Problem with customer/ex-customer

[dwyman]

About a month ago I had one of my reg mow customers discontinue service. Her brother was getting a divorce so he was living with her and going to take care of mowing & ferting. No big deal. She called on 5-6 and said she wanted to discontinue service. She called in afternoon after I had already mowed her lawn. Didn't think anything of it and didn't mention that I had already mowed either. Anyways, I bill monthly so I didn't send out her bill for the one mow until the end of May. I just got my invoice back today with a note on it that says: This bill is not being paid as the lawn was not cut on 5-6-04. No further lawn services are needed. I keep daily time sheets to track times and billings so I checked back on that date to just be sure. I did mow and I even put a note that said Kuper is discontinuing.

I think I will send her a friendly note back saying that services were rendered on that date along with a photocopy of my time sheet for that day. Any suggestions on the wording of my letter? OR any other suggestions?

[MGO]

I would send her a friendly note......stating that you had mowed it on 5-5 and that she told you she was discontinuing on 5-6.

Wording???? Do a search on the internet for "Collections letters samples"

[steve-o]

we had a similer problem and went back to the people in person with our sheets. they were still skeptical so we said no big deal ( $35 ) they ended up paying and we still cut for them. your deal is different , but i would still go in person. maybe one day you will get her back.

[Seascape]

Couple thoughts. 1) You have a contract? If so she has basically stubbed you as a result of someone elses divorce. Kinda shiity if you ask me. Very direspectful also,, just plain bad social skills. But,,,, Ive yet to force a contract on anyone. But,, ive never had anyone cancel because 1 of theyre family members got a divorce either. I can hear them now,,," Oh well, as far as the lawn goes,,,we'll just let the lawn guy get the shiity end of the stick on that one." So way i see it she knifed youfirst,,nows shes twisting it.

Id copy your daily sheet,, and in your own handwriting id break it down for her. Id tell it like it happened.

Your turf was cut @ 9:30 am on 5/6/04. We received your call to cancel THE CONTRACT @ 2:30 pm on 5/6/04.

Its my guess this is no misunderstanding at all,,, in fact i'd say im 99.9999% sure this is an attempt to steal your service that day. Someone forgot to put in the call to cancel until they seen you had cut that day would be my guess.

Got a bad taste i my mouth about this one my friend.

[GrassMaster]

People will do or say anything to Keep from Paying their Bills!

You never know about folks...

We've had an outbreak of people calling up lately & raising hell with us about charging a checkout or Estimate fee, when we tell them their engine is shot or the mower is not worth the repair.

They call up & say things like it had the pull rope hung or the starter gear was hung in the flywheel or there was a pine cone stuck between the blade & deck. You ripped me off & took my money. I want my checkout fee back.

I tell them to bring me the mower & let me see it, then I return the check out fee. Only one person brought the mower back & it was not the one we checked out. We record Model # & Serial # on all mowers. LOL

Last year we did 816 checkout fees.
We charge $20 checkout fees on Riders & everything else is $10 a pop.

Do you know how long it takes a Tech to do 816 Estimates, it takes months. Before we charged checkout fees, we had numerous instances where we had records where the same customer would bring in the same mower 3 & 4 times. The Checkout out fees put a screeching halt on that.

But the checkout fees & Estimate fees still do not cover the Techs time involved but it's better than nothing!

More BLa Bla Bla about Americans that Live beyond their means!

The Problem with people in America is they live way beyond their means & can't afford the Lifestyle they attempt to live. So first they fabricate all kinds of lies & excuses to justify why they shouldn't pay their bills. All this does is cause the cost of doing business passed on to the small percentage of people left that do pay their bills!

Back in 1992 only 12% of the customers used charge cards at my shop, now it's around 80% to 85%. LOL, they will go through 2 to 5 charge cards to pay for a service that cost between $40 & $50. I pay between $300 to over $600 a month in charge card processing fees. I add an extra 10% on my repairs to cover this BS.

If they stopped charge card usage, a lot more people would go to Heaven when they die & in just a few years at least 40% of Americans would be out of debt.

I'm now in the Process of secretly adding on at least another $10 to $12 per customer that request us to call with estimate first. Over 50% of them are now requesting this, yes even on repairs that are under $50.

This just holds us up longer & more time involved in doing the repair! We have 30 or more mowers on hold waiting for them to get back to us to approve the estimate at all times during the growing season. Most all of them are charge card users that request an estimate.

I use charge cards but only with all Mass Merchants & Internet Purchases. All the Wonderful & Great Americans that own their own business & are Self Employed are paid by check or mostly cash. It's because I love them that I do this. They are my Hero's!

[MGO]

Seascape...probably right

Seascapes analysis is probalbly right on.........

[dwyman]

Thanks for input. I will try to catch up with her in person to show time sheet and let know I double checked my billing and it is correct. Although she probly knows it is. I'll see how it goes.

Enough complaints and I'll start getting real good at handling them. Maybe I'll
blow all my grass into the driveway and shoot some pebbles through windows this week. Just to get more practice.