To think it’s tight not to pay?

[Woofwalkies]

Person A dog sits for a family regularly. They always pay them. Their adult son (Person B) wanted a dog sitter for 3 days while he attended an event.

This cost person A £80 in train fayres plus all their food etc while they were there (at London prices). They dog had a long schedule and couldn’t be alone for more than 2 hours so person A couldn’t go out and enjoy London while staying and felt pretty tied to the property because of the dog.

This was a week ago and person B has not paid person A a penny or even mentioned money.

Person A didn’t think to ask beforehand as the family have always paid and person A assumed the son would have done the same.

Person A doesn’t want to say anything to person B as they have future dog sitting booked with the family.

AIBU to think person B should have paid them something for dog sitting?

Dear Person B

I hope you are well and had a good holiday.

Regarding my recent dog sitting services supplied to you. Please could you provide payment for my incurred costs and charges at my usual rates as per my attached invoice.

Please can you settle this within x days.

With thanks

A.

No one would expect someone to do this for free! He's either a CF or has completely forgotten (outside possibility).

If he doesn't pay then I'd say to his parents before you next work for them, 'did person B think you were paying me?' If that were my son I'd be mortified and pay you immediately.

Send him an invoice?

This.

Why in heavens wouldn’t you want to send a message like this? It’s polite, factual and fair.

The parents always pay, so this won’t jeopardise a booking with them, as it’s all normal and to be expected.

Person B is probably waiting for a message to let him know how much to pay.

Person A is a fool for not organising payment agreement beforehand and needs to grow up and speak to person B!

Person A should have established the payment amount/terms in advance. The comment about not being able to go out and feeling tied to the property makes it seem as though person B perhaps thinks this was a house sit type situation you get a free stay in London in return for looking after the dog. If that was roughly the agreement I don't think you can retrospectively demanding payment and expenses

Person A needs to use their words and message B asking for payment

Yes, this 👆

This

And not write posts with all the person A and person B stuff - as it's both annoying and unnecessary.

and pointlessly confusing

Person A (which is clearly you) is being unreasonable.

How did you at no point mention the cost and expectation of payment and how is person B supposed to know what to you pay you when you appear to have not sent your bank details or told them how much to pay?

I'm also confused as to how you couldn't explore London. Surely you would just take the dog with you?

Person A should not have assumed

Never commit to doing a job without agreeing the terms first, it’s unprofessional and leads to this kind of mess. Send an invoice to the person you sat for and if it’s not paid by the date you specify, eg 7 days from now, mention it to their family. Hopefully the lesson is now learned and you won’t have this problem in future.

It’s shitty that he hasn’t at least asked you how much he owes you but I’m wondering if he knows that his parents usually pay you, or does he think you do it for free?

Send them a message with an amount, otherwise you run the risk that when/if he pays he'll think he can just bung you £30.

Don't be embarrassed. Be upfront and make him embarrassed

Why didn’t you agree a price beforehand?

This. How stupid is person A. And not they’re even more fool being scared to ask for the money.
Is person A very young?

Person A should put on their big pants and send person B a message. There are lots of good examples upthread.

Person B is a cf to expect it for free when his parents always pay. I can't believe the parents would be cross at person A for requesting payment as they always pay. Perhaps they don't know that their son has not paid?

If you are doing this professionally/semi-professionally, you need to be much more on the ball with arranging terms in advance, @Woofwalkies .

I agree with raising it with your usual contact and perhaps mention the expenses you incurred just to get to the job. Hopefully they'll be mortified by their son's tardiness but if they're not, you're on a hiding to nothing as you did not specify this was paid work beforehand, far less what your fee would be.

Also, choosing a username like Woofwalkies rather gives the game away.

So no money was mentioned at any point? Then I think person A needs to write this off as being foolish for not being upfront with their costs.

I am assuming the usual dog sitting arrangement is to a friend as surely person A wouldn't run a business like this. Maybe this family told their son they usually ask their friend to sit for them and gave son the details. He may have wrongly assumed that as a friend they don't normally pay, and the family might not have realised they needed to tell their son to do this assuming person A would make it clear.

What was said when person B asked about dog sitting? Did person A just say yes that's fine with no discussion of payment or covering costs? As that's on them not to bring it up.

I voted yabu because it sounds like an informal 'babysitting' style arrangement, not a dog sitting business. I presume that the family who regularly require the dog sitting are local. Some people pay their babysitters, some don't e.g. if they are good family friends. So yabu to just assume what you have.

However, I don't think it's CF to ask for the money. Clearly you won't dog sit for person B again if he doesn't pay on this occasion, so you've nothing to lose - just ask about payment.

Just bill him.

If it gets awkward then it's a bigger problem.for the regular dogsitting family as they will worry about you withdrawing from your next job and leaving them up shit creek.

Noone expects a free dogsitting service, especially not someone who was recommended to use you by someone who pays.

If anything, they will be baffled why you gave him freebie but charge them.

Just text an invoice. Now. Rip off the plaster and move your life forward.

Side note, are you really so delicate that you need to use person a and b nonsense? Just own your behaviour.

Person A didn't dog sit out of the goodness of their own heart, so needs to stop dithering, start treating it as the business arrangement it is and ask for payment.

Should really have clarified it in writing beforehand, but now they need to produce receipts and ask, not wait for Person B to do the right thing. B unfortunately looks as though he's counting on A being too embarrassed to bring it up.

The issue to me is B might not have booked A if he knew the fees. This is why A needs to have made their costs clear from the outset. I don't hire someone to come and do any work (even a small job like window cleaning) without knowing the costs beforehand. Surely even if buying something in a shop if no price is shown on the item, I will ask before purchasing how much it is before committing.

B might have naively thought this friend of the family enjoyed dog sitting and that this was an opportunity for them to visit London.
It is unclear that A is actually a professional dog sitter and it sounds more like they are a friend of the family.