I power-washed a customer’s patio and did some miscellaneous interior repairs. When I was all done, she didn’t even ask the price, but just told me to give the bill to her secretary (she has a home office).
I wrote up the bill, gave it to the secretary, she writes me a check, I put it in my work binder and go home. That evening, I take the check out to get it ready for deposit and notice that the secretary manage to add a zero to the amount. So instead of a check for $125.00, I have a check for $1,250.00. Now there’s a nice bonus!
Of course, it’s not mine to keep. I have a call in to the customer to see what she wants me to do. Who knows… maybe she’ll say “oh, just keep it” (as if).
Replies
Don, I know some people who would go ahead and try to slip that by pretending nothing is wrong without saying a word to anybody.
The rewards that you reap from doing the right thing are numerous.
I made a mistake once on my billing that would have cost the customer about three hundred dollars more that what they owed. It was at the end of a very long difficult job and the mistake was caught by the customer. It was very embarrassing and I immediately apologized and tried not to back peddle with explanations other than, "I screwed up, and I'm very sorry." Otherwise I would just have been digging a deeper hole.
She had me back to work on her house several times and we always continued on in a friendly way. I'm always glad that I endured the few minutes of an uncomfortable red face and left it at that.
I would call the secretary and let her know, not the client. Honest oops, with an honest oopsee(is that a word?). There are employers out there that would fire a person for that.
BTW, is this the case of a client that had you do personal work and have the company pay for it? I have never heard of such a thing...
I can't remember if it was in Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House or some other movie, but I remember the owner getting increasingly agitated by the rising cost of his dream until the well-digger came back to give him a little money back because of some error. That was the turning point in the movie, with the realization that the builders weren't simply out to fleece him.“Expectation strolls through the spacious fields of Time towards Opportunity.”
Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before
I was taught to always go back to the person one on one first. Good point."There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
Using company funds to pay for personal work.
Many years ago, a local estate had major problems with one trustee using estate funds to pay for work on her house. That and other problems lead to a major overhaul of the entire estate's organization. Trustees were being paid $1M plus per year! About 7 of them.
Before that, Forbes magazine did an article about something in Hawaii and they were told that the beneficiary of this estate was a high school. The value of the trust was more than $7B! That's right, with a B! I think they have a larger trust fund than Harvard. Forbes was floored when they found out and did a followup story on the estate. I think the estate owns about 10% of all the land in Hawaii.
That the Bishop Estate you are thinking of?'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
View Image
That's them!
Forbes was blown away that the high school, Kamehameha Schools had a larger endowment than Harvard (and the rest of the Ivy League schools).
Yep, weird but true story.
A customer I had worked for many times called and said he had some houses to winterize. The houses had no electric so he had a gas fired compressor he would bring to the job. I met him at the house, we blew the lines and water heater, and put RV antifreeze in the traps. We then continued on and did the second house.
When we finished he said lets go get something to eat. He took me to one of the nicest restaurants in our town and bought me dinner. "Send me a bill" okay I will was my reply as we left.
Sent him a bill for $45 for each house as we were only there about 30 minutes per house.
When I got the check, he had included the bill and on the line where I listed the address of the house and cost of $45 he added a one in front of the 45 so the bill read $145 on each house and the total was changed from $90 to $290 and that was what the check was made out for.
Well he always had a rep for being a little different so I cashed the check.
Time went on and he called about some more work, I met him at the job and he asked if I had received the check for the last job. I said yes and he started laughing.
Turns out he had inherited an estate of a woman he rented some farms off of. Some shirt tail cousin was suing the estate to get some of the 2+ mil.
He said since he was executor, he was going to spend what he could of it, so the cousin would not get it.
My brother does some carpentry work for him occasionally, he sums it up this way.
"Its like the Army commercial ( Its not just a job, It's an adventure ) "
Any way you don't know what you'll get into when you work for him, but its always a good time, and when you give him a bill he asks are you sure that's enough.
In this case, the thing to do is to take it to the secretary and ask HER to re-issue one in the correct amt. That way she can save face.
I have been double paid a couple times.
One job I was on, I had a hard time getting that dollar spigot open, but once it was flowing, it was just as hard to turn off.
The first bill or three, there were communications problems and stories of it not going to the right location...
So I started mailing one copy, and faxing it both to the owner and her caretaker and the office where the accountant paid the bills from.
The next month's bill was around 19K and they paid it twice. I only expected it to be another 25K to finish the job, so I sent a message to not pay me any more until I specifically requested it.
Sure enough, the final bill was about $6700 and it took me three months to collect it!
;)
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Good point about contacting the secretary directly. I'll keep that in mind, but in this case, there is only 1 contact number and it's the business line (which, I think the secretary intercepts anyway).
I was paid twice for a roof---- customer paid with a credit card----------the credit card company credited me TWICE for the same roof. I was really sweating that as soon as I found out untill I got it cleared up because I knew the customer was traveling out of the country and I was afraid they were gonna be stranded somewhere "over limmit" I no longer accept credit cards--largely due to this episode.
stephen
Maybe the secretary is pre-paying for some other *ahem* services from you. <G>
I changed my mind and deleted my wisecrack response.
Edited 6/2/2009 9:31 pm ET by DonCanDo
First the boobies thread, now this. Feeling kind of frisky lately sailor?
More like trying to lighten things up around here.
2nd that, way to like work lately.
You power washed a deck for $125!?
Family.....They're always there when they need you.
You power washed a deck for $125!?
Actually, it was a small brick patio. I didn't so much as power-wash it as I used the power-washer to chase the dirt off. It went quickly.
Are you thinking that $125 is cheap? I've actually power-washed painted decks for less.
Yeah, I think it was a little light.
Family.....They're always there when they need you.
Overpaid by Medicare when I was first in practice over 20 years ago. They messed up the SS# by one digit, and I was paid for treating someone in another state. I called them and asked how I go about returning money. They took info and said I'd receive a letter. When it came they threatened me with all kinds of BS, if I didn't return it to this address by this date. Really pissed me off, I brought it to their attention. Later learned it was a form letter, nothing personal.
Recently gave a patient a check for $240.00, 12 visits of 20 dollar copays. Turns out the 20 bucks is for exam only, all subsequent visits were 0 copay. We were given misinformation when we qualified his insurance. Made his day!