PAYMENTENGINEER

Hello I am new to this forum and I would like any stories/anecdotes/ideas you may have....about customers paying you for the work you have done

I am preparing a training course for engineers and assisting them in overcoming problems they encounter with the customer paying for the call out and / or parts/labour supplied etc.

Do you get this? How do you overcome the excuses you get & still get paid? Any funny stories?

Also (I do specalise in this king of work, but havent done anything for engineers before) are things getting harder for people out there? Do you think people are struggling more?
Regards

London Luke

I dont tend to like call outs etc from people i do not know. But if i do accept i make my terms clear and simple. I do not know them so will only accept cash on completion. If i buy materials etc i ask to be paid for those on arrival. This is the first clue to find out if they dont have any money. Then any problems i go home and return goods to my friendly supplier . Then a few weeks later i "karma" the *******s for wasting my time

Bane

I send cirrus round.

spark-doctor

If it is someone i do not know/have not delt with before, i get a deposit of cost of parts+markup+50% of labour. I ask for final payment when i am cleaning up so allow for time "unexpected fault".

And there is DAVE if things go completly pete tong

London Luke

i once did a job for someone years ago. From the start i knew the guy was a tosser. I demanded to be paid weekly for all materials and labour no matter what. on th elast 2 weeks he started to not turn up with cheques etc and he stopped answering my messages but i was still been hounded to finish the work.

so i quickly "Added" some little bits of wiring unknown to anyone that i could access from outside his house. One pull on some strong fishing line and he lost control of his phone,alarm and downstairs ring.

might not be nice , but i hate people who take the ****.
same as a few guys i know who install custom hifi installs etc and alarms. all fitted with a hidden remote access swith. cheque bounces or customer not pay final install etc and the system drops dead after 14 days. cheque /money paid etc and system lives

PAUL M

i know a plasterer who did some work for one guy he thought was a tosser from the start,so when the guy give him a key for access he had another key cut ,he finished the job guy never turned up with the dosh but his mate came for the key,the guy kept blagging him so he left it till the job was allmost complete all newly decorated ,then one night let himself in(nobody living there )he undid every radiator and turned the central heating on,totally flooded the place,he didnt get his money but he said it was worth it.

London Luke

not my style....... too much come back and a bit obvious. Who know what the owner might do!!
so many ways to skin a cat.

mdshunk

Always have the contract language, as it relates to the final payment, say "due upon substantial completion". This gives you the legal ability to collect final payment even if they still have a little gripe for you to iron out.

welshgit

If I issue a written quotation, as a footer I write that all installed goods are my property until full payment is recieved. I feel that if the wholesalers can hold me to that in the small print I can pass on the threat to others.

Theroretically if the customer doesn't pay me then I will politely return to collect my goods i.e consumer unit and accessories.

It also helps being 6"3 and nearly 17stones with a skin head (my wife calls it rededing hair!!)

wattsup

Install a secret time switch on an important circuit, set it for say 2/3 weeks ahead..
;-) never done it but never say never