quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Yet another reason I could never own a business- trying to cajole people into paying their debts.

Luckily, there are very few consistently late payers. They are never afforded the little extras that all the other customers get.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
Instead of sending out a late payment notice is it possible to pay them a visit in person to collect what's owed

Don't forget to bring your cousin Guido along to make vague remarks about how they have a nice yard and it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it.

Hahaha!!

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
Can you file a lien on the property?

Do you think I should for the $69.96 this guy owes me?

When people who owed my dad money, he’d give them a call (they had been invoiced upon the end of the work), then he would go pull their pump.

Funny how they can come up with CASH when they don’t have any water. I’m sure you can’t do that nowadays.

He also told the customer that all the pump/well drillers/water business in the county kept a black book (which they did).

When he moved to NC someone stiffed him for $1000 at his summer house in the mountains. Dude would not answer the phone. So he mailed a letter. After two refusals, dad drove to Atlanta and found the guys house. Turns out the guy was running a business from his home. So dad went and knocked on the door and demanded his money-when the guy balked, dad mentioned he might have to call the city inspector about illegal business run in a home, etc. dude came up with the money.

Showing up in person is the step before putting a mechanics lien on someone house. And yeah I’d file one just to inconvenience him if he ever tries to sell.

I do not know why it really matters to this customer ... aside just something for them to whine about.

Mail is so automated these days, with machines doing most of the work. At the end of the day, the only person who could possibly see this past due in the address in the window is the postal delivery person ... and they most likely would not even notice and if so could care less.

Unless their neighbors are looking through their mailbox, unlikely, then the only ones really noticing is the sender and the recipient.

Personally, would not give this any thought.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
Instead of sending out a late payment notice is it possible to pay them a visit in person to collect what's owed

Don't forget to bring your cousin Guido along to make vague remarks about how they have a nice yard and it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it.

You realize that Mark is in W. PA where those Jersey mobsters are regarded as sissies?

WRT the original question....Illegal? OK, bring charges and we'll let the judge sort things out.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Yet another reason I could never own a business- trying to cajole people into paying their debts.

In my experience...getting banks to pay their debts has been the most difficult.

I've never had a person/private client bounce a check or struggle with staying current on their invoices.

About half of our bank clients routinely pay late, take multiple notifications to pay invoices, and take significant admin time to stay on top of them. The worst paying client is Wells Fargo. Their record is 192 days past due on a $12,000+ bill. It wasn't until we started withholding new work completions and actually stalled a couple of large commercial transactions that they finally paid their bill. They never did pay the late fees and interest they incurred.

2nd worst is the State of Alaska department of law.

Small businesses and individual persons have never been a problem for us.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
When people who owed my dad money, he’d give them a call (they had been invoiced upon the end of the work), then he would go pull their pump.

A company that I worked for a few years back had problems getting customers to pay their bills (before I took over the management), and several times removed propellers from aircraft until customers caught up on their bills.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:
A company that I worked for a few years back had problems getting customers to pay their bills (before I took over the management), and several times removed propellers from aircraft until customers caught up on their bills.

Did they add an addition charge for R&Ring and re-safetying the propeller? Seems like that would make a nice late fee.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
Can you file a lien on the property?

Do you think I should for the $69.96 this guy owes me?

And again, if you consider liens (which is sounds like you are not) get some advice about that. M&M lien law can be convoluted and contain many traps for the unwary. The consequences of filing an invalid lien can be expensive. This law can vary a lot from state to state.

Despite warning you about checking your state's law, in general, liens are available for those making permanent improvements to real property. This might include landscapers installing landscaping and planting plants, but generally does not include lawn maintenance, which does not confer a permanent improvement.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
When people who owed my dad money, he’d give them a call (they had been invoiced upon the end of the work), then he would go pull their pump.

A company that I worked for a few years back had problems getting customers to pay their bills (before I took over the management), and several times removed propellers from aircraft until customers caught up on their bills.

This probably exposed them to liability, but if no one complained . . .

That sort of self help is often ill-considered.

I used to work DSL tech support.
Lady calls in one Friday evening complaining that her internet was down.
So I bring up her account and find a bigass red flag on it stating
that it was turned off due to non payment of bill.
It even stated that she owed several hundred dollars of past due bills.
So I did some super quick mental math...
DSL for that company was about $30/month.
She was roughly $600 in the hole.
So this means she hadn't paid her bill in well over a year.
Almost two years if there were no late fees applied.

I told her that it was turned off for non-payment and she went livid on me.
She then offered to pay right then and there - but it was friday night.
Our customer service shut down at like 5 or 6pm and wouldn't come back again until monday. (I was tech support so could not process payments)
This set her off even more.
"How can you guys just shut me off like this?!?! I run my business through this internet!!!!!"

I didn't say it... but all I could think of was...
Well bitch.. if it's THAT important.. then maybe you should have paid your bill some time within the last whole fucking year!

I’m enjoying these stories and I want everyone to post more.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

A company that I worked for a few years back had problems getting customers to pay their bills (before I took over the management), and several times removed propellers from aircraft until customers caught up on their bills.

My ex-partner (partner in airplane ownership) was notorious for not paying bills. Some time after the partnership was dissolved, he had his airplane in the maintenance shop opposite my hangar. The annual inspection was completed, the airplane was ready to go, and it sat there on a tie-down spot with a Denver boot locked to the nose wheel for almost a month, while the maintenance shop waited for payment.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

A company that I worked for a few years back had problems getting customers to pay their bills (before I took over the management), and several times removed propellers from aircraft until customers caught up on their bills.

My ex-partner (partner in airplane ownership) was notorious for not paying bills. Some time after the partnership was dissolved, he had his airplane in the maintenance shop opposite my hangar. The annual inspection was completed, the airplane was ready to go, and it sat there on a tie-down spot with a Denver boot locked to the nose wheel for almost a month, while the maintenance shop waited for payment.

We had a lawyer arguing over a 210N annual once and it got locked up in a hangar for nearly 2 months. The following year, he got granted to the pre-pay in full plan. As to charging for the prop...no, I don't believe that was the way it went down. It was a fixed pitch, so you can install one in about 10 minutes, safety and all.

After I took over the management, we never had the problem again in the 3 years I ran the place. Communication of expectations, and proper contracts prevent so many problems.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
When people who owed my dad money, he’d give them a call (they had been invoiced upon the end of the work), then he would go pull their pump.

A company that I worked for a few years back had problems getting customers to pay their bills (before I took over the management), and several times removed propellers from aircraft until customers caught up on their bills.

This probably exposed them to liability, but if no one complained . . .

That sort of self help is often ill-considered.

My dad is the kind of guy who will wait ten years then burn down your barn. And keep his mouth shut about it-to everyone. He’s the last person on the earth I’d want to piss off. But he pulled this kind of shenanigans in the 80-90s where people didn’t call the cops for stuff they knew they were in the wrong about.

Well I take that back I know for a fact he pulled a sewage pump a few years back, cause I was there visiting during Covid and I was the one pulling it. He had me “go for a ride with me” and we wound up pulling a pump from a collection pit. I pulled while he hoses it down, we threw it in the bed of the truck-when I asked where the replacement was he said-“button it up, the guy hasn’t payed for this one yet”. He left a note in the control box for anyone the guy might have hired from out of town to fix- it said “he owes me xx $” in sharpie…on the box. Anyone would open the box to kill the power before examining the pump and would find his note.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Is it tacky?

Borderline, yes, and likely to be annoying to the recipient. Nobody but you can know that its being visible outside the envelope was accidental.

I don't think it will help persuade them to pay up. I'd reprint and restamp it, personally.