From the beeb.
More small and medium-sized businesses are suffering as their customers make late payments, research suggests.
A study by RBS and Natwest found that 71% of firms had suffered from late payments in the past 12 months.
Meanwhile the latest data from payment group BACS said small firms waited an average of 41 days longer than original agreed terms, before being paid.
About 4,000 firms collapsed in 2008 due to late payments, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said.
The RBS study said that in the UK, firms were owed about
Yep. Only one, my other clients are fine, but one guy has just about wound through every excuse in the book - combined of course with the promise of more work to come. I want to believe that the cheque really did get lost in the post, that the bank transfer will definitely clear in the next couple of days, that I haven't been scammed... unfortunately optimism only gets you so far.  VirtuallyMary
hmm, sounds familiar! Can you resend the invoice, it never arrived... we don't remember agreeing to this... we will do a BACs transfer tomorrow first thing... cheque must have got lost in the post... I was abducted by aliens... Maybe we should set up a name and shame website. "beware doing business with.." kind of thing  On second thoughts, will no doubt have endless solicitors letters
Never accept excuses at face value, it's the only way to get through to people that you don't like being lied to: "Cheque has been sent" - That's great, obviously we want to make sure that everything gets cleared as quickly as possible, so would you give me the cheque number so we can look out for it. * Any hesitation means they did not send it! "Will do a BACS transfer first thing in the morning" - OK great, will you do it before 11:00? *await response* If you do it before 11AM and do a same day one it will be in my bank by the afternoon. I tell you what, I will phone YOU back in the morning to make sure it is done so I can alert my bank to look out for it. "Director is not here at the moment" - I assume he/she is working today? *await response* As I am sure you are aware that under the terms of the Companies Act a signatory must be available at all times I assume one will be available before the end of the day. If I do not hear from you by then I'll call YOU back then. "Director / Signatory / Cat has just dropped dead" - I'm really sorry to hear that. Obviously we want to HELP YOU in this situation. I assume the company has plans in place for this eventuality and you just need 24 hours to put this plans into place, afterall, you need to make sure someone is available to sign your next pay cheque. I will call you back tomorrow. Don't let anyone get away with anything..... Polite but Direct. As many closed questions as possible so you can lead the conversation the direction you want it to go in. Credit-Manager.Net |
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