Texting cut off times?

Arbiter of Good Taste

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

to expand on it a bit more, I asked him for all invoices that he owed me as I needed them for my accountant so collected them that day, was speaking to him around 6pm and said I'd put the job details in the calendar later. About 5 invoices he owed me were missing so I text him at 22:10 saying the details for tomorrows job were updated to the calendar and that some invoices were missing and the invoices needed his address too and if he could bring them tomorrow and I'd see him in the morning and that was that. I never heard back so text him at 23:42 asking if he got it and was ok for the job tomorrow and he sent an angry text back but apologised in the morning.

anyway, that's all been dealt with, I'm just asking opinions on what people deem a fair time to text or not, mainly after hearing my brother's 6pm/8pm opinion, which certainly wasn't mine as I don't really see texts as intrusive and if I don't want to be disturbed I'll have my phone on silent, but like Gloomtastic, I'm pretty much on call 24/7 but if others deem it rude or intrusive I'll definitely take it on board, hence the thread

Was it absolutely crucial for you to have these Invoices? If not, then that's even worse. I could see if you were giving him job details and maybe weren't sure that he was even going to show up, but to text him about paperwork at a time when most people are asleep.....

cabla

I think it depends on the line of business also what is acceptable. An office job I think emails are the norm and acceptable. Txting is invasive of personal space. However by the nature of your work I'm not sure what the issue is with the guy. To be fair you probably should have given him the benefit of the doubt or else called him or txt him first thing in the morning to remind him. A txt at 11:45PM is a bit much to remind them about something that you could have done when he was up.

If he doesn't use emails well not sure how else you would communicate? Phone call isn't great either at that time.

Terri26

in my opinion there is a big difference between email and text. Firstly I don't always look into my email but I do texts. I have my email notifications always set to silent whereas my texts are not on silent.
why should my texts be set to silent when I use it personally in my own personal time. I would be annoyed too if someone did that to me but if it was for my own benefit (like you claim it was -getting paid) perhaps I'd be a little less annoyed. you should have contacted him earlier about it.

jimmii

With email a lot of people wouldn't get notifications for their business email and its expected that responses may only be during business hours with a text you are clearly trying to get the message to them as urgently as possible. I normally turn my data off over night so I can't get any emails but texts/calls will still come through in case of emergency.

Its a shame its taken a thread like this to get some activity round here!

doopa

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

I run a small service business with no fixed schedule for jobs. i use contractors but know them well. I text one guy about work stuff including some notes for the next day at 22:15 off the pc, I never got a reply and wasn't sure if it worked from the pc so sent him a text at 23:45 asking if he got it and if everthing was ok for the morning and he went mad at me telling me not to be texting him at that time.

Nevermind the timing of the mails - I'd be annoyed that someone checked in to make sure I got an email. That in itself seems unnecessary. Its hard to avoid the subtext - I don't trust you to have actually done the thing.

If we believe you that you weren't sure that it worked why didn't you text him immediately? Unless what you mean by 'not sure it worked' is 'he didn't reply instantly'. Again out of curiosity what made you think that the email didn't send?

cabla

doopa wrote: »

Nevermind the timing of the mails - I'd be annoyed that someone checked in to make sure I got an email. That in itself seems unnecessary. Its hard to avoid the subtext - I don't trust you to have actually done the thing.

If we believe you that you weren't sure that it worked why didn't you text him immediately? Unless what you mean by 'not sure it worked' is 'he didn't reply instantly'. Again out of curiosity what made you think that the email didn't send?

Doopa - no offense but maybe re read the OPs original remark. He didn't send any email firstly and secondly he sent a txt off the PC so therefore may have thought there was a technical issue.

BnB

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Unbelievable! Why are you even thinking of using this guy again?

Ahh to be fair - I would have agreed with you except for the fact that he apologised in the morning. You have to cut a fella a bit of slack for being a bit cranky at close to midnight

RE the overall point, anyone that thinks it is not ok to send a contractor a quick text at 10 or 11 o clock at night to remind them of something you need in the morning is not living in the real world. It would be different if he was ringing him expecting a half hour conversation but a text is very un-intrusive (if that's a word..!!!). And while close to midnight is very late, the OP wouldn't have been texting him again if he had sent a quick one word reply to the first text

doopa

cabla wrote: »

Doopa - no offense but maybe re read the OPs original remark. He didn't send any email firstly and secondly he sent a txt off the PC so therefore may have thought there was a technical issue.

Ok - I assumed he meant to say email since it was from the computer. Still it should be possible to turn on delivery reports (something I recommend the OP does) so one can tell if the message was received. Still - have there been technical problems in the past? At what time did the technical problem become apparent? The point stands - the second text feels unnecessary.

NeptunesMoon

I was using a pc app/program to send an sms that I hadn't really used before as I was copying text from a spreadsheet, a long text I sent describing what invoices were missing (had the details of the invoices) was split into about 6 different texts for some reason, it didn't give a delivery report and the first time I sent it, it didn't come out right, I sent him a message after saying "sorry that didn't come out right" and then sent it again and it didn't come out right, but it was more legible this time but still not formatted perfectly and I sent another message after saying I'd see him in the morning. None of which I heard back from so I sent another message later asking him if he got the other messages as I wanted to make sure he knew he still owed me the invoices as these were the last bits of paperwork I needed before handing in my 2014 books to the accountant.

Gloomtastic!

BnB wrote: »

Ahh to be fair - I would have agreed with you except for the fact that he apologised in the morning.

Missed that bit, but my opinion still stands.....

cabla

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

I was using a pc app/program to send an sms that I hadn't really used before as I was copying text from a spreadsheet, a long text I sent describing what invoices were missing (had the details of the invoices) was split into about 6 different texts for some reason, it didn't give a delivery report and the first time I sent it, it didn't come out right, I sent him a message after saying "sorry that didn't come out right" and then sent it again and it didn't come out right, but it was more legible this time but still not formatted perfectly and I sent another message after saying I'd see him in the morning. None of which I heard back from so I sent another message later asking him if he got the other messages as I wanted to make sure he knew he still owed me the invoices as these were the last bits of paperwork I needed before handing in my 2014 books to the accountant.

Is this not something you could have called him about in the morning? I thought you had sent one txt and that was it. No wonder he was a bit aggitated getting so many. You were conduction business at that time by the sounds of it rather than sending a reminder and probably thought the messages would keep coming if he responded.

All in all, to me sending a message is fine but time wise I'd look at the urgeny to be honest. Was it so urgent it couldn't have waited till the morning, do you think at 10:30 at night he was going to organize them if he hadn't done so already. A txt "hey sorry late message, job on x location x time" would have been ok, not "hey so x y and z invoices need to get to me" x 7 or 8 messages.

seventeen sheep

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

I was using a pc app/program to send an sms that I hadn't really used before as I was copying text from a spreadsheet, a long text I sent describing what invoices were missing (had the details of the invoices) was split into about 6 different texts for some reason, it didn't give a delivery report and the first time I sent it, it didn't come out right, I sent him a message after saying "sorry that didn't come out right" and then sent it again and it didn't come out right, but it was more legible this time but still not formatted perfectly and I sent another message after saying I'd see him in the morning. None of which I heard back from so I sent another message later asking him if he got the other messages as I wanted to make sure he knew he still owed me the invoices as these were the last bits of paperwork I needed before handing in my 2014 books to the accountant.

Ah seriously. No wonder he was píssed off.

You sent him a load of data split into six texts (and god knows what the formatting was like), followed by another text, followed by the first six texts again, followed by another text, followed by another text. That's fifteen text altogether, late at night!

As regards the job, you should have sent him an e-mail with all the details (way more suitable and user-friendly than sending large amounts of data via SMS) and you should have texted him apologising for contacting him so late, but letting him know that you'd e-mailed him, and could he please reply to confirm receipt. Or even ring direct to his voicemail to leave a message asking to confirm receipt.

As regards the paperwork - it's your own fault if you left it too late to get things together for your accountant. In future, I'd suggest that you don't pay until you've received a valid invoice, and keep your filing up to date as you go along.

pedronomix

Poor Pet!!