Peeve about certain consumers

rustyboy21

Just wanted to let off steam a little over having to chase people up for payments.

Over the Christmas period, I received mountains of telephone calls, from people whose condensate pipes froze up in the bad weather.

Let me post this first.... I do not sell or fit boilers, only gas/electric fires.

Business was a little slack ( people buying gifts instead ) , so my engineers had time to go out and try to help people out so their heating would be at least on over the bad weather. I had over 80 calls from desperate people who couldnt get their original installers back. I said we would callout and sort the pipe out temporarily, so at least it worked and it would cost £40. My fitters, although do not fit them, they are qualified to work on them.

We went out to over 70 people and got them back up and running.

I have sat in the shop this week, and rang up over 35 customers, jogging their memory that they haven't paid the bill yet ( they didnt pay on the day as they didnt have the cash available and the card company only allows payment instore. I have had 3 telling me were to go, 2 telling me they are not paying as it was my fault to begin with, even though we didnt fit the boiler and 6 who said they would come in yesterday to pay and I am still waiting.

The other ones have mysteriously dissapeared, so It looks like I will have to go out and knock on doors.

Just thought you might like to know, not all the cowboys are engineers, there are a lot of consumers, who would look good on a horse !


Any thoughts from anyone how to get the money in?:mad:

shaun_from_Africa

How about the standard "letter before action"
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/making-complaint/template-letters/letter_before_action/

It's really designed for consumers to send to retailers, but with a few wording changes will probably prompt at least some of them to pay up.

oldone_2

When I ran a business I suffered in exactly the same way. Sadly consumers now know all their rights, but some forget their responsibilities.

From my own experience I would not mess around. Send a letter before action giving them 7 days to pay, and then issue a small claims court summons.

It may cost you more than you recover, but it sends a messge out to your community that you are not to be messed around with.

Don't make the mistake I first made, and think I was upsetting my customers by sending them a summons. They are not customers, since they have not paid you.

Judith_W

Perhaps another way of dealing with this in the future would be to request a bank transfer. They could do this at the time and athough some may manage to not do it correctly somehow, it may make it more likely that you get your money at the time. Also, some may have cheques still.

qetu1357

rustyboy21 wrote: »

Just wanted to let off steam a little over having to chase people up for payments.

Over the Christmas period, I received mountains of telephone calls, from people whose condensate pipes froze up in the bad weather.

Let me post this first.... I do not sell or fit boilers, only gas/electric fires.

Business was a little slack ( people buying gifts instead ) , so my engineers had time to go out and try to help people out so their heating would be at least on over the bad weather. I had over 80 calls from desperate people who couldnt get their original installers back. I said we would callout and sort the pipe out temporarily, so at least it worked and it would cost £40. My fitters, although do not fit them, they are qualified to work on them.

We went out to over 70 people and got them back up and running.

I have sat in the shop this week, and rang up over 35 customers, jogging their memory that they haven't paid the bill yet ( they didnt pay on the day as they didnt have the cash available and the card company only allows payment instore. I have had 3 telling me were to go, 2 telling me they are not paying as it was my fault to begin with, even though we didnt fit the boiler and 6 who said they would come in yesterday to pay and I am still waiting.

The other ones have mysteriously dissapeared, so It looks like I will have to go out and knock on doors.

Just thought you might like to know, not all the cowboys are engineers, there are a lot of consumers, who would look good on a horse !


Any thoughts from anyone how to get the money in?:mad:

Good points.

How about getting ITV or Watchdog to do a program called "Cowboy Customers"?

maninthestreet

Stick a notice up on your shop door listing the names and addresses of the people who refuse to pay as 'banned' customers who are not welcome in your shop.

Mupette

maninthestreet wrote: »

Stick a notice up on your shop door listing the names and addresses of the people who refuse to pay as 'banned' customers who are not welcome in your shop.

Ohhh i like this, although i can see a brick or two through the window.

hippyadam

oldone wrote: »

They are not customers, since they have not paid you.

Spot on! :beer:

DdraigGoch

You have my wholehearted support and condolences, my memory still shudders at this sort of behaviour.

nomoneytoday

Next time, cash/cheque/Bank Transfer before start working?

rustyboy21

Thanks to everyone with the replies and points.

The name and shame one sounds good, but as already stated, broken windows could be the result.

I have had 1 customer in today to pay and she was abusive because she had to pay.

Can't win with some people can you?

I was thinking that I may fax all the local heating companies with a list of the non payers, to let them know, who are hte bad ones.

The reason I let them pay later was because of the weather. It was awful for us all I thought it would be better to get people warm first then sort money out later so no one was freezing to death.

What surprises me though is the amount of 'older' people, who are the awkward ones, you would think that it may have been the younger crowd who would be the problem, but no they paid up on time. One person has said that their husband is a doctor, who is abroad at the moment, and she cannot pay me until he comes back as he has the cheque book ! when I said you can pay by card, she went off on one and said I would have to wait until he came home in april ! Feel like going to her house and switching the gas off in the street !

It just makes me feel that the consumer has all the rights and we retailers have none. I even had some who complained that we couldn't get up to the frozen pipe due to the snow and ice, as it was dangerous to use ladders outside. They refused to accept the danger, so we left them. all we wanted to do was to put a hose into the sink to drain the boiler off inside the house.

You cannot win can you?