have you gone down the up front payments route?

[Pjj]

Wondering for some advice from you guys? 

I have one persistent late payer , he has an extremely nice mercedes on the drive and his wife has a nice car too. They live in a new build but on the end of a row if 3 town houses. 

About 2 months ago the middle house got in contact with me and asked me to clean there windows (on reccomendation of next door) on a monthly basis, but as its the middle I have to go through there house and they would prefer me not to. So they agreed between them that I can hop over the fence between them to clean the back. The new customer pays me in the same day everytime (3 times now), but I'm having problems getting money from Mr mercedes every month for last 3 months. I send reminders, he reads them and still no money until about 5 reminders have been sent. If I drop him I lose access to the other house. I charge £9 each for these houses and there so easy, 3 windows front and 2 windows back and patio door. I can have both done in 20 mins and £18 in back pocket. 

But he's really starting to annoy me but by dropping him I'm also going to have to drop the middle good paying house. 

Sounds way to cheap to me for a  town house , maybe that’s the problem he thinks it’s only £9 , if it were £12-15 he might be more inclined to lay on time m I used to experience this with a few customers years ago they were always cheaper jobs , also it’s always a gamble relying on one job to get to another , if they move die or cancel you are stuffed , just make the most of it while it lasts , I don’t take on jobs like this now as Ime not prepared to be jumping over fences anymore ????

 

[ched999uk]

But he's really starting to annoy me but by dropping him I'm also going to have to drop the middle good paying house. 

Difficult one but what every you do don't tell the middle one that you are dropping them as the Merc one don't pay!!! Reason being you are then potentially breaking the law on data protection, i.e. you are giving out financial info on the Merc people without their permission!!

Is it worth setting up GoCardless and telling Merc ones that's how you now take payments as you spend too much time chasing? If they talk to their neighbours it could be difficult! 

 

[scottish cleaning service]

But he's really starting to annoy me but by dropping him I'm also going to have to drop the middle good paying house. 

I have many that don't pay till they owe 2 months but they always pay. It doesn't bother me because its money in the bank as they always pay. I don't try and cut off my nose to spite my face so I bare with it. After the second clean and they don't pay then I don't do the third till they pay that's the rules I play by but the Direct Debit route is the way everyone should go down in the future. ?

 

[P4dstar]

Wondering for some advice from you guys? 

I have one persistent late payer , he has an extremely nice mercedes on the drive and his wife has a nice car too. They live in a new build but on the end of a row if 3 town houses. 

About 2 months ago the middle house got in contact with me and asked me to clean there windows (on reccomendation of next door) on a monthly basis, but as its the middle I have to go through there house and they would prefer me not to. So they agreed between them that I can hop over the fence between them to clean the back. The new customer pays me in the same day everytime (3 times now), but I'm having problems getting money from Mr mercedes every month for last 3 months. I send reminders, he reads them and still no money until about 5 reminders have been sent. If I drop him I lose access to the other house. I charge £9 each for these houses and there so easy, 3 windows front and 2 windows back and patio door. I can have both done in 20 mins and £18 in back pocket. 

But he's really starting to annoy me but by dropping him I'm also going to have to drop the middle good paying house. 

I would send him an email with notice of cancellation. Explain politely that you will no longer be able to provide window cleaning services moving forward. Point out how many times you've contacted him and tell him you offer direct debit to avoid these situations (If you don't already then you can be up and running with GC in hours, and it's free) Finally thank him for his business. I can tell you from experience that 90% of the people I've done this to come back and sign up for GC very quickly.

He appreciates you, thats why he recommended you. He's just thoughtless. If however he doesn't resolve it then just tell the neighbour in the middle you are no longer cleaning Mr Jones on the end so won't be able to carry on. No further info is required.

Last thing, take a step back and think about this. You're climbing a fence for £9. and you're being messed around by the other house. Neither of these are fantastic customers. I can personally ignore someone who runs to owing two invoices (Only the older customers, the new ones are all GC) but owing 3 cleans isn't acceptable. Realistically you cant carry on as you are, he owes you £27 now right? If you let that run another couple of months and then decide to take him to court the judge will rip you a new one for continuing to provide services when he didn't pay before.

