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The other day I was yapping on the phone a usual and it has become apparent that it truly is the Wild West out there at the moment.
We all know about MFI, Servis UK, GBDAR, Sovereign and all the rest of them that have traditionally passed work onto service agents, us, going bust or whatever. What we don’t know is what’s to come yet and some of it is burying debt and bad news while the climate allows that to happen without anyone batting an eyelid but equally some could be potentially extremely harmful.
But the short of it is this, expect more. There are a lot of rumours flying about and there’s none that offer good news.
What has also struck me in various conversations is that many repairers that do work on behalf of clients are, to some extent, burying their head in the sands and hoping all this goes away. To be frank, it won’t and ignoring the problem won’t lessen it.
It is utterly staggering that some have let accounts slip thinking that everything will be okay and they’ll get paid then are all hacked off when that doesn’t happen. It really is this simple, if you don’t pay your spares accounts on time to CDSL, Masterpart or whoever, you go on stop, why should you act in a different manner?
Don’t be frightened to put people on stop for not paying in full or on time as, if you continue to provide goods and services all you do is dig a bigger hole and increase the debts.
Remember, if a client does go pop on you, you either won’t get paid at all for the work you’ve done or you’ll get a proportion of it back, maybe, sometime. So in the short term you have to regard the whole sum owed as being lost. It’s a huge risk dependent on the amount of credit you extend and, that’s what you’re doing, extending a line of credit, with no guarantee that you’ll ever get it back.
If you lose the work, so what? If you weren’t being paid on time and being used as an extension of another company’s overdraft big deal, do you really want to be in that position? Or do you want the client to be able to dictate to you and hold you to ransom with your own money as Sean likes to say?
But the worst of it is that you could gamble on the client being okay then, as has been the case with quite a few recently, they’re not and you’re out of pocket.
Please, watch your accounts and get the invoices in as quickly as possible. Get paid or stop as, personally, I really don’t want to see any more repairers losing money.
K.
Re: Recession – The Wild West…
YES! How loud do we have to shout it? What are people thinking of when they brush aside debts from certain companies on the promise that all future work will be guaranteed payment, even though there is no Contract or TOC’s. Yet they have left you with a share of their debts that they had little intention of settling.
So, your van is playing you up, you take it to the dealer where your have an account, and have a clutch fitted. They send the bill, next day you tell them, “I have changed the name of my company, the old one is in administration and I’m not paying you, so go whistle Dixie”. Next week, you phone them up. “Another of my vans has a broken cam belt, and can you fix it for me on account? By the way I know we as a new company are not set up with you yet, nevertheless there should be no problem, I’m sure you are happy for us to start again on a new account.” What do you think your garage would say to you? Second word would be off.
This is what is happening. I’m sure you put individual non payers on Stop, why is this any different, except scale and size.
Here is a good one for you to ponder.
Following the passing of Sovereign Repair/Care (CDSL) have stated they will pay their agents £30 per call on that contract. Presume any parts as fitted the agent says goodbye to?
They say have to pursue via the administrators, fair enough, but were they not insured for such eventualities? If so, who keeps the change?
There seems to be a school of thought among some of their agents that as the calls were part of a contract with Repair/care, surely they (R/Care) are responsible for full and final settlement. Then they say “Another good reason to ensure work from Repaircare remains at the top of your daily service listing and visits” They must have an office in North Korea!
That aside, at least there is something on offer, unlike a certain furniture retailer, but doesn’t inspire confidence does it.
Rudi
Re: Recession – The Wild West…
Yes, that did strike me as a bit odd TBH. You’d have thought that that debt would be insured.
In any event did Repaircare make clear that you guys, the repairers, were carrying the risk of this sort of thing from happening, basically indemnifying Repaircare or at least mitigating what is their risk? I certainly haven’t heard of it.
But my philosophy on such things is really simple, I’m a repairer, not an insurer and I’m not going to underwrite anyone else’s debts. If I did the work, I want paid.
If the call was requested by Repaircare then they are legally obliged to settle that debt in full, not in part or at all unless there was something amiss with the goods and services provided. Simple.
Of course if you shout about it you’ll likely get told that they’ll go elsewhere to get the work done unless you shut up. Once again, held to ransom with your own money. That really gets my goat when you get the veiled or not so veiled threats.
I’m sorry but that’s the reality of it and it applies to any work provider, not just Repaircare.
K.
Re: Recession – The Wild West…
I had Teka on the phone the other day asking if we could carry out a repair in our area, No probs said I. Will you send us the invoice for payment!! No, but we will gladly take a credit card payment upon completion of the jobs said I.
Needless to say I am still awaiting the go ahead :rolls:
Just goes to show that even the manufacturers will try it on 👿
Don
Re: Recession – The Wild West…
Well there’s been rumours about Teka for months now, we’ll park that there for now. 😉
But I was thinking about what Rudi said.
I wonder what CDSL would say if you said to them, oh so and so has gone bust so I’ll only be paying you 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the spares bill for the parts we used on that account.
I think we all know what the answer would be. :rolls:
K.
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