what would you do?

[telectrix]

got a customer, bought a house. basically gutted, so asked me for a quote, labour only, to do some electrical work, extra sockets, etc. install new CU. now, technically, i have no problem. it's the financial side that buggers me. basically, i quoted £700 to do the CU and the bits and pieces. all good so far. now, he wants downlights throughout. i planned it out, 32 downlgihts in total. quoted £20 per fitting ( labour and cables), got knocked down from £640 to £450, now he wants 8 more fittings ( total overkill, 6 in a 3m x 3m bedroom and hall & landing) without paying any more. so far, i've had £500 out of the £700 initial quote which barely covers the time spent so far. my thoughts are to walk away, cut losses, move on. i can see future problems as he wants outside work and won't pay for safely installation. btw, he's just had all the front and back fenced and block paved... materials alone must have come to £5K. should i walk?

 

[telectrix]

Trust me, my future wife is one and she's very proud of the fact and even insisted me calling her Pikey cos she thinks the name given her by her mother is one normally given to a female Alsatian dog!

sheba?

 

[telectrix]

i,ve got no gripe with gypsies, pikeys, travellers, as a whole. only those that try to rip me off, and, of course those bar stewards that broke into and emptied my lock-up, then came back and demolished my home to weigh in the aluminium shell for scrap.

 

[NDG Elecs]

I have only never been fully paid twice in the last eight years. Both times the client has been an old bloke (mid 70s), and both were also going through divorces and were 'at war' with their missus's solicitors. A weird coincidence? I think not, and think in both cases they had developed some kind of siege mentality. Both times the relationship started well, until it came to final payment.

 

[R G]

I have never had a non or short payment fortunately , but I had near miss last year when a customer kept putting me of finishing the work , the job took 18 months from start to finish , and I had to do bits when it suited him , I was sure I was going to get done , but I just played along and in the end I told him the NIC had told me the work has to be finished and signed of in a certain time and that he would be one of the jobs to be visited on the annual inspection , that changed his idea and got him to allow me to finnsih the job and get final payment ...

 

[telectrix]

never try and get between a man and his beer, or a man and his divorce. poor sod has probably suffered for years.

 

[LankyWill]

My mate threatened a client once, he replaced all the accessories in a small terrace property. He had a the kit spare from a job he did so the materials cost him nout. When he went to get the final bill the women started to haggle and re-fused the original agreed price cut it in half. He lost it, went to the van and grabbed his hammer and started smashing the sockets. Needless to say she quickly coughed up.. Sort of bloke you dont take the **** out of at the boozer..

 

[Leesparkykent]

I had similar on a load of extras on an extension I done....ended up cutting the installed downlights out....I made sure that I pulled all the slack out and cut the cables as far as I could fit the cutters up the hole lol.

 

[jackhammerJIM]

I had similar on a load of extras on an extension I done....ended up cutting the installed downlights out....I made sure that I pulled all the slack out and cut the cables as far as I could fit the cutters up the hole lol.

On large jobs for people i haven't worked for before I'm going to start fitting wireless relays that connect live to earth at the touch of a button . Which circuit though ? Kitchen ring ?

No pay

No power

 

[R G]

On large jobs for people i haven't worked for before I'm going to start fitting wireless relays that connect live to earth at the touch of a button . Which circuit though ? Kitchen ring ?

No pay

No power

Good idea that , wonder if it could be done by radio or mobile phone app maybe that could trigger the relay via a receiver , Hmm ,
be a good idea on jobs that are suspect...

Neutral to earth would be better though as live to earth would probably nacker the relay

 

[ruston]

Remote socket is all you need lol. Drive by, press button the lol Phone call , RCD has tripped....................

 

[jackhammerJIM]

Good idea that , wonder if it could be done by radio or mobile phone app maybe that could trigger the relay via a receiver , Hmm ,
be a good idea on jobs that are suspect...

It can be done with home automation products . hardwire link box hidden in loft to bt point . hide relay in ceiling void .

