[Paul Coleman]

I used to do WFP for a shop that had very high glass.  The guy who does the lower level W/Cing there put me onto the job.  I struck a verbal deal with the manager.  I would do it every 2 months and could just do it with an 18ft pole.  It couldn't be laddered as it was wall to wall glass i.e. nowhere to put the ladder.  Anyway, I did the first two cleans OK (November and January).  After the March clean, I went into the shop as usual with my invoice to collect payment and there was a new manager there.  He wouldn't pay.  Even said that he hadn't seen me clean.  I did explain to him how I worked and that I had to do the job very early a.m. due to it being a pedestrian area.  Anyway, he fobbed me off a couple of times.  It was only £30 but it was annoying.  Clearly court action would be more hassle than it's worth plus I'm uncertain how well a verbal deal would stand up - even though I would be able to produce invoices to show that a regular agreement was in place.  I have recently realised that is is part of a much larger national chain.  Even though some time has elapsed, I've now gone onto their website and written a letter of complaint in their form box.  It's really meant for complaining about clothing orders.  I imagine it will just be binned but no harm trying.  I supplied my email so there ought to be some sort of reply even if it's Dear Paul, Go away     .  The allusion to me being dishonest is actually a bigger issue for me than the money.  I also informed them that thjey would probably get 6 customers back (my friends) if they do the right thing.  In reality, my polite complaint will probably just get deleted and they are so big, they wouldn't care less about losg a grand or so turnover per year at one of their shops.  But you never know.  It might just be worth trying.  Even if it has been a waste of time, I do feel better for telling them my views on the situation.

[tomy jackson]

kerky has anser som wher

[peter holley]

who is this company? so that we can keep clear of them

[sageorgeta]

I am afraid that i would have to give them their dirty water back from where it came from.

[Paul Coleman]

who is this company? so that we can keep clear of them

I will post their name on here if I don't get satisfaction.  In fairness, I suspect that it is more to do with a young whippersnapper of a manager than the wider company so I do want to be fair to them.  It's possibly one of those situations where the higher management would be appalled at how one of their managers is treating a service provider (who was also a customer).  Ironically, I spent more money with their business than they ever would have with mine.  If I walked in their and stole £30 worth of clothing, I wonder what view they would take of that.  What they have done to me is as much an act of theft as if I shoplifted in their store.  I kept putting it aside but it returns from time to time and keeps feeling irritating.  Writing to them was as much to do with personal therapy as it was about my money being in their bank account.

[wightsurf]

Use a small claim court, my mate who has a lot of bad luck with no payments does this all the time! You have to write a few final demands in then you can do it all online . You will win if you have invoice for the jobs done before as it shows that a agreement was in force.You would also get the court fee back.
My bet is it would'nt go to court as the small courts now have a a middle man who tries to reach a agreement btween the pair of you over the phone like a phone meeting three ways on which a agreement is made.

[Rob.Hall]

Take the invoice to a higher sorce in the company.

Explain the situation about the change of managment etc, and how you have been treated.

Give time for the invoice to be paid and underline the penalty fee, terms etc.

If you have no contract with them I doubt you would have a leg to stand on in a court situation.

Squeeky, on another note do you live near Worpleston.

I see a van with, 'Squeeky Clean', on the side of it near their.

[davids3511]

Take the invoice to a higher sorce in the company.

Explain the situation about the change of managment etc, and how you have been treated.

Give time for the invoice to be paid and underline the penalty fee, terms etc.

If you have no contract with them I doubt you would have a leg to stand on in a court situation.

Squeeky, on another note do you live near Worpleston.

I see a van with, 'Squeeky Clean', on the side of it near their.

Why wouldn't he have a leg to stand on? He can show previous invoices and previous payments that show a regular agreement was in place. The shop will be able to show no letter or otherwise breaking that agreement so he has at least a fighting chance of winning. For what it is worth, I do not believe for a minute a company like Next, M&S or any of the other big boys would let it get that far. The cost for their solicitor attending would be well over £30.00. They would just settle.

[Rob.Hall]

You have a valid point but if the transaction was cash, or there are no bills etc, it would make it very hard to claim.

If bills can be produced + proof of payment given then an agreement  has been made weather verbal or written.

[Paul Coleman]

Well I've writtem my piece to them.  If that gets nowhere, now that I have discovered the head office's address, I will write again by snailmail.  Now that I've written via the website, I will go no further with this until another 14 days have elapsed.

[Paul Coleman]

You have a valid point but if the transaction was cash, or there are no bills etc, it would make it very hard to claim.

If bills can be produced + proof of payment given then an agreement  has been made weather verbal or written.

