Non paying customers

[rlk500]

Ok. What's the best way to deal with non paying customers. We were asked to help out a someone else's client who's server went down. We attended site (within 1/2 hour of the call) and did about a days work on his server. We were close to providing a fix and thought we would discuss costs so far. We told him the cost he said we he couldn't afford us. Basically, we have told him that's the cost and this is not a dutch auction. The server remains un-repaired and we have no intention of finishing the job unless he is going to pay for the work so far.

We realise we have learnt a salutory lesson, and in fact are not too annoyed about it. After all we have had a days training in business management for nothing, except our time......

The real point though is how do you protect yourself against these sort of herberts. Obviosuly, agree costs up front but if they don't pay up whats the score.

[rlk500]

Thanks guys, very helpfull. Strangely enough after a few days of silence the client now wants to pay......