Name and shame!

[Flame]

Let's hear your guys opinions. Have you ever name and shamed someone who owed you money? You know the type... The ones who always skirt around paying you, ignore your calls and emails or come up with a million excuses. They exist in both our personal lives and in our professional lives. It's not enough money to justify spending time in small claims, but it's big enough to really burn you.

Ever name and shamed? Made a banner asking for payment? A frame? Public forum?

Local mechanic does that, when people are more than 90 days out he puts out a A frame asking nicely for them to pay their ****ing bill. I got a good laugh out of it the other day and apparently he always gets them to pay.

Legal, not legal, classy, not classy? Let's hear it.

 

[Jacob]

I have done it once and it works. I like to call them at 3 in the morning they always answer and you get paid pretty quick

 

[Jwalk]

This is something every entrepreneur has obviously lost tons of sleep over. Good topic!

In my contemplations I try to stay away from self fulfilling prophecies; when I wonder if a client may not pay while the job is still on. Somtimes I enact scenerios in my mind of us arguing before the fact. I don't think that is healthy.

It seems to me that I only have had trouble when I not lived up to my side of the bargain. I cant argue with that equation.

 

[strypguy]

Try sending them over due invoices weekly that are stamped all over the envelope in bright red PAST DUE! Worked for me! John

 

[nikdoobs]

Local mechanic does that, when people are more than 90 days out he puts out a A frame asking nicely for them to pay their ****ing bill. I got a good laugh out of it the other day and apparently he always gets them to pay.

Definitely not classy. It puts out a bad image for your company. Even if your business has done everything right, the public will see that things aren't going smoothly and put a negative vibe in their minds.

 

[Marlene]

no, we haven't done that yet. I have called customer service for a large company and pretty much said that yes, I knew this was the wrong department but calls to the correct department is getting me no where. I have gotten payment from doing that. also have called random people in a company and told them we needed payment and asked the to contact the correct people to get it to us.

 

[toucan_graphics]

A mechanic posts a sign shaming a non-payer? That sounds absurd to me. Mechanics around here just hold the vehicle and charge storage fees until such time the customer pays the bill plus the outrageous storage fees or until they can claim the vehicle as abandoned and sell it to recoup the money.
As another person said, it just makes the mechanic look bad. If I saw something like that, the first thing I would think is "that mechanic is an @sshole". Then I would wonder why the customer refuses to pay. Is the mechanic a hustler trying to pad his bottom line? Is there a dispute regarding the repairs that were made? Any way a passerby spins it in their mind, without the benefit of knowing the whole story, the mechanic looks like the bad guy and it is posted for all to see using the sign to shame the customer when in fact it actually shames the business.

 

[Pat Whatley]

I would think that was awesome and go out of my way to use that mechanic.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Agrees the mechanic is not doing himself a favor collecting in that fashion, because if all legal a lien on car would work better& more profitable.

Last one that decided not to pay, you can tell by the games they play & time pasted I just remove or block it out.

..Note careful here, if you do signed contracts ..state you own sign till fully paid, & sign can be removed .. so safety repairs can be.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

A

..Note careful here, if you do signed contracts ..state you own sign till fully paid, & sign can be removed .. so safety repairs can be.

You have to be careful here. In this jurisdiction, if you want the ability to legally repo, it has to be stated in your contract as a repo. If you use colorful language such as "emergency repair..until fully paid", that doesn't cut it. I know here in TN that's the case, as well as, in AL.


Now, some may or may not care about that wording and do whatever they please (ironically until it suits them to do things the "legal" way) and that's up to them. Ultimately, each has to make their own decision as to what's best for them. A lot of ways that any scenario can be spun to be negative though without all the information.

 

[Flame]

I would think that was awesome and go out of my way to use that mechanic.

My initial reaction would be that he would suffer a harsh backlash...but I see him weekly and it seems the opposite. People think him a hero for it.

People are fickle, to say the least.

 

[visual800]

I say kudos to the mechanic! And yes I have slung someones name on a public forum, I did it on this one as a matter of fact and the ***** that owed me signed on (after someone ratted on me, thanks btw) and he threatened me with an attorney and told me to cease and desist. I told him to bring it! Screw you and your attorney.

He told me if I would take post down he would pay, I counteroffered with "You pay ill take it down". He paid! And I took post down. How dare HE or ANYONE we do honest work for turn around and treat us like filth and then have the audacity to command us and threaten us small biz owners.

DO NOT let anyone boss you around if they owe you money. DO NOT let them threaten you with legal crap. Stand your ground and face them. Too many people hear "attorney" and start running. We live in a new world or whats wrong is ok and whats right is wrong. I dont like that. We will drag folks name thru the mud or repo sign. I am not here to be the resident badass but some people take crap and some dont.

You know back in 80s and 90s if you wrote bad check some stores would staple bad checks to wall, talk about humiliation.

