[dudek]

I did a gutter job last week i turned up to do the windows the woman comes out and asks if i could clear her gutters and shes an semi detached so i get the ladder to look inside the gutters and they were heavily loaded.

So i go down and tell her that it will be £60 thinking it will be an hours work and thats my price i aint taking the risks for peanuts any more since going wfp.

She agrees to the price and i do the job with some stupid stretching over the conservatory.

I got the job done in 40 mins in the end, so i go to collect from her and she refused to pay up saying i did it too quick and that i am 'unethicle' so i pointed out the fact that i have invested heavily in my business and although i was using ladders to clean gutters that my prices couldnt be too low  as i provide a good reliable proffessional service and thats what you pay for.

she wont pay me my money what do i do now i aint taking her to small claims as its not worth the stress.

Its not the money that bothers me now its the principle.

[NWH]

Write her a letter saying that are going to take legal action after 14 days if payment is not received,the letter in itself is enough but when she asks around and finds out that if she is a bad payer it will affect her credit rating she will send you a cheque.It`s worth sending her a letter,and no matter how strong willed she seems it will be on her mind.

[jampot]

what a cheeky bitch   
hope you do get the money that you are owed.

my father had somthing simular happen to him when he worked on an indain restrant. they wouldnt pay so he went in there on a satarday night andevery time someone came in he would say,       
                 Please can you pay me for the work ive done for you
they soon payed

[Ian_Giles]

Before you send out the legal stuff, have one more - very polite - go at reasoning with her.
Try to explain that she accepted the price, and if you have taken 3 hours to do the job, would she have been happy if you had more than doubled the price?

Tell her the idea of being given a fixed price is that she knows exactly how much she is going to pay, no more, no less. And that she did accept the price after all.
The legal route is the way to go after you have chased down the other more friendly avenues....but really try hard to maintain your cool!

And good one Jampot! I like that!!

Ian

[dudek]

i knew something like this was coming with her shes just a miserable lonely old woman

[LWC]

this is funny you should mention this, i too recenelty did a house and her conserv roof, it was £40 for the lot, and it was over a month ago, then 2 weeks ago i saw her and shes like oh yes give me your bank details, ill pay it straight in. no problem i thought.

another week passes and i see her..oh its gone out of my bank, im sure shes lieing, im well annoyed about that

[d s windowcleaning]

fill her gutter back up and block her drains .

[NWH]

Expanding foam.

[AuRavelling79]

Expanding foam.

What a brilliant idea! As a last resort you just sneak up to her house in the dead of night and from the ground fill her downpipes! Classic!

[d s windowcleaning]

minght try expanding foam . 

[NWH]

Exactly,when you pop round to ask nicely for your money say that your sure you drop something in the garden if you get no joy a quick spirt up the downpipe.

[Paul Coleman]

I omnce knew a fairly dishonest window cleaner who would pop a tennis ball onto the top of the downpipe and charge for cleaning (almost non-existent) muck out of the gutters when they overflowed.  He justified it by saying he only did it at plusher places where he felt they could afford it.  Personally I thought this practice was well out of order whether they had money or not.
I'm sure you wouldn't do anything so despicable to a non-payer would you?
No of course you wouldn't.  Maybe you would use a cricket ball instead in case the tennis ball floated.    .

Seriously though, what were you supposed to do?  Stop and read your newspaper half way through.  Gutter cleaning doesn't stop with juast cleaning out the gutters either.  Any cloths you use would have to be thoroughly cleaned away from the job.  It's a dirty, thankless task too.  I don't even do them any more.  I will scrub the outer part of a gutter from a pole and do the facia and soffit for some customers but I avoid where possible.

[Dave JP]

Dudek,

Fill out an on-line claim form at https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco/index.jsp it scares the pants off most people, doesn't cost much and you will no doubt have your money in a week ! 

Either that, or use the tennis ball, as suggested by shiner, 

Dave.

[d s windowcleaning]

its time window cleaning  / gutter cleaning was taken a bit more serious by the custy . we are all not doing this for a pint or fix . i would honestly go back and fill her gutters with the poop you removed . after all its her belongings let her have them back why should you be ripped off . would they do the same with a plumber/ joiner / decorator dont think so window / gutter cleaning is now to many a serious income but we still get treated like crap . time to make a stand . by the way i have real good custy  

[Wayne Thomas]

I did a gutter job last week i turned up to do the windows the woman comes out and asks if i could clear her gutters and shes an semi detached so i get the ladder to look inside the gutters and they were heavily loaded.

So i go down and tell her that it will be £60 thinking it will be an hours work and thats my price i aint taking the risks for peanuts any more since going wfp.

She agrees to the price and i do the job with some stupid stretching over the conservatory.

I got the job done in 40 mins in the end, so i go to collect from her and she refused to pay up saying i did it too quick and that i am 'unethicle' so i pointed out the fact that i have invested heavily in my business and although i was using ladders to clean gutters that my prices couldnt be too low  as i provide a good reliable proffessional service and thats what you pay for.

she wont pay me my money what do i do now i aint taking her to small claims as its not worth the stress.

Its not the money that bothers me now its the principle.

you could always threaten her with one of these:

www.impactguns.com/store/MGT-A059003.html

I'm sure she'd pay up instantly

[dudek]

I will try the online claims thing, thanks for your help.

I have just got off the blower to her next door neighbour saying shes rubbed alot of the neighbours up in the past.

bitter old cow.

[Sanity]

Pay a kid a quid to egg her windows.  Old cow will need to pay out for them to be cleaned  

[chrismroberts]

I did a gutter job last week i turned up to do the windows the woman comes out and asks if i could clear her gutters and shes an semi detached so i get the ladder to look inside the gutters and they were heavily loaded.

So i go down and tell her that it will be £60 thinking it will be an hours work and thats my price i aint taking the risks for peanuts any more since going wfp.

She agrees to the price and i do the job with some stupid stretching over the conservatory.

I got the job done in 40 mins in the end, so i go to collect from her and she refused to pay up saying i did it too quick and that i am 'unethicle' so i pointed out the fact that i have invested heavily in my business and although i was using ladders to clean gutters that my prices couldnt be too low  as i provide a good reliable proffessional service and thats what you pay for.

she wont pay me my money what do i do now i aint taking her to small claims as its not worth the stress.

Its not the money that bothers me now its the principle.

you could always threaten her with one of these:

www.impactguns.com/store/MGT-A059003.html

I'm sure she'd pay up instantly

Fourteen THOUSAND dollars??!!!! Wow....

[jouk45]

by doing the job to quickly, a lot of the custys think the job has been rushed and
because they canot see inside the  gutter they think it has not been done properly, get up there and take photos of it, dont let her away with it,

[Ian W]

my father had somthing simular happen to him when he worked on an indain restrant. they wouldnt pay so he went in there on a satarday night andevery time someone came in he would say,
 Please can you pay me for the work ive done for you
they soon payed

I like that idea. Has anyone else used shame tactics?