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 can’t say I have ever experienced this with the trades we have used. It’s usually the opposite and I’m the one chasing for an invoice so I can make payment as they are generally far too laid back. He must have a cash flow situation. I would just pay and not take offence.

The fact that people think it's okay to leave people hanging for two WEEKS without payment shows me that so many people don't respect how tough it is to be self-employed.

Pay your tradesmen, cleaners, builders and dog-walkers on the day they request it - it's not hard!

If it's a one man band I pay straight away. Some of the tradesmen I use, chaps in their 30s with young families, will ask if I'm OK transferring straight away as they have stuff to pay, children to feed, etc. The bigger firms with salaried staff I pay on invoice.

You should pay on receipt of the invoice. I wonder why you haven’t paid if you have the money but can go to the effort of posting on here?
He probably needs the money

I’m with Nationwide. You do the transaction online as usual which takes less than a minute as it’s just entering in the info. Then you pop your card in the card reader, it gives you a reference number, you put that in the app and confirm it. Takes an extra 30 seconds.

The only nuisance is if you’re out and don’t have your card reader on you. But I think you can also verify by text message.

The extra measures aren’t onerous. There’s absolutely no reason to delay payment.

All U.K. banks do Faster Payments now - what banks are people saying “don’t do transfers on a weekend” or after 6pm????

The time you spent sending a text to say you were out and would pay him, you could have paid him.
He’s done the job as agreed. Pay him.

God what the hell is wrong with people ?? Just bloody pay him 🤦‍♀️ it's probably taken longer for you to type your OP than it would to nip on the banking app and pay him

Would you go do a food shop and offer to pay sainsburys "later"

Would you get a haircut / nails done etc and not pay immediately?

Or have your car fixed then expect to drive it away without paying ?

As a self employed tradesperson myself this sort of attitude pisses me right off

The invoice should have a payment terms on it. Like within 14 days or 2 days etc. I try to pay asap but I also check terms of payment. I think allowing two days is usually ok so I think YANBU

Just pay him! Seriously- there’s so many people struggling to pay basic bills, afford food, massive increases in energy costs.. He’s done the job… you’re happy with it. Why are you faffing around on mumsnet rather than just paying the man?
And the cheek to say you wouldn’t use him again because he’s chased you up for payment!!! I’m not sure the customer who doesn’t pay their bills gets a great reputation among trades people…

If the terms were payment within a day then you didn't do that. I'd also take that to mean on the day but some time later in that day is acceptable.

Op some people are really struggling and live pay check to paycheck.
He might need to buy food for his family or get stuff for his next job and cannot buy it without you paying him

Contacting you several times might show how desperate he is and not that he does not trust you to pay him

I'm self employed and whilst not in the building industry the theory is still the same. Industry standard and contract rules decide when you pay. I've had the tinkly laugh " Oh I'm so sorry I'm out / away from my laptop/ just so terribly busy " and it immediately ensures I will never contract with them again.

Your personal sensibilities that you felt ick because you might not pay were spot on. If someone flits about not taking it seriously and not doing a 5 minute bank transfer absolutely flags them as not likely to pay. You did that to yourself.

Now as most do I keep a buffer for non payment but thats etting harder and harder with the cost of living. Customers faffing about with being out or busy will absolutely get you banned form most future lists I know that work self employed. I will also say from a human component it's unutterably arrogant. Your time is more important than their income?

Pay the man. I don't chase like this, I will send another email 48 hours after the date I expected payment but by that time I've already flagged you in my customer list. 5 and 7 days later I send a reminder email quoting my terms and conditions. By that time I will never contract with you again and I've already started planning the route to court to get my payment. I have no hesitation using legislation to get my payment.

Don't forget self employed are often networked within their industry. People who are flaky over payment very quickly get a reputation. In my business one big company had a manager who merrily and tinkly laugh kept claiming to several trainers she was just so terribly busy to confirm invoices to her finance department. All the local freelancers as in the entire quarter of the country ) stopped agreeing to work with her department after she delayed a month confirming these for 3 trainers (different specialities) in a row . (It was a company so more Lee way is given than when for a single person). Word got around. Fast.

Everyone refused to contract if it was her team. She got pulled and given a warning for losing them access to that training. Tricky as our specialities mean there are not that many people who can do the training. She eventually got demoted (for that and to be fair many other things). Now I grant you this is a company but the rule stays the same. Also with new customers and often in my case small services run and owned by a single person get very little buffer room because if you do that to me on the first job I will not trust you going forward.

Don't be flaky with payment if the job was done and done well. Your personal schedule is irrelevant.

Depends on the terms of the invoice surely!

The ones I've had recently usually say 5 days or 1 week.

OP has updated and said the invoice requested payment within a day.

We always are prepared to pay on completion of the job, before the tradesman leaves. Poor guy, I am sure he was embarrassed having to keep asking for the money, but clearly he really was concerned. If you had immediately explained your plan for payment, he wouldn't need to keep chasing you, you should have been more honest with him. I have a feeling he won't be keen to take you on again as a customer so I wouldn't worry about your feelings of not using him again, I expect he will stick with customers that don't give him such stress!

When I've had big jobs done recently I've always made a bank transfer before the tradesman, mechanic etc left, too many are ripped off by non-paying or slow paying customers.

I suspect DameHelena works in an industry similar to mine and you can put your terms on your invoice in frickin' neon bold writing and they still don't keep to them!

But it's why I always pay trades the moment they invoice, because I know how shitty it is to be kept waiting when you've done the job and done it well.

I hate this kind of thing. Just pay the man straight away. It's like some kind of power play,holding off until it suits you. He's probably been stung many times waiting for clients to "get round to it".

How does he know you are not one of those nightmare customers who get the work done and then fail to pay, while ignoring requests or making excuses like 'the cheque's in the post' or 'I'm out but I'll deal'?

If she is one of those, messaging five times in less than two days won't change it. If it's uncertain, then it would be sensible to give it at least till Monday - after all, if she does the transfer now it won't hit his account till then, so there's nothing to lose by aiming to keep a bit of goodwill.

For all that people are massively sympathetic with tradesmen in these situations, it's a two-way street. I had a similar experience with a tradesman who had been consistently difficult to get hold of to firm up when he was going to come, only for him to cancel it at the last minute; then when he did turn up, he kept disappearing after a couple of hours, so that a job he could have done in one day took two weeks. When he finally finished he expected immediate payment and was not too keen even on giving us a chance to check his work first.

OP has updated and said the invoice requested payment within a day.

I know that. My response was to the person (and other people) who immediately determined that the tradesman wanted payment before he left or on receipt of invoice, without knowing what he had asked for!

It's a very good point about networking. We live in a fairly small town and by now all of the other trades would probably know. You'd be lucky to get anyone every again here.

I always provide lots of tea coffee and cake and pay on the day.

Sure, I could put whatever terms I wanted on my invoices, but people would still pay in their own sweet time. And a few of my clients' freelance agreements/contracts specify that they will pay within 30 days. So no, it's not really my choice.

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He's very OTT messaging you so many times in less than 48 hours. Just pay the man and leave an honest, factual review.

If he is good then I would pay him quickly as good tradesmen are like gold dust.