Customer wont pay for a custom made item

tangobravo23

Hi,
So I have a small business page on facebook. I was contacted by a user to commission an item. We agreed a price. I did the commission which took considerable time. Now the person has stopped responding to messages from me. They have blocked messages from me.

I have the persons full name, hometown and can see all his friends and family (as they share the same surname). The person is just blocking me. There is no issue with the quality of my item. I sent them a photo of the finished piece and they put it up on their facebook profile and it got lots of likes and comments. They expressed how much they love the item. The person is just deciding they do not want to pay.

I know the learning lessons here eg. make clients pay a deposit etc etc. I trusted them too much. But I feel robbed. Its a considerable amount of money. The item cannot be sold to anyone else as its custom made for this person.

What should I do? In a way Im thinking, how the hell can he decide not to pay. Its not like he is just a Username/Avatar online. I can see the persons facebook profile with their photos and hometown etc. They are not anonymous. Should I call the person out publicly online? Name and shame?

Should I try to figure out which of their friends would be family, and try message them to see if they can talk to him?

Thanks in advance all.

amcalester

If you still have the item then there's probably not much you can do, especially if this was all agreed via Facebook/Messenger.

You'll probably need to change how you operate, i.e. take a 50% deposit upfront and the rest on completion. Maybe look at getting a contract/T&C's written up that you can get the customer to agree to.

Pawwed Rig

Small claims court would seem to be your best course of action. It is easier than you would suspect.

Wheety

I don't think there's much you can do tbf.

They're probably just happy they could pretend they bought it by posting the image on social media. They got their likes now so are probably thinking "What do I need the physical item for now?"

But as you know it's a lesson learned. Get a deposit first and if it's an expensive item, maybe even do up a contract. Get a solicitor to draw one up for you but you should be able to use the same one for all future commissions.

I would not be contacting their friends and family.

Hoboo

Small claims all the way. Easy process as already said.

Wheety

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Small claims court would seem to be your best course of action. It is easier than you would suspect.

Don't think you can take a consumer to the small claims court?

drunkmonkey

Hoboo wrote: »

Small claims all the way. Easy process as already said.

It's far from easy when someone doesn't want to pay.

i71jskz5xu42pb

tangobravo23 wrote: »

They are not anonymous. Should I call the person out publicly online? Name and shame?

You can but be aware that you're probably in violation of GDPR/privacy regulations if you do.

What I'd do

1. Write it down to experience and move on
2. Call around to their home/place of work and look for the money. Not in a threatening way, just in a "I'm going to be here until I get my money"

You don't say how many hours/how much you've spent on materials/how much you're owed but I'd be leaning toward #1

FishOnABike

Depending on the cost of the item I'd say it's time to either put it down to a lesson learned or get legal advice on whether you had an enforceable agreement or contract with the person and whether the cost and probability of getting a judgement against the person in a court and recovering any legal costs and the money you claim is owed.

I'd be wary of any naming and shaming on social media as it could come back to bite you.

salmocab

What sort of price range are you talking about out of interest? I know it doesn’t change the material facts but obviously the higher it is the more it’s worth pursuing.

Pawwed Rig

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Small claims court would seem to be your best course of action. It is easier than you would suspect.

Easier than you suspect, if the op was a consumer, or it was one business making a claim against another. It doesn’t work in reverse though, the business cannot use it to claim against the consumer and it cannot be used to recover a debt.

Op, if you are talking about a substantial amount of money (thousands) and the piece cannot be sold on, keep all the communications relating to it and talk to a solicitor. Contracts can be oral as well as written so because it is a custom piece which was commissioned, you may be able to take a claim in the big Court for breach of contract.

Del2005

FishOnABike wrote: »

Depending on the cost of the item I'd say it's time to either put it down to a lesson learned or get legal advice on whether you had an enforceable agreement or contract with the person and whether the cost and probability of getting a judgement against the person in a court and recovering any legal costs and the money you claim is owed.

I'd be wary of any naming and shaming on social media as it could come back to bite you.

Going legal in this country is only worth while if you are dealing with 5 figures or more, anything less and its not worth the hassle.

pc7

Could you write under their post of the item can they contact you to pay for it?

Keyzer

I doubt you have a leg to stand on here but, given I'm not a legal expert, I'd run this by a solicitor to see if you have any grounds.

Otherwise, chalk it down to a learning experience and never take on a piece of work again without a deposit - if the customer has no skin in the game they will walk away.

GBX

pc7 wrote: »

Could you write under their post of the item can they contact you to pay for it?

Other people who like the OPs page will see the comment alright but the person withholding payment can easily ignore the notification. If they have already blocked the OP, its likely they have unliked the OPs page and could have the page blocked also. It will only show others who like the page the type of person and won't get the money for the object.

Pawwed Rig

Dav010 wrote: »

Easier than you suspect, if the op was a consumer, or it was one business making a claim against another. It doesn’t work in reverse though, the business cannot use it to claim against the consumer and it cannot be used to recover a debt.

Op, if you are talking about a substantial amount of money (thousands) and the piece cannot be sold on, keep all the communications relating to it and talk to a solicitor. Contracts can be oral as well as written so because it is a custom piece which was commissioned, you may be able to take a claim in the big Court for breach of contract.

Noted but I would be going to court. Would definitely not let it go.

LimeFruitGum

Don’t post on their social media about it, these things can go viral & backfire on you. Small Claims, the usual legal support channels are there for this.

tangobravo23

Thank you all for your responses.

Firstly, we are talking about sub 1k value here. Not a huge amount I understand.

Nobody wants to get robbed of money/stock in business. However if this was a bricks and morter shop they walk into the shop, leaves his name, town, and county he lives in, photos of himself, writes down that he agrees to price, waits for the item to be made, takes a photo of it, leaves the shop. Puts the photo online, soaks up all the ooohs and aaahs from friends and family. Then ignores all contact to arrange payment. He didn't walk in, hood up and run out nameless with stock.

I am a one person band in the partime business that I run.

I can't comment on his post with the photo as I am not a friend. However I can comment on the photo of the item on my Facebook page and tag the person in it.

As bad as this may sound. If it was a physical item that I had 20 more of then it might not be so bad. It would be easier to take on the chin. But this was handmade and I put 100‰ into it. As with all my work. And they are publically showing it off. They even comment to say he got it done by me.

I am human also. People's circumstances change and maybe they can't afford to pay. I am open to part payment or whatever. Even if its months down the road I don't care.

Wabbit Ears

As other have said it's a sad truth to human nature that if you do anything for free than we are incapable of putting value on it because you didnt put value on it.

In this case you started working on the project for free. There was a cost in the final delivery but the initial work was free.

So yea.. chalk this one up to experience and never start work without a pricetag in the form of a deposit.

On your Facebook/insta etc pretend to try recoup the costs. Post the item at a fairly hefty discount and just say that you're letting it go for a song due to non payment from a customer and you're just trying to recoup the loss. Dont name names.

nava

MOD: Do not post on boards any detail that could identify the person

beachhead

Ask the clerk of the Small Claims court what you can do.They can be very helpful.They are the ones to advise on GDPR - he catch all phrase for every excuse now.

ColdTurkey

My sister had a similar situation. Walked into the place of work, found out the non-payers bosses name. Approached the nonpayer and said I'll be in the carpark for the next 10 minutes and I'll be back in to tell your boss, drops name, the type of person that they have really employed. Had her money 5 mins later. Takes balls of steel though

rgodard80a

Also.... how did they get the photo of the item?

If you took the photo, then you own the copyright for it.
You can probably report the image on their facebook page for copyright violation.

Force them to take it down.