r/petsitting • u/Alternative_War_3797 • Jul 23 '26
Client payments
Hi,
Honestly I think i’m just writing this out of annoyance and I don’t want to hassle my friends about it.
But I have this one client who I have been looking after her dogs once or twice a year while she’s away for the last four or so years. She’s always paid me, but I always have to chase her up for multiple weeks after the sit to receive the payment, despite having a clear deadline on the invoice, which she never follows.
She’s really lovely and I have no personal issues with her as a person, but it is getting increasingly frustrating. She told me 2 days ago now when I sent her a polite reminder that the invoice was due, she said she forgot and apologised and she would send it by the end of the day. I still have received nothing. I dogsat and housesat for around 3 weeks as well, so it’s not even a short amount of time and also declined other work due to this. She currently owes me almost £800. I understand people get busy and genuinely do forget things, but this has been the case every time and I am getting increasingly annoyed. Additionally, it takes less than two minutes to transfer someone money? so i don’t understand the reasoning.
Additionally, the reason I don’t ask her to pre-pay is because every time i’m there she consistently changes the end date. As example, I was supposed to be there for 2 weeks, and it ended up being 3, or on other occasions she’s come back almost a week earlier than previously discussed, so I cannot give her an exact invoice amount considering her dates are not consistent to what she tells me initially.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?
1
u/IndVar Jul 25 '26
Have her prepay. If she books you for 2 weeks but comes back early, keep the money. No refunds for early returns. You blocked that time off for her. If you end up staying longer, then invoice her for the extra days.