Consequences of Not Paying Your Bills: A Story

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm just sitting here steaming a bit while considering what to do with a customer of mine. It's always the small timers who don't want to pay their bills. Its funny really, I once had a customer, a large company, that owed me over $30,000; and all on a handshake! But the little guys tend to be really snakey. After saving this guys butt, and I mean big time, and after giving him tremendous breaks on the price, nearly 50% off, and just because he was in trouble, now he's trying to ignore the bill. What he doesn't know is that his customer already promised to pay me and deduct it from his bill from my customer, if needed.

 

[Kerrie]

I know exactly what you mean Ivan, although in my situation it's my company that gets the stiff. Currently, I do the accounts receivables, so I am the lucky one to call customers to get payment from them if they go over the 30 day grace period terms. It usually is the small companies trying to avoid paying what they owe for product or services. When I mention the magic word "collections", I usually get a check promptly. Once a customer has pushed me to this point, I put their account on COD so they have to pay for their product/services at the time they receive them.

 

[Echo 6 Sierra]

GEEZ! Don't get me started! 60-75% of our invoices are $2.00 and below and the FOIA says we can't make anyone pre-pay for having not paid in the past. I have invoices that are 4 years old and no one has the guts to write them off. On the other hand, most of those invoices are probably from people that have gone to their reward by now. Still, it boils my peanuts to know that no one has the sand to wipe the 180 plus file. If they did my "aged accounts" would be cut by three fourths.

 

[brewnog]

When I worked for my dad, we started giving people an incentive (Marks & Spencer voucher, or whatever) for paying early. Seemed to do the trick, although we once had a Solicitor client of ours go bankrupt on us!

 

[Pengwuino]

What do you do ivan? :D

 

[FredGarvin]

I worked for a ma and pa shop right out of college. They were notorious for not paying bills until someone threatened them. It made life so much easier for us slugs that had to try to deal with them on a day to day basis.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What do you do ivan? :D

I do systems integration and industrial automation; consulting, programming, engineering.

I worked for a ma and pa shop right out of college. They were notorious for not paying bills until someone threatened them

There is a guy like this who owns a company in the Portland area. A business associate had done some work and wasn't getting paid. When he finally went into the office and talked with the owner, the guy pulled out a stack of checks already cut for the vendors which included the late payment for my associate. It turns out that this customer doesn't pay until someone stands in front of him and demands payment. This is a case where the customer is so big that even the largest suppliers put up with the abuse.