Cowboy Clients,Customers from Hell

robert2011

Hi All,

Just joined this site and i am more than happy to give advice and give my opinion on cowboy builders.
I am a builder and have my own firm ,i also have pro qualifications in Quantity Surveying .

But why is nothing said about Rogue/dishonest/cowboy clients ?

The building industry has the highest bankruptcy rate in the UK
Why ? lots of reasons. One of the main reasons today is clients not paying on time or at all .Clients changing thier minds on the design half way through a project and not paying extra for this.
Clients paying for inferior materials and then blame the builder for defects and not paying the retention money.

I just wondered what is the publics view on this ?

capeverde

buyers are liars, first lesson in business. Some of the corkers they come out with are incredible and the funny thing is we usually catch them out. Important thing is to get everything in writing and be clear and concise in managing the customers expectations. This is where I believe there is a parting in the waves. Customers can be totally uneducated and unrealistic as to what their £ actually buys. They can also be totally unaware that suppliers let you down and often, trades can fall victim to inclement weather, which may have a knock on effect. Good thing is, people like this are few and far between and if you take the time and keep the lines of communication open theres never usually any real damage.

Biggles

robert2011 wrote: »

But why is nothing said about Rogue/dishonest/cowboy clients?

1 Because every poster on here is a client at one time or another, and very few are builders.

2 Because it can be helpful to others to warn them about a dodgy tradesman. But it would be fairly pointless for a tradesman to warn everyone about a dodgy customer he'd had.

Not that I don't sympathise, Robert, I certainly do.

robert2011

Hi Biggles,
I was meaning in the newspapers or tv .There is nothing said about clients with slick lawyers not paying small firms or sole traders ,thus making them bankrupt. But you get lots of builders from hell tv shows news articles, why is this ?

Leif

robert2011 wrote: »

Hi Biggles,
I was meaning in the newspapers or tv .There is nothing said about clients with slick lawyers not paying small firms or sole traders ,thus making them bankrupt. But you get lots of builders from hell tv shows news articles, why is this ?

Because one rogue trader can cause misery for huge numbers of clients, whereas I've not heard of comparable rogue customers.

I'm not convinced by your comment. Why would someone with money to pay a slick lawyer not pay a small firm or trader?

crazyguy

depends on what sort of money you are talking about if its big money then they would

capeverde

I know of a tradesman that lost almost 50k to a famous chelsea footballer and couldnt afford to take it further and retrieve the debt. Partly his own fault as paperwork wasnt watertight, but he did complete a good job. Good thing about sites like this is that they do educate. You cant expect customers to have a full grounding in all things and to know appropriate costs. This in my opinion is where problems start. If you are open up front and honest, its rare that you will fall foul of each other. I think often tradesmen can try to promise too much as they are perhaps desperate for work and the slightest problem can impact their profitability massively. Some jobs are impossible to give watertight quotes beforehand, for example where demolition may be required to unearth a problem. In these cases you need to use the worse case scenario and explain there may be good news. From reading posts on here, I would also say people are losing the art of communication. Hearing about customers/suppliers texting etc. Email is fine when a record is required, but sitting down and talking to one another is the best way to resolve problems.

System

sure i've seen a website about this before
this one is more a funny one, but some of the stories are hilarious http://clientsfromhell.net/

olly300

Leif wrote: »

Because one rogue trader can cause misery for huge numbers of clients, whereas I've not heard of comparable rogue customers.

There are those around.

You don't hear about them unless you are self-employed/run a small business, and do plenty of networking.

Even then most people don't want to admit a customer has ripped them off.

Leif wrote: »

I'm not convinced by your comment. Why would someone with money to pay a slick lawyer not pay a small firm or trader?

Some companies and richer people have a lawyer basically on tap.

All they do is get that lawyer, who happens to be from a high flying legal firm, to write a letter threatening to sue them if they try and get the money off their client.

iamcornholio

My policy is ...

Don't have too much money outstanding with clients - some are more trustworthy than others, but in general get [stage] payments when due before carrying on. Include payment times into the contract

Invoice once, twice if needed, then if need be a third one carries a warning that a claim will be lodged in the county court within the next five days ... included is a nice reminder that any court judgement will be enforced with a charge on the property (to force it's sale) and/or application for them to be declared bankrupt. It tends to jolly them along

And the claim is made in the court on the sixth day if nothing is recieved

bobhawke

robert2011 wrote: »

Hi Biggles,
I was meaning in the newspapers or tv .There is nothing said about clients with slick lawyers not paying small firms or sole traders ,thus making them bankrupt. But you get lots of builders from hell tv shows news articles, why is this ?

Because nice tradesmen stories aren't interesting, though I would watch a tv show on any topic as long as it had melinda messenger jiggling everywhere :beer: