by Scott
£290 left. Client signed off on the job. Then three days later said he wasn't paying.👇 My name's Scott. I'm 38. From Coventry. Tiler. 12 years. Bathrooms, kitchens, shopping centres, offices. Good at what I do. Clean lines. Fast work. Clients come back. Was earning decent — £3,200-3,600 take-home. Sarah works part-time. Together we managed. In September I took on a big job. New restaurant in Birmingham city centre. Three weeks' work. £6,800. Thought — this is it. Clear the backlog. Breathe. Client supplied the Spanish large-format tiles. I brought adhesive, grout, consumables — about £380. Worked every day. Eight till dark. Handed it over. Owner walked round. Nodded. "Good work, Scott. Cheers." I drove home. Three days later — a message. "Few concerns about the quality. Need to meet." I came back. He walked me round for forty minutes. Uneven grout near the entrance. Wrong grout colour by the bar. Tiles "slightly bowed" near the toilets. Nitpicking. On 180 square metres of work. I offered to fix everything he'd flagged. "No. I've already brought another tiler in. He says the work's not up to standard. I need the whole thing redone." The whole thing redone. Three weeks of my work. That he personally signed off on. "I'm not paying." £0. Minus £380 of my own money. Sat in the van outside. Couldn't drive for about twenty minutes. Mortgage in nine days. £1,680. Account — £290. Got home late. Sarah was asleep. Didn't wake her. Sat in the kitchen. Opened the banking app. £290. Put the phone down. First time I genuinely thought: we could lose the house. Not as some vague worry. Actually — in nine days. One in the morning. Scrolling through Facebook. Reading the news. Watching a few reels. Mark — works in construction, does plastering — sent a WhatsApp. Screenshot of some payout. A link. "Scott, try this app mate. They double your balance when you sign up. Pulled out twice now, no issues." Clicked the link. Lucky Spino it's
