customers not paying

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVISE ON WHAT TO DO FOR NONPAYMENT(90 DAYS) I AM LOOKING TO COLLECT ALOT OF MONEY,BUT AM NOT GETTING ANY RETURN CALLS BACK. LOOKING FOR ADVISE.

Physically go to the place of business and communicate with their Accounts Receivables/Payable staff and let them know the situation.

In my area you have 90 days after you lasted worked on site to file a lien,other states you file a intent to lien prior to starting work.Find something on the job you forgot to do (wink,wink) and let them know you are filing a lien and do it.When the owner of the liened property finds out about the lein they usually get to the bottom of things real quick with the contractor who has not paid you. Best of luck!

Because of some non-paying customers, I have become a pain in the a$$ when it comes to collecting my money. 10 to 30 day terms depending on the customer. When the invoice is due and I don't have a check, I call sometimes 2 times a day to collect. I have not had many non-collectable accounts by doing this. If I have not collected by the 45th day I do send a formal intent to file a lien. No check by the 55th day, the lien is filed. Usually I have no problem after that. Sometimes, no call back by the customer after we have collected, but who gives a crap after having to piss and moan to get our money. Do what Cheney said, remember what you "forgot" to do on the job site, stencil on the firelane, etc.. Get pictures of what you did, CYA. Good luck. I hope you collect.

Did you need a P/O to get paid? It has to be on the invoice if so.

First thing to remember, make clear on your payment terms right from the beginning. We tell everyone payment is due on completion, however we understand that most companies will take 30. We then will send out a friendly reminder letter in the 10-15 day range, and a payment due 25-30 days, then a past due at 31 and we start to get tougher at 40. Shortly thereafter we send out an intent to lien notice sent by certified mail, this will get their attention quick, and also gets us paid 99.9% of the time, then from there if we have to lien or take them to court , we can. Remember to not let accounts go over 60, once you get the older accounts, it gets harder to collect, and also you may miss your states lien time frame.

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP . THIS GIVES ME SOME GREAT IDEAS TO TRY AND COLLECT,AND ALSO WHAT I NEED TO DO NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND. I WILL KEEP EVERYONE POSTED.

send final notice with the words FINAL NOTICE on it then the words Going to Collections next.... you will get paid then! Ive always had luck with that...

Sounds like you have done work for either a paver or sealcoater. Send them a letter that states CLEARLY you are going to file with the SMALL CLAIMS COURT if you do not get payment within 2 days. 2 days later no payment... ? file a claim. Oh, and by the way, I dont work for sealcoaters or pavers unless they pay cash up front, No exceptions. And yes, i have been screwed before.

BTW, small claims works unless they have filed bankruptcy.

RippedHog wrote on Dec 16, 2006:Go to #8

send final notice with the words FINAL NOTICE on it then the words Going to Collections next.... you will get paid then! Ive always had luck with that...

Registered letter with signature required will add to the message you are sending.

yes it is for a sealcoating company. i have tried threatening him for about a week. finally, i had to proceed with my threat. my attorney friend is now handleing it for me. btw,anything under $3000.00 is considered small claims. this is well over that.

Ouch. I feel your pain. Those guys think they are so cute because they always have the upper hand. "Duh, we cant pay you for the last job you did until you do this next one for us, oh and if you get snotty with us we just wont pay you for any of the work you did for us, dont worry you will get your money as soon as we get paid from OUR customer first". How about this one, "Oh, you didnt get the check yet!?!? Oh, we must put a stop payment on that, you should have gotten it by now." "What do you mean you want cash up front! you dont trust us?, We will just find another striper to do our MILLION DOLLAR ACCOUNTS" I could go on and on... Im sure You must have a few one liners of your own to share. Good luck to you and I hope you collect every cent plus court and attorney fees.

I am up against this situation right now on a small job. Not enough to go to small claims, but I want my money. Long story short. One of the paving companies I work for did a job where the lines weren't included initially in the contract for a small private parking area in a residential physical therapy building. Then the GC on the job decided to put them in later, and the project manager from the paving co. had them call me directly. And they stiffed me. Needless to say, the "collections" manager from the paving co. and I will be there Tuesday morning to "collect"......I will get paid

When you unload your grinder and start removing the lines they won't pay for, you might find they will be quick to write you a check (or call the cops).

Yea Ive taken back my lines before. I got stiffed for a grand once. I went and blacked out the lines. The lot stayed that way for about 2 years. Finally someone else repainted them. I never got my money the guy left the area.

I have never taken back lines by blacking them out or grinding them. I just go collect for work done.

Believe it or not, it is a criminal offense to remove the lines.

Everybody likes to get paid when the work is done. it dosent work that way unless you have it in your contract after 30 days they will be charged intrest.. all our contracts STATE IN BLACK AND WHITE AND BOLD after 30 days they pay intrest you set the percent.. we did a job in september, still waiting.. was told they pay in 90 days..oh well intrest adding up.. some times that becomes a problem when you front out alot of money of your own for these big jobs.. not so bad in the middle of the season, but the end of the season hurts when you got payments to meet.. and your having a winter like were having here in pa .7 of a inch of snow so far.. your bill collectors don't want to hear about the customer that you did work for 60 days ago, and didn't pay you.. they want their money now.. thats way the larger the company, the longer the wait it seems.. then if you push the issue with leins, you can almost bet you won't be back doing any more work for this company, or friends of this company..large companies can hurt your bussiness if you pressure them..they like and want the work done now but they are slow when it comes to pay.thats why it s got to be in the contract.. BOLD , when it comes for them to pay intrest . they seem to pay early, you can offer a discount if they pay before the 30 days, and that seems to work also.. hope it works out for you.. good luck in the future... have it in your contract..

I offer a 10 % discount if I am paid within 10 days of billing. I can afford to offer that discount because my prices are at least that much higher then the anyone else. When making a perposal I ask how long it will take to get paid then I point out my discount. If I don't expect to get paid within 30 days my pricing goes up a lot. and I also point this out to the coustomer. If they plan on paying right away it doesn't make any differance how much you rase the price after the 30 day mark because they will get the cheepest price avalable. There have been times when a simple $3,000 job hac cost the customer over $14,000 because of there disregard for making a timely payment. Show your customer the differance in what you charge for your work if paid quickly and 9 times out of 10 you will get a check within 10 days. Make it worth your while if you have to wait for your money. Dwan