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advice on letter please

Naiomie L Shean

New member
Messages
5
Location
Birmingham
hey. so we have got a mega problem with some customers taking ages to pay. resulting in several call backs and large debts. i have drafted this letter to give to the worst of them to get them to pay on time or leave our service. either way is fine. 

can you have a read and see what you think and offer any advice/changes

thanks in advance and apologies for bad spelling/grammar (this will be amended before printing. lol)

View attachment gocardless letter.pdf

 
Last edited by a moderator:
After the bit about rise in late payments maybe add that its making it increasingly difficult to to provide the service and make a living.

Also it needs spell checking as there's the odd spelling mistake. ?

 
I was just about to start a post about the same subject! I'm getting sick of chasing payments and collecting. There is one estate in particular that is further away than the rest and I'm wanting to switch it to GoCardless only even if I loose some customers.

I want to write a letter to introduce the new changes and address common objections and explain it properly. I might take a few pointers from your letter.

Is there anyone else who has written a letter like this?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just one point to remind you that gocardless is not a foolproof way to guarantee to payment.
If they haven't got the funds in their account then it will get bounced back as a failure.
Sometimes this can be as frustrating and time consuming in showing them that the payments failed.
If customers late pay or don't pay then far better to show them that you mean business and after sending a polite, please pay by a certain date etc within the next 7 days you will apply an admin charge £40 and take them to small claims court which will incur a further £25 charge.
Result: they pay you or you actually do it and apply online to small claims court.
I had a customer who owed £15 and £10. £25.
I did the above and they promised to pay both amounts.
They did not pay, I kept there text messages as evidence.
Applied on line to small claims court. Successful.
They then had 31 days to pay now £75. No payment.
They now have a CCJ against them for that amount.
That will **** there credit score up big time and I will now look to enforce it.
All that because they were another customer who thought oh it's only £10 and its only the window cleaner. [emoji848][emoji189]


Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums mobile app

 
Letter looks good. I would suggest that link is too long to put in a letter. It would work better if you were to add a sign up page to your website and put that link on it instead. I have just put a payment page on my website, bit of info about GC and a sign up link basically.

 
Letter looks good. I would suggest that link is too long to put in a letter. It would work better if you were to add a sign up page to your website and put that link on it instead. I have just put a payment page on my website, bit of info about GC and a sign up link basically.
Another thing to add about having the link printed, customers have quite often said 'the link doesn't work' and it turns out that the 0000 (zeros) get mistaken for OOOO (letter O) and so the link doesn't work. Better to use Ø to make it clear. Also the https:// isn't needed.

 
hey. so we have got a mega problem with some customers taking ages to pay. resulting in several call backs and large debts. i have drafted this letter to give to the worst of them to get them to pay on time or leave our service. either way is fine. 

can you have a read and see what you think and offer any advice/changes

thanks in advance and apologies for bad spelling/grammar (this will be amended before printing. lol)

View attachment 15420


Dear Customer, 

As of 1st March 2019 we will only be accepting GoCardless for payments for window cleaning.  GoCardless are the market leaders in direct debit processing and you can rest assured that all payments are protected under the Direct Debit Guarantee. 

We have made this decision as it will help us to streamline our payment process and automatically allocate the correct payment to each job allowing us to free up much needed time to focus on providing you with the best service possible.  

Please remember this is a direct debit so we still need to request payment after every clean, it is not a Standing Order that comes out automatically every month.

GoCardless offer a service second to none.  A brief description of how it works is simple

1:  Windows are cleaned as usual on your regular date

2: Job is marked as complete on our smart-phones

3: This triggers the payment request with GoCardless to your bank

4: The funds are collected 5 days after the clean. 

As simple as that and the beauty of it being a 'triggered' direct debit means that should we not be able to clean your windows for any reason (snow, bad weather ect) the job is not marked as done on the smart-phone app so you don't pay for a service you haven't had.  

Please visit https://GoPayYouDamnBillsOnTime to set up your authorization for future payments. 

If you have any questions at all regarding this please do not hesitate to call me directly on 0800 GOAWAY 

Thank you for you business and we look forward to seeing you on your next clean. 

Kind regards, Mr Getting Paid At Last

 
Dear Customer, 

As of 1st March 2019 we will only be accepting GoCardless for payments for window cleaning.  GoCardless are the market leaders in direct debit processing and you can rest assured that all payments are protected under the Direct Debit Guarantee. 

We have made this decision as it will help us to streamline our payment process and automatically allocate the correct payment to each job allowing us to free up much needed time to focus on providing you with the best service possible.  

