tight customers.

[Andy Allen]

monday and tuseday last week i tiled a travortine conservatory for a customer, i dont get the chance to do much stone work so i really enjoyed doing it i'll post some pics of it ....



when i finished the customer was out so i rang his mobile told him i finshed and he said to leave the invoice and he would ring me later to pick a cheque up as hes only local so no point in posting it.......now this guy ain't short of a bob or two he owns a window cleaning biusness, four vans on the road two man crew in each van, 400 grand house brand new merc......any way by the end of last week still no call so i rang him and got his answer phone so i left a message any chance of a cheque...this went on all weekend me ringing leaving messages, no replies....so on monday i rang him on my wifes phone and he answer right away, i told him i wanted my money, he then asked if he could pay half this month and half next month :mad2: i told him hes got till friday to pay in full or i will take him to court, went round yesterday and although he was in there was a cheque stuck to the front door for the full amount, he didnt even want to speak to me.

what gets me is i did a good job for him and i really would of prefered it if he would have just shook my hand, thanked me and paid what he owed me.

 

[SandyFloor]

Out of interest, Andy, if he'd asked you early on about the payment terms instead of messing you about, would you have agreed?

That looks like a cracking job there

 

[Andy Allen]

Out of interest, Andy, if he'd asked you early on about the payment terms instead of messing you about, would you have agreed?

That looks like a cracking job there

no.......i would have told him to wait till he could afford it and then book the job in......the fact is he could afford it hes just tight, iv'e since been told this from a few other trades that have allso done work for him.

 

[Stewart]

Quality Job....... I would have been at his door the next day. There is nothing worse than having to ask your customer for payment. I always get my customer to sign off on the work for visual satisfaction (no damage, lips, cracks etc) When they do this i expect to be paid by cheque or card. This is stipulated in the quote that they sign, that full payment is due on completion of works to customers satisfaction.

 

[Andy Allen]

totally agree with you stewart, and this is the first time iv'e ever had this problem.......kind of leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

 

[SandyFloor]

no.......i would have told him to wait till he could afford it and then book the job in......the fact is he could afford it hes just tight, iv'e since been told this from a few other trades that have allso done work for him.

The kind of customer we can all do without then. Well done on getting it paid.

A friend of mine supplied and fitted some flooring for a guy two weeks ago and when he arrived the old laminate was still down. He and his lad lifted it all and fitted the new flooring but when they lifted the laminate they marked the skirting paintwork in one place which only needed the paint touched up. The customer refused tp pay anything at all for the work (about £800) so Tommy went back yesterday and lifted the lot and then called all the local dealers to advise them there was a chancer in the market. Sometimes you got to get tough with these guys.

 

[Olz]

Photocopy it before you pay it in, I hate cheques, they bounce, especially in circumstances like these, trust me I know first hand what a pain it can be to get money out of people like this.

 

[garretridge]

nice job there andy hate people like that its always the people with money are last to pay up. I like jobs in dodgy areas trust me quite a few here in northern ireland they make you cups of tea and pay cash with no hesatation they dont think they are superior to you so treat you as you should be a hard working tradesman. dont worry about it there is always customers i wouldnt want to do work for again i just put a black mark in my diary beside there name to remember they are bad payers so next time it doesnt happen again!

 

[kilty55]

nice job indeed andy,the guys clearly just an idiot,every so often customers like this appear....just put him out youir mind hes not worth thinking about

 

[EFC Mike]

Nice job that mate.
I agree with you when you say you just want a handshake and recognition for what you have produced. Put it down to experience buddy, and keep turning work out like that.

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

great job you did there andy!! they should of treated you with respect!! some peeps are just out of order IMO, good luck for future work mate!!

