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How many times have you heard this,,,,,,"I forgot to bring a check. As soon as the get back to my office, I will send you a check" You exect to get a check in a day or 2, but no. You get a check in a week or more. I must not be that high on the list for some people.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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A few years ago, we lettered an awning on site for an electric sign company that’s been at the forefront of many efforts in Texas to change regulations in order to push small guys out of the business. They pay quite a bit of money to make sure they are the first to come up on search engines and they have questionnaires on their website for companies looking for signs that are pretty much designed to sow fear and doubt about having anyone but themselves build and install their sign. With all their efforts to dominate the industry, I think their design work is quite amateurish.
They wanted us to paint a bank’s logo and name on an existing awning and were extremely particular about every bit of the process from our end–what kind of clothing our guys wore, what the truck looked like, and numerous other hoops we had to jump through. They also did not have accurate dimensions and I had to make an appointment to go out there and do the field measurements and provide them a scaled drawing that they then sent to the bank for approval.
We did the job exactly as requested, exactly on time, in spiffy clothing and driving a freshly washed and vacuumed truck. The bank loved what we did. We submitted our invoice and the run around began, and continued for many weeks thereafter. No one would return a phone call or reply to an email. When I did manage to work my way through the bowels of their phone mail system and talk to the woman who wrote the checks, I always got the same answer, “Yes, we have your invoice, but I didn’t have time to write your check when writing the others this week so you’ll have to wait until next week when I write checks again.” The following week, everything else got in line in front of our invoice, the next week was the same, etc.
I finally sent a registered lien letter to the bank, informing them that we had not been paid for the work we had done on site and that we intended to file a lien on their property. I told Sophie, “Don’t worry. I won’t have to call the sign company, they’ll call us.” Sure enough, the next day, I got a call from the lady in accounting and she was SHOCKED, yes, SHOCKED, that I hadn’t received the check she sent the previous week. Of course, when the check did arrive, it was dated the day she called.
When I do subcontract work, I’m very respectful of the relationship my client has with their customers and I never try to undermine it in any way, however, that time I didn’t care if an important account for them had gotten blown because they had no intention of paying me otherwise.
[ April 28, 2015, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: David Harding ]
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I once got some free advice from an attorney that was worth more than I paid for it. If it gets to the point where they stall and stall and stall and you know you never want to work for them again, you can picket their business. As long as you are on the public sidewalk and your sign states only the simple facts there is nothing they can do but bring a check out to you. I have never had to do it but I have notified them I will be there with a picket sign when they open the next morning. They had a check ready.
-------------------- Chuck Peterson Designs San Diego, CA Posts: 1050 | From: San Diego, CA USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I had another guy "Forget to Pay" from last November. I called and called. He would say "I will look in to it". Finally a few weeks ago, I drove past his office, his truck was there, so I walked in his office sat down, smiled and said "How ya doing!" When I left, I had a check in my back pocket.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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I had a customer who stalled me for a long time so I showed up at his office with a book. A couple hours later, I left with a check and much more knowledge about screen printing.
About twenty years ago, a friend had a client that kept "losing" his invoices. He got a hundred copies at a quick print place, stuck one on every windshield in the company's lot, then went in and dropped the rest on the receptionist's desk with the words, "Lose this!"
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Oh these stories are good kinda lets ya laugh a bit.
I threaten to toss a gallon of blockout on a roof painted sign for the last $75, another pour gas on a M Benz for another $75 washed car after paid.
last one sprayed Easy-Off after 5 months on back lighted sign even after getting a half deposit, claimed that is all he will pay, & few months later he went to jail after for burning the bar business building down lol
Had one say will pay you next monday well a few weeks later they moved out.
Because of those it does not leave my shop till fully paid & IF extended credit I am there knocking on door till paid in full even if it takes all day.
You just reminded me of the day that you and I went to collect payment for one of your customers windows, that, you and I did together.....in Orlando......Back in 1992.
The guy had his secretary give us the run around, telling us that she didn't know when he was coming back to the office.....That he probably was not coming in, that day.
I remember that I told you to park your old, beat up truck ( covered with all the different colors of paint, that had piled up on it, for the last two or three years and, also, filled with all kinds of junk, in the back ) in front of the only entrance door of their office.
After we parked your truck in front of that door, the man, miraculously, appeared within 20 minutes....in a very bad mood. Telling us to move the damned truck.......Of course, he immediately paid you.
He wasn't counting on our "secret collections tool".
posted
Sometimes they are telling the truth when they say the check is in the mail. I was putting up the tee signs on one of my golf courses when I told the clubhouse manager that I wasn't putting up a certain bar's sign until I got paid from last year and this coming year because despite 2 letters and the invoice I hadn't heard from her. He said he'd call her. The next day she called me and was shocked that I hadn't received my check. She said hang on, got her checkbook and said, yeah, here it is, $190.00, check number blah blah blah and I remember mailing it the same day I wrote it, March 24th. She called me last Tuesday, April 28th. Now she did say she sent it to my old address, in spite of the fact I had 2 notices printed on the invoice and letter so I know it is being forwarded, but this is ridiculous. She sent me another check and it was there the next day.
