[lovewindows]

Put an invoice in to big company 52 days ago, queried when payment being made after 30 days was told being had been authorised and was with accounts , queried after 40 days told been chased up should be next week , queried after 50 days told to ring accounts, girl in accounts tells me she wrote cheque out weeks ago but finance director picked it up ! she knew he was in that day and would ask him and ring me back, no phone call ?
Want to keep in with this Company as promised more work in future but was banking on this money before Christmas, also booked a mini break in Jan [ i know you should never bank on something till you've got it but this is a decent sized company ] .
 I didn't put payment terms on invoice [ lesson learned] so any thoughts on next step ?
PS i know there not skint.

[trevor povey]

worked closely wth an accounts dept in my past life and the thing is with accounts is most companies operated a net 30 days account....what this meant is that all Invoices with a  December date on  would be due for payment at the end of January..

ie you send a Invoice in dated 2/12  its due for payment on the 31 Jan  so you will be waiting 60 days

I had this method of payment with a local council so what we did was complete all there jobs at the end of the month so we was only waiting 30 days for payment

hope that helps Trevor Povey

[lovewindows]

Cheers Trevor but went in end of Oct so by your reckoning that should be paid end of Nov , which would have been expected and fine , wouldn't mind but i handed it personally to the head of accounts while i was working at their H/Office

[AuRavelling79]

When I was Finance Director of a small limited business in the 1990's we would often encounter "cash-flow problems" and while the cheques would be written out ready for posting at the end of the month we would have wages to pay and every quarter VAT as well.

So some of the less urgent ones would sit on my desk until shouted for. It was never personal but simply being caught between our bank overdraft limit,paying wages and taxman and waiting for "that big cheque in" our selves.

The small ones would be paid when someone "chased" up or perhaps at 90 days or when our big cheque in arrived.

So chase it up, chase it firmly, don't be put off, don't be embarrassed - it's your money.

Don't do any more work until you are paid.

If it gets ridiculous then they are not worth keeping and I personally would wait for a rainy day and stand in reception until I am paid. I have even done this, and when fobbed off, gone back within an hour and taken a placard and shown the receptionist and said politely "I know it's not your fault love, but if you don't get someone in authority down here right now I'll stand outside with this placard" (The placard said "XYZ solicitors, keeping me waiting over 90 days for payment of £225)

I had my cheque within 5 minutes! But I was prepared to lose the customer - which amazingly I didn't.

[Mr Cleannclear]

I did a  commercial job on the quote I put payment 28 day they had to sign it and return it with a start date and confermtion that the quote was ok.
I had to wait 112 days , everytime I phoned them they had a excuse , thats the problem with commercial work

[AJ]

call every day once, twice, three times and when the girl says 'someone will call you back' ask for a time, and tell her that you will call back 15 mins after that time has passed. Just be a pest basically.

[gordonswindows]

My Missus told them she would come and collect the cheque from head office (over three hours away) personally on Friday morning.

Said she woud sit and wait in reception until she got the cheque and to excuse the upset to their office as she had to bring the two kids with her.....

This was the Monday she phoned and cheque arrived Wednesday, still work with them and often laugh about "late payers"

It is your money don't take no for an answer and dont worry if you lose them as a definition of a good customer is one who respects and pays you>

if they dont they aren't

[peter holley]

thats why i dont do commercial unless i get paid on completion or within 7 days.... and i go to the premisses and pick up the cheque...when i take on ajob i tell them my terms of payment... if they cant play then i dont bother... i would prefer to go and do good paying domestics than bad paying commercial.....

although i do wait for council cheques .. they are a month or so..but i know they will arrive

[lovewindows]

It's more than a couple of grand , i've got 4 kids, it's Christmas, to be frank i'm steaming, got a fair bit on this week [ trying to schedule everything in so i can have Chrimbo and New year off ]  and can't afford to spend loads of time chasing this up , If i'm asked to do a job i tell them when and do it , old fashioned and i dont mess people about and dont expect to get messed about ARRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. right going to listen to some happy music.     

[peter holley]

thats why i dont do commercial unless i get paid on completion or within 7 days.... and i go to the premisses and pick up the cheque...when i take on ajob i tell them my terms of payment... if they cant play then i dont bother... i would prefer to go and do good paying domestics than bad paying commercial.....

although i do wait for council cheques .. they are a month or so..but i know they will arrive

 sorry m8 , my post above was not very hnelpfull... i would be extremely angry too... i have three kids and abig mortgage....my ADVICE .... dont feel embarrassed about pestering them for YOUR  money!!! they owe you YOUR MONEY.....phone them EVERY DAY!!! 1 minuit a day!!