 

[faithhealer]

dont lose any sleep over him, plenty of decent customers will appreciate your standard of work Andy

 

[Scott]

Sadly there are too many like him around. Id have been there with my Wacker breaker ready to remove my adhesive and grout if i didnt get paid

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

firstly....very nice job andy....your story reminds of one similar which happened to me recently...i was booked to tile a conservatory for a couple who 2 days before start date rang to ask if i could tile their sons conservatory aswell but at a reduced price due to him having been made redundent and his wife divorcing him and been given his old house etc etc....so he had to move back near home and was struggling...his father had bought all the tiles and adhesive/grout sealant etc. Anyway as the job was only 6 houses away we agreed on a price.....started the parents con and while tiling the father said that he would show me his sons con as he wasnt in at the mo but had left me a key. after finishing the first i started on the sons but realised after i had laid the tiles that the sealent was missing..so i rang the son on his mobile to find out where it was....oh its in the kitchen and the door is locked....i will have to get it out for you in the morning before i go to work.....ok i said......didnt click that he said work.

anyway after finishing i phoned him up and he said that he would be home in 30 mins with my money....so i started to pack away my tools and 30 mins later he turned up.....in a brand new Range Rover Vogue with a reg spelling his name on it. boy did i laugh about it later.....but atleast he said it was an excellent job and was well pleased.

 

[EFC Mike]

Kwality!!!

 

[Pebbs]

Andy that is a great piece of work there, this tightwad didnt deserve you doing his floor hun. Gone are the days when someones word is their bond, and it makes me sick, that you cant trust anyone to keep their promises these days.

Lynn

 

[hillhead]

Andy that is a great piece of work there, this tightwad didnt deserve you doing his floor hun. Gone are the days when someones word is their bond, and it makes me sick, that you cant trust anyone to keep their promises these days.

Lynn

Very true words Lynn.

 

[kilty55]

Andy that is a great piece of work there, this tightwad didnt deserve you doing his floor hun. Gone are the days when someones word is their bond, and it makes me sick, that you cant trust anyone to keep their promises these days.

Lynn

couldnt agree more,customers and people in general are becoming sneaky more and more lynn.

we put absolutely everything in writing right down to the minor details now....there should be a show called rogue customers never mind bloody rogue traders. rant over phew lol

 

[SandyFloor]

couldnt agree more,customers and people in general are becoming sneaky more and more lynn.

we put absolutely everything in writing right down to the minor details now....there should be a show called rogue customers never mind bloody rogue traders. rant over phew lol

That's a very fair rant, Jamie. The only problem is there are a lot of contractors who dont deserve to be paid and and they don't see it. If the 'characters' in the trade were fewer the rest of us wouldn't be plagued by TV programmes, would be paid a better rate and not have to prove ourselves to have respect from the customers.

By coincidence I popped in to see a mate of mine in his carpet shop yesterday (Saturday) and he had a customer in ordering his carpets and moaning about the builders in his house. They got someone in to install 80 sq. mtrs of porc floor tiles and the customer refused the job owing to excessive lipping. They agreed to lift them and refix while he was on holiday for a week ( his wife refused to stay in the house while it was going on). He came back and the tiling looked great but he took a pic with some kind of camera ( infra red? anyone know?) which revealed the adhesive underneath and he sketched it......it had all been dot dabbed. They did the job badly.....twice!!! Needless to say I was more than slightly horrified and explained the error of their ways but he was accepting the job anyway as his wife couldn't deal with any more stress.

He then said to me " Isn't tiling the kind of job guys go into when they get laid off and can't get a real job...a bit like painting and decorating and taxi driving?" I could have smacked him one but I think it illustrates my point.

 

[Andy Allen]

i would of smacked him!

 

[SandyFloor]

i would of smacked him!

He was smaller than me and had glasses...wouldn't have been right :lol: might have let his tyres down tho.

 

[kilty55]

totally agree sandy there are many rogue traders out there,far more than i ever thought to be honest

 

[SandyFloor]

I knew of a couple of so called customers (not mine) who had a lot of work done by several trades and didn't pay. Both had lawyers in the family so knew exactly what they were doing. That's people who had no intention of paying in the first place.

 

[Andy Allen]

any one remember the builder that knocked down a couples porch because they wouldn't pay, it was on the news about a year ago.

 

[borgie]

i remember that. good on him. i have taken tiles of the wall before when people have not paid me. even done it onsite a long time ago. the contractor called the police as the work was grouted he said it had been handed over and it was criminal damage. only took up two tiles before we got a phone call saying the cash would be with us in 30 mins. the good old days, getting paid in cash on a friday night on a motorway slip road.