[davids3511]

Well then hummer, what would you have done

Yeah come on, man, what WOULD you have done? Perhaps you'd have bent over and let her give you 8" of Gardiners best carbon?

Wow, bully for you. Guess because you see yourself as comfortable you get to judge others.

Unlike you I could afford to write off £70.

Tramp.

[LT carpet cleaning]

Well then hummer, what would you have done

Yeah come on, man, what WOULD you have done? Perhaps you'd have bent over and let her give you 8" of Gardiners best carbon?

Wow, bully for you. Guess because you see yourself as comfortable you get to judge others.

Unlike you I could afford to write off £70.

Tramp.

Nope not my style. Just didn't like the bullying tone and the triumphant ambulance chasing.

Man.

[MATT BATEMAN (OWC)]

You did the right thing. Its irrelevant how you have portrayed the circumstances on here or how others have interpreted it. She made an error and as a result of that lied persistently, including to the court. She had more than enough opportunities to rectify the situation.



I would have done the same thing. Her personal and family circumstances are irrelevant. If they needed to be considered in our working lives none of us would get paid for anything.

[Crystal-clear]

Well done I must have £2,000 of non payers but all small prices £10-£20 mainly so wouldn't be worth it unless I can rack up costs? Ie the letter before action would cost around £3.00

You can not be serious? is that in all the time you have been trading or what is outstanding now?

About £500 a year
Round is very good
It's called mass canvassing and no collecting
Have work for sub too I'm trying to command and conquer you don't jump in the water without getting wet

[Crystal-clear]

You will always get non payers especially if you are trying to build up more work then you need yourself , you will find many people write off around £500
A year if I was collecting I'm sure it wouldn't be that much but collecting is a
False ecconemy , with all the people being out I'd faster knock £200 then collect it and the new work
Has potential the non payers will at best pay and cancel
Or have an argument on the door about how they didn't want the windows doing , which isn't good for motivation !
But it's good to hear people
Are taking customers to court who take the Micky I'm fully for it and would just dont know how it works with small values just
Checked £2269.50
Maybe in the last 4 years perhaps £1500 in the first 2

[Dave Mills]

In July 2012 I was asked to clean the gutters, fascias and windows of a mid-terraced house and, for the same woman, a the windows of a large detached house. We agreed the price would be £70. She said she'd send a cheque on but it never arrived. When I called her she said "Oh yeah, i've been in Tenerife but I posted the cheque yesterday" - it never arrived. Despite many phone calls and her assurance that "i'll put a cheque in the post" I ended up, after Final Demands, going to Thomas Higgins.

It was a bit of a dilemma in doing so because I knew her father had died recently and she was a single parent. In addition she was supporting her younger teenage sisters (with the help of her elder brothers). I figured that if she responded to the Thos Higgins Letter Before Action i'd cut a deal to take the money in instalments.

Unfortunately she didn't and it went to court. She didn't contest it and I won the case. By now it was Christmas and the amount she owed was £236... I got a request from her through the court to pay £20 / mth, which I was happy to accept. I was hacked off because on the court docs she said she didn't have a cheque book, so all those stories she told me were lies as I knew they were.

I didn't get a penny despite the court dictating the date the first payment should be paid. She then asked to pay £30 mth; again I agreed and again I got nothing....

Roll on to spring and she again asks to pay £20 / mth and again I agree (on advice from Thos Higgins). Amazingly she makes payments through to August on the 1st of the month regular as clockwork - happy days. Unfortunately that all stopped in September. Again I go back to Thomas Higgins, but this time i'm going for the lot - the remaining £116.

Happily I got en email last week saying Thos Higgns had received a cheque (presumably from a relative on her behalf) payable to them in final settlement and once it cleared they'd send one on to me. I got it on Wednesday.

Was I right to follow through? Despite being on a low wage this woman engaged me for work she never intended to pay for. She was happy to go to Tenerife on holiday rather than pay her bills. She lied to me about having posted payments. She would not return my polite calls or answer the door to me. I made every effort to make payment easy for her yet she ignored the opportunities I gave. Had she, at the beginning, said to me "I've made a foolish mistake and asked you to do work I can't pay for" I have dropped the matter there and then. Instead she's got a CCJ and she's paid hundreds of pounds rather than the £70 she owed, whilst I've been paid in full. It's worth the hassle of chasing them.

