Posted: 6/27/2007 3:02:12 PM EDT
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ok, at the very most, how long could it possibly take for an envelope sent by the Us Postal service take to make it from one side of the twin cities, to the other? 1 customer- shes trying to sell her house, needs a stump in the front yard ground out. i drive out of my way to St Paul in rush hour traffic, grind out the stump, tell her ( over the phone ) itll be 74.55 and gave her my address. this was almost two weeks ago. no check yet. ill call her AGAIN in a few days. 2nd customer- hes a contractor, ive done a bunch of work for him- cutting down trees, grinding stumps- hes owed me over $500 for two weeks. the check was suppose to be in the mail last monday. he wants me to do more work yet. ive had customers get checks to me in 2 days... i wish these people would just pay- in 5 years ive never been stiffed on $ but it seems like im starting to be... thankfully its small amounts, but its the fact that counts. i guess this turned into a rant- 
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I trust contractors and builders the least. Many of them know the system and know how to screw you if they want. $500 dollars is a lot. You know your business better than any of us so you know what you should and should not do. I preach this over and over, especially with the slow down in new construction. Builders are haveing tight times so you need to protect youself. I know a guy who lost $80,000. Gone, builder went out of business. Courts, sorry, your out of luck. Pre-Lien Pre-Lien Pre-Lien. I noticed a change in my accounts recievable when I started doing them and I can sleep at night. I give my customers a lot or leeway on their accounts but I know I can call those chips in if I really want. Now I notice when I nudge I get $$$. IM inbound |
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Do you make it clear to your customers that payment is due right away? (I try to pay all my bills at once unless I know theres one that needs to be paid right away) If you already are maybe get a lawyer to craft a well written threat of a lien on their property (or just get a template letter from one of the legal template form places). I bet you'll find the postal service magically speeds up!  |
Must be the Minneaplois post office, they've been trying to get one of my customers checks to me for 60+ days.. Dragged a pos Saab from Princeton to StPaul one night cause it had to be at the shop the next morning. Customer said to stop by his business the next day, in S. Mpls and he'd cut a check. Err no thanks, just drop it in the mail. Gonna be real funny when that Saab mysteriously ends up behind a farm house in Princeton one Saturday morning.....
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The post office may lose a piece of mail once in a great while, but normally they're the most reliable delivery service, beating out Fedex and UPS. In the 8 years that I've been at my house, I've had two confirmed pieces of mail that had issues. One was lost outright, the other was a check I'd sent, and apparently got destroyed, and half of the check was recovered and returned to me by the USPS (I suppose the other half didn't have an address on it and got tossed). I have had a package that got sent to a friend in IA go to New York first, but it did get there. That's out of hundreds of pieces of mail. If people are regularly sending you checks, and they're coming in late, they're snowing you. Check the stamp cancel. The date is usually the same day it's mailed. |
bummer. I assume there wasn't any sort of written contract?I hired a tree guy to come cut down a couple trees in my yard last fall (one was over my house, the other was inbetween two power lines, otherwise I would have done it myself). He stated his rates up front, and when he was done asked for payment on the spot. As we drank a beer and I wrote out the check, he said that he normally tells people that he won't move his boom truck out of there yard unless he has cash in his hand already. Just a thought? As a side job, I build fences in the summer (fences make good neighbors!  ). I always tell everyone what it's going to cost up front, and tell them that 1/2 is due halfway through the job, and the final payment is due when the job is done. Last summer a guy (actually a FRIEND) tried to stiff me at the half way point. I kept working, but it was obvious he was avoiding me. So I carefully stored all my supplies so it was impossible for him to use his facilities (a business), and suddenly he paid! Actually he paid in full so that I would finish early! I finished it a couple days later , and he has since asked me to come back and add more fence. Were still friends, but "I've been just to busy" to come back!
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