Cleaner 45 minutes late, not paying

[Realburger]

So I took over an existing business and kept most of the services, pest contro, maintenance etc.

I had a call for a service engineer to clean the canopy which I was happy with , booked for 8am takes between 2-3 hours. I was at work for 8am and waited for just under an hour and no one turned up.

I called the engineer and was told he left at 6am to get to me. I said I wasn’t going to wait any longer as I have things to do in the morning too and if he wants my buisness he should turn up on time.

Is this ok? It’s just I’m sure the company is going to try and send me some sort of bill or cancellation fee.

I don’t agree in paying as the service has not been provided and the engineer should have been punctual.

 

[Newchodge]

Did they ever turn up?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Don't forget non tolerance can work both ways, customers may return your goods if timed delivery is say 10 minutes late

Being the hard person in business seldom brings out the best in company relations, hence the old business saying "don't piss me off"

 

[Realburger]

They did eventually after I left. But I didn’t get a call ot text I had to chase up . I had plans in the morning and even rang up the day before and the owner told me the engineer would be at the premises by 8am

 

[deanpunchard]

Punctuality for me ranks highly on service, and I'd be annoyed if someone was nearly an hour late. What would annoy me even further is that if they didn't even try to contact you to say they're running late.

As for them invoicing you, I don't see how they could. You didn't cancel, they were late. They missed the appointment.

 

[Newchodge]

If they did the job you need to pay. If they turned up but couldn't do the job because you weren't there, I would offer them 1 further opportunity. If they are late for that one you need to check the wording of the contract.

 

[deanpunchard]

On the flip side, you did say you took over this business. Perhaps the engineer has dealt with the previous owners, and found them to be late, so they were simply anticipating being left waiting themselves?

 

[anadalia]

It is their fault for not arriving in time and not even informing you they will be late. So if they did not do the job, you shouldn't pay for anything. Can you reschedule? Punctuality is very important.

 

[The Byre]

I am tired of lazy and/or sloppy UK companies that think that it's OK to be late. It isn't.

 

[Mr D]

I am tired of lazy and/or sloppy UK companies that think that it's OK to be late. It isn't.

If knowing they are going to be late, a text, phone call or email to let the customer know is appreciated.

Several times with UPS doing a collection the office has called and said driver is miles away and cannot get to us in time, can we reschedule? And as its polite and as I don't want to have to hang around too late then yes, not a problem. Have had DPD and Parcelforce simply not bother turning up.


Have had appointments where even the sales rep was unaware he was supposed to be there - one instance the sales rep was about to leave that morning for his honeymoon.
Company in each case didn't contact to say there's a problem, obviously don't need my business so go elsewhere.

 

[Gecko001]

I would not second guess what the other firm will do. It could be a problem with their man telling them porkies about when he left etc. If you feel you were a bit sharp with the engineer over the phone, ring up and apologise and explain exactly what you had to do that was important that morning.

 

[Minuteman Press]

Always give a second chance (but not necessarily a third). Start the way you mean to go on.

Worth also checking the terms and conditions of the contract you have entered into (albeit inherited).

No excuse for poor punctuality without communication.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Don't forget non tolerance can work both ways, customers may return your goods if timed delivery is say 10 minutes late

Being the hard person in business seldom brings out the best in company relations, hence the old business saying "don't piss me off"

I'm with you Chris there has to be a lot of give and take in business
The so called hard nose business people normally hide behind other people

 

[The Byre]

This whole silly debate about whether reliability and punctuality is vital in business, reminds me of a story. It is symptomatic of what it is like for non-British companies to try to deal with a certain type of Brits and their attitude to doing business.

When my wife was a buyer for the German plant of a large US international manufacturer of electric motors(market cap several billion and with plants around the World) she ordered standard high-quality bearings from a small Sheffield company. She told me that it took all day to get hold of the sales manager, as he came in late - but in the end he answered the phone and took the details and specifications.

