Just wondering how many of you charge late fees or intrest
After chasing the customer this evening and not getting paid again the late fee has come to mind again
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I dont do either right now although I have been tempted to try. I am thinking about setting up a discount for on time payments now. I have heard that people are more inclined to pay on time if they think of it as a discount rather than a fee. I have always gotten paid but dealing with slow paying customers is the worst part of the business for me. A lot of the times it is my own fault at least partly for not keeping on top of things.
yes I know, the 1 percent discount for doing what you should,pay the contactor you hired to a job for you on time like your contract says,but only if I give you a discount something wrong with that but what you goning to do
You know who I have the hardest time collecting from?
Preachers and Lawers!
go figure!?The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
I wouldn't put up with that from lawyers. Get a retainer from them. They know exactly what making the client pay in advance is all about.
Think about it.....
Anyone who gives you a hard time about getting your money from them is either a preacher or a lawyer.
Trying to BS you out of more of your $$$, while deep down in side you wish they would buckup or shut up!
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
I've only had a problem getting paid twice. First time the guy actually told me " love your work but my wife just got a new car. I can't afford to pay you now." He was a builder and I had trimmed a few houses for him. I waited patiently for a few weeks and called again. Same story.
So, I waited down the street for him. He pulled up and parked behind his wife's shiney new car. When he got out I grabbed him up and slammed his head down on the hood of his truck. Told him he had two choices, Pay up now or get beat to hell right there in front of his wife and kids. Funny thing, he handed me cash. Had it on him as a matter of fact. Seems the guy had done it to just about everyone who ever worked for him. This wasn't his first go round.
Second time a friend and I did work for the same builder. He never paid. about 9 months later we had had enough. We waited for him to show up at his trailer. then we called him and explained about how i had spent my misguided youth working for uncle sam and how he better produce some cash or never leave the trailer. Funny, He had cash as well.
None of those methods will help your business in the long run. So, I switched to a new method. Whenever I do anything for someone who starts to give me bad vibe about paying, I simply mention that my sister and brother-in-law are lawyers. I also mention that they both specialize in realestate.
I have done some manhandling to collect money. But, I have never seen fear like I see in the eyes of a lawyer when I tell him where my sister went to school and what firm she works for.
On a lighter note, my sister once told me all lawyers are scum. she hates them all.
Hey Bruce,
Ahh... Do I owe you any money? If I do, please tell me before you get ticked off...
Jon Blakemore
Edited 1/1/2004 11:35:51 AM ET by Jon Blakemore
It sounds like someday you might need a laawyer who specializes in criminal work and his BIL, the bondsman
;)
The thing that really has me chuckling about your story is the fact that you did work for him a second time after the first defered payment and the circumstances of it.
I do a lot for lawyers. They do get to be slow payers sometimes and sure do want to nitpiock the details, but overall, ####good clientele. Need to build trust just like anybody else. I guess that since they see so much of the untrustworthy side of human nature, some of it rubs off onto them.
The only two times I can remewmber not geting paid was
One, a con masquerading as a minister of some off brand ministry.
Two, a state cop - but I beat at least one speeding ticket on his beat..
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin,
"The thing that really has me chuckling about your story is the fact that you did work for him a second time after the first defered payment and the circumstances of it. "
I agree with you, but I'm even more interested in the fact that the builder hired him again to do work. Someone who threatens me in front of the family will not be given preferred subcontractor status, to say the least.
Jon Blakemore
Birds of a feather?.
Excellence is its own reward!
well dad alway said, a laywer will find out a way to keep from paying you and a preacher doesn't believe he ought to pay you to begin with.
The best employee you can have but you wouldn't want him as a neighbor " He the shifty type"
Ok,
I miss typed. The second time was a different builder that a friend and I Both did work for.
Not everyone in this Business is on the up and up. You can drag it through court and get paid months, maybe years later. Or, you can do what needs to be done.
As long as you don't leave a trail of dissatisfied customers. When word gets out that you WILL collect, you Will get paid. If word gets out that you will let yourself get screwed, you will get screwed.
Any man not paying what he owes you is taking food out of the mouths of your family. In that case he should be less worried about if I ever work for him again, more worried that I leave him with the ability to breath on his own when i'm done.
Wasn't there a chapter in the "E-Mythe Copntractor" about cash flow? Skimmed over it.
Once and only once did I ever have a problem with a prompt payment.
After a month of phone tag, I showed up on a Sunday morning at 7:00 AM with a sledge hammer and a crowbar. Demanded payment or the cabinets were coming out in pieces. Stood in the doorway tapping the sledge against the beautiful oak wainscoting.
This nice customer was generous enough to include an extra hundred bucks.
You gotta do what you gotta do. rg