Customer not paying. What would you do?

[Donenothingwrong]

I’m a self employed cleaner & I’ve just taken on a new customer. All my customers either pay me cash or bank transfer on the day of their clean & that works well for me & them. However, this new customer hasn’t paid & I cleaned their house last Thursday. Two polite texts have been sent asking if they’ve still got my bank details, can they please pay me etc. & these were ignored until yesterday when she apologises for the delay & says she’s transferred the money & set up a standing order for future cleans. Perfect - except the money isn’t in my account. I don’t want to keep chasing her or it looks like I’m harassing her but what do I do? I’m due to go again on Thursday but I’m not cleaning again unless she’s paid for last week first. I’m not naive, there’s been several customers I’ve turned down in the past because I had a bad feeling about them for one reason or another but this lady seems genuine. I worked my ass off for 2 hours in her very dirty house & she was very happy with results. Wwyd?

Faster payments are normally instant , guaranteed to be in payees account in 2 hours from high street banks , unless by coincidence her account had been blocked by the fraud team at the same time she made the payment.
I would send one more message today letting her know the money hadn’t been received and unfortunately unless it has by close of business you will be unable to clean for her again.

She's not going to pay and Just wanted a free clean,knowing you won't return this week,she doesn't care,she's had two free hours.
or maybe I'm just too cynical.

The word is "normally".

I've had payments to payees, especially new ones, from all my bank accounts held until Monday especially at a weekend. It includes when I've moved money to myself from one bank to the other.

FPs are guaranteed within 2 hours. If the payment has been held up for fraud checks then either this woman knows that and can update OP, or doesn't know so it's best she checks.

Just tell her you're still waiting for payment and unfortunately you won't be able to return until you've been paid for the last clean.

I have one account that takes 2 banking days to pay transfers. If I'd used that one you'd not get the money til tomorrow.
Nothing I could do about it either

I'd wait

Don’t go back until that money is in your account. There may be a genuine delay, or she’s scammed you by getting a free clean.

@Reugny sorry I should have made it clearer when i said high street banks , as both the sender and recipients banks both need to be members of the faster payment system for it to guarantee completing in the 2 hour time scale . If either of them are not it can take longer. I used high street banks to differentiate between the more mainstream banks building societies etc and other financial providers.

I’d tell he to pay in advance now. Cheeky cow

I would Chase them again. But also for new clients I would think about a holding fee- maybe the cost of an hours clean payable when they book your services....

Money does not need time to ‘clear’ when being transferred from one account to another via online banking, so ignore the advice regarding that. It’s an almost instantaneous payment.

There are three scenarios. She either hasn’t paid or she has transferred it to the wrong account or you need to double check you’ve not given her details for another of your accounts (e.g if you have a work and a personal account).

Message her and say, ‘Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with your payment as I’ve not received it. Can you check that you sent it to [name / numbers]? If that seems to be correct, please could you contact your bank to ask why the payment has not been made?’

I had this exact situation and my client had paid it to someone in their saved payments with the same first name.

Genuinely don’t understand the comments about it taking two working days to transfer money. Perhaps by PayPal etc, but not transferring a payment in the UK to another UK account in the same currency using online banking. Where are these posters banking? That does not sound right.

If she has paid from a building society account it will take 2 days.

Make it cash only when you leave if you carry on cleaning for her , that way you know you have been paid .

Mind you nearly everyone on here will think you are defrauding the inland revenue by taking cash payments !

Give it a bit longer. There is a chance that she is not good with internet banking. Paying within 7 days is reaonable although I wouldn’t clean again unless the money had been received. If the money hasn’t come through by tomorrow , I’d message her again

I've had the same problem (different profession) claiming it had been sent when she hadnt, I did eventually get the first payment after hounding her for it. however it was the same problem on going. I wouldn't take her on.

I'm self employed people pay me by transfer all the time I often have new clients. I think for the first time the bank says wait a couple of hours but I have never known it to be anything other than instant
Ask her to check

Nonsense. I tender reg from a building society. Its almost instantaneous

I ask my customers to transfer £1.00 first time and then when I confirm transfer the rest. Then I know it is all set up. It’s immediate too so no point waiting another 24 hours IME. I always get payment before any lessons too.

If her house is very dirty she may well have organisational issues in other areas of her life too. She’s probably messed up the payment because she was over-complicating things trying to set up a standing order at the same time. For example, I’ve made a payment where I’ve done most of it but forgotten the last step after it asks you if you are absolutely sure it’s not a scam, and not realised it didn’t go through. She probably knows that she is prone to that sort of fuck up so the SO is a way to address it.

Or she’s a lying scammer of course.

Just do as others have suggested, say the money hasn’t appeared, you won’t come again until it has, also either ask to see the confirmation that the SO has been set up or ask for payment in cash in advance in future.

@memorial clearly you use a different bs to me because I can assure you mine takes 2 (very annoying) days.

You reply back and say can’t see the money in my account can you check.
do not worry about chasing people for payment , she owes you money and she said she’s sent it so ask for proof you want paying .

I would go and unclean her house

Keep nagging her. She'll pay you just to shut you up, if she blocks you go and knock on her door at the time you're due to do the next clean.

And don't clean for her again.

Payment should be instant and you can't get the details wrong as the bank now checks the payee details before you send the money.

OP, can you contact your own bank and ask if they can check for any pending incoming payments over the next few days?

Otherwise, as PPs have suggested, tell her that the payment hasn't come through, and ask her to check exactly when and where it was sent. If she has paid you (or has made a genuine mistake and sent it to the wrong account) she won't mind. If she's at all cagey about telling you, that looks like a red flag.