Small Business Getting paid !

vdavid

I have run a business for a few years now and recently was contacted by a potential client who wanted work carried out .
An agreement was made and a rate per hour struck . Payment to be on completion of work . All work carried out perfectly and building team completed project .
All my bills were ignored and I eventually called to clients and was asked for new copy of invoice which I supplied and was promised payment by return Still no payment . Then they refused to answer my calls .
However the piece de resistance was when I called to site their receptionist refused to log message in diary that I wished to make appointment to see individual concerned .
Another member of family and a director in firm asked me to leave . I went to my vehicle and decided to wait until person in question arrived to work Gardai were called and arrived soon after I was asked to leave site by a local garda

Garda stated legislation had changed and a supplier had no right to call to premises if customer did not wish him to .I explained that I had waited patiently for payment I was promised and that I had acted in a professional manner at all times. I was told I would be arrested if I didnt leave .This was despite the fact that I never raised my voice or acted or spoke in manner which could have upset anyone

Has any business person encountered this .
Bear in mind it can take a supplier 3-5 years to get a chancer into court .Normally you will receive payment by calling a few times it also gives you an opportunity to find out if client needs a payment plan or agreement due to unforseen circumstances and we always try to facilitate in a genuine case .
I ve heard since that a member of same family had messed about a supplier for over 18 months and when he eventually called when person was in , customer called gardai .Unfortunately supplier threatened customer following severe provocation which I dont condone he was arrested and prosecuted .There was never any chance I would have let myself my family or employees down by attacking or threatening client despite their appalling behaviour all I want is to get paid for the work which I carried out in a professional manner .
What chance has any business in Ireland surviving if more use this dishonest way of dealing with their suppliers .

Has anyone out there had to deal with a similar problem and what was outcome .

07734

Wow, that's awful. What a shower of chancers. Sorry I don't have anything more helpful to say...

Sounds like they're going to keep ignoring you in the hope that you either get tired and go away, or go bust.

NomadicMe

Ouch, this sounds painful!
I presume you have contracts in place- can you bring lawyers in to sue them?
Or maybe ask a professional debt collector to help you?

mneylon

Try a solicitor's letter.
It often works.

tryingmybestt

vdavid wrote: »

I have run a business for a few years now and recently was contacted by a potential client who wanted work carried out .
An agreement was made and a rate per hour struck . Payment to be on completion of work . All work carried out perfectly and building team completed project .
All my bills were ignored and I eventually called to clients and was asked for new copy of invoice which I supplied and was promised payment by return Still no payment . Then they refused to answer my calls .
However the piece de resistance was when I called to site their receptionist refused to log message in diary that I wished to make appointment to see individual concerned .
Another member of family and a director in firm asked me to leave . I went to my vehicle and decided to wait until person in question arrived to work Gardai were called and arrived soon after I was asked to leave site by a local garda

Garda stated legislation had changed and a supplier had no right to call to premises if customer did not wish him to .I explained that I had waited patiently for payment I was promised and that I had acted in a professional manner at all times. I was told I would be arrested if I didnt leave .This was despite the fact that I never raised my voice or acted or spoke in manner which could have upset anyone

Has any business person encountered this .
Bear in mind it can take a supplier 3-5 years to get a chancer into court .Normally you will receive payment by calling a few times it also gives you an opportunity to find out if client needs a payment plan or agreement due to unforseen circumstances and we always try to facilitate in a genuine case .
I ve heard since that a member of same family had messed about a supplier for over 18 months and when he eventually called when person was in , customer called gardai .Unfortunately supplier threatened customer following severe provocation which I dont condone he was arrested and prosecuted .There was never any chance I would have let myself my family or employees down by attacking or threatening client despite their appalling behaviour all I want is to get paid for the work which I carried out in a professional manner .
What chance has any business in Ireland surviving if more use this dishonest way of dealing with their suppliers .

Has anyone out there had to deal with a similar problem and what was outcome .

it's a sign of the times unfortunately.....i work as a subcontractor and getting paid from builders is a nightmare.....we've decided not to give credit to any clients we don't already have a good payment history with....we've turned down jobs over the last few years because we wouldn't give credit.....it's a terrible state our industry is in.....lacking any regulation and protection for subcontractors.......hopefully legislation is brought in to change things

MyAmber.net

I don't know what business you're in, but I used to create software applications for customers.
All my programs had a "feature" to stop working and giving a strange error message after a time (let's say 5 months, so there was enough data and the program was quite important part of my customer's business).
After the customer paid fully for the software I switched off the "feature" (Let's say run it with parameter /runagain or change a value in the database).
If they didn't pay believe me they called. And the money hit my bank account very quickly.

Think about something like that for your future projects.

Nuttzz

I came across this blog post a while back, hope it helps someone

http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2010/03/02/the-best-invoice-payment-terms-to-help-you-get-paid-faster-and-more-often/

Bandara

I'm going to get the usual flak for this but anyway;

This guy is taking the mickey, he has no intention of paying you for no good reason other than he doesn't want to. And it seems he has history of doing it before.

Use Viper Debt Recovery, you'll get your money back. They obviously push the grey area boundaries but its not illegal and the gloves have been well and truly off by your "customer".


*Puts on thick skin

goeast

Respect for your effort!
I also recently sufered from not paying moron.
Unfortunately they are in much more comfortable position, and it seems that side is better protected than creditor.

ronan45

Hammertime wrote: »

I'm going to get the usual flak for this but anyway;

This guy is taking the mickey, he has no intention of paying you for no good reason other than he doesn't want to. And it seems he has history of doing it before.

Use Viper Debt Recovery, you'll get your money back. They obviously push the grey area boundaries but its not illegal and the gloves have been well and truly off by your "customer".


*Puts on thick skin

is there one viper success story on boards.ie??? lol dodgy ground me thinks

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1103/1224306978812.html

shangri la

You would think the gangs would start aiming for the head.

Is it true it can take 5 years to get a customer to court?

dbran

Pity whoever the poor accountant is who has landed the job of doing the Viper's accounts..!!

dbran