Please remember this is a direct debit so we still need to request payment after every clean, it is not a Standing Order that comes out automatically every month.

GoCardless offer a service second to none.  A brief description of how it works is simple

1:  Windows are cleaned as usual on your regular date

2: Job is marked as complete on our smart-phones

3: This triggers the payment request with GoCardless to your bank

4: The funds are collected 5 days after the clean. 

As simple as that and the beauty of it being a 'triggered' direct debit means that should we not be able to clean your windows for any reason (snow, bad weather ect) the job is not marked as done on the smart-phone app so you don't pay for a service you haven't had.  

Please visit https://GoPayYouDamnBillsOnTime to set up your authorization for future payments. 

If you have any questions at all regarding this please do not hesitate to call me directly on 0800 GOAWAY 

Thank you for you business and we look forward to seeing you on your next clean. 

Kind regards, Mr Getting Paid At Last
I'm also going to use this as soon as I get my website up and running. Until then it will go on my Facebook page great wording

 
Just one point to remind you that gocardless is not a foolproof way to guarantee to payment.
If they haven't got the funds in their account then it will get bounced back as a failure.
Sometimes this can be as frustrating and time consuming in showing them that the payments failed.
If customers late pay or don't pay then far better to show them that you mean business and after sending a polite, please pay by a certain date etc within the next 7 days you will apply an admin charge £40 and take them to small claims court which will incur a further £25 charge.
Result: they pay you or you actually do it and apply online to small claims court.
I had a customer who owed £15 and £10. £25.
I did the above and they promised to pay both amounts.
They did not pay, I kept there text messages as evidence.
Applied on line to small claims court. Successful.
They then had 31 days to pay now £75. No payment.
They now have a CCJ against them for that amount.
That will **** there credit score up big time and I will now look to enforce it.
All that because they were another customer who thought oh it's only £10 and its only the window cleaner. [emoji848][emoji189]


Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums mobile app
 
Update to the above.

The CCJ was to be granted on 15th January.

Time had passed to make payment through court system, so ex customer panicking called and messaged and then paid by Bacs the now £75 invto my bank account.

I was able to log in to my HM court account and notify that debt was settled.

Sent the same message to another customer that had not paid since 29/11/18.

Immediately they set up on go careless.

 
That's right the £25 court fee you pay is added to your claim.

My claim was £10 unpaid window cleaning.

£40 administration charge

£25 court fee.

Total claimed and paid by ex customer £75.

 
Any fears of retribution?
I've no fears of any retribution, people should pay what they owe and if they don't or can't be bothered then they should not think that they are free from the justice system.

I've another who hasn't paid his £12 and will be getting the same letter from HM Courts.

I simply won't let people get away with basically robbing me again.

I mean who in there right mind wants a CCJ against there name for £12.

 
Any fears of retribution?




No , I would offer to re apply the dirt I had removed free of charge ??? name and shame I say we live in a society that people think that they can have work done and not pay , that’s just not right , nice muddy puddle applicator and pole work wonders with this type of customer ????

 
Spot on that and justice has to be served!! Realistically from a business point of view though you could have earned ten fold the amount owed in all the time wasted chasing it. If it was I to the hundreds then it may be worth it but not for a tenner. 

 
One of my customers was bumped 3 times for PayPal debits that he knew nothing about. It was only for £40 but if he didn't get a mini statement then it would have continued. His bank Santander asked him if he used a cashline machine at Aldi, which he had. I don't check my bank accounts for weeks on end but I will be from now on. I think it has something to do with the touch card system and that's why the amounts were very low because he had thousands in his account.

 
I've no fears of any retribution, people should pay what they owe and if they don't or can't be bothered then they should not think that they are free from the justice system.

I've another who hasn't paid his £12 and will be getting the same letter from HM Courts.

I simply won't let people get away with basically robbing me again.

I mean who in there right mind wants a CCJ against there name for £12.
Agreed but realistically it's a lot of effort that would be better pumped into getting new customers mate. If it's likely to spread through an area with multiple people booking and not paying then it may be worth making a stand but other than that I don't think I could be bothered. It's not acceptable but the upset causes more trouble than just moving on IMO.

 
No effort really, just a couple of minutes to register the debt online.

Either way you'll be walking away from them and will be replacing with a new job.

I used to just let bad debts slide but at the end of the day, why have the p**s taken out of you doing a job for someone for free. 

 
No effort really, just a couple of minutes to register the debt online.

Either way you'll be walking away from them and will be replacing with a new job.

I used to just let bad debts slide but at the end of the day, why have the p**s taken out of you doing a job for someone for free. 
I thought you had to actually attend court though? 

 
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