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

The next thing to do would be to send a statement off, you can even add a late payment fee or an interest charge.  Of course maybe a statement letting them know that if they don't pay by a certain date you will add interest at x% would be fairer, and may illicit a response in the time frame.

Simon.

[Helen]

Put an invoice in to big company 52 days ago, queried when payment being made after 30 days was told being had been authorised and was with accounts , queried after 40 days told been chased up should be next week , queried after 50 days told to ring accounts, girl in accounts tells me she wrote cheque out weeks ago but finance director picked it up ! she knew he was in that day and would ask him and ring me back, no phone call ?
Want to keep in with this Company as promised more work in future but was banking on this money before Christmas, also booked a mini break in Jan [ i know you should never bank on something till you've got it but this is a decent sized company ] .
 I didn't put payment terms on invoice [ lesson learned] so any thoughts on next step ?
PS i know there not skint.

Personally would get paid on this one, whenever it comes in and would not go back, if they are messing you around now they sure will in the future. Would call them back and say that you are in the area on such and such a day and you will collect the cheque from them then.

[Chris Galloway]

Ive taken this elsewhere, feel free to use it how you like.

I let some of my customers go up to 3 cleans before I really start chasing them with either an 8am or 8pm phone call (You can NOT legally call a customer outside of those times or its classed as harasment). I send them an invoice with the statement "Payment must be made in full with 7 days or a £5 admin charge or 10% of total outstanding balance (which ever is the greater) will be added. If you are having financial difficulties then please contact me to discuss a payment plan"
On day 8 they get another invoice with "FINAL DEMAND" in bright red large print and the add lines of "As we have not recieved any comunication from you we take it you are not suffering financial problems and have chosen not to pay this invoice" "we must therefore inform you that if full payment is not recieved within 7 days a further £5 or 10% (which ever is the greater) of outstanding balance will be added to the balance each week until payment is recieved. In ADDITION if payment is not made by xx/xx/xxxx then a further charge of £100 will be added to cover our costs in instructing a debt recovery agency and possable court costs"

At the bottom of both letters is another line that states "FAILURE TO PAY IN FULL WILL CONSTITUTE YOUR ACCEPTENCE OF ALL THESE CHARGES"

Only ever had 1 then not pay and that was because they had moved and left loads of other debts.

If needed use http://www.thomashiggins.com/ to send them a letter as in only costs £2 and will be worded even better.
Some people just forget (not saying its right) so it depends on how much you want the custom.

I think it was mainly for residential, but thomashiggins deal with commercial disputes, so give them a look or look into something like it.

[lovewindows]

Thanks everyone [ Chris like that one ] rang first thing this morning spoke to the accounts dept ,i was dead polite and nice, very controlled, the girl said "Oh your cheques on the desk i'll post it this afternoon"
So jumped in the car drove straight there and picked it up. sorted
ps cheque was dated last month. Happy now

[AJ]

Nice one.
Merry Christmas! (I guess it will be now)

[Chris Galloway]

Thanks everyone [ Chris like that one ] rang first thing this morning spoke to the accounts dept ,i was dead polite and nice, very controlled, the girl said "Oh your cheques on the desk i'll post it this afternoon"
So jumped in the car drove straight there and picked it up. sorted
ps cheque was dated last month. Happy now

Glad you got it - i hope it dont bounce! keeping fingers crossed for you

[simonwonder]

hi lovewindows
have you suspended service as they have suspended your payment
they would soon get the message

[AJ]

This post made me think of something my dad said to me when I had the same problem.
'Its the squeeky wheel that gets the oil'
and it is very true, the more noise you make, the quicker you get seen to.

[lovewindows]

clever dad

[Andrew McCann]

This is a typical example of what goes on all the time between companies.

M Gould has it right. It goes on all the time. It's usually the biggest companies who are the worst as well with 90 days being quite normal. It then passes on down the line to smaller companies causing them cash flow problems. The fact that this one was signed at the end of last month means they were sitting on it as long as they could. You won,t be the only supplier they are having to do this to either.

Expect it to happen a lot with commercial the way things are at the moment.

Andrew