Deadbeat customer warning CTI.

Guest · Sep 14, 2017

Connector Technology Inc. I believe they are looking for new vendors to screw over because of cash flow problems, beware. Not sure if I found them here or that other site, just warning my PM brothers not to extend them credit.
First job, they paid in 10 days, second one they are over 90 and do not respond to inquires of when they will pay.

Milland · Sep 14, 2017

Hope you get somewhere with them, but in the meantime thanks for the heads-up.

Have you tried finding the personal information of their office holders? Might be available online if they're a public company, or perhaps through their Secretary of State's Corporation Division

Larry Dickman · Sep 14, 2017

I think it's because of customers like these that I enjoy watching reruns of the Sopranos so much.

m98custom1212 · Sep 14, 2017

Dualkit said:
Connector Technology Inc. I believe they are looking for new vendors to screw over because of cash flow problems, beware. Not sure if I found them here or that other site, just warning my PM brothers not to extend them credit.
First job, they paid in 10 days, second one they are over 90 and do not respond to inquires of when they will pay.

Are they out of NJ? If so the website is down not a good sign

Guest · Sep 14, 2017

m98custom1212 said:
Are they out of NJ? If so the website is down not a good sign

I did business with their Montana location they are probably related.

Kingbob · Sep 15, 2017

My trick is to call claiming to be the boss's lawn service. Say you need to weed eat the driveway but the boss left his fiberglass boat/sports car parked there.
Ask if you should do it and risk throwing rocks at the money pit or should you just come back later. If you come back later you will have to charge him again for making a second trip.
If they give you the run around get the secretary's name an tell her/him that you'll let the boss know she/he said to just do it/come back later. This has never failed to get the right person on the phone, you just got to know the name.

Larry Dickman · Sep 15, 2017

Kingbob said:
My trick is to call claiming to be the boss's lawn service. Say you need to weed eat the driveway but the boss left his fiberglass boat/sports car parked there.
Ask if you should do it and risk throwing rocks at the money pit or should you just come back later. If you come back later you will have to charge him again for making a second trip.
If they give you the run around get the secretary's name an tell her/him that you'll let the boss know she/he said to just do it/come back later. This has never failed to get the right person on the phone, you just got to know the name.

Scamming the scammer. I like it

Guest · Sep 15, 2017

I looked around the dates the fish hook got caught in my mouth but I can't find the thread here or that other place where I get work. Wanted to at least put the guys screen name out there. I probably should have been tipped off when they wanted me to use their UPS account but not buy insurance, that seemed odd to me. At least it was one of the jobs that had low material and tooling costs so I am just out my time.

Philabuster · Sep 15, 2017

Dualkit said:
I looked around the dates the fish hook got caught in my mouth but I can't find the thread here or that other place where I get work. Wanted to at least put the guys screen name out there. I probably should have been tipped off when they wanted me to use their UPS account but not buy insurance, that seemed odd to me. At least it was one of the jobs that had low material and tooling costs so I am just out my time.

But did you learn anything regarding extending credit to a customer? Extending credit always carries risk.

Most of my customers are COD (Square reader makes this easy) with one good customer as my exception to this rule. That corp. customer gets a regular invoice but it is due upon receipt--no 30 day grace period. They cut me a check same day and put it in the mail. I am Johhny-on-the-spot when they need something and I expect their accounts payable to treat me the same way.

Mcgyver · Sep 15, 2017

Kingbob said:
My trick is to call claiming to be the boss's lawn service. Say you need to weed eat the driveway but the boss left his fiberglass boat/sports car parked there.
Ask if you should do it and risk throwing rocks at the money pit or should you just come back later. If you come back later you will have to charge him again for making a second trip.
If they give you the run around get the secretary's name an tell her/him that you'll let the boss know she/he said to just do it/come back later. This has never failed to get the right person on the phone, you just got to know the name.

Getting past the gate keeper....here's one that needs less of explanation.

"Mr. Jones please"
"may I say who's calling?"
"Its the husband of the woman he's been sleeping with"

specfab · Sep 16, 2017

Mcgyver said:
Getting past the gate keeper....here's one that needs less of explanation.

"Mr. Jones please"
"may I say who's calling?"
"Its the husband of the woman he's been sleeping with"

The only issue with that is if the woman he's been sleeping with is the one you're talking to...

scadvice · Sep 16, 2017

We would only extend credit with this form filled in and AFTER we always called the references. Not foolproof but it did help in identifying a possible risk.