Download app to your phone and bobs your uncle , live to earth at the touch of a button . Make sure you always open relay after closing and no one is ever going to find it .

Remove link box and take to next job on payment

 

[tomspark93]

I had similar on a load of extras on an extension I done....ended up cutting the installed downlights out....I made sure that I pulled all the slack out and cut the cables as far as I could fit the cutters up the hole lol.

ahhhh the point of no return. Don't blame you though, hope you made the switch wires safe though after cutting through them lol

 

[telectrix]

ahhhh the point of no return. Don't blame you though, hope you made the switch wires safe though after cutting through them lol

if he thinks like me, he'd have cut the switch wires back in the switches as well.

 

[not clever]

PC or not it is unfortunate that the two customers who have ****ed me over were
1st Pikey family who bought a house just so they could register at a doctors & school, they didnt use the house but put the van on the drive & lived in that.
2nd pakistani ...........agree a price do the job they then want extras agree Then when invoiced they want to knock the fee.

Now Pikeys will not even get a quote if I suspect they are indeed from this section of society.
Pakistanis get a quote that is doubled with half up front payment request before work starts, if they then want to haggle the final invoice I'm still quids in.

Ferk all non payers shirkers & invoice dodgers

 

[Octopus]

PC or not it is unfortunate that the two customers who have ****ed me over were
1st Pikey family who bought a house just so they could register at a doctors & school, they didnt use the house but put the van on the drive & lived in that.
2nd pakistani ...........agree a price do the job they then want extras agree Then when invoiced they want to knock the fee.

Now Pikeys will not even get a quote if I suspect they are indeed from this section of society.
Pakistanis get a quote that is doubled with half up front payment request before work starts, if they then want to haggle the final invoice I'm still quids in.

Ferk all non payers shirkers & invoice dodgers

You need to take "legal" action against them both...... and learn from this. I avoid these groups of people UNLESS I have a good repor with them.

 

[Englishman]

if he thinks like me, he'd have cut the switch wires back in the switches as well.

Oh yes. I really can not understand people who have a non paying customer and simply accept the situation. In the unlikely event that I never got paid, the customer would end up shelling out a lot more money than they saved by not paying me. And they certainly would not get a functioning installation at the end of it either.

 

[Englishman]

You need to take "legal" action against them both...... and learn from this. I avoid these groups of people UNLESS I have a good repor with them.

Africans are the same, they usually try and bargain with every price, and then say that they haven't got enough cash on them, even though they knew the price beforehand. Two have tried this with me and ended up walking to the cashpoint. Cheeky *******s.

 

[davesparks]

Don't forget haggling is normal for a lot of other cultures and they expect you to have allowed extra in the price to haggle with

 

[Englishman]

That is a very good point, and the two I've worked for both came quite early in my career. And in all honesty, both paid without a huge amount of hassle, but they weren't overly happy about it either. I've avoided working for them ever since.

 

[telectrix]

they don't bloodywell haggle when they're selling tatty jeans and fake t-shirts on the market though.

 

[davesparks]

they don't bloodywell haggle when they're selling tatty jeans and fake t-shirts on the market though.

They do in Camden, I got loads off of my trench coat and boots

 

[R G]

When anyone starts to haggle the price with you , why not haggle the price higher , I did this once with one guy that I didn't like and he was surprised , I told him the price I had given was a good one and is discounted and that if he wanted to change it then I shall increase the price to the correct amount , TBH I didn't want the job anyway ,but at least I made my point clear to him , I then wiped my feet and left his property....

 

[ruston]

My favourite expression when they said they had someone that would do it cheaper was "Well he has got the job."

 

[telectrix]

i usually say do you want it done cheap or done right?

 

[Dave OCD]

Oh yes. I really can not understand people who have a non paying customer and simply accept the situation. In the unlikely event that I never got paid, the customer would end up shelling out a lot more money than they saved by not paying me. And they certainly would not get a functioning installation at the end of it either.

