I (Stuart Lee Drinkwater, a.k.a. Stuart Lee and Stuart Drinkwater) am a self-employed individual and as such my time is extremely valuable. As such I reserve the right to impose terms and conditions to protect myself from people wasting my time and potential loss of earnings.
Any time spent dealing with unsolicited interactions including (but not limited to) the following items will be invoiced (at the rates shown in sections 1-5 below);
- telephone calls
- emails
- postal communication
- face-to-face conversations
These terms and applied to anything or anyone other than where explicitly waived by myself because I wish to participate in communication with the other party. Examples include conversing with good existing clients or potential new clients.
I reserve the right to charge any person or company for my time to answer to and/or respond to your communication, and to cover myself for the possible loss of work. I also charge for any time spent chasing debts from late-paying customers.
If you are contacting me for the first time, the charges below may be waived at my discretion, and you will be supplied one method of communication for which you may contact me without charge. This number should be used for any communication you wish to have with myself without incurring any of the charges listed below.
Contacting me via any telephones numbers (both via call and SMS/text messages) that are registered to me, writing to me at my personal/residential address, and all email addresses I have are ALL chargeable (unless you have been instructed otherwise) at the rates shown below.
– IN REGARDS TO INBOUND COMMUNICATION
BY CHOOSING TO CONTACT ME USING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING METHODS YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTING MY TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
If you do NOT wish to accept these terms, then do not contact me through the channels which are shown to be chargeable, or you WILL be invoiced.
– IN REGARDS TO DEBT COLLECTION MATTERS.
THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED BY YOU IMMEDIATELY UPON THE DEBT COLLECTION PROCEDURE BEING IMPLEMENTED THROUGH YOUR DECISION NOT TO PAY.
IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY ON TIME AND IN FULL.
1. Telephone Communication
As stated above, all telephone calls made to either my mobile or landline numbers (numbers withheld here for privacy), are chargeable unless you have been informed otherwise.
If you have been made aware of my terms and conditions by either post, telephone conversation (when I may have called you), email or any other form of communication, and you still wish to contact me, there is a protocol in place to make it possible to avoid charges, should your information be of use to myself. Follow these instructions to find out if you will be charged for contacing me;
If you are trying to contact me by phone, make your call. The majority of the time I do not answer numbers that I do not recognise, especially if the number is ‘withheld’. If the call is not answered, which is more than likely the case, then make sure you continue until the answer phone/voicemail activate.
- Leave a message clearly stating who you are and what your business with me is, plus a method that I can contact you should I need to.
- If your message is of use to me, I will respond to you within 24 hours via the contact details you supplied. If you have not received a response within that time, then you have NOT been accepted as a useful contact and WILL automatically be charged as per the rate structure below. It is up to you to make sure you do NOT contact me if you do not wish to be charged.
- If you call is of particular annoyance to me (including, but not limited to – PPI companies, Personal Injury Solicitors, Telemarketers etc), your number will be added to the spam-blocker application on my mobile handset and I will then not be notified at all that you have attempted to call. You will not be charged, you will just be wasting your own time, not mine.
2. Call Charge Rates
- Incoming calls will now be answered and immediately informed of the terms and conditions in place and asked whether they accept the terms and would like to proceed. If accepted, the caller will then be required to supply their Name, Address (or Company Name and Address where necessary) and Billing details.
- Incoming Calls will be charged £250 for every 10 minutes the conversation lasts. This is billed at the start of every 10 minute block – so an 11 minute conversation would cost a total of £500 (£250 for the first 10 minute block and £250 for the second 10 minute block. All calls can be logged and recorded on my phone to confirm exact length of call.
- If you are not on my approved list and you request me to call you back, my Outgoing call charge rate is £250 per 10 minute block for each call I am expected to make to you.
3. Postal Communication
All postal communication addressed to myself, Stuart Drinkwater or Stuart Lee in any format (eg. S. Drinkwater, Mr. S. L. Drinkwater, Mr S. Lee etc.) will be charged a standard receipt charge of £250 for opening and reading services.
