dud jobs

NeptunesMoon

Id a job the other day booked in providing a service to customer at their house and had given them a price for me calling out and working for the hour. I got there and there was nobody there, i called the number and they said they already got it done. the job was booked with me through email and they never emailed or phoned to cancel it and say they found someone else so I spent the morning getting there and back with no pay. I have their address etc, can anything be done about getting paid even some of the fee for the time and fuel spent? last thing you need is someone not even bothering to cancel a job :mad:

Gloomtastic!

It happens I'm afraid. Not much you can do about it either unless you have a signed contract/order/email confirming your booking. They should also have received your terms and conditions, which should include your cancellation terms, beforehand.

One simple thing you could do is call them before you leave to confirm everything is still ok with the booking.

thecommander

If a deposit is taken then it would cut down on that sort of messing. Not sure what industry you're in so it might not be the norm. But definitely a signed order form would put people in the mindset that they've placed an order and can't just be canceled without a good reason.

NeptunesMoon

cheers lads. taking a deposit would add a lot more paperwork to me and to be honest, this has only happened about 3 times from hundreds of bookings so it's very rare. i don't mind if a customer rings up to cancel and wouldnt like to take money off them even if they cancel the day before or the same day due to whatever circumstances but for someone to not even bother to ring after they get someone else pissed me off. so with regards how to avoid it in future, probably not much i can do without adding bigger headache to my job.


but with regards to legally binding stuff over email bookings, how does that work? if i link someone to my t+c's in the email and say something like "confirming booking will assume acceptance of our t+c's which can be viewed here: www.mypage.com/terms" is that enough or do they need to electronically "sign" something somehow? as gloomtastic mentioned "a signed email" ?? How does that work?
cheers

goz83

It's a pain, but it does happen. The excuses are always the same for me when it happens (I provide a service at my own location).

Common excuse:

1: Death in the family
2: Vomiting Bug
3: Forgot
4: They don't answer phone

I find this most often happens with a new client. Happened the other day with 2 clients, because my new secretary forgot to secure the clients information...see below.

I minimise dud jobs by having clients confirm bookings online, via my website and securing their card details in the event they decide to be "forgetful". I hate having to do this, but it's an absolute must, because I have watched so many in my industry fail, because people can be a55e5.

Gloomtastic!

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

cheers lads. taking a deposit would add a lot more paperwork to me and to be honest, this has only happened about 3 times from hundreds of bookings so it's very rare. i don't mind if a customer rings up to cancel and wouldnt like to take money off them even if they cancel the day before or the same day due to whatever circumstances but for someone to not even bother to ring after they get someone else pissed me off. so with regards how to avoid it in future, probably not much i can do without adding bigger headache to my job.


but with regards to legally binding stuff over email bookings, how does that work? if i link someone to my t+c's in the email and say something like "confirming booking will assume acceptance of our t+c's which can be viewed here: www.mypage.com/terms" is that enough or do they need to electronically "sign" something somehow? as gloomtastic mentioned "a signed email" ?? How does that work?
cheers

If they reply to your email, consider it signed!

You could give them a link to your T&Cs, personally I have them saved as a PDF file that I attach to an email confirming the booking.

Deposit? If it's not industry norm, then I wouldn't bother.

Peterdalkey

I completely understand your anger and frustration but the reality is the world has it's quota of a**holes and everyone in business is going to encounter at least a few of them along the way. Even if you introduce the most comprehensive set of T&Cs, they mean nothing in cash terms, if you are not prepared to enforce them... Go legal for E100? Simply not worth the bother.
If you get very formal/official with your booking, it may even have a negative impact on the ordinary decent customers!! You have had only three episodes in hundreds of bookings, so the scale of the issue is small and once you have vented your anger, you will be better off just getting on with your business, financially and mentally!

My post is not intended to diminish your value or entitlement to be treated decently and fairly by customers, it is just one of the many risks we all take in running our businesses every day, but on the upside the vast majority of people are decent folk.

NeptunesMoon

cheers again everyone! yea i dont think enforcing stricter booking terms will do me any favous, the actual cost to me losing the 3 or so jobs isn't much other than my time and a bit of fuel. for any of the larger jobs i do take non refundable deposits. also whats the story with that? if i say in the email i need a non refundable deposit, is it fair game to keep it if they end up cancelling as long as I've stated it's non refundable?

Interesting a reply is considered signed in e-terms. i heard that emails and electronic communication has legal basis anyway which is good as thats where most of my bookings are made. I might just link people unobtrusively to my T+C's in the email. I guess i cant do this for over the phone bookings though, unless I had a welcome message saying "making a booking us subject to agreement of our t+C which can be seen at mypage.com/terms" ?

goz83

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

cheers again everyone! yea i dont think enforcing stricter booking terms will do me any favous, the actual cost to me losing the 3 or so jobs isn't much other than my time and a bit of fuel. for any of the larger jobs i do take non refundable deposits. also whats the story with that? if i say in the email i need a non refundable deposit, is it fair game to keep it if they end up cancelling as long as I've stated it's non refundable?

Interesting a reply is considered signed in e-terms. i heard that emails and electronic communication has legal basis anyway which is good as thats where most of my bookings are made. I might just link people unobtrusively to my T+C's in the email. I guess i cant do this for over the phone bookings though, unless I had a welcome message saying "making a booking us subject to agreement of our t+C which can be seen at mypage.com/terms" ?

A link to terms and conditions is always a good idea. You can always ask clients to respond to your confirmation with "APPROVE" or "ACCEPT" to confirm the job. Non refundable deposit always sounds nasty. I prefer to use a "Job booking fee". They have paid to make the booking, which is part of the job.

I keep my terms and conditions in English, but they need to be comprehensive and cover you in all respects I they are to be taken seriously in the event of any dispute, They should be fair and give people time enough to cancel without penalty.

If you like, PM me and I can link you to my terms and conditions, which you could retro fit to your industry with a bit of modification.

NeptunesMoon

thanks a lot for that, will pm you now

IrishExpat

goz83 wrote: »

A link to terms and conditions is always a good idea.

If you like, PM me and I can link you to my terms and conditions, which you could retro fit to your industry with a bit of modification.

Hi goz83, could I take you up on that offer also?

I'm currently re-writing a lot of my websites material and need a very clear set of T&C's.

goz83

IrishExpat wrote: »

Hi goz83, could I take you up on that offer also?

I'm currently re-writing a lot of my websites material and need a very clear set of T&C's.

sent pm