posted
Hi fellurz. I got a client who owes me a couple grand. For a couple months they've ignored my calls, when I show up there the accounting lady says she requested the check...then the check was done for the wrong ammount...then this...then that.. the latest was that they want more work & that both checks are coming out together...
as if I were stupid....
How would you handle this?
-------------------- Felix Marcano PuertoRicoSigns.Com Luquillo, PR
Work hard, party like a tourist! Posts: 2274 | From: Luquillo, Puerto Rico, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I just had a similar situation. Not as much money involved though.
They had bounced checks on us and we eventually gave up chasing them. They called the other day wanting more work. (Unbelievable, if you asked me!) I told them we'd be happy to do the new job for them. All they needed to do was bring cash for the previous job and payment in full for the new job. They came in a couple days later with the money and I did the job for them.
posted
I work for a comunity college and sometimes it can take a while for our vendors to get paid, from what I understand offering a discount sometimes helps grease the wheels. Sometimes you wonder if the wheel is flat.
I would probly have put something like "if paid within 15 days 3% discount. after 30 days 3% per month late fees" or something like that.
If I were you and could afford to chance loosing their account, I would tell them that I would be glad to do the other work just as soon as I get my first check.
-------------------- Raymond Quick Ye Thicker Than Thou Sign and Repair Shoppe Olympic College, 1600 Chester Ave Bremerton, WA 98337 rquick@oc.ctc.edu Posts: 50 | From: Bremerton Washington | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
the city here used to take 60 to 90 days to pay me until i started doing the same thing to them that the do to every one on their utility bill. it says if paid by such a date a certain amount after that date it is a certain amount(10%) more. so i started doing the same thing only i add 15% to the bill. city manager said that i could not do that and i told him if the city could that i could. they paid it a couple of times and my money has not been late again.
-------------------- Jimmy Chatham Chatham Signs 468 stark st Commerce, Ga 30529 Posts: 1766 | From: Commerce, GA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Offer to make a small repair/correction to the sign for free. Create one if you have to. Pick it up and take it back to your shop. A week later call them and tell them it is done and you will gladly deliver/install it when the cheque is ready for the original project. No cheque...no sign.
-------------------- Chuck Churchill, It's A Good Sign Inc. 3245 Harvester Rd, U-12 Burlington, Ont. Phone: 905-681-8775 Fax: 905-681-8945 Posts: 633 | From: Burlington, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I have had this difficulty with similar institutions. I go to the administator in charge, not the accounting clerk, and ask what billing information I need to give them in order to be payed in a timely manner. Typically the president of the college or equivalent is not aware that bills are not being paid or that there is a budget problem. Wakes him up and you can become an ally which takes away the adversary position.
-------------------- Kent Smith Smith Sign Studio P.O.Box 2385, Estes Park, CO 80517-2385 kent@smithsignstudio.com Posts: 1025 | From: Estes Park, CO | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
We've got a college here in town that can't charge at any shop in town anymore. They are notorious for not paying bills until someone physically goes out there and raises a little hell.
The only way we got paid for the last thing we did for them was to go out there with documentation of phone calls, invoice dates, and late notice dates and talked to the head of accounting.
One other suggestion, if they tell you they are going to mail your check another day tell them not to mail it, you'll come pick it up. It's a whole lot easier to "forget" to mail a check than it is to have to look you in the face and lie about where it is.
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
I sent a collection agency after a lawyer that was almost a year late. They kept 25% and I got money I never thought that I would see. Of course the orginial bill was over $1100.00 so it was worth it. I have filed court papers on 3 people and have gotten all but $25.00. I only had to go to court once. The others paid before we went to court. I am getting ready to warn someone else that if they don't pay their balance that I will file against them. I don't know if I will ever get this money as I printed a mural for the wife to give to her husband for his birthday for the back of their motorhome. I have since found out that they got divorced.
-------------------- Laura Butler Vision Graphics & Sign 4479 Welch Rd Attica, Mi 48412 Posts: 2855 | From: Attica, Mi, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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Also...I have found that I am always money and lack of stress ahead when I use a collection agency. We may only get part of what is due but we don't waste more valuable time chasing the money. We usually get enough to compensate for lost materials but not lost time so there is no reason to compound the issue. AND get signatures always on your proposal, artwork approval, purchase order, etc. so you have a paper trail that leads back to the customer as proof that they had intent to order and consequently to pay.
-------------------- Kent Smith Smith Sign Studio P.O.Box 2385, Estes Park, CO 80517-2385 kent@smithsignstudio.com Posts: 1025 | From: Estes Park, CO | Registered: Nov 1998
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Invoice that delinquent customer for "service charges" (to cover off the collection costs) before handing their file off to the collection agency.
-------------------- Jon Aston MARKETING PARTNERS "Strategy, Marketing and Business Development" Tel 705-719-9209 Posts: 1724 | From: Barrie, ON, CANADA | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I've had great luck with a registered letter. Just add the cost of the letter to the invoice with a "pay within 5 days" notice. I think it is one of the steps necessary to go to small claims court, not sure, in any case it has always worked like a charm for me. Now I'm off to deal with a $967.46 cheque that seems to have developed a bouncing problem. That scares me 'cause it means the money isn't there.
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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![[Mad]](mad.gif)
That scares me 'cause it means the money isn't there.
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