Advice on first time being burned

[john.k]

The good old $2 paid up corporation.....the maximum they stand to lose is the cost of the company registration fees ,about $2500 ,when the company is deregistered.........which as I said earlier is where the bikies come in......you cant hurt a company,but the directors can feel a lot of pain.

 

[neilho]

Small Claims Court does not allow lawyers, nor witnesses. Documentation, SOLID documentation is what wins.

... having the county Sheriff show up to serve them papers and seize assets can be a fun thing.

The law for small claims, and enforcement, varies state to state. New Hampshire will put people in jail, eventually, for not paying a small claims judgment, Vermont, no way. Eventually, they'll send the sheriff out to inventory assets for an auction to pay the judgment, though. That was satisfying.

 

[Bill D]

wonder how the courts value old computers full of customer data. Scrap the computers and sell the data to their competitors.
Bill D

 

[john.k]

The biggest losers in small claims are the solid competent trades and businesses who assume the court will see the nonsense in a ridiculous claim by a plaintiff for release from payment,and for damages.....Very often they come unprepared for the spurious documentation presented as evidence by the plaintiff.

 

[PDW]

The biggest losers in small claims are the solid competent trades and businesses who assume the court will see the nonsense in a ridiculous claim by a plaintiff for release from payment,and for damages.....Very often they come unprepared for the spurious documentation presented as evidence by the plaintiff.

I got involved in something like that 20+ years back. The bastards, I found out, immediately counter-sued for fraud if you went to court to recover money owed. The fraud case had to take priority so then they'd endlessly stall and run up the costs.

Once I found this out I went in on the weekend, removed all the servers they hadn't paid for and took all copies of the source code I was developing for them with me. Told them that as I'd never been paid anything, the contract wasn't enforceable and to sue me. Meanwhile good luck getting the source code back.

I never did get paid but they went down the tubes. Lesson learned. I never started another software development project without an up front payment.

PDW

 

[AJ H]

Fal, you're famous DID YOU JUST GET BURNED by your customer? Here's what that looks like | Machine Shop Talk Episode 43 - YouTube

 

[Ox]

I'd really love to hear an update on this anyhow....


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[CITIZEN F16]

Fal, you're famous DID YOU JUST GET BURNED by your customer? Here's what that looks like | Machine Shop Talk Episode 43 - YouTube

What is that member's screen name? Or is that privileged information?

 

[Old-Red]

I know I am late to the thread and you've probably settled the problem one way or the other. Did you ever talk to the guy that ordered the parts or the owner of the company? As others have noted troublesome customers can become good business if you can solve your mutual problems.

I worked for International Harvester from 1970 through 1972 now and then someone would get the president of IH on the with a complaint and it would get fixed with all possible haste often by the people that had been stalling the customer.

Until you talk with the person that ordered the parts or/and the owner of the company working out billing problems with office workers can be like pushing a log chain in bin 6ix feet overhead while sitting on the floor. Many so-called accounts only know how to punch keys on a computer putting numbers in a computer program. They don't know what they mean and have no understanding of accounting or the business where they work.

In the early 80s, I wrote accounting software for small businesses for Radio Shack computers. The bookkeeper of that time had a good grasp of what they did and what the available software was missing. It was appalling how much bad debt was on some of their books.

If you have collection problems with a small to medium-sized business you need to discuss it with someone in management that can pay the bill before taking any action to eleinate human screw ups.

 

[john.k]

Good example of risk in Oz right now.....multinational construction co has cut loose its Oz subsidiary with $200 million+ losses,due to various legal issues.....about things like view from apartments............anyhoo,maybe 1000 subcontractors will be bankrupt in the short term.........now these are likely good people,but if any of them owe you money,then you are not going to get it .

 

[Ox]

Trump Properties?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[john.k]

Condev this month,Probuild last month.....estimated 80% of the construction industry is trading into insolvency.......aaaand....Angry subcontractor trashes $5 m penthouse with an axe.........nope not mine...my penthouse is safely hidden inside a falling down hundred year old mansion where no one would suspect.