If your letter requires any action to be taken by me it is charged as;
- If you require me to call yourself or any particular phone number – Outgoing calls will be charged as above at £250 for every 10 minute ‘block’, billed at the start of every 10 minutes, so an 11 minute conversation would cost a total of £500 (£250 for the first 10 minute block and £250 for the second 10 minute block.) All calls can be logged and recorded on my phone to confirm exact length of call.
- If you require me to write back – my fee for writing back is £500 for each reply/response that you require.
- Any other type of action you wish me to take, including but not limited to – requiring me to visit a website, write a cheque, etc – all charged at £250 per instruction.
4. Digital Communication
(including but not limited to Emails, Web Forms, Text messages etc)
All forms of unauthorised digital communication I receive will be charged at £250 per message received, plus if you require a response to be written and sent back to you, I will charge my standard writing fee as per ‘postal communication’ above (£500 per email/text etc).
My ‘inboxes’ are not places for you to overload with various forms of junk information that I did not request, therefore these charges are for people/businesses sending messages that I then have to waste my time carefully checking through and filing or deleting – whilst taking care not to lose important information from my clients. I consider protecting my business from spam, phishing and viruses as one of my highest priorities.
5. Face-to-Face Discussion
If you require me to be present in person, for example at a meeting or for a discussion of any kind, my charge is £1200 per hour or part thereof.
This includes my charge for things such as;
- meetings
- court appearances
- interviews, etc.
6. Mandatory Charges for outbound communication
As I previously stated, I am self-employed and as such I occasionally suffer the hassle of having to deal with either late or non-paying customers. To any business this is an annoyance, but to the self-employed individual it can seriously affect my cash-flow and as such the ability to afford to handle more work in the future, along with taking up valuable time in chasing payments.
Therefore I reserve the right to implement charges to cover my costs when chasing outstanding accounts, as shown here;
6b. Standard communication and charges
As per sections 2-4 above.
6b. Debt chasing communication and charges
When a debt passes 30 days and enters into 31-60 days overdue, the customer will be contacted by a phone call initially (just one, a message will be left if possible) and allowed the chance to respond within 24 hours. If no response is made, a follow-up SMS text message or email will be made and a charge of £100 will be added to the debt. This will be repeated every working day until the customer responds and makes a clear action on payment.
If the debt eventually enters 61-90 days overdue, a written letter will be served at the standard charge of £1000 (as per standard outgoing written communication charges above, see item 3). This will allow the customer a 14 day response period from the date of the letter. If no response to the first letter is made, a second and final letter will be sent, incurring a further £1000 charge.
Once the second letter has been sent, if no response is made then court action is taken. Charges for court time, letters to the court and any other communication will all be charged for and added to the total amount payable.
Further Information
Any communication that incurs the charges listed will be invoiced. Invoices must be paid (by BACS – account details will be provided on the invoice) within 7 days of invoice. Late payments may incur further charges, including debt collection fees until the full debt is recovered.
These terms and conditions are applicable to any person or business who has not been instructed (in writing) that the fees have been waived for their particular case. I reserve the right to update and amend these terms and conditions at any time without prior notice.
Image, Video and Audio Rights Management
I hold all rights to images and all other forms of media featuring either myself or my property.
Any type of media containing myself or my property can only be used with my permission. If you wish to use any such content, then please make your request in writing (first contact charges will be waived as long as your message is clearly regarding the use of media). Charges will apply for all media used which will be discussed with you directly so as to ascertain the scale of coverage your media outlet may receive. The charges will in all cases be less than the fines applicable should you choose to publicise without being given my authorisation to do so.
Any images, video, audio or other media featuring either myself or my property used without my permission clearly stated in writing, will be subject to a minimum fine of either £100,000 or £100 per reader (printed media based on ABC data) or page hit (digital media or social media) or viewer (TV – based on estimated viewing figures) – whichever is greater. So a website with a page hit count of 200,000 would be fined £20,000,000. This fine helps repair any damage that may be done by unauthorised use of media containing either me or my property and any historical or potential affect on my life.
