Help with rouge customers

[alex]

hi all, i'm sure i'm not the only plumber who has had issues with rouge customers so thought i would put this up and see how you guys would deal with it.

over the past 12 months i have carried out various maintenance and repair work for a guy who manages quite a few properties for various landlords he has always been poor at paying invoices promptly but has in the end (why is it always landlords? i never have trouble with anybody else)

In October i resealed a bath for him and didn't receive payment. (invoiced £45)

At the beginning of December he asked me to attend a different property for a different landlord which had a leak. went out late in the evening to find a totally ruined mixer tap ****ing water out of the tail connection, i isolated the tap and returned to replace it the next day (since it also needed a ceramic cartridge didn't seem much point in faffing around swapping the tail). invoiced him £126 including £46 for the new tap.my first question is, i normally charge £60 for swapping a sink mixer is this fair? never had any complaints previously. this time i charged £80 since there where 2 visits and the tap was a pain to change. either way i considered this pretty generous of me!

long short still haven't been paid for either job eventually got him to pick up his phone start of feb and he said the bill for the tap was ridiculous and he has never been charged more than £20 an hour by a plumber (other than me). he then said that the bath resealed back in October was still leaking and he wouldn't pay for either job until i return to that (only mentioned 4 months later). this has gone back and forth for a fortnight now and there isn't much reasoning with him, i couldn't care less about being paid for the bath, will happily go back if i am going to be paid but v reluctant to go before being paid for the tap which i'm out of pocket for. amount isn't enough to use a debt collector / small claims so what should i do. property with tap in is now untenanted so cant even go and take tap out. sorry for going on, this has turned into a bit of a winge but on the rare occasion i do get a rouge customer like this it makes my blood boil. anybody have any ideas on how to proceed.

many thanks

alex

 

[GQuigley67]

I think £80 is steep to change taps how long did it take you to change them ?

 

[alex]

GQUIGLEY67 thanks for that, normally i would agree and had i turned up and changed the tap in 1 visit then i would have charged £60 and probably taken about 45mins, however including the 1st visit at 10pm at night to isolate the supply going and buying the tap and returning the next day to actually change it it probably took close to 3 hours.

 

[fuzzy]

does sound a little steep mate, is it not worth saying you will meet him half way and get something? or isnt it enough?

 

[alex]

fuzzy at this point i would be happy just to recover the cost of the tap. point is he is blackmailing me to return to have another look at a bath in a different property for a different landlord before he will pay me anything for the tap

 

[justlead1]

Hi. Send a detailed breakdown of invoice. Call out, visiting merchants, isolating supply to safeguard property etc. Write it on a post card addressed to him, but make a mistake with the house number (next doors number) neighbours will be only to pleased to deliver. If this don't work the next number and so on. It tended to liven them up. Good Luck

 

[alex]

Justlead, cheers, he does already have a complete break down of the invoice he asked me to send about 10 days ago. what would be the benefit of sending it to his neighbor? sorry think i maybe missed the point

 

[GQuigley67]

even 2 visits still sounds a bit steep mate late visit or no, I would charge around that region for a kitchen sink install including the taps not just taps alone, tap change over would be around £30 or £40 for me.

maybe you'll have to come to some sort of agreement with him

 

[NickH]

I have lots of customers who are pink but none that are "rouge".

 

[alex]

quigley maybe you right. although nobody has ever queried £60 before. im quite happy to negotiate with him so long as i recover my materials cost. so essentially i would accept £46 at this stage. point is he is refusing to pay anything until i return to another job that he has also not paid me for and i suspect he isnt going to pay me either way.

after reading your reply's you guys dont seem quite as supportive as i thought you would be, and i don't see any other way of recovering this money, so i guess i will go back and look at this bath and hopefully he is good for his word. some times its worth getting an experienced opinion to allow me to see things from a balanced point so thanks for your help.

just for the record would have been much more obliging to his requests had he mentioned any of this prior to the invoices being 4 and 2 months over due

 

[alex]

implumbinguk, cheers for the support. i agree if it was just an issue of price then i would and will drop it for him especially as up until now he has given me quite a few jobs. its purely how he has gone about the situation not answering his phone between december and feb and then claiming there are these issues with another job. i feel like im being blackmailed by him with this other job and to be honest i think if i carry out this other work i still wont get paid as i don't think he ever had any intention of paying me. writing off labor time is one thing but writting off materials paid for out of my own pocket really hurts especially since i bend over backwards to please my customers and i know i have done a good job.

 

[Alpha man]

Do you get a lot of work from these people on a regular basis?

 

[justlead1]

Hi Alex, Your dealing with standard management practice. The point of the post card (LATE PAYMENT) and sent next door is social pressure, he will not wont people to know of the outstanding monies.

 

[alex]

just lead thanks for that, i think im going to go and do this other job for him but if i'm still not paid i will definitely give it a try and remember it for future.

alpha man, he isn't a major customer but yea i have probably done 4 or 5 jobs previous to these two in the last 12 months, i very much doubt i will get anymore now regardless of how i proceed from here and equally i don't need the money that bad to continue to deal with customers who constantly mess me around

 

[Barry98]

IMHO , i would get a solicitor to send a letter , even if it cost me. the man your dealing with is taking the Michael , he knows it you know it we know it the problem is how many of his associates has he told your a walk over (sorry) . but peeps like him really goat me. they all want it for monkey nuts but moan like a b***h after over the slightest thing after .

have you thought about registering with a recovery firm . i pay £50 a year to my mates registered debt recovery firm. i think its a few hundred for others but as i said hes a long time friend.

as were in the same neck of the woods feel free to pm me his details

tarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr