Template for non payers

Sorry for putting another one of these up, Im not sure how to find the thread on this. 

Looking for a template to send to non payers after 2 or 3 payment reminders. 

And ideally a template to give to customers on 1st and 2nd payment reminders. 

As all I'm doing right now is just saying this is a payment reminder for the window cleaning for £xx

Dear Customer, 
This is a final request for payment for your window cleaning  on xx/xx/19.

The balance is £xx
Despite repeated payment requests,  no payment has been received.

Please note that unless cleared payment is received by insert date an administration charge of £ insert amount will be added to your bill and a claim will be filed with the Small Claims Court for recovery which will incur a further charge of £25 
At this time we must withdraw our service due to non payment.
Kind regards insert name
Company name.

Personally I wouldn’t waste the time and effort. Cut your losses and move on (if we are talking about window cleans and not a pvc or gutter clean). No matter how polite a letter will be it’ll get the customers back up and they will probably drop you anyway. I find that by stopping doing their windows prompts the customer into contacting you to say “where have you been” or “not seen you for a while” and then have a nice chat and say you’ll start up once the debt has been cleared.

richb77 said:

Personally I wouldn’t waste the time and effort. Cut your losses and move on (if we are talking about window cleans and not a pvc or gutter clean). No matter how polite a letter will be it’ll get the customers back up and they will probably drop you anyway. I find that by stopping doing their windows prompts the customer into contacting you to say “where have you been” or “not seen you for a while” and then have a nice chat and say you’ll start up once the debt has been cleared.

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So you walk away without payment leaving them to get another windie (could be after of any of us) to face the same problem.

Don’t let them get away with it. I see it as a matter of pride. I’ve done the job, I’m getting my money 

True Steve, although where I work (mainly small villages) window cleaners are not that common so usually they come back and pay. I would probably have the same view in a more highly populated area. 

richb77 said:

Personally I wouldn’t waste the time and effort. Cut your losses and move on (if we are talking about window cleans and not a pvc or gutter clean). No matter how polite a letter will be it’ll get the customers back up and they will probably drop you anyway. I find that by stopping doing their windows prompts the customer into contacting you to say “where have you been” or “not seen you for a while” and then have a nice chat and say you’ll start up once the debt has been cleared.

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I don't know how true this is but someone once wrote to Experian and enclosed copies of the documents sent to the errant customer as proof of non payment of an existing debt. Apparently Experian flag the customer's credit record which shows up as a black mark against their credit record. The customer needs to contact the service supplier and settle the debt to remove that black mark which effects his credit standing. The process then is that the service provider must contact Experian to advise the debt has been paid.

How quickly the service provider will complete the final step is questionable.?

I personally would write it off and move on if it was a small amount, but this sounds a way to help me get over the loss incurred.

steve garwood said:

So you walk away without payment leaving them to get another windie (could be after of any of us) to face the same problem.

Don’t let them get away with it. I see it as a matter of pride. I’ve done the job, I’m getting my money 

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They will be forced to pay this one Steve at the court doors, but I doubt it will stop the customer trying it again. One of the local lads took a customer to court and his girl friend stepped in at the last moment and settled the debt.

He just caught the next window cleaner. It was a game to him of what he could get done for nothing.

I'm sure I read somewhere of a windie down south who took on a new customer. After he did the first clean the customer told him he was bankrupt and had no money to ever pay him, but here's a current lottery ticket as payment. Back then the ticket was £1.

spruce said:

I don't know how true this is but someone once wrote to Experian and enclosed copies of the documents sent to the errant customer as proof of non payment of an existing debt. Apparently Experian flag the customer's credit record which shows up as a black mark against their credit record. The customer needs to contact the service supplier and settle the debt to remove that black mark which effects his credit standing. The process then is that the service provider must contact Experian to advise the debt has been paid.

How quickly the service provider will complete the final step is questionable.?

I personally would write it off and move on if it was a small amount, but this sounds a way to help me get over the loss incurred.

They will be forced to pay this one Steve at the court doors, but I doubt it will stop the customer trying it again. One of the local lads took a customer to court and his girl friend stepped in at the last moment and settled the debt.

He just caught the next window cleaner. It was a game to him of what he could get done for nothing.

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There are always Micky takers. However, if we all take the attitude of ‘move on and forget it’, we are just encouraging them ?

richb77 said:

Personally I wouldn’t waste the time and effort. Cut your losses and move on (if we are talking about window cleans and not a pvc or gutter clean). No matter how polite a letter will be it’ll get the customers back up and they will probably drop you anyway. 

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Which is a valid point - if they're going to end up dropping you then you might as well chase the money - nothing else to lose right?!

I had a non-payer for 5 weeks as documented in another thread. Given the chance she'd have let it go unpaid forever but I could see where it was going and figured i'd rather lose her and have the cash than lose her and go unpaid. Eventually she caved and paid up.

TJTOPCAT said:

Please note that unless cleared payment is received by insert date an administration charge of £ insert amount will be added to your bill and a claim will be filed with the Small Claims Court for recovery which will incur a further charge of £25 

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I've seen this go wrong with a window cleaner local to me. He ended up changing his business name to get away from the negative reviews it gave him. To summarise, you can't charge someone an admin fee unless it's been pre agreed. The charges at court stage would be different of course, they would usually be awarded by a court.

steve garwood said:

There are always Micky takers. However, if we all take the attitude of ‘move on and forget it’, we are just encouraging them ?

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I'd move on and forget it honest... Do you know what I wouldn't do? I wouldn't list an extremely cheap car advert on Gumtree a few months later and add the customers number, that would be really immature ?