Tradesman chasing for payment

[CharlesIsQueensHorcrux]

Hi - I had a tradesman in last week, finished Friday & invoiced Friday night with email and message. Since then has messaged another five times chasing me! By the way I wasn’t ignoring him I messaged back saying I was out but would deal. Is it me or is he unreasonable to chase me all weekend for an invoice issued on Friday night? I was happy with the work but not sure now I would use him again as I feel a bit ick like there’s a suggestion I wouldn’t pay or something. Aibu?

I work for a construction company.

My parent was a self employed plumber.

The tradesmen can still use a credit card if cashflow is tight, then pay the credit card off the whole 3 days later that OP paid them.

DH isn't pushy about payment but no way is he going to let a customer just decided to pay weeks after the work is finished

And rightly so.

But this thread ISN'T about a tradesman's customer deciding to pay late. Or leaving an invoice till it's overdue.

It's about a tradesman NOT stating that they need payment on receipt of INVOICE. And then contacting OP repeatedly over the weekend even though OP paid a portion within 24hrs and then in full by 48hrs.

There are two kinds of customers, high-maintenance and low-maintenance.
High-maintenance customers are not profitable.
The unappreciative customer is literally taking up space that an appreciative, loyal and profitable customer could be taking. The low-maintenance customers understand what they hired us to do, the transactional relationship is fast and easy, and profitable.

Would love to hear that conversation between trades looking for work.

Trades1
Oh you don't want to take that job from OP. She's high maintenance.

Trades2
Oh, why?

Trades1
She paid at least 1/2 the Invoice in 24hrs and the balance in 48hrs! She doesn't appreciate our work......

🙄🙄🙄 Yep. Can see that.

@Hrpuffnstuff1 what were you saying about being 'entrenched' in an argument.

High-maintenance customers are not profitable. The unappreciative customer is literally taking up space that an appreciative, loyal and profitable customer could be taking. The low-maintenance customers understand what they hired us to do, the transactional relationship is fast and easy, and profitable

High maintenance customers can be profitable. They just aren't pleasant to work with. For me a high maintenance customer would be someone who was always picky and complaining and changing their mind about everything - not someone who paid an invoice "only" within 48 hours and not within 48 minutes.

Unless you have agreed in advance an alternative method, the only method is cash. You need to have the cash ready to pay - and this is any amount due

That is absolutely not true. Many banks won't let you withdraw more than a certain amount a day anyway, and as a woman in particular you'd be an idiot to walk around with a couple of grand in cash on you. If something is £50 I will pay cash. If it's significantly more, no chance. Card payment, cheque (yes some tradesmen still take them!) or bank transfer.

You're deliberately misrepresenting what I'm saying, all to defend deliberately delaying payment be it, 5 mins, or 25 days.
Unfortunately, as a manager of a maintenance company that turned over £30 million, I remember having a cull of slow payers, late payers, and high maintenance customers.
The customer's details were looked at on the system, including length of service, and amount spent. Annoying customers were ejected into outer space.😂
People in the trades do talk about all aspects of the job, including payments and unrealistic expectations, and customers, especially high maintenance.
Sharing the experience.

If I think someone is going to be difficult I quote high and either they don’t use me or if they do I get paid for the hassle

*Sharing the experience.

@Hrpuffnstuff1*

You sound very experienced and knowledgeable and for that reason I don't really believe you really think this a 'high maintenance' customer, no.

Apart from the purposes of this thread, I think you would have had a word with the trades about a better way to get his money quickly .

And just to be clear I am not arguing for 'delaying' a payment. I think there's a vast difference between 5 mins and 25 days. And reasonableness works both ways.

Couple of people mentioned card readers and what if the tradesman had presented OP with one.
I'm using a card reader for my business and all payments made on Friday (and Saturday) are deposited in my bank account on Monday evening, so it wouldn't be necessarily quicker.

Couple of people mentioned card readers and what if the tradesman had presented OP with one.
I'm using a card reader for my business and all payments made on Friday (and Saturday) are deposited in my bank account on Monday evening, so it wouldn't be necessarily quicker.

People in the trades do talk about all aspects of the job, including payments and unrealistic expectations, and customers, especially high maintenance.

