[Dave Willis]

Just got back - checked George earlier and I'm owed £1000! - oops!

Hate collecting. 

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

time to either get yr knocking head on
or leave sae m8 lol

[mci services]

yep i am due in £600 and just doing a thursday/friday night isnt enough. i am going back to and hour per night collecting

[paul rulton]

ive not collected in years  im not braggin, far from it    i cant do it    its like a red rag 2a bull.
i just get so wound up n spit my dummy out    just cant bare it.
so good on ya, 2 all u guys that can 

[Tom White]

If you treat collecting sensibly, you can take most of the work out of it.  For example, any drive-between; don't collect; leave an envelope.

Only collect from compact domestic areas where you can park up and walk from house to house.

I only collect two-or-three times a month from two estate areas where I have a lot of compact work.  And here I only collect once; if they're not in; I leave an envelope.

Everything else - rural accounts and drive betweens - I leave an envelope.

This method keeps my cash flow pretty good.

[mci services]

ive not collected in years  im not braggin, far from it    i cant do it    its like a red rag 2a bull.
i just get so wound up n spit my dummy out    just cant bare it.
so good on ya, 2 all u guys that can 

i wouldnt either but most of my customers, the neareast they get to a cheque book is a giro not all but most

nah to be fair i have about 20% paying online and some by cheque but my best earning work is all collect compact cash paying.

i keep ruling out the sae thing but i really wish i could do it :

[daz1977]

i want to go down the sae route, but i know a lot of custy would "forget" to post it

[cozy]

P R Window, why do you hate it? I'm not trying to be funny, I always thought canvassing was what people hate doing. Just wondered.

Anyway, I collect Saturdays or Sundays, that's when you catch 'em at home. I think it gives the custies a face to put to the service they get. IMO if they only ever get an SAE then that's all we are. It's only my opinion though.

We have a few that pay online but nearly all are cash. Sometimes we leave an envelope with a printed message on saying how much is owed and for what date. We have a custy in each estate that takes these on for us. Don't know if that's a good idea in UK lol. Cheques are a non starter here, nobody has a chequebook.

[dazmond]

how do you know blue monkey until you try it!!im pretty much the same as tosh.SAE for out of the way bigger accounts or phone call the night before and money(or cheque)left in a secret place.i collect normally once a week for 2 hours tops on my very compact work.2 cleans without payment means they dont get cleaned again until i get paid.i get a fair whack paying me when i clean so my cashflow is normally pretty good too!

i have no custys currently that pay online/bank transfer etc

[Murdie window cleaning]

Collecting is only a problem when the person in "Not at Home" or the old chestnut "I forgot you were due, I've no cash in the house" if there was a perfect system for all then I'd be interested, but untill that time I'll have to live with it.

But anyone who is a true messer gets dropped, I'm still very much in the building stage of my business, but one thing I'm not willing to put up with are messers.

[paul rulton]

P R Window, why do you hate it? I'm not trying to be funny, I always thought canvassing was what people hate doing. Just wondered.

i wish i knew Cozy  its just instent rage    the smallest thing & i start  :  then i cant talk 2any1,
all i wanna do is just kick off & destress 

maybe i just dont c why should have 2go out of my way, using up my time my fuel, when ive done wot has been asked of me.

[williamx]

I only collect from one customer and that only when its worthwhile to do so, which is normally every 6 months.

The rest of my customers either leave it hidden under a mat - flower pot, etc or they send me a cheque.

From next year I will convert all of thm to internet banking, the paperwork for this will go out with their yearly newletter, xmas card and pressie

[Tom White]

From next year I will convert all of thm to internet banking, the paperwork for this will go out with their yearly newletter, xmas card and pressie

Many elderly customers don't know how to turn a computer on, never mind pay bills with one.

[Martin ccs]

collecting is a pain! you get customers thinking that you enjoy it has you are getting paid but what they dont see is that its the second,third or even fourth time youve had to come back to the same road!

i ring every customer to tell them when im coming so they can unlock the gate and leave the payment out for me, works well - i get paid on the time of the clean and the customer like it as they know when im coming ....

was a pain for the first few times as customers would forget .... but know its a 20 second phone call - hi its the wc we are calling tomorrow, customer - ok great ill unlock the gate and leave the money in the usual spot.

the customer just puts the money in a sandwhich bag or envelope.

when i get a new customer i spend 5 mins going through how we work and regards payments, so the customer goes to my way of thinking and i dont get a prob in the future.

dont get me wrong still get a couple that forget or muck you around - dumped or get a £2.00 late payment fee added for having to call back.

[cozy]

That sounds like a good way to do things, Going to see what custies say when I'm out collecting. Takes a while to settle into a routine I expect. Thanks for that. couple of our areas are quite a distance away, so would use that system for those.

[williamx]

I use the same system martin and it work great for me, on average I am still owed about £150 but this comes in on the next month, so no real big deal.

[Martin ccs]

I use the same system martin and it work great for me, on average I am still owed about £150 but this comes in on the next month, so no real big deal.

yeah i only have around £40 odd a week to collect in, commercial work bills are getting really bad tho!

big pub chain!, big furniture company and a local community centre owe me over £1k from last month.

[williamx]

I use the same system martin and it work great for me, on average I am still owed about £150 but this comes in on the next month, so no real big deal.

yeah i only have around £40 odd a week to collect in, commercial work bills are getting really bad tho!

big pub chain!, big furniture company and a local community centre owe me over £1k from last month.

Martin this is what I do with commercial, at the start I state that my terms are 28 days, but I always send the invoice to the company 2 weeks before I have cleaned them, that way I only wait 2 weeks.

With others I telephone the account dept and find out who deals with my invoices, I then get them to agree to me faxing my invoice directly to him/her.

I do a major pub chain and when I am due to clean the pub, normally on a friday I get the manager to sign and print his name on the invoice, I then fax this to the accounts dept and telephone the account dept to make sure she has recieved it, if I do this before the tuesday then my money is in the bank by friday.

I have also worked it so they have already paid me 1 invoice in advance, which is even better.

I have only had one company who on purpose delayed paying (company policy) so I just sent them another invoice with a £40 late penalty charge and the following on the bottom of the invoice.

As you may be aware, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 we have a statutory right to charge interest on overdue payments. The current rate of interest is 0.5%. plus 8%.  We also have a statutory right to charge compensation of between £40 and £100 towards our collection costs.

This worked a treat, they now pay on time.

[Martin ccs]

Pure Hydra.

i send the invoice off two weeks before its due - still get probs sometimes.

for example i rang the large furniture company today which is part of the co op group - hi can i speak to the accounts department please, get put through. yes how can i help - im chasing up an unpaid invoice - ok whats the company name and date of invoice - so i tell him - yes we have that invoice - well whens it getting paid - i will put it on the list now to be considered for payment - what!?, considered for payment! its bloody late now!
- sorry thats how the system works and is there anything else i can help with.

what a joke! did ask to speak to a manager but no joy!

another one from today - local community centre - payments late due to bank hol and will be paid in 3 weeks - its late now i say! - sorry nothing i can do im told.

[williamx]

Martin

Don't take excuses from them, if I was you I would send the late payment letter with the charge applied, say you are giving then 7 days to clear the debt otherwise it will be forwarded to the county court for a county court judgement.

If they don't pay then go to court.

Oh and dump them.