Rogue Customers!

MeanParent

Valli wrote: »

Have you not tried presenting the cheque again?

Have to say I too think it's awful though.

Thats a great idea! If nothing else it will give you the satisfaction of knowing a bounced cheque will cost him extra bank charges!:rotfl:

BTW if he deliberately gave you a cheque knowing it would bounce then I think he is obtaining goods and services by deception, try threatening him with the law.

vikingaero

Problem is that a lot of business accounts now charge for bounced cheques that have been paid in. So not only do you lose £x for the goods and services you've supplied but your own bank will charge you £4-£8 for the rubber cheque. Pay it in twice and you could end up costing yourself more. About the only way you'll get around this is if you are in your first year of free banking.

Aquatronixjenny

I was thinking about legal action, as he has fully admitted via email that he knew he didn't have any funds and he will never have them. Who would I go to though, wouldn't the police regard it as a 'civil matter'. I'm just peed off that he was phoning constantly to chase the parts (its an old obsolete boiler so getting parts was a nightmare) and we bent over backwards to do the job on a Saturday evening as we knew he's been without heating and hot water for a week.

Its just annoyed me so much as we always pride ourselves in being a company that trusts our customers and doesn't take payment until the customer is happy that the job is complete. I've decided to be ruthless now... no cheques, 10% deposit for parts that need to be ordered in, and full payment for any parts over £100 before they get fitted, especially PCBs as once you break the seal on the packet you can't return them.

A little (alright, a huge) part of me wants to go and do a little bit of work on his gas meter...

Tigsteroonie

Aquatronixjenny wrote: »

I was thinking about legal action, as he has fully admitted via email that he knew he didn't have any funds and he will never have them. Who would I go to though, wouldn't the police regard it as a 'civil matter'.

Check out the Fraud Act 2006 and the concept of "Obtaining services dishonestly" (it used to be known as obtaining goods by deception). This is what wiki has on the isssue (my highlighting):

The Act gives a statutory definition of the criminal offence of fraud

Section 11 of the Act makes it a statutory offence to obtain services dishonestly; meaning that services which were to be paid for were obtained with the knowledge or intention that no payment would be made. A person found guilty of this will be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to twelve months on summary conviction (six months in Northern Ireland), or a fine or imprisonment for up to five years on conviction on indictment.

rustyboy21

Aquatronixjenny wrote: »

I was thinking about legal action, as he has fully admitted via email that he knew he didn't have any funds and he will never have them. Who would I go to though, wouldn't the police regard it as a 'civil matter'. I'm just peed off that he was phoning constantly to chase the parts (its an old obsolete boiler so getting parts was a nightmare) and we bent over backwards to do the job on a Saturday evening as we knew he's been without heating and hot water for a week.

Its just annoyed me so much as we always pride ourselves in being a company that trusts our customers and doesn't take payment until the customer is happy that the job is complete. I've decided to be ruthless now... no cheques, 10% deposit for parts that need to be ordered in, and full payment for any parts over £100 before they get fitted, especially PCBs as once you break the seal on the packet you can't return them.

A little (alright, a huge) part of me wants to go and do a little bit of work on his gas meter...

Wouldn't be a criminal matter as he has performed a fraudulent act? he had full knowledge that it was going to bounce, but still went ahead with it. Maybe even go to his bank and inform the manager there, show the email, they may take action instead of you having to.

Aquatronixjenny

Oh, interesting. Thank you. Might try popping into the police station and see what they have to say. I want to stop this guy doing this to other tradesmen.

arcon5

The police will no doubt fob you off saying it's a civil matter, but take a copy of the email and refuse to leave until they take it seriously. This IS fraud.

Also don't keep re-presenting the cheque knowing a) it will fail AND b) you will be charged. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. You could file a small claims also and obtain a CCJ, when you know his financial standing is much better (maybe in a few years) you can then enforce it (you don't have to enforce it straight away), and knowing he has (another?) CCJ may be of satisfaction to you as it will affect everything from his insurance quotes to potential employment prospects (as many employers ask if you have had any civil action brought against you). Although this action would cost you money, would be more benefitial than re-presenting the cheque.

vyle

We've had so many dodgy customers that we pretty much never do anything to help, or out of good will, because too many people are out to get a fraudulent freebie.

We used to send items out of guarantee to the manufacturer so the customer could pay for a repair -- their argument was "can't you send it off for us seeing as we brought it in, and we deal with them directly after?"

Fair enough, until people started blaming us when they weren't fixed fast enough, or if anything went wrong because, "well you sent it off, so it's your fault."

We used to suggest engineers who may do services that we don't provide, until customers tried getting compensation from us if they weren't satisfied, ("well you recommended them.")

We no longer even entertain looking at or touching anything out of warranty, as just a couple of weeks ago, somebody brought in a DVD/VCR combi which had supposedly eaten a tape. First he tried claiming for the ruined tape. We switched it on, hit the "drive select" button to put it onto VCR mode. Hit eject and the tape came out, perfectly fine.

So off the customer went, until it broke down the following week. He's now trying to claim compensation for damaged tapes, and for a vcr because "although it's out of warranty, you were the last people to touch it before it broke so you must have done something."

Customers do find it ridiculous that we've become so seemingly unwilling to help, to the point that if they need an engineer we merely suggest they look in their business and/or telephone directory of choice, but because of !!!!s that do cost the business a lot of money, you can't be too careful. We have a nice big sign outlining the SOGA in the office, and if something is out of warranty, that sign provides all the information the customer needs, but until they provide the necessary proof of inherant fault, we ain't touching it.

timbstoke

The one advantage of cheques is that they are intended to be as good as cash, meaning if you took him to court, the court will have no interest in the underlying contract - if the cheque bounced, you will win. If he defends the action saying he's disputing the work, the court will still award in your favour, and tell him to take a separate action against you.

goodz

I gave up trading about 15 years ago partly or mostly due to encountering large numbers of inferior filth on the rob. Dozens and dozens of them, all sorts of madness all the time. Wall to wall thieves, cheats, liars. Vile rubbish people. Did my head in. Wading through treacle all the time. So many people are naturally bent. Always doing you over any time they can. Why bother. No, I couldn't spend my whole life always getting ripped off all the time. Always doing battle with thieves and con artists. It was absurd.

What I've since come to understand is that it's deliberate government policy to allow crime to flourish. Clear up rates for all crimes except murder are less than 1% in UK. Clear up rate for rape was recently extensively publicised as currently being 0.16% that's 1 in 600. The government don't care at all about violence, mugging, burglary, fraud, antisocial behaviour etc. It's a failed country.