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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Being hounded for payment

201 replies

JJPP1234 · 07/02/2018 17:45

I've had a guy in decorating my lounge. The job took a couple of days and he finished today at 4.30. When he was leaving he asked how I wanted to pay so I asked if bank transfer would be ok. He said fine and emailed his details immediately.
An hour later I've looked at my phone and I've had 5 text messages and a missed call plus voicemail asking where his money is.
AIBU to have not paid him (I've done it now - was going to wait for DH to get home and i was making dinner) within an hour of him leaving my house?

OP posts:
XiCi · 07/02/2018 18:04

Yep, always pay immediately for that sort of work. You're talking in the main about very small businesses or sole traders that have already paid out for materials for the job. I usually pay cash as soon as the job is done or do an immediate transfer

Spartaca · 07/02/2018 18:04

I would be almighty fucked off. 5 messages in an hour? It takes longer for money to get there than that regardless of anything else.

TheEmmaDilemma · 07/02/2018 18:04

I took 5 days to pay the plumber that did my boiler. He was fine with it, he knew where lived. Grin

Prusik · 07/02/2018 18:05

It doesn't strike me as very professional. DH was a decorator and his payment terms were 7 days

Jon66 · 07/02/2018 18:05

I would like to check his work thoroughly and I'm sure my other half would also like to do so before he is paid. So within a couple of days would be reasonable. I'm still waiting for the invoice from a job done end of November and I've chased him!! I think within a few days is fine, but maybe a week not.

Pearlsaringer · 07/02/2018 18:06

If no invoice it sounds like quite a casual transaction with no audit trail. Therefore he might well be nervous about not getting paid.

RedCarsGoFaster · 07/02/2018 18:07

I don't understand why he didn't wait for you to send the money while he was there. That's what I would have expected to be doing!

supersop60 · 07/02/2018 18:11

Yes, that's hounding, and it takes 2 hours for it to show up in his account anyway.
Glad you've done it now.

lucylouuu · 07/02/2018 18:12

not unreasonable to want to be paid soon after ( as PP said he may have been stung before ) but unreasonable to send 5 texts in one hour

StealthNinjaMum · 07/02/2018 18:15

yanbu, that is hounding. I generally pay within 24 hours if it's a one-man band but might take longer if it's a larger company (we're talking a couple of days). If someone finished a job at 3 and I had to pick dc up, do homework, dinner, bedtime etc there's no way I'd find the time to pay before 9 at night and I think that would be pretty quick.

TryAgainAndAgain · 07/02/2018 18:15

Did you say you were going to pay straight away? If so, then maybe he was just worried the money hadn't come through rather than his motivation being to hound you iyswim

AmiU · 07/02/2018 18:18

Yanbu.

I don't think you did anything wrong at all.

From his point of view, as long as the calls and texts were polite, he might just have been strapped for cash and needed it urgently.

problembottom · 07/02/2018 18:19

You need to pay him.

martellandginger · 07/02/2018 18:19

I always ask about paying before agreeing the job. If the contractor is good I go out of my way to pay same day or at very least next morning. Often though they have their own machines for taking payment.

GnotherGnu · 07/02/2018 18:19

With decorating, I think you certainly need to wait for a day or two in order to check the work properly. It would be a pain in the neck retrieving your money if half the wallpaper falls down overnight.

Mumsnut · 07/02/2018 18:20

I would prefer to wait until it was all dry before paying, to make sure no patchiness.

HannahHut · 07/02/2018 18:20

I think he's being a bit OTT with that many messages in such a short time frame.

However he's probably been burned before and is thinking if you have the money there then why are you delaying? Poor bloke is probably paranoid he's not going to get payment or you will withhold it from him.

If you have the money there I don't see why you can't just pay it now.

saladdays66 · 07/02/2018 18:23

6 calls/texts in an hour is hounding, yes. How impatient.

AngelsSins · 07/02/2018 18:24

I would absolutely say 5 text and a call within an hour is hounding! If he needed/expected the money that fast, he should have told you before he left!

grannytomine · 07/02/2018 18:25

I don't think either of you were really. You were going to do it within a reasonable time but maybe he is really short of money and people have messed him about before. If he did a good job for a decent time I would just chalk it up to experience.

ConferencePear · 07/02/2018 18:26

ivykaty44 wrote
You need to pay for a job once it’s finished and promptly- the decorator may have been stung many times before for all you know...

and he may have a DW who's asking how he could be so stupid as leave without payment again.

ohlalalala · 07/02/2018 18:28

Sounds a bit out but I think yabu
He may be living hand to mouth and needed your money to pay a bill or buy food

Flomy · 07/02/2018 18:28

What did the texts say?

Where they the same one sent x 5 by mistake?

Fontella · 07/02/2018 18:29

He may just be post Christmas skint and desperate for the money.

I'm self employed and I am in the same boat, nearly £1,000 overdrawn and just sitting here trying to figure out how I can manage until the money starts coming in again.

It may just be he was counting on that money for something, and hoping you were going to pay him cash/straight away.

I was owed for two invoices by someone - it wouldn't clear my overdraft but would at least reduce it. Yesterday I got a remittance advice to say they had paid one but not the other, even though they were issued at the same time, so today, I'll admit I have been chasing them for payment, because I'm completely and utterly skint!!

Original poster
JJPP1234 · 07/02/2018 18:29

Just for those who misses it. I'd paid him before I posted this thread. The first 2 messages were polite then next more agitated. I guess if he was paranoid he thought I was ignoring him. In actuality I was making dinner.

OP posts: