Customer not collecting/paying for repair

[Kalemaroni]

I repaired someone's MacBook Pro for them and it was ready for collection in April. They have been fobbing me off for 8 months now without payment or collection!

Does anyone in the UK know what the law is with regards to claiming ownership of repaired but uncollected items? Also, in general, what are people on the forum's experiences of this kind of thing and what steps do you put in place to prevent this from happening or covering yourselves?

 

[dukefawks]

My law is fuck these idiots, just sell the thing. Or at least rip the board out and swap it with trash board.

 

[Atomrepair]

Haven't had that problem yet, but a colleague of mine has a drawer full of never picked up phones. He's had them for years, but I think he's going to sell them off now. He was saying he'd go for a 6 month 'serve as customers junkyard' period and then get rid of them, but I too would like to know at what point it ceases being their property(or junk) and becomes yours.

Still, this is better than the alternative of having it picked up and not paid for. I had one of those last year. Was someone who'd been here before so I trusted them enough to take the laptop. Haven't been able to reach them since, they even changed mail accounts and phone by now. I'd prefer your situation!

 

[dukefawks]

I start picking off parts after 3 months, I do keep the SSD/HDD of course. You can always return them as "no fix" with a trash board in the machine.

 

[Repairable]

just make sure you write it on your ticket when taking in a order/repair
says something like failing payment/collection for 6 months item wil become store proterty and wil be destroyed/recycled

and yes fuck them there douchbags. i sometimes even stop sending items back to companys when they repeat in having a bad payment time.
my invoice for company is 7 days. (there customer needs to pay at the desk so there is money already)
i got one that is now taking 90 days for payment at 1 invoice.
so now i stop sending items or doing repairs until payments are done.
new items comming in need to be payed before shipping back.
fuck them,. asking me for speed repairs and then taking 30+ days to make a facking payment.....


feel the anger? yes it is there you felt i correct.

 

[Kalemaroni]

It's true, it's very frustrating. Having experienced these frustrations I make damn sure to pay anyone who does work for me immediately and I love working for people who do the same for me.

 

[larossmann]

My law is fuck these idiots, just sell the thing. Or at least rip the board out and swap it with trash board.

I would say mine is the same.

Here the law is 45 days we have to keep it before recycling it. I usually wait until I have no room for anything, which is long after the 45 day period, then go through all the slots and make working machines from the ones where people have not paid. Unless they were absolute monsters of human beings, I'll save the drive incase they come in later. There are also several calls and emails we make before it gets to that point.

 

[Gurmon]

I wait 6 months, then send them a recorded letter, stating the item will be disposed of from 14 days from when the letter posted.

You cant be touched then, since you have done everything correctly on your side.

 

[Paul Daniels]

Just check what consumer laws apply in your region. Here in Australia, we have to wait 6 months, after which we have to advertise in multiple papers that we're holding an auction to clear the goods, and anything earned above and beyond the owing on the unit has to be then allocated to the original owner.

It would be nice if they could amend our law to cover items only of $1k or greater, because anything less it basically becomes a liability that you cannot legally discard which in turn clogs your business.

( I just had a client turn up after 9 months to collect a $50 laptop that had $99 of service work owing on it ).

 

[bjf]

When I had a store I would have everyone sign an intake form that states our policy for recycling, which was 6 months. Once it's done, we would call 3 times and then let it sit until the 6 months is up and then make one last call right before we recycle it. Never had an issue with that. I also like Gurmon's idea of sending something in writing before you recycle it.

 

[larossmann]

Just check what consumer laws apply in your region. Here in Australia, we have to wait 6 months, after which we have to advertise in multiple papers that we're holding an auction to clear the goods, and anything earned above and beyond the owing on the unit has to be then allocated to the original owner.

That's insane....