bevinva

My OH went to fix an A/C today. Already quoted the price, $150, and told they will have cash, these are previous customers. After the work was done he is asked to go to the person's shop where the wife will bring the money. She shows up and he is given $60 and told the son will bring the rest later! So more time and fuel for us chasing down a payment. Then the starter on his van goes and he can't even leave. It is under warranty and the parts shop is sending me out with a new one before he turns this one in (the bright spot of the day so far). It's getting to the point where you will have to ask to be paid upfront, more and more people are calling you out to their house and saying they have no money right now or the wife has the checkbook etc. after the work is done. Funny thing is they check you out on Angie's List before they hire you!:curse:

Anybody else got a recession rant?

bevinva

Forgot to add they had set up with OH to come back and do some plumbing work on Friday before he finished this job.

meauxna

hmmm, I may have to try this with the roofer...

Just kidding!
I think it's a scandal. I wouldn't have anticipated that at all.. what is he going to do about the Friday job?

bevinva

Ask to see the cash on arrival, given everything else I think that's reasonable. Ofcourse you run the risk of them still not giving it to you but at least they can't say they don't have it.
Last week a first time customer asked if we could wait a week to be paid, we just scheduled it for the day she would have the money, at least she asked!

Fiero_GT

We are finding the same thing to be true with our customers. We are asking for money up front as too many have canceled appointments recently. Sad state of affairs. I believe the economy is much worse at the low to mid income levels than is widely accepted by the politicians (both here and back home).

My son lives in London and has had little success finding even menial work lately. Good thing he is in university. Hopefully he will find a good situation after graduation. If not he may end up becoming the newest American member of the family.

bevinva

What type of work do you do? I'm trying not to take some comfort in the fact that others are having similar troubles.

Fiero_GT

I run a charity organization with an entertainment operation as a side line for fund raising. People make appointments and use the charity owned property for meetings and entertainment. It has been a very good operation thus far. So far this year we are surviving. But we are seeing an increase in appointment fall off. People will schedule a date and leave a deposit then default on the final payment. So we are asking for payment up front, sadly.

lisag8070

now that just stinks!..if you need the work done, fine, just bloody make sure you have the money for it for when then come, they knew the price so they can't even argue the point that it was more than what was quoted..:curse:


My AC conked out last month, (the compressor outside wouldn't come on)..I didn't have the money to get it fixed so I lived with it for 5 days (it had to reach the high 90's didn't it) but I refused to schedule the repair guy till the money was in my account...only then did we arrange a time that was good for him...and TBH if I didn't have the money..I would just have suffered with it..I would never have expected "free work"..I don't work for free, so why so I expect some one else to.

Everybody has a family to feed, their situation is not unique...

And PS..I got my guy from Angies list as well..

Bob

Just threaten to take them to small claims? Ding on credit could be a worry for anyone looking to refinance

bevinva

By the time you got through with that, even before the court date it would probably be paid. I suppose it's just indicative of how this financial crap is getting to everyone, it just erodes your trust in your fellow man and i don't like that.

chartreuse

I'm with everybody else: they were well out of order.

Oddly enough, our AC packed up the other week, too. After doing a bit of reading, I went and had a look. It turned out that the people before thought that you should use duct tape on ductwork, so the airflow over the evaporator was buggered and it froze up. Cleaned and patched and it was fine.*

My point, I guess, is that even if I'm totally unfamiliar with the machine (who has domestic HVAC in England?) I'll try to learn enough to fix it myself. Because I don't want to call somebody out. Because I'd have to pay them. Promptly. But I'd never dream of trying to get out of paying, if I did have to ask for help.


* Incidentally, I also found that when they stuck another storey on the house, they put in extra outlets, but didn't bother with a return. Which explains why the upstairs why the upstairs bedroom is an oven.

Tarkak9

did you have a core charge for the starter?


That sorta thing would happen to a contractor friend of mine... he used to say 'no problem... I'll just put the old crap compressor back in and swap it out once I am able to get full payment'... literally he would return the unit to the state it was prior to him fixing it. It was amazing how people would cough up the money.

bevinva

The starter had a lifetime warranty, because he knows the people at the auto parts shop they let me take him the new one before he returned the old one. As for the job it didn't become obvious that payment in full wasn't coming until he was away from the house, to take action then would have required breaking in. Not the kind of money that's worth jail time!

bevinva

A/C job now paid for, plumbing job postponed because they don't have the money.
It's going to be 95 degrees here over the weekend, cross your fingers somebody with money to do it decides to replace their A/C.