Customer refuses to pay me!!!!!!! Advice??

[Scott]

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<b>oh man,, CMON! Mr. Admin... </b>
Don't edit until after I get a chance to read the originals!!!

[Terry]

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Scaper-S2k -

Our company has not done well on the non pay cases without paper work. But we have WON every case with signed paper work. this is public info, if you don't believe me you may go to our local court house and pull the cases.

Also as stated, not all our cases are related to clients paying. Some have been discrimination suits, which we won all those, some have been cases involving differences of opinion.

Ska8r you wrote "Yes, I've been to court, yes, I have recievables that are way out there. But, I'm not dealing with small amounts under $1000. You are not typing to a chimp here Terry."

So it says you have been to court, then it says you have "receivables that are way out there", so have you been too court or are you thinking about going to court for something current? Please tell us about your previous collecting experience.

Anyway Bobby, get stuff in writing in the future, at least this will give you some sort of backing, the quality of service line is just that...a line, and they know they can use that line.

<i>Edited by Admin</i>

[Scaper-S2k]

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It confuses me to see that you have cases with "no paper work". Yet you kinda poked fun at the guy that didn't have the signed contract.

And I never said I didn't believe you about your cases, I have no reason to think you are making it up.

Also, you questioned my quote. Well, just read it, pretty self explanatory.


Terry, I find it hard to believe that you are arguing with me.....yet we are both saying the same thing!!!

Again....I USE....I USE.....I U.S.E.... CONTRACTS!!!

But for service work like we do, a complaint about the quality of the service will not necessarily end with the contractor getting paid. You can't butcher someones lawn and throw a contract in their face saying "Pay Up, Pay Up!! You signed this!!"

It doesn't work that way. It will be your word against theirs...which will be verbal unless you have photos. And, unless the contractor proves it was done properly, they will loose. If the work was done nice and the client liked it, but the client tries to stiff ya, that's a whole different situation.

AGAIN....I use contracts for commercial.....but I did not use them for residential (most residential anyway).




My commercial contracts are much larger amounts, some going over $100k. Residential is charged mostly per cut and monthly billed. You won't be out that much for mowing. Barely enough to warrant court. Contracts for residential are mostly used as scare tactics if they don't pay. "I have a signed contract Mr. Jones." Regardless, if the service was bad, the contractor will NOT get paid, regardless of a verbal or written contract.

Is that so hard to understand?

[Scaper-S2k]

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For the reasons I mentioned, contracts need to be tweaked all season.

I use contracts in commercial, but not much when I did residential. They could simply say 'he wasn't there, or the work wasn't good'.

SOOOOO. In each truck I have a binder. They have made up forms in each one. My commercial ones have my logo top left. Top right has the month, and a place to write in the location. The page is setup with 4 columns with a heading "week 1" "week 2" "week 3" "week 4". Then a place under each for the date serviced.

I then have 13 numbered sentences. Each one describing a job performed. Like "all turf on property mowed" "All shrubs trimmed if needed". 13 of them total.

Next to each one there are 4 spaces lining up under the weeks in columns.

At the bottom I have 4 dotted lines with the word signature next to each one.


After our visit, I check mark each jobe we did down the line.

I then have a manager sign one of the dotted lines with each visit. They agree that the work has been performed properly, and I have a signature.

Now THAT makes for a more solid contract. They can't argue too much!!


My residential ones were only half a page and setup just a bit different. They did not require a signature for each visit, but had spaces if needed. I'd have to dig those up, because we haven't needed them for awhile. I didn't use them as often as commercial anyway. It did state what work was performed and had a short paragraph asking them to call within 24 (I think it was 48) hours if they had problems. "if no returned call, the work performed is assumed to be satifactory by client"....know what I mean??


I have the commercial one here somewhere. But it might be on my Macintosh. If needed, I can scan a hard copy in though. It's not gorgeous, but keeps the court cases lower!!

[Terry]

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Sk8r I see you like to write!

That is my point. We have been through it all. Thats what I'm saying! Without looking, I think I stated that in either the first or second response. This is what this forum is about....sharing. Not trying to prove who thinks they know the most. I never stated or thought Sk8r did not use contracts. I am addressing to the nation the importance of getting it in writing. Personally I do not care what one does, I'm just telling you from our experiences what works and what does not. You can mow grass in poke a dot coveralls for all I care.

I am sharing that without signed papers, we did not get far. And with signed papers we had all the backing we needed.

What is interesting is that this turned into a page about Sk8r's $100,000 contract. Is that a shopping mall or corp office site? We have 4 seperate contracts that are around $110,000. One we acquired when we acquired another company. All the paper work has a back up signature and then we have a backup to the back up signature!

Can't leave any room for error.

good luck everyone and sleep well!

[Scaper-S2k]

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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Terry</i>
<br />
What is interesting is that this turned into a page about Sk8r's $100,000 contract.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Terry, how can you say such a thing? I mean really.

I can barely find where it was said!! Geez.

It's pretty hard for me to debate with someone that is constantly making fun of my name. Respect is lost quickly. Not to mention what you insinuated about my larger contract(s). I expected more from you Terry. Oh, and it's nice to hear about yours also...and I am not saying that sarcastically as you did. We have a few of them, as you do.



It's a shame you missed my entire point.

It's quite easy to understand what I was saying. And I wasn't doing it in a sarcastic name calling way either. Man, I tell ya, it's like I have to walk around on pins some days here.

My point was very clear and made perfect sense. Take it anyway you like. Again, it's a shame you missed my point. Go back and re-read it.