120 day payment terms, corporate bullying?

[roofman]

Imho terms and conditions on an invoice carry no weight at all with the bigger boys, they will only pay when they are ready. If you try the legal route they will hang you out to dry, a friend tried this in court and the main contractors solicitor produced a document signed by my friend stating that he would adhere to their terms and conditions. Its was in the small print on the contractors approval form which he signed, expensive day in court for him and soured the working relationship. My advice would be to get on first name terms with someone in accounts or just forget working for the bigger outfits

Bob

This may be true Bob but in my case after trading since 1980 and being kinda fortunate enough to be able to pick and choose if the big boys don't agree i don't offer my services,simple as that...And yes it does boil my fluid the way some of these company's treat us small guys regarding paying for work done

 

[brightspark]

local villains would be happy to collect for a few quid without courts or anything else and lean on people. one visit and your moneys there or even just the threat of it

 

[ukracer]

You are always in a position to reject work.

If you're getting paid 4 months after you do the work, then (especially with a startup) you're effectively working for free.

You still have bills to pay (household as well as suppliers if applicable) - will they be happy if you say "I'll pay you in 6 months once an invoice gets settled"?

Alternatively, live in your overdraft. That's not a stressful situation to be in at all is it - knowing every single thing you pay is going to cost you 15+% more by the time the interest and fees are added once the corporation deem you worthy of payment.

With the latest overdraft fees from lloyds and halifax its nearly as much as Wonga. Com.

 

[ukracer]

local villains would be happy to collect for a few quid without courts or anything else and lean on people. one visit and your moneys there or even just the threat of it

You know you would think that would be quite easy. But I looked around as I am owed 40k but its not as easy as you would think to get money you are owed....

 

[brightspark]

With the latest overdraft fees from lloyds and halifax its nearly as much as Wonga. Com.

I nearly got overdrawn they wanted 19 percent and 18 quideven dick turpin wore a mask when he robbed u

 

[brightspark]

You know you would think that would be quite easy. But I looked around as I am owed 40k but its not as easy as you would think to get money you are owed....

it works when its only a few grand owed by local builders or individuals who just cant be arsed to pay people and do it all the time and get away with it

 

[ukracer]

I nearly got overdrawn they wanted 19 percent and 18 quideven dick turpin wore a mask when he robbed u

It works out at over 190 quid interest on 4k.

So they encourage you to have an overdraft and then kick you in the nads by altering the terms to extort more money from you.

 

[bricol]

Wait til the big boys demand a percentage back each year . . . and even a percentage of previous years! We declined! Most of our stuff is into the millions and it still happens - late payments and even complete non-payment.

We did insist on up-front payment for stuff going to Iran/Irag though!

 

[Rocketman]

As simple as this for me 60 days end of month of invoice date is the absolute limit. Preferably 30-60 days from invoice I work on now.

My advice is if you can't get this sorted and some concrete guarantees going forward you need to wean yourself off working for that client ASAP. Never mind the fact you should have the money and it's effecting your business and living the fact is if you start counting up all the time wasted chasing and stress it's not worth it.

 

[tlovatt]

Wait until they then try to move you up to 150 days and also write into their T&Cs that they have the right to pay you early and deduct an early payment fee equal to 18% pa interest. It seems to be some of the large US multinationals leading the charge with this one.

People do need to be aware of how a contract is formed, normally what you say in your quote does not make it into the actual contract you have - you can read up on battle of the forms quite easily on the internet. If you get the contract terms right then some solicitors will do debt recovery at little risk, we pay £10 for an initial letter before action (this cost is not recoverable) but then the charges are the fixed fees you are allowed under the late payments of commercial debt legislation plus half of the interest chargeable - so if all goes well you get back more than was owed subject to the initial £10.

 

[daleyd]

I hate dealing with oil companies as they are absolute nightmares when it comes to paying up, and seem to use the minutest things to avoid paying despite them being practically awash with money!!

We have recently done some mods to some old scada software which was transferred to the offshore system via modem and they were going to withhold payment because we never got timesheets signed - a bit hard when no one actually went on the platform to make any changes! I suggested we could soon take the modifications out if they didn't believe they had been done , it seems they suddenly didn't need any timesheets after all

 

[500e]

We switched off one large phone network mast as the seemed unable to meet their commitment paid within hours

 

[Kent]

Imho terms and conditions on an invoice carry no weight at all with the bigger boys, they will only pay when they are ready. If you try the legal route they will hang you out to dry, a friend tried this in court and the main contractors solicitor produced a document signed by my friend stating that he would adhere to their terms and conditions. Its was in the small print on the contractors approval form which he signed, expensive day in court for him and soured the working relationship. My advice would be to get on first name terms with someone in accounts or just forget working for the bigger outfits

Bob

Mine is read anything you sign. Also remember to charge Intrest on outstanding ballances. Do not ever be fooled into thinking this is the normal for large companies to take the proverbial, many I know well will break std payment terms for smaller firms and many very large companies have the business wit to pay everyone on invoice even if those owed give time (it fosters good relationships and when you need folk they will jump to pull you out of a hole if your fair)