The price was lower than their usual supplier Thyssen Stahl and like every buyer, she wanted to save money. The pound was having yet another of its periodic collapses, so buying from the UK seemed to make sense and was a golden opportunity for that Sheffield company to shine and gain a foothold in Germany and possibly beyond.

This was the first time that she had ordered from them and one would have thought that a large order for a truck load of bearings would be taken very seriously, not least, because it could be the start to a profitable and long term relationship as supplier to a giant international.

The sales manager's assistant then said that she would be processing the order straight away and that a truck with a container full of bearings would arrive on the following Wednesday.

Wednesday came around - no truck and no bearings. Thursday came and still no bearings. Friday also passed bearingless.

On the Monday, my wife phoned up the Sheffield company wanting to know what had happened to her bearings.

"When I said Wednesday, I was merely siting the sort of day on which the bearings might arrive - you know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and so on." Then she said "Do you still want the bearings?"

My wife realised that they hadn't even started to do anything about the order, so she told them to forget the whole thing and phoned up Thyssen Stahl in Cologne. They told her that the truck with the bearings would be at the loading bay on Wednesday at six in the morning, ready for the start of the working day.

At precisely six in the morning, a truck from Thyssen Stahl loaded with bearings arrived at the loading bay.

 

[Mark T Jones]

In this case not paying seems reasonable. Also, from your OP you’ve yet to receive an invoice so the supplier may well have acknowledged this

Overall you need to look at the forward relationship with this business, both as supplier and (potential customer).

My experience of hung ho ‘ bin them, due them’ posters is that they seldom see the bigger picture.

 

[Mr D]

I'm with you Chris there has to be a lot of give and take in business
The so called hard nose business people normally hide behind other people

Times it is needed though.
And a peed off customer is one that probably will never use you again.

 

[obscure]

I am always reminded of the episode of Grand Designs in which a British couple build a home using a German manufactured frame system. The German company manufactured the pieces to order/spec and then shipped the parts and their assembly team and equipment to the location in England and then waited.... and waited....

Unfortunately the British supplier of the concrete couldn't find its way to the location of the build so the whole process was delayed for several hours.

 

[DavidWH]

We once ordered a load of labels from a supplier, who advised they'd be done for Wednesday.

I rang on the Tuesday to see what time they'd be done, to be told there was no chance they'd be done for Wednesday as they're moving premises, the press was being dismantled and being moved to the new unit, and would take a few days to put back together.

A few choice words, and they managed to do the job, how they forgot to tell me they were moving when I placed the order is beyond me.

Our local competition are typically unreliable, we tend to know if we've got the job when we go to do a site survey, and they pass comment thay we actually turned up on time

 

[Mr D]

A previous company I worked for used to place its orders with 2 or more companies. Then pay whoever turned up first.
It got their vehicles moving faster than simply waiting 90 minutes or so each time for ours to turn up.
Annoyed our drivers as 80% of the time it was a wasted journey so they didn't exactly push the job to the front of the queue. And customer would never ring to cancel once someone had turned up.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Don't forget to mention the British companies that offer fantastic service, Even Germany must have some poor service companies

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Don't forget to mention the British companies that offer fantastic service, Even Germany must have some poor service companies

don't tell us you still drive a Rover
Do you want to borrow a spanner

 

[The Byre]

Don't forget to mention the British companies that offer fantastic service, Even Germany must have some poor service companies

I have had to suffer my fair share of unreliable, unpunctual and dilatory German companies over the years, but they are the exception and not the rule - and thankfully, they don't last long!

What you guys don't see is the way that German companies are encroaching on traditional UK service and other industries. They are achieving this by being thorough, punctual and reliable.

For example, the Eurovision Song Contest nearly always has all the tech done by German companies for staging, sound and vision. Every Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Dire Straights, Genesis, etc. live concert you may have watched from the past 20 years or so was recorded by a German company. The company Thomann in Bavaria has made deep inroads into the UK musical instrument market, as has its rival Music Store in Cologne. Minis are now made in Bavaria and Austria by BMW, though they still have a srewdriver factory and a milling shop in the UK. Your Vauxhall is just a badged Opel. Most of your DVDs and Blu-Ray disks will have been mastered and coded by a German company near Trier. Your central heating boiler comes from Bosch. Nearly all of the IP in your car is licensed from Bosch and Daimler-Benz, - ABS, ESP, common-rail fuel injection and the software that governs it is all German.

