[marc]

 ???have a cheque returned for the second time no address on it so not shaw where it came from its a nat west one shame i can not go to them and ask where there customer lives its only £25 but thats not the point is it i now wright all cheques in a book so i have a reference most people put there details on the back but there are always the odd ones that dont  bother i know you prob wont be able to help but  just wanted to vent my anger about this customer no wonder some of us hate them anyway rant  over                        marc

[Pure H20 Cleaning Services]

You must know who it belongs to by the name on it

[marc]

why ? i have not got all my customer names it may of been a one off job if thats the case then i wont find out who it is if it is a regular one and they pay me by cheque in future then ive got them i dont know if they are paying charges but i will proberbly pay it in again and again

[mike richardson]

on my calling cards ive got the words please adress all cheques on the back, it works fine, then i keep a record of all cheques banked on comp inc checque numbers,
all my customers are on a spreadsheet on comp with full address & surname so its easy to check,

when i employed 8 lads it wa the only way to keep track of who was paying for wot,

[Bertie Boo]

  just wanted to vent my anger about this customer no wonder some of us hate them anyway rant  over                        marc

Marc

Do you know why the cheque has been returned? There will have been a reason given and it's not fair to blame the customer either as they may not even be aware of the problem.

I've had cheques returned to me and the last time the client didnt even know that there was a problem (she claims it was part of an on-going dispute with her bank) and seeing how this had never happened with her cheques before i couldnt bring myself to be angry with her.

I always said the day i felt 'hate' towards a client was the day i decided that i must give up my customer-facing job. I can't run my business without them so i 'live' with the problems.

Stephen

[Paul Coleman]

why ? i have not got all my customer names it may of been a one off job if thats the case then i wont find out who it is if it is a regular one and they pay me by cheque in future then ive got them i dont know if they are paying charges but i will proberbly pay it in again and again

I get the occasional cheque without details.  Usually I can figure it out.  I have most of my customers names in the database (taken from previous cheques) and the amount can give it away too.
However, I once had one that had me stumped.  The amount did not tally with what anyone owed me and the name wasn't recorded on the database.  I even went through the database looking for all the records without a name recorded but drew a blank.
It was then that I turned to the good old fashioned telephone directory.  I traced the address from the name on the cheque like that as he wasn't ex-directory.  The job was a tenner.  The gate had been padlocked so went over the garage roof with my ladder and billed for the full tenner.  He assumed I was trying it on as he couldn't imagine how I got around the back and only sent a cheque for a fiver.  That's why no amounts owing tallied with the cheque.
Anyway, it may be a longshot but have a look through the phone directories of the relevant areas to track the address.  You might get lucky.  I think you can do it online at BT's website too.

http://www.thephonebook.bt.com/publisha.content/en/search/residential/search.publisha


Of course it's no good if it's ex directory but it might work.

[mark dew]

You must be able to narrow it down quite a bit just by the amount alone. All your jobs aren't £25 are they?
I couldn't run my business without knowing who i am dealing with. What if they do a runner? It's worth a tenner just to ask their name when you take them on.
I have had similar problems though with a tenner cheque. It took me another month to sort it out. good luck.

[Alex Wingrove]

To avoid this i put in bold on my bill sheet the one i put through the door "please put your name and number on back of cheque" but not all obey so on the envelope that i put through the door so they can send a cheque in it, i put on the back their address

[Spursboy1972]

Alex I do the same. Some of my customers return the calling cards with a note on it and I use the clean date from the card to cross reference it if I am unsure.

If not I do exactly what Alex does so I will always know who it is from.

That said I am in the process of trying to get as many customers as possible over to online banking. I am using the ploy that it is in order to keep costs down i.e, bank charges and postage costs. This means that I avoid putting their prices up by too much.
So far it is working!

Just got to be a little careful as I have a couple trying to undercut and nick some of my work!!

[steve m]

just keep re-presenting it, eventually they will get fed up of paying £30.00 bank fees every time

[Chris Cottrell]

I think there are only so many times it can be re-presented, with lloyds tsb i'm sure its 3 times

[Roy Harding]

I use Sae and on the back of the envelope put there account number.

As on one payment, I had a cheque  from a womans partner and I did not know who it was from.


Roy

[Bertie Boo]

just keep re-presenting it, eventually they will get fed up of paying £30.00 bank fees every time

You are assuming that there is no money in the account, ie the cheque is bouncing. It depends why the cheque has been sent back, if the account is closed then there will be no "£30" charge that you speak of. I once hd a cheque sent back because the lady had used an old cheque-book by mistake. It was for a closed account.

When the cheque is returned it will say why it has been sent back, there is no point re-presenting it until the probem has cleared.

Stephen

[windowwashers]

If I get a returned cheque, I just see the customer, 99% of the time they say sorry as they made a mistake they are charged a late fee for the payment and I also say that there will be a admin fee if the next payment bounces (if it does it twice they are canceled and still changed, if it is a one-off clean then I always ask for a valid guarentee card this as far as i am aware cannot be returned even if closed as the person that wrote it would be committing fraud and it is down to the bank to follow up on this as far as I am aware

[john tomkins]

I got sent £10 note in an envelope yesterday, got me stumped as the SAE's I've left customers ain't for that amount.
I'm assuming it's an £8 house that's left a tip
Teach me to write the address on the envelopes in future :

[marc]

will prob go in bank on thur and see if they can give me a reason why it has been stopped and also if they can give me the name of the road the cheque comes from

[windowwashers]

I got sent £10 note in an envelope yesterday, got me stumped as the SAE's I've left customers ain't for that amount.
I'm assuming it's an £8 house that's left a tip
Teach me to write the address on the envelopes in future :

it is the customers job to say they have made payment, I would mark as a late payment they will soon say they paid, remind them if they do not include there details they are marked down for late payment fees I bet you 100% they will remember next time, obviously dont charge then the first time.

All you have to think about is this: if they done the same to bt, ntl or most other companies  they would be charged as this is there own mistake I run my business's the same way.

[chris@c.m.s]

I got sent £10 note in an envelope yesterday, got me stumped as the SAE's I've left customers ain't for that amount.
I'm assuming it's an £8 house that's left a tip
Teach me to write the address on the envelopes in future :

I'm shocked most of you don't at least put the the first line of address on the back of an envelope, its  so simple and so quick to update.   

[Paul Coleman]

I got sent £10 note in an envelope yesterday, got me stumped as the SAE's I've left customers ain't for that amount.
I'm assuming it's an £8 house that's left a tip
Teach me to write the address on the envelopes in future :

I'm shocked most of you don't at least put the the first line of address on the back of an envelope, its  so simple and so quick to update.   

Envelope?  I don't even supply an envelope 

[Feen]

Envelopes aren't going to much use in the coming weeks if these postal strikes don't get resolved Perhaps this could be used to help persuade people to use online banking etc?