprisingly though I think you will get paid and if trading standards get involved you will find they will side with you if you have a strong local respresentation.

[Mike Halliday]

why are you even talking to him?

you made an arragement with his wife he has nothing to do with the booking. i would contront the wife or at least talk to the husband with the wife in attendance, she agreed the price don't let her hide behind her husband

[fitz2kleen]

we had a similar situation a while back, price all agreed , spec agreed then when job was done she left money with her mum to pay us £40 short of agreed price.
it does eat away at you, like you say, its not the money, its the fact that they can do it and get away with it, knowing full well for £40 your not gonna go to small claims court, its more hassle than its worth.
trading standards will be on their side if you didnt provide a quote in writing.
the lady even slagged us of with a nasty review. makes you wanna get revenge but trust me you need to let it go and remind yourself these are very few and far between.

[Matt Lindus]

Run the tw%t through a wood chipper, Ill hold the bin-bag open.

[Paul Heath]

Empty your waste tank through the letter box,

[Colin Day]

Run the tw%t through a wood chipper, Ill hold the bin-bag open.

[Carpet Dawg]

and then just add your localy sourced generic brand of super market bleach, and squeeze the trigger while shouting "in the face! in the face!!" 

[jasonl]

Put up the url of the cottage , 297 views on this thread , if only 20% of readers enquire taking 1 min to do so , that will keep them busy ,, then we can spam them with carpet cleaning quotations , at £8.99 a go.

[wynne jones]

Put up the url of the cottage , 297 views on this thread , if only 20% of readers enquire taking 1 min to do so , that will keep them busy ,, then we can spam them with carpet cleaning quotations , at £8.99 a go.

 

[Tony Gill Carpet Smart]

Well done Nev 10 out of 10

Tony

[ryan mca]

loving your work jason

[kerrmiddleton]

must be that kind of month had a job today , from a landlord whom i get 1 - 2 if lucky a mth
stays in big town hose in city center  large room also 12x8 wool chiness rug , spent couple of hours, grade 1 job , says to him how will a invoice it , he replys is this not afree bee ,sorry , but will give you good discount , £75 total , his face was thunder , f*** him can get some one eles in the futre , wonder if he look after my flats for nothing , ha ha

[nevil]

That's true Mike, we covered that in our little chat. It was her that I wanted to talk to and I will. Preferably with him in earshot. I think what has happened is he has over ruled her and decided to do all the talking for both of them. He has basically waded in and tried to go back on her arrangements. I want to get to the bottom of is who is lying about the original estimate. Him or her. I think it's him and I told him so just before he tried to throw me out of his office. I said tried because I politely  declined to go as I had more that I wanted to get off my chest. It all looks a bit silly looking back at today's events, but I think I would do the same again if it happened tomorrow. Also I will sleep a lot better tonight knowing that I didn't bend over and take one for the sake of peace.  

[richy27]

i think your spot on nevil  cant understand why some  have said take 50 quid and move on its the principal that counts.

so when you go into your local garage and ask for a price for XXX work to be done on your van when yo come to pay you give them xx less than quoted come on lads we are in business to make money.

[wynne jones]

Richard

So are you stuck on principle or the money?

£50 can be half an hours work. Going through the courts and all the poo will cost you a lot more.

[derek west]

i think your spot on nevil  cant understand why some  have said take 50 quid and move on its the principal that counts.

so when you go into your local garage and ask for a price for XXX work to be done on your van when yo come to pay you give them xx less than quoted come on lads we are in business to make money.

you can't make money when your in court trying to get your extra 25 quid. he hasn't got the quote in writing, its his word against theres, the judge will laugh at his unprofessionalism. (sorry nev but thats how he'll see it.)

then theres the stress of it all, and believe me, it does stress you out, sleepless nights as you play it over and over in your mind, waiting for the court date, F$%K dat rich. £50 and move on, lifes way to short.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

£ 80 as agreed - or £ 50 and a smack in the mouth ..... who said anything about going to court  :

[wynne jones]

Probably the coppers when they arrest you Steve. 

