When the sods have outstanding invoices.

Since posting about late payments a while ago, i now suspend call outs till ive been paid. They get a payment reminder stating this.

But what about routine inspection and test. Where do i stand legally if i refuse to carry I&T until ive been paid.

Should i send them a letter stating call outs suspended as well as I&T and its a legal requirement for themselves to have this inplace.



Cheers gents.

depends what the debt is for, they should be paying the maint in advance so the testing should still be carried out.

Think that might be the way to go.

if they are paying in advance then as above then you have been paid already to carry out the works. Why have they not paid?

I charge in arrears by 30-day invoice.
I send a reminder letter at day 45 and an account stop letter on day 60 stating no £££ no worky.
You are perfectly right to refuse further work (be it call out or scheduled service) if they are overdue you funds.
You have no legal responsibility to provide goods or services (unless they have paid up front) to someone who is not paying.
They are breaking payment terms causing you to break supply terms, simple as IMO.
Phone call then a polite visit to site always works in my opinion and has not lost me a customer yet.
Good luck getting your £££ either way.
C.
 

I would assume pre-payment, for maintenance has to be honoured. All other debts are not related.

cheers

Sorry OH not trying to be an argumentative little bird but I would assume the exact opposite.

C.

I do think that if a contract has been entered into and fully paid then i personally think you have to honour that. Say the other charges are in dispute etc would you then suspend. Prime example is intruder alarms, we cannot and do not suspend peoples signalling that they have already paid for. Yes we suspend service ie callouts resets etc, but not what they have already paid in full for. What are they on stop for and what have you done about it up til now?

To reply

"I do think that if a contract has been entered into and fully paid then i personally think you have to honour that. "

Anything else is debatable.


cheers

Adi, how do you handle outstanding debts? I have very little problem. Maybe you aren't being hard enough. I can let you have copies of my overdue reminders if you want. There are 3. A gentle reminder, a stronger reminder and a final warning.

I see what your saying and agree a paid up contract for goods and or services is binding.

I'm thinking about it like this:
I've got £50 of your money that you've paid me to do some work next week in hand but you've not paid me £100 for the work I did today.
I therfor decide to keep the £50 as part payment for today and tell you I'll start next week when you pay me the still outstanding £100.
Does that seem fair and reasonable?

C.
 

C yes it sounds fair and it does sound reasonable





but whats that got to do with it lol

Just slow payers. Their manager says it their business policy, cash flow ect. I say boll....

I see
How long do they take?

One thing we do to consistent poor payers is offer a quick payment discount, now your price you quote could be your price with quick payment discount applied, if they dont pay with say 14 days of invoice date it will be the non discounted rate.... whatever that may be

Come on lads, im not a XXXX

If ive charged for the inspections, i would go, simple as.

Ive always carried out inspections and tests, services ect... then billed. Its just how ive always done it.

Its this one customer who is persistantly late paying.

I have one other who pays 90 days instead of 30 and they will now be paying extra or give them an early payment option of 15% or something.

Yes mate was thinking the same, see post.

Do you know if there is a reg on this or can i choose me own percentage?

well then if you charge in arrears naff them off, if they pay in advance do it, no brainer really. legally if they've not paid they don't get, sheesh.

you can choose as you wish.

that the one that mentions future loan difficulty due to bad credit rating - works the best for us

no need to mention loans, it affects a multitude of things encompassed by "future credit rating", let them do the sums.

I send a letter with big letters saying payment reminder and the date.

Also adding call outs suspended until all outstanding invoices are paid, ive only just started doing this as ive never had proplems in the past. Out of all me customers, i only have 2 problem accounts and both due to their business policy.

I wasnt sure if a judge would have different ideas.

Sound

I try to send letter on day 35 but if im piled out its sometimes later.

Iwas going to phone them in the morning but remembered accounts dont work monday or friday and only 10-3 in between, what a cushy number.

didnt say you wew mate, but i thought you were saying they had aleady paid for the service, if they havnt dont go

I done the service this week about 3 weeks late, but me conscience got me, anyway i shall not be doing it in future, ill get em to pay upfront.

If it's just for one account then I'd just get rid, depending how large it is. I've had a couple of infrequent late payers, one I'm chasing from April and another I've given up on but they are due to be ringing me for the RM visit so they can get bent.

Life's too short IMO.

just do it - get the money later

So long as the works simple and they do pay eventually I'd keep going to be honest.

Been out on a call-out this evening of 160 mile round trip taking 5 hours and won't see payment until 2008 but I was doing nowt anyway when they phoned and the moneys good when it does eventually come 

Swings and roundabouts!

C.
 

Im going to keep it, its a nother £500 +vat a year, just want paying on time. Im really against big companies treating the little man like poo, it winds me up.

This culture of lets drag it out paying bills is not very good business sense.

Ive got rid of smaller ones that dont pay bills on time, itys just not worth chasing.

that reminds me - must pay second tax payment soon LOL

Id certainly alter something, i wouldnt just go regardless else it will get worse.

see I take the other view ( no really LOL) thus

customer supposed to pay upfront for service - you wait they dont pay means you wait and they dont HAVE to pay. If you`ve already been then they GOT to pay

it`s a very old argument about is the visit from this years or last years payment - ADI`s question is about a fault callout which makes it difficult but theres always the chance they will get somone else to do it and pay them next year instead. I have slow payers - we know they are slow payers but at least they are paying

send em a box letter asking if they want to carry on?

This poxy government makes us pay half up front.

Carrying out services then asking for payment does not bother me. I do the work the customer pays, the same as it is for the vast majority of trades, if not all.

If they asked another proper firm to take it over, 160 addressable devices, the takeover fee might put them off, so they would propbably stay with us.

They cant keep going from one firm to another to drag payments out, surely?

it does - this  must be the longest I`ve managed to drag it out to

did you fit it ? ( not just this one you understand) if not ask yourself why you got the contract, usually the reason for switching is non payment - as you say no-one saves money by getting something taken over

Some do, and eventually go bump owing several companies for the same thing spread over 12 Months.

I do have another story that I started writing then realised we are in public so I won't!

Yes i fitted it. If i was asked to take over a new system, then id be doing some checks to find out the truth why i was being asked.