Don't you love customers forget you priced up a job

[buzzlightyear]

Gets a call form a customer asking can you give a price for some put out side lighting, whats the address and your name .so the customer tells me ,ok will give you a time and a date to have a look, wait a minute been their before pricing up a cctv systems,gave him a price ,he said at the time could you install it and pay in a couple of months , i told him i dont work for buy now and pay later ,so i told him in a nice way ,close your ears for this one F&&& w&&&r,and did not get the job ,shame .

 

[Intoelectrics]

I've had similar on quite a few occasions. The classic one is when you actually do the job and its time for the customer to pay.

"ermm I haven't had time to get to the bank, my cheque book has run out...blah blah blah.."

I usually reply with,

"so you often go to Tesco checkouts with a trolley full of items and ask if its ok to pay next time you're in store? I'll have to try that one myself now I'm gonna be strapped for cash after this job"

 

[buzzlightyear]

Do customers think i give them credit ,im not a F/££ing bank.

 

[Octopus]

A very long time ago I sent a price to a customer for a "list" of small jobs (this blokes a banker in London - so minted) ...

He rings up and starts saying "I'll do this , and this" so how much less?"

I said - its the lot or nothing ....................

Didn't hear from him again!

 

[buzzlightyear]

And then they say whats it for cash then ,or majaic beans.i say cash or cheques all bankable.

 

[Deleted member 105166]

And then they say whats it for cash then ,or majaic beans.i say cash or cheques all bankable.

Why not charge say 2% extra for cash? Most bank tariffs charge around 1.5% on cash deposits, then there's the inconvenience of having to find a bank branch during their small window of opening hours to pay in...

 

[Squid]

A very long time ago I sent a price to a customer for a "list" of small jobs (this blokes a banker in London - so minted) ...

He rings up and starts saying "I'll do this , and this" so how much less?"

I said - its the lot or nothing ....................

Didn't hear from him again!

Thats why they are rich as the always have to argue the price down.

I am old fashioned, you agree the price the work gets done if all okay you pay the agreed price.

 

[KWCFC]

I don't understand the mentality, I never haggle tradesmen that work in my house.

I always worry that if they do it to cheap they might rush and cut corners to make a profit. In my own home I'd rather they charge a bit more and take their time personally...

 

[pirate]

Then there's the " I'll do it for cash and we can lose the VAT" scam...
aye, right!
It's £100 + VAT, £20, so £120...customer pays £100, saves £20.
Contractor gets £100, same as if he had charged the VAT and passed it on...except he doesn't have to faff doing the VAT return, and saves income tax on the £100, so is £30-40 better off. He gets £100, instead of £60-70.

No VAT? OK how about £85 then?

 

[Intoelectrics]

I had a builder who always paid me cash so he didn't have to declare it himself. He then came up with what he thought was a bright idea.

"ermm.. I'm going to have to knock off the tax from now on if i keep paying you cash"

I just said pay me by cheque then and i'll give you a receipt. He decided against that idea and carried on paying me my rate in cash.

He was thick enough to think that he could scam me out off 20% and pocket it himself.
He was a proper crook though, I watched him take the roof tiles off one job pretending they were scrap and replace with new. Then use the old tiles on a job just down the road.
So he sold the first customer brand new tiles at a premium mark up and charge them for the disposal of the old ones, which he then sold to another customer down the road. Classic!

 

[Intoelectrics]

The problem is sometimes customers just don't understand your hourly rate costs. I charge £25 per hour they see this and compare it to their own pay they get cards in and think we are earning a fortune. They don't realise that we don't pocket the full £25 and that we have overheads to consider. Often they don't bat an eyelid at paying their main car dealer £100 + per hour for servicing their car because they see a big fancy garage with loads of staff and fancy equipment and just assume that they are more professional than us.

 

[Boing89]

I’ve got a mate who was a one man band fitting bathrooms and used to pay the trades that worked for him in cash. This was shortly before internet banking became as easy as it is now and he wanted to make it as easy as possible for guys to have instant access to what they’d worked for. There was one plumber who started complaining that the tax man would be after him soon if he didn’t start appearing to earn a decent amount. My mate had to explain to him that even though he was being paid cash HMRC still expected him to declare it. He never banked any of it.

 

[BruvDunk]

Plenty of nuggets about !!!

 

[Deleted account]

I had a builder who always paid me cash so he didn't have to declare it himself. He then came up with what he thought was a bright idea.

"ermm.. I'm going to have to knock off the tax from now on if i keep paying you cash"

I just said pay me by cheque then and i'll give you a receipt. He decided against that idea and carried on paying me my rate in cash.

He was thick enough to think that he could scam me out off 20% and pocket it himself.
He was a proper crook though, I watched him take the roof tiles off one job pretending they were scrap and replace with new. Then use the old tiles on a job just down the road.
So he sold the first customer brand new tiles at a premium mark up and charge them for the disposal of the old ones, which he then sold to another customer down the road. Classic!

I can't believe you would work for a scam artist like this.
I wouldn't want to associate my reputation with someone like that.
I would also drop him in it to the customers he was ripping.

 

[Mike Johnson]

If a client of mine did not pay on time, I just sent another invoice with interest added, my interest rates are extortionate, usually only happens once as a declared bad debt is not wanted by most client's.

 

[oracle]

I always worked on progress payments, pay me for the EICR then I get the materials. Pay me for the materials on delivery, then first fix etc. Any non payment and the job goes on hold.

 

[Intoelectrics]

I can't believe you would work for a scam artist like this.
I wouldn't want to associate my reputation with someone like that.
I would also drop him in it to the customers he was ripping.

Unfortunately at that time I couldn't be choosy, needs must I'm afraid.

 

[DC-backfrom the past]

Not 100% sure how it would stand up if I needed to claim at court .
I put on any quote that any materials supplied by me ,remain my property whether fitted or not, until all monies are paid. Thus if someone was to pay enough to cover parts/materials, they cant claim the items are now theirs.
only had one person try to stall on payment, which was a landlord who wanted to wait till council did EICR . He paid the money to cover materials straight away, this caused me to put this clause in future quotes. The landlord paid in full after EICR was passed, although he did joke that he owned the materials and could now barter for a knockdown price on the labour charge.

 

[buzzlightyear]

old ,CHRIS S ?