Deadbeat Customer

[CES020]

I'm not at all defending what the person did. Last time I checked, D&T had made contact and the person was going to get him paid. To me, that's a resolution. I'd much rather be paid in some fashion than know for sure I'd never be paid because someone was sitting in jail.

I had a car stolen from me. The dirtbag ran from the cops and wrecked the car. When I went to court, and he was thrown in jail for stealing the car, I asked for the difference in what the car would sell before it was stolen and what it would sell for now, since it had been wrecked. The judge granted me that, then sent the guy to jail for 20 years. While in jail, believe it or not, the idiot broke out of jail or custody, went on the run, they caught him, and threw him back in jail with more charges and more time.

So it's all great that he owes me $2,000, but the chance of me ever seeing that $2,000 is non existent.

It's easy to throw stones and say lock him up, but what if there was a real situation? A medical situation? What if he thought the money was there before writing the check? What if he's doing everything possible to get the debt paid?

Some of your attitudes are those of big credit card companies. If someone can't pay you on time at 12% interest rates, what do you think the chances of them paying you on time at 24% is? Yeah, then pop on some late fees and some penalties and see if that speeds up your payment. What it does is accelerate the fact that you probably won't get paid at all.

I guess I'm lucky, I haven't found too many people in my life time that don't want to do the right thing if given the chance.

Fact is, in this case, not taking the hard line and throwing someone in jail is probably going to get D&T paid. Throwing him in jail would have meant not getting paid. I thought the objective here was to get paid. If that's the objective, then the path that gets you paid with the least amount of hassle or time is the right one. Sending someone to jail isn't the path to getting you paid, it's you being a hard arse and trying to flex your muscles and show people how powerful you are. It will involve court time and lost production, neither of which are getting you paid in the most cost effective manner.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I'm one of those that would rather not burn bridges if it can be helped. However, I can understand both arguments here.

One thing to play devils advocate here, y'all say that what good is locking the person in jail because they don't have the chance to earn it. Well, given them chance after chance, you still may not see any money, they just won't be in jail is all.

There really isn't a perfect way to handle it, give them chance after chance or lock them up. Both present the risk of not getting paid. Best thing is if everything for this transaction is taken care of and new arrangements of payment are done up front if there is another business transaction.

Those on here that have done business with me know that I'm not a hardliner as the C/B ratio for me isn't worth it and plus I try not to leave a bitter taste in people's mouth when dealing with me, but don't think that both roads don't present the possibility of non-payment.

 

[LoneRanger01]

Apparantly some people do not understand how the justice system works. He would be sentenced to jail time then he would get out on probation and part of the probation would be to make restitution. he doesn't pay the money back he goes back to jail.
For those of you who think this has been resolved.........get a grip, he has made no attempt to make any kind of payment since december it is now august,,,,,let me do the math, 8 months are you really so stupid that you think after getting away with not paying for eight months he as now seen the light an is going to pay the monies owed....ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,
some thinki putting someone in jail for 2.80 is nonsense, I got my money back plus a bad check charge and the story made the local newspaper. beleive it or not no ever wrote me a bad check after that. Jail is a good deterant.
Here is some advice for what its worth. when you recieve a check from a person in person for any amount call the bank in front of the person to verify the funds are in the account. When the ask if you accept check say yes if you do and tell them then that you call to verify funds on every check. There is a fee the banks charge back when I did accept checks it was only.50 to have the bank guaruntee the check. this means for what ever reason the check writter could not stop payment on the check nor could he empty out his checking account. This method is called being a smart business man not a hard ass.
The fact of the matter is the only thing DT has accomplished is he has given this theif more time to get away. Do you think this thief really care if he is outed, I doubt it he will just delete his profile and sign up under a new name all the while laugh at all the nice people and doing it again.
The theif should have been arrested and then an attachment of the picture of the 800.00 check posted for all to see so no one else will get burned by this theif. But then again a NICE person would never do something like that. This being nice is something I just don't get, screw your real friends and help save the honor of the theif? I just don't get it!!!!!!!
To the person that posted all the "what ifs"......what has he gotten from all those what ifs, nothing they are just excuses as to why this thief is not going to pay....what if.....ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,

 

[CES020]

some thinki putting someone in jail for 2.80 is nonsense, I got my money back plus a bad check charge and the story made the local newspaper. beleive it or not no ever wrote me a bad check after that.

No you didn't. You probably had 10 hours dealing with it all. 10 hours at $85 per hour is $850 lost shop wages. I don't think I'd be bragging about spending $850 to recover $2.80 plus $35 bad check fee.

 

[LoneRanger01]

Signing the warrant/complaint = 14 min.
sitting in court to say yes he is the one = 35 min
Not having anyone else ever bounce a check to me = Priceless.....Now again explain to me how I lost money, math lessons to be held later tonight.......
Now lets look and see what the theif got for his 2.80
he got to spend time in jail, he got a felony record, he had to pay court costs, he had to pay a fine ,he had to pay me back the 2.80 and 14.00 check fee, he had to pay back his over darft fees at his bank and he got 6 months probation. Alll in all it cost him over 350.00 for that theft of 2.80.
You can call me what ever names you like, nut job with anger mangement issues, a hard ass or even a not nice person but the fact is I have not only had and run one but five business sucessfully. I was both professional and curtious to all of my customer. What I did not do was to let a customer walk over me like a door mat not for 2.00 and damn sure not 800.00. There are rules an owner of a business must follow and if you can't follow or learn these rules then get out of business and stop whinning about it!!!
Incase you are not aware of these rule let me enlighten you on some of them.
1. Money is money and there are no friends or realiatives when it comes to money.
2.You are in business to make a profit and nothing less will be accepted.
3. No one, I repeat let No ONE steal from your business and get away with it!!!
4. If you do job at cost for a customer, the next five jobs must be marked up to make up for the lost profit. refer to rule no.2
5. when recieving a check for services rendered call the bank to verify funds. for lardge amounts have bank guarantee the check.
6. You are the owner and the boss, employees do what you say, how you say and when you say, anything else/less is not acceptable.
7. Both emplyer and employee will put 110% in to every job. any less is unacceptable.
8. Stand behind and back up everything you say and stand for. Your word is gold to a customer and it is your bond.
9. Never ever take a job for less than cost, just to get a customer. refer to rule no.2
10. You can be professional and curtious to a customer without being nice. The customer is money to you not a friend. You are running a business not a social club. If you want to have a customer be a friend do it after business hours. see rule no.1
I have plenty more rules if your interested...........

 

[FS-Keith]

I'm not at all defending what the person did. Last time I checked, D&T had made contact and the person was going to get him paid. To me, that's a resolution. I'd much rather be paid in some fashion than know for sure I'd never be paid because someone was sitting in jail.

I had a car stolen from me. The dirtbag ran from the cops and wrecked the car. When I went to court, and he was thrown in jail for stealing the car, I asked for the difference in what the car would sell before it was stolen and what it would sell for now, since it had been wrecked. The judge granted me that, then sent the guy to jail for 20 years. While in jail, believe it or not, the idiot broke out of jail or custody, went on the run, they caught him, and threw him back in jail with more charges and more time.

So it's all great that he owes me $2,000, but the chance of me ever seeing that $2,000 is non existent.

It's easy to throw stones and say lock him up, but what if there was a real situation? A medical situation? What if he thought the money was there before writing the check? What if he's doing everything possible to get the debt paid?

Some of your attitudes are those of big credit card companies. If someone can't pay you on time at 12% interest rates, what do you think the chances of them paying you on time at 24% is? Yeah, then pop on some late fees and some penalties and see if that speeds up your payment. What it does is accelerate the fact that you probably won't get paid at all.

I guess I'm lucky, I haven't found too many people in my life time that don't want to do the right thing if given the chance.