 

[AJ H]

What is that member's screen name? Or is that privileged information?

I have no idea

 

[Fal Grunt]

Fal, you're famous DID YOU JUST GET BURNED by your customer? Here's what that looks like | Machine Shop Talk Episode 43 - YouTube

Oh boy

I'd really love to hear an update on this anyhow....


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

The short of the story is we got paid. My wife got further involved and since she knows the language was able to speak to them and get it resolved. Of the several emails I sent and voicemails I left, I never so much as received a single response. Her first email received a response. After several emails she escalated it and somehow got a manager involved. She explained to the manager what they did wrong, and how. The manager confirmed that was what they did wrong and they cut a check for the difference.

If she didn't know the lingo, and how those systems work, I would have never gotten paid. Period.

I know I am late to the thread and you've probably settled the problem one way or the other. Did you ever talk to the guy that ordered the parts or the owner of the company?

I was never able to get ahold of the guy from "estimating", the guy from "purchasing", or the "operations manager". Emails were sent to all 3 as all 3 were involved at some point in the project. The operations manager was the point of contact who I worked with through the project. He did not answer several phone calls, nor respond to the voicemails or emails.

So in the end I got paid, 8 ish weeks past the due date.

 

[Ox]

While I wouldn't get all pissed off about not git'n paid right away, I WOULD get all bent outta shape about poor communications.

If there is one thing that is at the bottom of the totem pole for me - it's the putz who can't communicate in business in the 21st century!
THAT part would be enough for me to nix them from the list if I could afford it.

Shidt happens, but it sounds like there was way more than a mistake in accounting that went on here.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[john.k]

If you do work for the government ,this kind of stuff happens a lot.....but at least you know the money is there.........its when you have to sweat it out that liquidators are going to hit you with a drawback on the last payment.

 

[macgyver]

Oh boy

If she didn't know the lingo, and how those systems work, I would have never gotten paid. Period.

This is what I have experienced too. You need to find the person that speaks the language to make it happen. I have a good friend that helped me out when my car was totaled by another driver. It was an old car that I had fixed up. The insurance co considered it a generic old car and only wanted to give me $300 for it. I fought them to no avail, I let my friend talk to them and it got resolved very quickly after that. Without his experience and knowledge of what to say to them, I'd have been stuck. No, he's not a lawyer, just had been in that situation a few times and learned the hard way himself.

 

[Fal Grunt]

While I wouldn't get all pissed off about not git'n paid right away, I WOULD get all bent outta shape about poor communications.

I resemble that remark

I have plenty of customers who I ignore emails, text messages, phone calls, and voice mails. Usually after I tell them it will be 6 months before I start on their job, and they call in 2 weeks to ask if I have completed it yet, or how is it going.

This is what I have experienced too. You need to find the person that speaks the language to make it happen.

Unfortunately that seems to be the case.

Here is a small lesson I learned through the experience. I learned that the reason my emails were not being responded to was due to having no "actionable" title. That is, the title did not explicitly say something needed done with the email, so nothing was going to be done.

The title of my emails started out as simply, "Invoice XXXXX", in which I asked about the unpaid invoice. I then added "Unpaid Invoice XXXXX". None of the emails with these titles received any response. My wife was kind enough to explain to me that the robots.... errr .... people who do this work, typically have their emails sorted. Key actionable terms in the title are sorted into actionable folders. They rarely if ever look at emails that are not in their actionable folders.

Her first email was titled:

ACTION REQUIRED: 2nd Request: Unpaid - Invoice XXXXX

and tada.... it received a response the same day.

 

[CarbideBob]

How far away this customer?
No faces to connect with names?
Flint Mi to Seattle is only 500 bucks round trip. How much time and effort spent here at shop rate?
Maybe you do not charge for office time and blow this off into some account on the balance sheet?
Bob