None of the World's top ten insurance companies are from the UK. Chinese, German, French, Swiss, US yes, but no Brits. Only one UK bank (HSBC) makes it into the World's top ten banks. There is a steady and it seems an almost unstoppable growth from Chinese, French and German service industries (as well as manufacturing) but in those areas where UK companies used to excel and dominate, we have just seen a steady decline.

Even cottage service industries where Britain once was one of the leaders, like film music and film and TV CGI we are seeing UK companies being beaten to the post by New Zealand, Canada, the US and a whole string of Eastern EU countries, Poland, Slovakia and The Czech Republic in particular.

There are many key components to business success and everyone has their pet list, such as adequate financing, experience, realism, ability to delegate, etc., etc., etc. But (IMO) somewhere near the top comes delivery. Actually doing what you said you would do.

And like it or lump it, Brits have a dreadful reputation the World over, for being very, very unreliable.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Naturally you cant count on Rolls Royce aero engines which are world leaders, or Our wing makers for Airbus the most difficult designs in any aircraft and manufacturing them, also shorts who make the Canadian aircraft wings. People do seem to like the McLaren, Jaguar, Land rover cars who can produce cars without cheating performance figures, plus plenty of scientific companies from pharmaceutical to space satellite's, and chip makers to name a few even the Mercedes formula 1 team

 

[Gecko001]

 

[The Byre]

UK companies do and can excel at high tech (though on any reliability index, Jaguars and Land Rovers do not do well at all - even if the Jag is a lovely car and a joy to drive!)

A UK film set is a wonder to behold for efficiency and good organisation - AND punctuality! They deliver on time and usually under budget! A British rock tour is possibly the best example of good organisation I have ever seen - I watched Pink Floyd's road crew tear down and move out the entire stage for the 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' tour in about half an hour. That was one of the biggest stage-builds ever put on the road at the time!

As for the punctuality of public transport - German trains leave the station at precisely 90 seconds after the posted time!

But then my German wife saw a door with a draft-excluder along the bottom and burst out laughing! "Wouldn't it be easier to just build doors that fit?" she said.

 

[Noah]

Don't forget to mention the British companies that offer fantastic service, Even Germany must have some poor service companies

I think there might be another useful perspective on this issue - that of the customer from the business' position. I am not the only one that finds some customers unpleasant time-wasters who do not appreciate good service and buy purely on price alone; it seems reasonable that businesses will adapt to the environment they sell in, and customers are just as much responsible for that environment as businesses are - the business of commerce is a mutual reponsibility.

In a nutshell, if one's business experience is that a significant number of customers are unappreciative of one's efforts, then one might be inclined to make less effort.

Now I don't have a lot of e.g. German customers, so I don't know if they generally behave any better than British customers; I look forward to being educated (but not spanked - just wanted to be clear on that).

 

[Mr D]

I think there might be another useful perspective on this issue - that of the customer from the business' position. I am not the only one that finds some customers unpleasant time-wasters who do not appreciate good service and buy purely on price alone; it seems reasonable that businesses will adapt to the environment they sell in, and customers are just as much responsible for that environment as businesses are - the business of commerce is a mutual reponsibility.

In a nutshell, if one's business experience is that a significant number of customers are unappreciative of one's efforts, then one might be inclined to make less effort.

Now I don't have a lot of e.g. German customers, so I don't know if they generally behave any better than British customers; I look forward to being educated (but not spanked - just wanted to be clear on that).

The German postal service appears quicker to return uncollected post than the UK post office network. By up to 3 months.
Have had German buyers that accepted that deliveries can take a little time. Have had UK buyers who wanted delivery faster than was possible to get it to them. Like ordering Christmas eve afternoon (after postal network shuts down), wants delivery on first postal day after Christmas - and didn't want to pay for more than 2nd class post.