Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Duke on December 14, 2004, 04:06:23 pm
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I'm toying with the idea of setting up a WC support website...you know, chat room, message board etc etc. I was thinking (after a few recent bad paying customers) it's about time we named and shamed bad payers. I realise that I could get into a wilderness of legal or technical problems....but frustration with customers who just refuse to pay or avoid paying is coming to a head. I think, if it was workable in some way, I would like to see a database of bad payers (genuine cases) freely available to any cleaner, maybe localised, a sort of Union. Here's how I'd like to see it....Customer applies for window cleaner...cleaner checks blacklist...name/address on it...no'one touches with barge pole (let alone WF Pole...lol) .....just a bit of a daydream really I suppose....but wouldn't it be great.... :o
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Good idea concerning bad payers they are no good to any of us.
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I SUPPORT THAT IDEA FULLY!!!
When you first start you are like the 3rd coming of jc , but after a while they take liberty"s. Fortunately thats only a tiny proporation of my customers , as for the mick takers.....SHAME EM !!! >:(
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name them and shame em! great idea but would only work on a national data base as we all work different areas of the country. ;D
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I think thats a great idea, as you can tell the customer too !! imagine there faces they will hate it !!
Rob
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Nope
dont do it
data protection act will come into play
not worth the legal hastle
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works for people like Experian though....that's how credit checking is done...
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shame you cant name and shame employers that dont pay staff :(
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works for people like Experian though....that's how credit checking is done...
yes BUT they pay for the requirements of thr data protection act
its been looked into(not for aWC'ing but another reason) and its a legal minefield
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hmm, might still go for it anyway...if only to get up their noses... ??? I reckon that in the last 2 years, I must be owed at least £150...ok, not a great amount I suppose, but then, I'm in business, not a charity.....sods...
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them bad payers
if they were docked half hr of their wages they would be the first one in the office,I now do 1 clean if not paid when I come round next time they dont get done,when they do pay, I charge them £1 or £2 more cus the extra work for the next clean 8),bullfrogging but it works,cus they get the message dont mess with me,or you will be in trouble
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good for you Gaza.....idiots......they don't deserve good reliable service ! We sell ourselves on that point 'A good dependable, reliable service'....huh, nobody said anything about unreliable customers....and in my book...there's more of them than us !
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hmm, might still go for it anyway...if only to get up their noses... ??? I reckon that in the last 2 years, I must be owed at least £150...ok, not a great amount I suppose, but then, I'm in business, not a charity.....sods...
seriously, its a legal minefield, you will fal foul of the data protection act and thats it, you will be in court with a massive fine :(
its not worth the heartache
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I dont actually see why...I may be accused of libel or even slander,,,but that wont stick if I can prove it's the truth...only if they can prove it isn't......anyway, still in the thinking about stage....If that's true, and there really is nothing we can do about people owing us money (apart from reporting them to a credit agency..and that's how people get on blacklists) then the signal goes out it's a free for all...why pay for anything ? Let's all live in a free world ! Sod it, I'm just off to do my shopping...without paying for it of course !....
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With bad payers its good for your blood pressure to suss out whether they're just disorganised/lazy - in which case train 'em. (Politely explain that you will need paying up to date plus the next clean before you carry on. Then if it happens again tell them you want three months up front. I've got one customer who pays me six months up front!... Or put them on standing order.)
If they are yanking your chain on purpose get them to pay up what they owe - part on civil terms and don't go back.
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ive got a customer who pays 12 months in advance
i get a bumper week that week, then do it for free all year
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actually! you can do a black list. First of all, you can black list houses not people.
when you get a new customer, ask them how long have they been living there and have they used a window cleaner before you on the same premises.
If there new owners or tenants you can un black list houses off the black list.
but to do this, you must look on the black list to see what date it was black listed. example:-
1 sunnyfield pk
flat 1a
on 07-05-04 was blacklisted by
STRIKE WINDOW CLEANERS LTD
(OWNER) DAVID PETERS
TEL:- 0207 6451231
SO, if your customer moved in after that date, you can request the web owner or site admin to un black list them, But the site registed window cleaner must state that there are new owners of the property with out saying and names.
THIS WOULD LEAGALLY BE OK!
If anyone could laberate on this section it would be very much appreciated.
ANDY
ASH WINDOW CLEANERS
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You are always going to get them but after a while you start to recognise the signs.
If you get a house in a street that is already well served saying that she can't get anyone it should ring bells.
The best advice I can offer is at the very first sign of trouble just walk away and cut your losses. Don't get all annoyed the world is full of windows and its not worth losing sleep over.
The best thing is that they can only knock you for about a tenner at most.
My mate is a plumber and when he gets knocked it can be for thousands. And it does happen, more often than you think. Someone gets him in to do a new bathroom and then afterwards says "its not my house you have to see the owner for the money."
Then it turns out that the owner is abroad at the moment etc etc.
Its an organised scam and very common. You probably find the bloke who put in the kitchen and the bloke who built the bedroon units all got turned over the same way.
No, believe me getting clobbered for a tenner only hurts a little bit and you can always book them a taxi for 4.30am to go to the airport if you wan't revenge.
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ang on a mo whats the taxi driver done wrong,your only being the same as your customer,being an ex taxi driver Iwould be annoyed to say the least.
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it would also be VERY wrong to find the phone number out and list it on a GAY contact website
that would be VERY wrong
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When I start a new customer I always try to get a phone number if I can. So if I wanted to phone them up at 2am to discuss the money they owe me its always an option.
I do like the idea of placing an ad in a contact mag.
But the main point I was making was just don't let it worry you. Life is too short.
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If a customer don't pay, we don't clean their windows again untill they do.
If we get messed about we don't bother with them again. I always do a good job and so does my partner, and like most of us - I know when I am being bullsh**ed.
I am polite about it but firm whether by letter or in person.
One bloke reluctantly and with a lot of huffing and puffing paid after I explained the usual. After he shut the door I put the £15 back through his letter box. It wasn't a case of being 'one up' on him, I just didn't want his money or the job.
In all walks of life there are the 'try to get something for free' brigade.
Just walk away and forget them.
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Well, Rosskesava I've also put money back thru' a customers door!
I charged £10 for a seventies end of terrace inc UPVC and about a week later she sent me a cheque for £6.50 saying that I had missed the frames at the upper back (which I hadn't).
So I wrote her a polite but firm note saying that perhaps the fact that a school was being built right opposite and creating dust all day long might have something to do with it and that I had been mopping this up for several months without asking for additional payment. (I also said that in the winter I had cleaned the "utter filth" from her patio doors where her dog had pawed it with it's mud covered feet many times and just accepted it as part of the job.) I posted it thru with her cheque attached and told her to find another window cleaner.
Fortunately I'm at the stage where I can ditch unreasonable customers.
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Thanks for all the comments and replies...much food for thought there....I noticed nobody suggested going back and dirtying the windows again (a thrown egg ?) OK, maybe a bit childish....but think of the enormous satisfaction that would surely bring...lol...
Anyway, it was good to have a forum that allowed me to blow off steam...hope you're all having a good and much deserved break, when's everybody back to it ?, My boss is suggesting this week...but he won't see me until the 3rd or 4th...no chance... ;D
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I hate the Beggars that hide from me, i had a customer who when i called to collect payment her ol man would say o you just missed her, shes gone out and then as i was knocking for the fifth time, in the beautifully clean front door windows reflection i saw thier car creeping past, so i thought that they would park up, get out and pay me, i didnt let on that i could see them, and to my shock and ammusment they turned the car around in the culdisack and slowly drove away again.. :o..in the reflection of the CLEAN front door window......i saw her, him and the kid watching me as they drove past...i couldnt believe it...now i knew for sure they were taking the mick..So this is what i did, I whent back when they where due for cleaning and and i applied dirty water to all the windows but didnt squeegy it off.......I know it took up my time but I had the last laugh, ;D and this is what i do to people who Wont and dont pay....who fortunatly are far and few between
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Don't really have a problem with bad payers now, but years ago when doing terraces and councils, I did. On one occasion I mentioned someone down that street had not paid, to a lady who always made me a cup of tea.I reckon she must have spread it about a bit, because on the next visit she told me the exact amount owed had been selotaped to her doorstep.
::) Blessings ::)
Graeme
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heres an alternative for bad payers hit their satalitte dish with your ladders,really pish them of superglue their front door lock,
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I don't hassle about non payers etc. I will do their windows once and if I do them again with no payment I don't do them after that and that's it.
I don't get stressed or think of revenge except once.
I'd agreed to do the windows of a take away once a week which fitted in with our commercial round perfectly. 4 weeks laters I gave someone in the place an invoice in an envelope addressed to the owner. I called back every time I went past and eventually I caught the owner on his way out the take away. He said to call back the following day at 1pm which I did and he was not there. Apart from the fact that it's hassle to keep calling back especially when I'm working elsewhere, the amount was just £15 (for 2 large windows and a door).
In the end I went down there during the evening and he got all irate with me about how I'd not done this and that and how I'd promise to include this and that which amounted to the whole place inside and out and the flats upstairs every week for £15 a month.
Then he gave me a tenner and told me that a Friday was no good for him and I'd have to do his windows on a Wednesday so as he could inspect the work.
I tore his tenner up into little bits and stuffed it down his shirt much to the stunned amazement of the customers waiting for their take aways. How I didn't thump this moron was a miracle. I took a deep breath and walked away.
The following day, and I would never normally dream of doing such things, I sprayed a large can of WD40 over all the wndows.
You should now see his windows 8 weeks on. ;D ;D ;D
I also do the shop next door and every week I knock on the window and wave to them with a big smile.