Were you right to follow through? Is it "worth the hassle of chasing them"?

Depends. How many hours did you spend chasing the money in phone calls, visiting her, dealing with Thomas Higgins, going to court, writing letters, emails, etc? Include the time you were worrying about it.  Was it a better hourly rate than you would have made cleaning windows? If it was, then "yes".  If it wasnt, then "no".

Given your description, I guess "no".

[Carl2009]

In July 2012 I was asked to clean the gutters, fascias and windows of a mid-terraced house and, for the same woman, a the windows of a large detached house. We agreed the price would be £70. She said she'd send a cheque on but it never arrived. When I called her she said "Oh yeah, i've been in Tenerife but I posted the cheque yesterday" - it never arrived. Despite many phone calls and her assurance that "i'll put a cheque in the post" I ended up, after Final Demands, going to Thomas Higgins.

It was a bit of a dilemma in doing so because I knew her father had died recently and she was a single parent. In addition she was supporting her younger teenage sisters (with the help of her elder brothers). I figured that if she responded to the Thos Higgins Letter Before Action i'd cut a deal to take the money in instalments.

Unfortunately she didn't and it went to court. She didn't contest it and I won the case. By now it was Christmas and the amount she owed was £236... I got a request from her through the court to pay £20 / mth, which I was happy to accept. I was hacked off because on the court docs she said she didn't have a cheque book, so all those stories she told me were lies as I knew they were.

I didn't get a penny despite the court dictating the date the first payment should be paid. She then asked to pay £30 mth; again I agreed and again I got nothing....

Roll on to spring and she again asks to pay £20 / mth and again I agree (on advice from Thos Higgins). Amazingly she makes payments through to August on the 1st of the month regular as clockwork - happy days. Unfortunately that all stopped in September. Again I go back to Thomas Higgins, but this time i'm going for the lot - the remaining £116.

Happily I got en email last week saying Thos Higgns had received a cheque (presumably from a relative on her behalf) payable to them in final settlement and once it cleared they'd send one on to me. I got it on Wednesday.

Was I right to follow through? Despite being on a low wage this woman engaged me for work she never intended to pay for. She was happy to go to Tenerife on holiday rather than pay her bills. She lied to me about having posted payments. She would not return my polite calls or answer the door to me. I made every effort to make payment easy for her yet she ignored the opportunities I gave. Had she, at the beginning, said to me "I've made a foolish mistake and asked you to do work I can't pay for" I have dropped the matter there and then. Instead she's got a CCJ and she's paid hundreds of pounds rather than the £70 she owed, whilst I've been paid in full. It's worth the hassle of chasing them.

Were you right to follow through? Is it "worth the hassle of chasing them"?

Depends. How many hours did you spend chasing the money in phone calls, visiting her, dealing with Thomas Higgins, going to court, writing letters, emails, etc? Include the time you were worrying about it.  Was it a better hourly rate than you would have made cleaning windows? If it was, then "yes".  If it wasnt, then "no".

Given your description, I guess "no".

Hi Dave,

In retrospect for me at least I do feel it was worth following up on. I've been in business in one form or another for quite a while and have a good idea fairly soon if people are going to pay or not. In this case I had my suspicions she was lying when she said she'd posted the cheque and knew she was when the second promised cheque never appeared. Given she didn't pay me for a job that was  performed professionally and then had so little respect for me that she lied on more than one occasion I was fairly determined to follow through. Am I happy I did - yes, if for no other reason that she will think before she does it to someone else.

Cheers for you input though

[Carl2009]

i like reading these success stories . did you go in person to the court Carl , how long were you in there 

No, Thos Higgins do all that. It's done by post.

[H2GoKent]

I think you did the right thing, there are lots of people out there who think you won't chase them up for the money. She had every opportunity to correct the situation, but just thought that if she strung it out long enough you'd give up.

PS> Don't feed the troll.