Fact is, in this case, not taking the hard line and throwing someone in jail is probably going to get D&T paid. Throwing him in jail would have meant not getting paid. I thought the objective here was to get paid. If that's the objective, then the path that gets you paid with the least amount of hassle or time is the right one. Sending someone to jail isn't the path to getting you paid, it's you being a hard arse and trying to flex your muscles and show people how powerful you are. It will involve court time and lost production, neither of which are getting you paid in the most cost effective manner.

If you think the guy actually plans on paying a bill 8 months later after not returning calls, and going out of business :ROFLMAO:


jail/no jail who gives a crap, tell us this guys name so when he tries to start up under another name we all know to get 100% up front

 

[LoneRanger01]

Ces020.........I am really not a bad person. from the day I was born I have lived by rules. when I lived at home it was to bed by 8 pm and up at 6 am to doo chores. One month befor graduation I got my draqft notice for Viet Nam. I then lived by the rules set forth to me by the Marine Corps. In Viet Nam there were rules calle Murphys Law in Nam. The one I followed to the letter was "all incoming rounds (bullets) have the right of way" A good rule to follow. When I got out of the military I tried working for some one else but didn't like the rules so I started my own business with my own rules and these rules have served me quite well over the years. Out of the five business I have had I sold three of them and two of those new owners are still following my rules and are doing really well. the third person did not follow my rules and as a result of not doing so I don't think he is still in business. The last two businesses I still own because I am still servicing the computers that I had built and the software programs that I wrote. As I told them when they purchased my product, sevice and support isw forever or untill I stop breathing, which ever come first.......my rule no100. plan on living forever anything less is unacceptable.

 

[CES020]

I'm sure you had more than 49 minutes total invested in trying to recover that $2.80. Even if it was, that's still about $80 to recover $2.80 plus $14.00. That still doesn't make mathematical sense.

If you had an employee spend 49 minutes on a 2 minute job, you'd fire them.

I'm not suggesting this person should not have legal action taken against them. I'm just suggesting you don't need to follow the "ready, fire, aim" strategy that's being proposed by some.

Follow the steps and if it leads to legal action, it leads to legal action, but calling the cops on someone and having them arrested as the first step, as some suggest, makes no sense to me. Might make perfect sense to you. Doesn't to me.

We'll see if D&T gets paid. As I said before, the intention isn't to lock someone up or screw them to the post, the intention is to get the money in the bank. Hopefully he'll get the money soon and it'll all be over.

I don't know who it is, and don't care. Maybe he's a crook, maybe he's a guy with serious issues and it just happened to come crashing down at the wrong time for D&T. I don't know (again, don't care) his intentions. Hopefully he just got himself in a bad place and he's able to recover and get his bills paid and move on with life.

 

[LoneRanger01]

I don't know where you come up with your 80 dollars but we are talking about the early 80's when this happened, and it surprises me that you can not see the profit in knowing no one else ever bounced a check to the taxi cab business. Maybe you just don't get it. when a person screws a company they always bragg to some one about it. In this case the person would have bragged to patrons in the bars and everyone would know that he bounce a small check and I did nothing about it. so others would do the samew thing. as it turned out the word was spread around that I would have a person arrested over two dollars so no one else wanted to go to jail for a two dollar check. I won plain and simple. and by winning I never had to deal with any more bad checks. As Barney Fiff would say I nipped it in the bud.
You can kid yourself all you want but the facts of life are that when a person orders 800.00 worth of product they know without a doubt if they have the money in the bank to pay for the product. Only a fool would think other wise. This person knew when he wrote the check he did not have the funds. if he had told DT he had no funds to pay for the product do you really think DT would have let him have it? I would hope not and if he did its his personal problem.
Did you know that scammers, theifs, and hackers, have private bulliten boards where a person less honest than you or I can go to buy credit card numbers, Id information and list of names that are easy MARKS to scam/write bad check to and who do nothing about it? This alone is a major reasont to fight this problem with over aggresive methods.
As for him getting his money I too hope he does but to be quite honest I wouldn't believe him if he told us he did get his money, simply because we have made such a big deal of it he might just say he got it to save face. A theif and a liar doesnot change their ways or marals over night. never happens.

 

[Si Allen]

I agree with the LoneRanger!