This brings to the post office. My accountant asked me where my wife's W2 was from her retirement, that it was not in the packet I gave her. She searched her office, we searched our house, nothing. So to keep the accountant rolling, we gave her the figures off my wife's last stub. Guess what showed up in our home mailbox on April 13th? Her W2 with a postmark of January 29!
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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I think the automated address reading/letter sorting equipment gets high on the fumes from the magnetic ink that's printed on checks and pulls that mail aside so it can continue sniffing it, thus causing the delays for checks in the mail.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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i did 5 2' x 5' PAINTED banners.........thats how long ago this was))))) for an inflatable boat company named APEX. i was working at a marina lettering a boat and this guy, i guess was part of that company, asked if i did banners. i said yep. so i give him a price and he said can you have them done and shipped to miami address for the miami boat show. i said i can. he told me to email invoice to the main headquarters in virgina. they would mail me a check the next day of reciept of invoice. i said ok. NOW i got the banners,my money, got em painted, and shipped to said address in plenty oftime for them to hang for the boat show. i emailed the invoice. the day after i shipped the banners cause i added WHAT I PAID to ship them. now iam out 5 banners, and shipping to miami. i wait a week...........nothing. i call headquarters. now i gota figure out who in hell is writing checks. i tell them the guys name that ordered the banners and oh yes we got his request for funds. HIS REQUEST FOR FUNDS? iam the guy that produced the banners....I NEED PAID!!!!! this went on for a month.....finally i got to one of the honchos....and he apoligized forthe delay....and personally got me my money. from that job........i NEVER BUY MATERIALS WITH MY OWN MONEY..... its HALF DOWN........ or nuttin honey)))
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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You got that right Joe, especially a new customer. I got a job for a billboard and the main sign for a new restaurant. The guy spent a small fortune restoring a stately old house on the main highway in town. I got the down payment for the billboard and for the 3D sign with gold leaf letters. The billboard went up on time, no payment. Sent statements, no payment. Then I hear several contractors weren't getting paid so I stopped working on the sign. Then I get a call that the bank released funds for bills to start back up on the main sign. A week later he e mails me that they are going in a different direction and cancelled the sign order. The "different direction" he was referring to was the direction of being closed by the feds for non payment of taxes and then bankruptcy. At least the down payment covered all the billboard, all materials for the sign and about 60% of the labor on the sign. The small amount he owed me for labor to the point of cancellation wasn't worth getting in line with all the other creditors.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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this was another one....all paint. i DID GET A $300 DEPOSIT from the client.... but the sign was $600. one of the strangest ones.....she ordered the sign, approved the design for a location(building)she was renting. i got it done, delivered it......well the client wasnt there, one of her employees was. she told me she would be in in the morning and to come back then. I WENT BACK bout noon.......to find the doors open, that same employee....gathering up her own stuff, what was left of a salon. all salons have sinks...for washing hiar......well this lady REMOVED EVERYTHING....down to the SINKS... from the building!!!!!!! the sign was gone..have no idea of what she did with it!!!!! one of my better ones too....really p.o.ed me. and she was never heard from in this area!!!! [IMG][/IMG]
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I think we've all been there. I do not hesitate to ask for 50% down payment from new customers - then at least my materials are paid for if they bail out on me. I've learned how to "propose" to customers that I will not hesitate to re-possess my work if I do not get paid, and so far I've only had to threaten to do that about 4 times in 27 years, and never had to do the deed. Pretty much every one pays before they take off with their sign or banner, and if I let people go without paying, they get a check to me within the week. Although, a couple times I have had to suddenly show up at customers store and catch them by surprise so they pay me then. I've learned to look for "a tell" or key words - like nervous talk, fidgeting - like they have to go to the bathroom. Or, when you ask a customer how's business? and they say, "Oh, well, okay I guess." That means: Not so good, I'm broke and desperate. Then I'm cautious on how I proceed to work, or not work, with that customer.
-------------------- Kathy Weeks Weeks-End Signs & Graphics Lake Elmo, Minnesota Posts: 248 | From: Lake Elmo, Minnesota | Registered: Mar 2009
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Chip Carter told me when a new customer asked him to build a sign without a down payment he told them, "Just a minute... [long pause] I went out front and looked at my sign and it doesn't say 'BANK'. I guess I can't do it without a down payment."
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have a couple of signs here that I was allowed to keep after making before I learned to get a deposit. When someone wants a sign without paying the deposit, I offer them one of these, because they are my "No Deposit" signs.
-------------------- Don Hulsey Strokes by DON signs Utica, KY 270-275-9552 sbdsigns@aol.com
I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane. Posts: 2273 | From: Utica, KY U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 1999
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