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My first unpaid invoice in 13 years of self-employment. What recourse do I have?
Comments
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BlondeHeadOn wrote: »You don't happen to have an OH or a friend who has a few minutes spare each day do you? I'm self employed too, and used to hate chasing slower payers (usually the NHS, funnily enough...)
Then my OH offered to take over my 'credit control'. If a payment is late, my OH phones the finance department (or whoever is supposed to be paying) and introduces himself as 'xxx's credit control department', and just very politely asks 'when we can expect payment?' Usually there's a bit of bluster, so he asks again politely 'okay, but can you let me know when we can expect payment?' And if they say they need time to sort it out, he says okay, but he will phone back the following to day to check when we can expect the payment.
Then he just phones back every day with the same polite question, until they give up and pay up!!
I have never had anyone not pay eventually in all the years of self-employment, and now all my usual clients pay very quickly.
It's amazingly effective....
Oi - cut that out! You are doing us credit controllers out of work!0 -
Just a recap to say that as of the 7th December they still haven't paid up. A couple more calls have happened, but no major activity just more smoke and mirrors.
I sent a final demand before legal letter and they didn't even bat an eyelid at this, despite having received it on the 9th November. Like a fool I waited to see if it would have the desired effect but it hasn't.
I finally spoke to someone on Friday who seemed to have an understanding of the system. They stated because the person who completed the purchase order left some fields blank the person processing the invoice was unable to give it a correct category. So basically the person putting it on the system was too dumb or lazy to work out that this is a 'service' rather than an invoice for a tangible item and it goes back to the bottom of the pile each time. Indeed whilst I was on the phone he found two paper copies of the invoice!
I've just sent off a strongly worded email to the Director of Finance for the trust detailing precisely the inefficiencies of the purchasing and finance departments and I will see if this gets the appropriate response. Unfortunately because of the delay in this payment arriving and the constant financial re-juggling I've now gone 21p overdrawn and Abbey have kindly charged me £45 for the privilege. :mad:
Jason.0 -
I think you might be entitled to charge interest on the outstanding invoice. might be worth investigating.0
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maybe this will help re interest on late payment
http://www.payontime.co.uk/legislation/legislation_main.html0 -
Having fired off a really stinking (but tactful) letter to the Director of Finance for the NHS Trust. I outlined the pitiful way in which both the original purchase order had been done (no client details and no delivery address) and to how hopeless the Finance Department had been. Hey presto ten days later the money appears in my account. Curiously no reply to the letter as yet, but at least they finally paid.
Thanks to all who replied.
Regards,
Jason.0 -
I used to work for an accountant and we used the County Court on-line service to chase bad debts - https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp
It's quite straight forward to use although there is a fee.The fridge is empty, the walls are damp, there's no hot water
And I look like a tramp and tramps like us
Baby we were born to walk0 -
Jarthurs - did they pay any interest?Please forgive me if my comments seem abrupt or my questions have obvious answers, I have a mental health condition which affects my ability to see things as others might.0
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There is also a company called Thomas Higgins www.thomashiggins.com who send LBA's for £2 + VAT. You enter all the info online, and they send out the letter. I found this very effective for getting money collected, about 90% paid up following receipt of that letter. Then in the rare cases this didn't work, use Moneyclaimonline as detailed by another poster above0
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