If someone orders a sign from me and doesn't pay ... I look at it as the same as them coming in and stealing my computer!

As far as being nice to a deadbeat ... why? I wouldn't want them back trying to scam me again!

If you want to stay in business ... 50% down and balance BEFORE it leaves the shop
(100% down on small items).

If the customer objects ... then it is "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out!"

 

[D&Tgraphics]

Wow!!! Very interesting. The only thing I'll say is I got paid. Done. End if story.
For all the comments that I'm an idiot and a bad business man and yadda yadda yadda, that's cool. I know my story and that's all that matters. I don't need to puff my chest out and pound on it to feel like a man. thanks for the interesting thread.

 

[John Butto]

Great you got your money, hope you did credit card or cash and not a check this time. You should thank the Lone Ranger for scaring the guy with stories of dodging bullets.

 

[LoneRanger01]

I don't know, maybe it's my dislike of people but now something just doesn't smell right. I have always been one to speak my mind right or wrong I say it like it is. And some thing is not just adding up right. As of 4:30 est yesterday payment arrangement had not been made. bank are now closed for business so any deposit made will not show up into the account until after midnight monday. All banks work that way. Now it is 3:30 sat. afternoon and payment is made???????Or could it be the original post is a hoax and that is the real reason the theif was never named? Even if the payment was made using a credit card or western union it still will not show up in the account untill after mid night monday. Something just doesn't sound right.
And then to through that insult out that you don't have to puff your chest to be a man....no one here has made fun of you, or called you a poor businessman. So why the insult. Its a good thing I am not in the sign business because you would have lost one customer for sure.......which reminds me of the old saying, with friends like you who in the hell needs enimies......you have a nice day and enjoy spending your 800.00 ha,ha,ha,ha,,,,,

 

[FS-Keith]

Wow!!! Very interesting. The only thing I'll say is I got paid. Done. End if story.
For all the comments that I'm an idiot and a bad business man and yadda yadda yadda, that's cool. I know my story and that's all that matters. I don't need to puff my chest out and pound on it to feel like a man. thanks for the interesting thread.

thank god for the internet! if you had not brought this up here he would still be holding your money. good for you! always always always get a deposit!

 

[D&Tgraphics]

Ok you got me. It's all a big hoax. One big conspiracy. Wow.

Ok. I'm not going to post anymore in fear that I will say something I will regret. I'm going to go enjoy life now and be happy!

 

[LoneRanger01]

Conspiracy? the only conspiracy that I know of is the reason Walt Disney halted the makeing of the motion picture "The Lone Ranger" starring johnny depp as tonto....ha,ha,ha,ha what a bummber

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Conspiracy? the only conspiracy that I know of is the reason Walt Disney halted the makeing of the motion picture "The Lone Ranger" starring johnny depp as tonto....ha,ha,ha,ha what a bummber

Not for me it isn't. Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels were the best. Not much of a fan of Bruce Beemer's version on radio.

 

[LoneRanger01]

Yeah, no one can replace Clayton Moore.I have two version of what was supose to be the piolot version of the lone ranger. One I accidently recorded on VHS from a sattilite dish and the other was on DVD. both have simaler story lines but the one o VHS has him coming from the east on a stage coach to visit his brother the ranger and the dvd has him starting out as a texas ranger. I have no idea with is the real first episode....

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Yeah, no one can replace Clayton Moore.I have two version of what was supose to be the piolot version of the lone ranger. One I accidently recorded on VHS from a sattilite dish and the other was on DVD. both have simaler story lines but the one o VHS has him coming from the east on a stage coach to visit his brother the ranger and the dvd has him starting out as a texas ranger. I have no idea with is the real first episode....

It's the one that he was already a Texas Ranger.

 

[LoneRanger01]

Not to argue but you know this to be true how? In the other version he plays Bill Reed the brother of a texas ranger who goes to the canyon with all theother rangers and is suppose to be killed. It is also the only episode that clayton mooore can be seen without his mask. This is why I wondered which was the first. I have all the episodes on dvd as he was my child hood hero and still is