But lets say you do a job then submit an invoice and they don't pay - how on earth do you get back in to remove or otherwise render your work inoperative ? And even if you were invited in and proceeded to do this there could be serious aggro ?

 

[davesparks]

But lets say you do a job then submit an invoice and they don't pay - how on earth do you get back in to remove or otherwise render your work inoperative ? And even if you were invited in and proceeded to do this there could be serious aggro ?

By having your terms and conditions up to scratch so that ownership of all materials remains with you until full payment is received.
Then if they don't pay you can take legal action to get the money, or failing that have all materials removed and returned to you. Plus they have to pay all legal fees

 

[Dave OCD]

By having your terms and conditions up to scratch so that ownership of all materials remains with you until full payment is received.
Then if they don't pay you can take legal action to get the money, or failing that have all materials removed and returned to you. Plus they have to pay all legal fees

Yes I fully agree Dave, just seemed to me that some of the other posts were advocating a slightly more drastic approach.

 

[davesparks]

Yes I fully agree Dave, just seemed to me that some of the other posts were advocating a slightly more drastic approach.

Then they will still end up in court, but with rather less legs to stand on!

 

[R G]

I always give out pre printed quotations with the final finishing of the work to be carried out , its a 2 part type with the conditions on the rear and the customer signs and receives the lower copy , ownership and title of the goods is cleared remains the property of myself until final payment is made , the advantage of giving out something like this is it sorts out those who are going to give you grief with money etc , I also have other T&Cs printed on the rear that refer to other possible issues they can use against you like making good etc and responsibility of floor and wall coverings etc too , just seems theres people out there who would do you for anything if they could , the most important thing is alongside the signature on the front Its clear in bold letters that final payment is payable before we leave site when finished ....

 

[newtothis]

Your T&Cs would include payment terms.
Could be cash on completion, nowt to stop you checking the cash is available just prior to completion.

Giving someone a period of time to pay an invoice is giving them credit.
Take steps to establish credit worthiness, comsensurate with the risk.
IMHO You'd need a very good reason to bank roll someones job / project or whatever on an interest free, no credit-check basis.

In business I'll accept people's money regardless or colour, creed, or anything else you can think of.:whatchutalkingabout

 

[R G]

This a copy of what I issue

 

[Englishman]

But lets say you do a job then submit an invoice and they don't pay - how on earth do you get back in to remove or otherwise render your work inoperative ? And even if you were invited in and proceeded to do this there could be serious aggro ?

I think that there are always ways to get back into a property, as for aggro, ripping out my property and walking away with it all is a way of reducing aggro, you just have to be prepared and happy to deal with a angry homeowner who's just realised that they've cocked up by not paying you.

 

[davesparks]

I think that there are always ways to get back into a property, as for aggro, ripping out my property and walking away with it all is a way of reducing aggro, you just have to be prepared and happy to deal with a angry homeowner who's just realised that they've cocked up by not paying you.

As long as you are operating within the bounds of the law then yes.

I've never yet had to do it yet, though it's come awful close, but I would much rather the debt collectors go and fetch whatever goods they see fit under a court warrant than potentially leave myself liable for something

 

[Geordie Spark]

PC or not it is unfortunate that the two customers who have ****ed me over were
1st Pikey family who bought a house just so they could register at a doctors & school, they didnt use the house but put the van on the drive & lived in that.
2nd pakistani ...........agree a price do the job they then want extras agree Then when invoiced they want to knock the fee.

Now Pikeys will not even get a quote if I suspect they are indeed from this section of society.
Pakistanis get a quote that is doubled with half up front payment request before work starts, if they then want to haggle the final invoice I'm still quids in.

Ferk all non payers shirkers & invoice dodgers

Aye .. you need to be a bit careful with Pikeys.

They've been known to invade an airport & tip a police helicopter onto its side cos it anoyed them by flying over their site.