I'm Sure they do . Just like everyone does. But OP doesn't come near to 'high maintenance'

People also talk about the trades that do jobs for them especially when they're asked to recommend.

This trades sounds disorganised.

This week I have had one client ask for a discount as they recommended me to someone else, another has told me I should supply materials at cost and the final one was a guy working for me who has decided I need to pay him what I charge out for his time. I think not to all those

The only thing there I agree with is the materials.

When I have work done, tradespeople i have used have always given me the list of materials needed and I've ordered them myself.

I want to own the materials so that if anyone walks off half way through a job, they arent walking off with money I've given them for materials which I then dont get.

That's fine as the hassle of sourcing/collecting/organising delivery has fallen to yourself. Though many times even with the mark up a tradesperson can get materials cheaper.

I put a substantial markup on all materials.
It's a great source of profit.

I think you may regret the shitty, entitled attitude over the next couple of years when we're deep in a recession and nobody can afford to get any work done and all your tradesmen are unemployed.

It goes both ways. You might find it funny to brand customers 'high maintenance' now, when you're swamped with work and can pick and choose, but I'd say you could be biting their arms off soon.

I rent, therefore I am not the payer or the customer but I am the end user.
If it's taps or something small, I buy them myself so that nothing gets added on, only the fitting. They usually tell me whether they will bill the landlord (usually bigger businesses) or whether they will take payment from me via card reader (usually s/e) I never pay by cheque and have never been asked to pay that way. If I pay, then I inform the landlord who refunds me within 24 hrs into the same account from which I pay rent.
It all works very smoothly. I email re whatever needs doing after getting 3 quotes and reading reviews etc then LL chooses or asks me to choose which company will do the best job at a time to suit me.
It's worked for 12 years.

I had a new radiator fitted last week. I ordered it myself as I wasn't paying a mark up to the plumber for something I could easily do. In all the years DH was a handyman he never added a mark up and he actually preferred the customers to buy some materials as he could be sure they were happy with them then.

I have ejected a High maintenance customer this week after disputing a bill for £3k , we have done the work as agreed but he feels he ought to be able to cut a deal afterwards
I have told him to keep the money as he obviously needs it more than me

Very unappreciative of what we have done

That's completely different, the OP wasn't negotiating costs, she just thought she had a couple of days to pay and it was unreasonable to be chased twice daily for payment in that period.

I like to pay invoices as soon as possible, but the gutters man sent me an invoice once at 10.30pm at night. As a new tradesman, I didn't have his details to pay him sooner. I could have paid if it was sent earlier but I was in bed, so I wasn't reading email. I then had a chaser text about my "late" payment next morning, which I read at the same time as the email once we were all up with breakfast underway. He's alright, so we'll still have him back, but I do appreciate why OP felt it was a bit rude to be chasing hard within just a weekend. Nobody should reasonably expect instant responses from anyone to non-emergency contact.

I always pay straight away, I'm usually asking for the invoice as I like things paid for when someone has done a job. I also provide drinks and often a bacon butty for tradesmen who are working all day. I generally get very good service, for example last year I had some plumbing work done, took several days. A few weeks later I had a problem with a leak, nothing to do with the job. I phoned the plumber, they are like gold dust round here at the moment, he said he'd be with me on his way home from the job he was on. Called in, took him ten minutes and he wouldn't take any money. Sometimes being nice really pays off.

I have no idea of the financial situation of any workmen so I would never delay paying them.

I like to pay invoices as soon as possible, but the gutters man sent me an invoice once at 10.30pm at night. As a new tradesman, I didn't have his details to pay him sooner. I could have paid if it was sent earlier but I was in bed, so I wasn't reading email. I then had a chaser text about my "late" payment next morning, which I read at the same time as the email once we were all up with breakfast underway.

I'd be putting a review on Checkatrade saying work was good but pushy about payment.

I got the invoice for the work I had done at lunchtime during the week and paid about 9pm that evening. If he'd chased for payment in that time wouldn't have been impressed!

We'll see. Ridden all previous recessions before-plus all customers are high value in high value areas.
I think you're way off the mark, in certain sectors demand is the highest it's ever been. This includes construction.
All the traditional markers for recession are not evident.
If it goes tits up I'll go do summat else.
Simples.
I'm not worried.