Customer refusing to pay?!

As it's with the court, it will be down to them to deliver the verdict. So anything we say or add is just hearsay and speculation.

But..

In theory the customer should come to you first and raise a complaint with you, working through your own complaints process. The fact the customer didn't complain to you directly and hasn't given you a chance to resolve any perceived issue, would in my mind work against the customer. 

My understanding is that Judges like to see all dispute avenues have been explored before cases are bought to court and I would have thought your solicitor would have said the same.

Be interesting to hear what happens, be nice if you come back and let us know.

Thanks Steve. We very rarely get to this stage with our customers, so I'm just totally unsure as to what the outcome will be.

We consider ourselves to be reasonable when resolving issues and encourage customers to contact us first, we're in no way inapproachable. We've dealt with them for almost 10 years, so they know us well, we've always given them discounts and honoured previous prices, so the fact they've started behaving in this way is a huge kick in the teeth to be honest.

Our factoring company aren't very personal, which is fair enough. So I've tried to be the softer approach when chasing for money. I have spoken with them on many occasions and tried to be sympathetic with their financial issues, so they've had the opportunity to tell me if they weren't happy, but they didn't. I was considering trying to help them out by offering a discount to encourage them pay it quicker. But since their dispute, I decided to stop any contact with them and just let our solicitors deal with it.

Our company is the only one in the UK that can do the product they order for their client every year, so they've unknowingly burnt their bridges. It's such a shame as it's a decent sized order, but I probably wouldn't do it for them again.

If you've provided goods and services, then you are entitled to payment regardless of whether they arrived late or not. If the goods failed to arrive within a reasonable period of time then your client could have cancelled, if they accepted the goods on arrival and didn't return them, then they have no reason to withhold payment or refuse to pay and assume the goods would be free... take them to court... have been 5 times lost 1 won 4. The reason I lost one was because the judge turned around and said I was not allowed to charge my customers a mark up on the goods I sold.... I'm still trying to get my head around that 15 years later..... 

Originally Posted by Barney

“.... The reason I lost one was because the judge turned around and said I was not allowed to charge my customers a mark up on the goods I sold.... I'm still trying to get my head around that 15 years later..... ”

Does that mean i can take Tesco's to Court for doubling (at least) the cost of everything on their shelves 

Many years ago I worked for a local authority with respect to general rates. The chief rating officer had a simple policy for habitual bad payers. Rates were payable on demand, in theory. Seven days after the demand went out, he would initiate bankruptcy proceedings against bad payers who had not responded. The effects were spectacular.

Sounds a bit severe, but looks like it had the desired effect! Welcome to the forum.

Might be severe, but when you have a monopoly you are not too worried about the culprit going elsewhere.

I would imagine most clear thinking level headed Judges would have chucked out most of the cases. To even attempt to try and make someone bankrupt after 7 days I suggest is near impossible as you have to use so many other avenues to get what is owed beforehand.... And you have to prove it to the court that you have used other methods.....

I guess the word bankruptcy scared the pants off a lot of people so they paid up, just in case. There is a well known scam when small businesses get called by a fake court asking for instant payment of a fine to prevent court proceedings, it often works as people are panicked and scared of any repercussions.