CGM-011

APPLICATION FOR CREDIT
GENERAL BUSINESS INFORMATION

Company Name: Fed. Tax ID:

Ship To: Bill To:

Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Type of Business: Resale Cert:
# of Years in Business: Duns #:

General Manager:

BANK REFERENCES

Bank Name: Account #:
Address: Account Mgr:
Phone:

TRADE REFERENCES
(3 minimum)

AUTHORIZATION: PRINT NAME____________________SIGNATURE OF COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE __________________ DATE_______________

Dave D · Sep 16, 2017

"The only issue with that ..."

Likely no issue but it wouldn't be the first time someone has had more than one girlfriend at the same time. On the other hand, if the secretary didn't know there was "other woman" you would at least have some satisfaction from the screaming that followed.

Dave

Larry Dickman · Sep 18, 2017

Doug said:
The lawyer was worried the bad customer might file a lawsuit for slander or such.

Why would the lawyer be worried about that? Cha-Ching, that's how the sons of bitches make their money.

Guest · Sep 18, 2017

Doug said:
I've wondered about publicly "outing" a bad customer or a bad vendor. A friend dealing in a small niche market asked his lawyer whether it was a wise thing to do. The lawyer advised it might not be a good thing to do, especially if the "outer" could be traced back as to identity.

The lawyer was worried the bad customer might file a lawsuit for slander or such. Whether you're right or wrong about the bad customer if they file a suit you may still have to defend yourself in court with a lawyer and that can cost some major hassle and bucks.

Last I checked it isn't slander if you can prove you are telling the truth.

The Dude · Sep 18, 2017

I swear to God that someday I'm going to implement my "rate your customer" site. I'll give salespeople $50 (privately and confidentially) to answer basic questions about how well a customer pays, quality requirements, are they "assholes", etc. Then I'll sell a "report" to prospective suppliers for $500. This will only work at the big leagues (automotive, medical, big-pharma, etc.) but I think eventually a lot of companies would clean up their act and act decently (after I made my $10M and was laying on the beach drinking margaritas...).

Yeah, I know, it has some potential (legal) hang-ups but you can rate your professor/teacher, why not your customer? I would "stick to the facts" and keep opinions out of it (so might have to remove the asshole part).

The Dude

wheelieking71 · Sep 18, 2017

I have found a very simple way to fix this!
NOBODY gets terms. Yes, I get very little work from "new" customers.
But, I also do ZERO work for free!
I have exactly two customers that I will order material for with zero down.
The rest, at least! pay for material up front. NOTHING goes out the door before its paid in full.

Guys, If we all did this, things might change. yea, I know, good fucking luck.

Guest · Sep 18, 2017

wheelieking71 said:
I have found a very simple way to fix this!
NOBODY gets terms. Yes, I get very little work from "new" customers.
But, I also do ZERO work for free!
I have exactly two customers that I will order material for with zero down.
The rest, at least! pay for material up front. NOTHING goes out the door before its paid in full.

Guys, If we all did this, things might change. yea, I know, good fucking luck.

I probably should not be so flexible, strangely enough I recently lost 3 new customers because I wanted 50% down.
That was due to the fact material costs were a good chunk of the final price.
This one I didn't ask for a down payment because of the size of the order and most all of it was labor. It was a $1200 job that was made out of $15 of material, also one bar of stock ran 10 hours and it did not require offsets or tooling replacement during the run.

dave powelson · Sep 18, 2017

Dualkit said:
I probably should not be so flexible, strangely enough I recently lost 3 new customers because I wanted 50% down.
That was due to the fact material costs were a good chunk of the final price.
This one I didn't ask for a down payment because of the size of the order and most all of it was labor. It was a $1200 job that was made out of $15 of material, also one bar of stock ran 10 hours and it did not require offsets or tooling replacement during the run.

From my own experience:
Deposits on order-separate the real customers from the wannabe-jack-u-around-no-pay-when-the-time-comes.
If someone balks at the deposit, they'll definitely fight or avoid the final bill-stiffing you.
You didn't lose 3 customers--you increased your bottom line by not having 3 more deadbeats to hammer you.
Even with deposit--they'll sign a credit sale agreement and invoice order terms.
The whole credit extension biz can be avoided by accepting cards.
Never extend credit on a first order.
Only cautiously extend credit after credit check, etc. Pay attention to your gut feelings about the person you're dealing with.

adama · Sep 19, 2017

Personally i find acting less than 100% sane and dropping the fact i have a convicted murderer as a friend equally successful in getting paid. Debtors are not too bothered by the usual threats, but when they realise your just nuts enough you may not stick to there formal game plan channels like the legal system they generally pay up to make you go away. Keys to not say anything threatening just pop up in a few places they were not expecting to see you and outside normal office hours. This won't work for big amounts they don't have, but for smaller amounts its effective. Debtors hate to be outed in public, especially in front of friends and family.

Deadbeat customer warning CTI.

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