I have my invoices showing that cleans were carried out in mid November, mid January, and mid March.  Only the mid March one was unpaid.  The previous invoices were paid with petty cash (from the till I think).
The manager's response to my initial visit to the shop was understandable.  I was a total stranger to him and I walked in with a piece of paper requesting payment.  It was the end of a hard day and I was scruffed up and sweaty.  If I had been in his position, I would have wanted clarification too.  However, it was what followed on the ensuing days was out of order.  The window cleaner who does their low level shop front turned up while I was in discussion with the manager and verified that I had been cleaning the high reach work.
I'm not prepared to take this to court.  I've never yet resorted to eggs either    .  Therefore, all I can do is to inform them that a few of their customers will be boycotting their local store until I get paid.  They won't lose any sleep over it but I still would like them to know that.

[L.J.Thorpe]

find out name of managing director
if they are ltd company its easy
write a letter nice and polite explaining all
address letter to md
send by regist delivery or special delivery or whatever
royal mail used to do a service where recipient or a reprasentative of the recip had to sign for delivery
try a couple of these until you get a response
its worked for me on consumer stuff before (crap dishwasher/gas fire/home cinema)
got to be worth a try

[steve m]

A verbal agreement WILL stand up in a couurt of law, there are cases proving it. If I were you I would go to a company called thomas higgins, who are solisitors come debt collectors. Open an account, it costs nothing and while your doing this send a stroppy letter to the manager of the shop, telling him that as your invoice is now late you will give him seven days before taking further action, and passing all subsequent cost on to him. Once the seven days are up just fill in the bits online for thomas higgins and they do the rest. The first letter they send is only £2.00 + VAT so it doesn't break the bank, and you will be amazed how quickly that cheque will be in the post 

[Paul Coleman]

A verbal agreement WILL stand up in a couurt of law, there are cases proving it. If I were you I would go to a company called thomas higgins, who are solisitors come debt collectors. Open an account, it costs nothing and while your doing this send a stroppy letter to the manager of the shop, telling him that as your invoice is now late you will give him seven days before taking further action, and passing all subsequent cost on to him. Once the seven days are up just fill in the bits online for thomas higgins and they do the rest. The first letter they send is only £2.00 + VAT so it doesn't break the bank, and you will be amazed how quickly that cheque will be in the post 

Thanks for the tip.  In my very recent letter I gave a polite 14 days warning so I feel that it would be wrong of me to take any further action (such as a stroppy 7 day letter) until those 14 days have expired.  If my 14 day letter bears no fruit then I will look at the option you mention above.

[s.hughes]

Shiner, what has happened to the old manager? If he has moved in the company then its easy to contact him. Its his responsibility to inform the new manager of how things have been run. All it would take is a call from him to the new manager and it would be sorted.

Steve

[Paul Coleman]

Shiner, what has happened to the old manager? If he has moved in the company then its easy to contact him. Its his responsibility to inform the new manager of how things have been run. All it would take is a call from him to the new manager and it would be sorted.

Steve

The new manager didn't say too much but from the bit he did say, it sounded like the other guy could have performed better.  Anyway, just got in from work and there is an email for me with a phone number to ring about this so hopefully they will want to resolve this.  I must say that the fact that they responded on a Monday morning (the email has been waiting for me for a few hours) when I only emailed my grievance on Sunday does sound hopeful.  I will phone in a few minutes.  Will let you know how it goes.

[Paul Coleman]

Well that was interesting.  I was asked to email a copy of the invoice to them and to supply my bank details for payment via BACS - which I duly did.  Sounds hopeful.  Wish I'd thought of this weeks ago.
When dealing with commercial customers, I often attach my invoice to an email as a .pdf file which has been merged from a database.  Makes things easier and reduces postal charges.

[AuRavelling79]

Well done Paul!

[s.hughes]

So are you going to carry on the job?

[Paul Coleman]

So are you going to carry on the job?

No !!
The last clean I did was mid March and it was meant to be two monthly.
I allowed the new(ish) manager to get under my skin and would rather let the job lie.  Although the email I sent to them wasn't rude, it could be read in a rather acidic way because I felt quite irritated when I wrote it.  It was therapeutic because I felt much better after saying to them how I felt about the situation.
Quite funny really because some of these people just don't know what I was like 20 years ago.  These days I can fantasise and chuckle about ways to punish a non-payer.  However, there was a time when I would quite easily have carried out the fantasy     .  Although it would probably not have got physical, I was quite capable of bawling someone out in front of all the customers and staff and emptying the store.  I'm just glad I grew up a bit.