[nevil]

No court required. He has said he will pay the eighty and I believe he will. You guys that have said I should take fifty. Wouldn't it bother you that someone had blatantly taken the p, and questioned your honesty. As I have said several times it's not about the money. I wouldn't fall out with anyone over thirty quid. But when someone tries to take advantage in such an insulting manner I am always going to stick to my guns. If I didn't it would truly eat away at me.

[Colin Day]

I tend to agree with Nevil , RB Fisher and the other guys who would stick it out....

It's all about dignity, and dignity is priceless....

The bloke is trying it on and needs to be met with a dog with bigger teeth... Well done Nevil, you did right!!!!

[nevil]

Colin and Richard. I think I did do th right thing. Only mentioned you two as you are almost close enough to nick work off me.  Ok then got to include Gary aswell.

But it's down to personality isn't it, it was right for me and many others would have done the same. But some people avoid confrontation at all cost which I can understand. Great to see a few West country CCs offering their support. Can't include Colin in that though.  You have to live in Cornwall for Twenty five years or have st Pirans flag tattooed across your forehead to be accepted in Cornwall. Especially down your end. I know I used to live at Senen cove and some of the locals were a bit like that.

[garry22]

Put up the url of the cottage , 297 views on this thread , if only 20% of readers enquire taking 1 min to do so , that will keep them busy ,, then we can spam them with carpet cleaning quotations , at £8.99 a go.

Or use the cottage E mail to sign up to every dodgy online newsletter you can, especially those who sell them on. Throw in a few pharmacueticals, sex and gambling sites. Whoops, did I really say that?

[Paul Heath]

Well done Nevil for sticking at it. You gave them a price and that is it. We all get those that try it on and you have to stick to it, they do usually back down.

[murky]

As my previous posts on this.

Just find the Thomas Higgins debt website. Drop a 'letter before action' on him that will sost you £2.80 which of course you include in your costs and you will almost certainly get your money. It terrifies them, its on Court headed paper.

Or use the ugov Debt Line that I admit that I havent used but many have and its also an easy to use way of getting your money.

Good luck.

Murky

[derek west]

i'm in the process of getting money back of an ex landlord, moneyclaims online is who i'm using, its the official way through HMRC?, cost me thirty quid, they just ignored the first letter, second letter was court judgement, (in my favour) theyve ignored that. next step will cost us £100. which is a warrent issue. feel like giving up but we've come this far so might as well try the last measure.
hence why i gave nevil my thoughts on this subject. i didn't realise he hadn't eghausted all his verbal issues, to go to court for 25-30 quid whatever it is just aint worth it. we're chasing £350 and its a ball ache.

[clinton]

Lets hope you get somewere with id derek,i know with e o t s now i ask for cash only now.

[wynne jones]

You can get a CCJ awarded but it doesn't mean they will pay it. When you get companies shrugging their shoulders and saying they ain't got any money and doing a phoenix.

What goes around comes around. I have always found it does indirectly, isn't that strange.

[cml]

A lot of advice on this one however I would agree with Nevil. 

This profession is a skill one and as such should be treated as such and not sold too cheaply.  The question here is his honesty is in question and that's not to be taken lightly.  As suggested you may want to speak to the husband with his wife present. She does not seem to be doing any talking at the moment and has left her husband to get on with it.  Just follow up your conversations of visits in writing or keep a log of visits, times and discussions just in case you do go to court and they can be presented as supporting documents.

Sometime just by issuing and sending a copy to the client of the court forms before going to court informing them that if they do not pay these papers will be served in court will force them into paying.  Remember your Fee's are recoverable and interest on any debts owed.

If they are not afraid of CCJ's they will listen when the baliff starts knocking afterall they are impartial and are working on behalf of the courts in your favour.

Good luck