 

[Bongofish]

I would send him an email with notice of cancellation. Explain politely that you will no longer be able to provide window cleaning services moving forward. Point out how many times you've contacted him and tell him you offer direct debit to avoid these situations (If you don't already then you can be up and running with GC in hours, and it's free) Finally thank him for his business. I can tell you from experience that 90% of the people I've done this to come back and sign up for GC very quickly.

He appreciates you, thats why he recommended you. He's just thoughtless. If however he doesn't resolve it then just tell the neighbour in the middle you are no longer cleaning Mr Jones on the end so won't be able to carry on. No further info is required.

Last thing, take a step back and think about this. You're climbing a fence for £9. and you're being messed around by the other house. Neither of these are fantastic customers. I can personally ignore someone who runs to owing two invoices (Only the older customers, the new ones are all GC) but owing 3 cleans isn't acceptable. Realistically you cant carry on as you are, he owes you £27 now right? If you let that run another couple of months and then decide to take him to court the judge will rip you a new one for continuing to provide services when he didn't pay before.

Thanks for the reply. He actually just owes me £9. But every month it take about 5 reminder messages. I send a 48 hour reminder to all customers, and most pay by the. 95%>. But after that it's a week reminder. And then maybe every 4-5 days. I know I'm super strict on payments but nearly all my customers appreciate it as they don't want a big bill after 3 months. Also the way I see it is, if I struggle to get £9 how are they going to pay £27. 

I work hard on all my houses and on every slip I leave it says payment to be recieved in 48 hours. Obviously I accept sometimes people are in holidays etc etc. But I have a really strong ethic that I won't clean a house if the last payment hasn't been recieved.....maybe I'm too harsh I dunno, but it's worked for 99% of customers so far. 

 

[P4dstar]

Thanks for the reply. He actually just owes me £9. But every month it take about 5 reminder messages. I send a 48 hour reminder to all customers, and most pay by the. 95%>. But after that it's a week reminder. And then maybe every 4-5 days. I know I'm super strict on payments but nearly all my customers appreciate it as they don't want a big bill after 3 months. Also the way I see it is, if I struggle to get £9 how are they going to pay £27. 

I work hard on all my houses and on every slip I leave it says payment to be recieved in 48 hours. Obviously I accept sometimes people are in holidays etc etc. But I have a really strong ethic that I won't clean a house if the last payment hasn't been recieved.....maybe I'm too harsh I dunno, but it's worked for 99% of customers so far. 

If he's paying within a month, although he's thoughtless, he ain't that bad mate. I agree with you that you need to sick to your principals though. You could still send him a notice of cancellation and explain you just don't have the time to chase him.

I can't really compare my way of working to yours though. I only have this issue with a handful of older customers. I tell the new people we collect by direct debit, don't give them any other option.

 

[dazmond]

Most my customers pay by bank transfer 90%. It can be annoying chasing for payments but I do get 97% of my customers pay within 2 days as I send a 48 hour payment reminder out. After that it's a 5 day payment reminder, if still not paid it's a straight forward week reminder.....if over 2 weeks they get a knock at the door........only ever had to knock 3 times . 

Really?.....I dont start chasing until 14 days after the clean....most pay within that time.....my current debt list is £800 but itll come in eventually....

 

[Master Jedi Alejandro]

Unfortunately I feel the only way to deal with ones like this is dump them , I have had a customer txt me this morning that we stoped doing in September as they owed 3 months money , he asked why we hadn’t been since September, my reply was beacause you already owe £60 three months cleaning money and we have repeatedly contacted you but received no payment , so you have been removed from our books , he asked me to start cleaning again and he will pay by BACS on a dd reluctantly I have accepted this and told him from now on it will be payment before work is done , he is happy with that , but should the payment not be made then it will be the end of the road , will be interesting to see what happens , ????

I arranged prepayment with a customer after she repeatedly didn’t pay. She was very much up for it and agreed to the terms payment had to be by the 31st so it covered the following month. 31st rolled up and no payment made. Instantly dropped. Ohh well, I did try! ?