So basically, what can someone do to you? Maybe call an attorney, might send you a letter in the mail. Mostly they are full of threats. Call their bluff

 

[kanini]

Around here if a company doesn't pay and you leave it to a collection agency they try to get the customer to pay, if not they publish their company name and the amount they are due on the daily nation-wide business paper and in an online database so very easy to check up a company. Works on some and not at all on those who owe a lot of people a lot of money.

A sign outside about who owes you money would not look professional in my opinion, that's stuff you keep inside the company and deal with it in other ways. But don't tell me I haven't been tempted to do that sometimes...

 

[skylinegraphics]

I had a guy owe me over a thousand. Knocked on his front door said scoot over on the couch until I was paid. This was after 6 months of calling, over due invoices sent through the mail, calls and I was fed up. It worked.
I got that tip from my pops, He said back in the day when he was a Sub-contractor painter and the General Contractor wouldn't pay during holidays and they had abundance of gifts and 14 ft. christmas trees it was all that worked. Gotta do whatcha gotta do. It's dirty but It works

 

[BobM]

I had one customer who stopped taking my calls for money, stopped having breakfast at the local stop, avoided me everywhere. So one Friday afternoon I called his wife and asked what was for dinner that night. She asked me why I wanted to know. I told her I was bringing my wife and kids for dinner because her husband hadn't paid me and I had no money to buy food to feed them. He paid me that night, told me he would never do business with me again and would tell all his friends what I did to ridicule him. Told him they already knew he was a deadbeat.

 

[CES020]

Customer was avoiding my calls and emails, so I showed up at his place of business and asked to see him. I knew he wasn't there as his truck wasn't in the parking lot. I asked for him, was told he wasn't there, and I said "Can you tell him I stopped by to pick up the check he owes me for work we did?".

About an hour later, I get a blistering email from the guy telling me that he didn't appreciate me talking to his employees about his financial business and how unprofessional it was of me to do such a thing. I fired a blistering email back explaining how unprofessional is was to take work from someone and not pay them, then promise them payments on 4 different occasions and not pay for the work that he agreed to. I explained if he didn't want me showing up at his work asking for payment, then maybe he should pay me on the terms he had agreed on.

He paid me.

 

[visual800]

Around here if a company doesn't pay and you leave it to a collection agency they try to get the customer to pay


A sign outside about who owes you money would not look professional in my opinion, that's stuff you keep inside the company and deal with it in other ways. But don't tell me I haven't been tempted to do that sometimes...

i wouldnt waste time with a collection agency, be your own collector! When a customer will not pay and then starts avoiding its time to get dirty. There is no room for being professional at this point. The relationship has already been ruined I say go ahead and blow the bridge up.

Have ya'll noticed how angry the customer is after you have humiliated them? That anger is not at YOU its all at themselves

 

[FireSprint.com]

Most of this stuff will thwart any legal collection/judgement attempts, so if the amount is large enough to go to court after, don't show up at their place of business or call them in the middle of the night. That will get your case dropped pretty quickly. If it's not enough money to go to court over, why waste your time chasing good money after bad? We send the invoices and make a friendly phone call once a week, but other than that it's just not worth it.

I have seen it happen too many times. You let one customer irritate you and get you fuming, then the next 3 paying customers that call don't get the level of service they deserve and find your competitor. Was it really worth it?

One thing that we ALL need to realize in business is that the laws of averages and large numbers are constantly in effect. You don't need to make money on EVERY job. You just need to turn a nice profit as an average of all your jobs. You will inevitably lose money on some jobs for one reason or another. We all do, but the successful companies don't get bent out of shape over it, they move on and watch the numbers as a whole.

In the end, we have found the greatest motivator to getting paid is to stay in business doing good work. Eventually, our customers come back around and want to do business with us again. We then ask for payment in full if they want any kind of terms again and at least partial payment if they prepay for 100% of their new work.

We have a customer that has done $30k worth of business with us, yet he always owes us about $400 past due. At first it was frustrating, but looking back on it, I could have offered a 1.3% discount on all his work and I would be in the same boat. I'll keep that customer.

 

[CES020]

Most of this stuff will thwart any legal collection/judgement attempts, so if the amount is large enough to go to court after, don't show up at their place of business or call them in the middle of the night. That will get your case dropped pretty quickly. If it's not enough money to go to court over, why waste your time chasing good money after bad?

Our lawyer said we could easily go to court, but winning in court didn't get you any money, it only got you the judgement. You can't pay your bills with a judgement. It could then end up being something someone pays you $100 a month for until it's paid, which is more of a pain then it was all worth. Our lawyer recommended not going to court and said we probably would never be happy with the results from it.

 

[FireSprint.com]

You're right. And that's why its important to stay as positive as possible. Eventually they'll come back around...or you'll get a different customer that values what you do and pays you for it. Either way don't chase good money after bad.