Forget 'Rogue Traders' - what about 'Rogue Customers'???

carroussel

Hello, I am a newby and I do not know how to post a new thread but I am interested in this. We are a small business and have a customer who owes us £12,000. They are a large care home and we have done business with them for around 3 years. We built our business up around them as we do their maintenance for them. The last few months have been awful. They have been drip feeding small amounts of money to us and it has had a devestating effect on our cashflow. We have to make 2 of our employees redundant a couple of weeks ago. Our payment terms are 15 days net. They promise to pay and then nothing. We have given them an ultimatum now and have said if they do not pay by end of this week we will hand it over to a debt collector. I am worried sick because we have literally come to a standstill over this. Any advice would be much appreciated Thank you

saraharrow

There is a company of solicitors called Thomas Higgins, they are online and can be founded on google. They charge £2.00 for a strongly worded letter to the company that owe you many, they offer other services and you can take it from there. <P>
My personal experience of this is the company have paid up, but that may not work in this instance.

Lifeisbutadream

Hi Carroussel - I wish you the best of luck. In my experience the majority of customers do pay eventually. You may find that they have cash flow problems themselves - it may be worth speaking to them and asking this outright - you may be able to come to an agreement re- payment options? I know not ideal, but better than nothing at all?

Gary_Haylock

Hi.
I have just sold my business due to the hastles involved partially due to customers. I ran a small electrical company with 2 others on the cards and a number of subbies. In the end I had a run of bad customers who would stall payment and there was always an excuse. What they do not realise is that we still have to pay wages and bills. We cannot go to the local supermarket, get £150.00 worth of shopping and then at the checkout state that we would sort the money out and pay in the near future when our cash flow improved. For the electrical trade with all the part P blurb and stealth tax imposed it is just one big head ache. In my opinion in the electrical trade instead of part P getting rid of the cowboys it has just driven a bigger devide between the cost of a proffesional job and that of the jack of all trades and master of none.
I am glad to have got out of it and back to working for someone else. At least I know that I will get paid for what I do.
I cant wait till the rogue customers website is up and running as I have a number of people to add and only wish that this had started years ago. To all you small business owners out there i take my hat off to you.
Cheers Gary