Are more clients finding creative ways to avoid paying?

[DebtRecoveryUK]

Curious if others are noticing the same pattern. Clients are becoming increasingly inventive when it comes to delaying or avoiding payment.

Recently I have seen cases where:

• Minor disputes are raised just before payment is due
• Clients go silent as soon as the work is completed
• Payment terms are suddenly reinterpreted
• Final payments are withheld over vague technicalities

This is not limited to one industry. It seems to be happening across professional services, trades, manufacturing and retail.

Is this just down to tighter cashflow, or are some businesses becoming more confident in testing what they can get away with?

How are others dealing with this? Are you chasing it in-house, involving third parties, or writing it off?

Genuinely interested to hear how others are managing this shift.

 

[fisicx]

Don’t have that problem. They don’t get the product until they have paid.

 

[DebtRecoveryUK]

Don’t have that problem. They don’t get the product until they have paid.

You're lucky but some businesses have no choice but to offer credit terms just to stay competitive or keep customers on board. Sadly, that opens the door for the sneaky late payers to creep in.

 

[fisicx]

You're lucky but some businesses have no choice but to offer credit terms just to stay competitive or keep customers on board.

Deposits, milestone payments, holding on to completion certificates and other documents. Lots of ways to help payments. And of course, invoice financing is another option.

The builder we use never has a problem as he gets a hefty deposit up front.

 

[Elliot Green]

Curious if others are noticing the same pattern. Clients are becoming increasingly inventive when it comes to delaying or avoiding payment.

Recently I have seen cases where:

• Minor disputes are raised just before payment is due
• Clients go silent as soon as the work is completed
• Payment terms are suddenly reinterpreted
• Final payments are withheld over vague technicalities

This is not limited to one industry. It seems to be happening across professional services, trades, manufacturing and retail.

Is this just down to tighter cashflow, or are some businesses becoming more confident in testing what they can get away with?

How are others dealing with this? Are you chasing it in-house, involving third parties, or writing it off?

Genuinely interested to hear how others are managing this shift.

Robust enforcement of legal rights appears to be the way to go if a debtor decides to either treat you as a bank, offers the no response is the response approach or is consistently inconsistent.

 

[DebtRecoveryUK]

Deposits, milestone payments, holding on to completion certificates and other documents. Lots of ways to help payments. And of course, invoice financing is another option.

The builder we use never has a problem as he gets a hefty deposit up front.

All great ways to help ensure you get paid, smart strategies. With invoice factoring though, just be careful. Always look into non-recourse factoring over recourse factoring if you can, as it protects you in case the customer doesn’t pay. The last thing you want is to be chased for a debt you’ve already handed over.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Those tactics are as old as the hills (plus a few others!).

As a supplier, it all depends on how important the customer is to you.

Remember, you do not have a customer until you have been paid. Until then, they are a liability!

 

[fisicx]

The trick is to not let the bills mount up.

For example, get paid for the ground work, then the steel, walls, roof etc. if the client doesn’t agree find another client.