getting paid

[Sierrasparky]

Follow up on the wacky customer telling me how she is going to pay me and how timely.

The job was from a apartment owner the tennant had no power. I was told to call for a credit card with the amount when finished. I was in the truck when the call came in.

Well they refused to answer my calls to get the card info. They did not respond to text messages ( i have confrimation turned on for texts)

Well I got a email back from them saying check should go out soon. I was out of the office most of the week. The email came from the cell phone of the person. It was only after I texted " is there a problem i will call in the morning. .

I hate this crap I drop everything to fix their problem and then they make me wait till the 5th of Nevuary.

 

[kwired]

Follow up on the wacky customer telling me how she is going to pay me and how timely.

The job was from a apartment owner the tennant had no power. I was told to call for a credit card with the amount when finished. I was in the truck when the call came in.

Well they refused to answer my calls to get the card info. They did not respond to text messages ( i have confrimation turned on for texts)

Well I got a email back from them saying check should go out soon. I was out of the office most of the week. The email came from the cell phone of the person. It was only after I texted " is there a problem i will call in the morning. .

I hate this crap I drop everything to fix their problem and then they make me wait till the 5th of Nevuary.

All the more reason I don't drop everything for such calls anymore, especially for service calls in rental houses/apartments. I even sometimes drag my feet enough hoping they will get some other sucker to show up first.

 

[Sierrasparky]

All the more reason I don't drop everything for such calls anymore, especially for service calls in rental houses/apartments. I even sometimes drag my feet enough hoping they will get some other sucker to show up first.

I suppose you are independantly wealthy and don't really need to perform work in the electrical field.

I still need to work.
I'll get paid. I just don't like being treated as such.

 

[zbang]

How many people charge late fees? I've always listed a late fee, usually 1.5%/month for 30-days past-due, on both proposals and invoice. Only had to charge it a couple of times. I also despise net-30 agreements, due on receipt or net-15 are more my speed.

Another useful clause, might not be valid in all states, is "vendor retains a security interest in all work product and materials until paid in full". That doesn't mean that I own the materials once installed, just that I can use them to secure payment (like a mortgage).

 

[kwired]

I suppose you are independantly wealthy and don't really need to perform work in the electrical field.

I still need to work.
I'll get paid. I just don't like being treated as such.

Far from it, and have more recently come to realize that residential work is part of the reason why. You work your tail off in that market and everything is cutthroat. Not saying I will not do any residential work, but I don't give much effort into seeking it out, and I certainly am not dropping something that is profitable to go take a service call for someone that doesn't think I am worth what I will charge. I don't know how many people think that just because I work from home, means I will answer their call on Sat, holidays, sometimes evenings and come right over because they have a problem with something and they are home - and often something that I could have taken care of during what most consider regular business hours. In fact I generally refuse to answer the phone on the weekend anymore, I like to have leisure time myself. I don't call other business people at home during off hours and demand something unless it is something that truly can not wait. When I was a kid my dad worked at an auto parts store, people called him all the time after hours wanting him to get something for them. At least that usually was something quick, these after hours service calls are not always as quick as going to the store, looking up the part, doing whatever paperwork needs done or collecting the cash, handing them their part and you are done.

 

[Sierrasparky]

Commercial customers are worse when it comes to getting paid. I have worked all over the west. Most commercial biz have to process payements that can and will take 30 to 45 days. I am not the Bank of the West.

 

[ceb58]

Oh, trust me. This is not unique to the UK.
Over the years I've seen a lot of companies go bankrupt do to jobs going south on them. Some of them quite large and respected. The reasons vary and of course some are the electrical contractor's own fault.

There is an ethanol plant near me that was built about 4 years ago. The project got in trouble and they filed for bankruptcy. The electrical contractor, who was from out of state, committed suicide over it.

 

[GUNNING]

Endgame

Endgame

There is an ethanol plant near me that was built about 4 years ago. The project got in trouble and they filed for bankruptcy. The electrical contractor, who was from out of state, committed suicide over it.

That happens, not good when it does. I was working for a small mom and pop company when they were on a job that went belly up. The General Contractor had 13 other large projects going. Took a bunch of people out. Completion bonds were scrambled after and work renegotiated. It was an eye opener for a lot of novices.
You do not go into Walmart and say I want to use this next week and I will pay you then. Pre qualify your customers and get something signed or at the very least make sure they own the property. A simple set of questions before dispatch will save you a lot of headache. There will be the occasional scofflaw, it happens. But if you are going to chase you money it can be done. If you do not have an agreement on the scope of work then pass it on to your competitors. Let them have the headache.

Figure out the end game before you begin. Its all about the Benjamin s.

 

[growler]

There is an ethanol plant near me that was built about 4 years ago. The project got in trouble and they filed for bankruptcy. The electrical contractor, who was from out of state, committed suicide over it.

Probably didn't want to hear his wife saying "I told you so" for the next 40 years.

 

[Sierrasparky]

Probably didn't want to hear his wife saying "I told you so" for the next 40 years.

That is funny but is really in bad taste. hmy:

 

[ptonsparky]

You should expect some delays in payment. It is just part of business. Deal with it, or find a different way to make a living.

No payment at all is another problem. I have mentioned before that I was taken for $23,000 in one year. Bummer. Much like shoplifting at a retail store, my other customers are paying for this loss. I had to raise my rates.

 

[kwired]

You should expect some delays in payment. It is just part of business. Deal with it, or find a different way to make a living.

And believe it or not, it is often the guys that appear to not have much wealth that pay you on time or at least make arrangements and make sure you do get paid if they do have some problems. It is those that appear to have some wealth that will stick you with little or no warning.Those that appear to have something are either so in debt they are swimming in it, or they have wealth because they are so tight they don't pay anything until they feel they have to. I can just see some of them trying to negotiate with some little girl scout over girl scout cookie prices or something similar to that scenario

 

[elf friend]

And believe it or not, it is often the guys that appear to not have much wealth that pay you on time or at least make arrangements and make sure you do get paid if they do have some problems. It is those that appear to have some wealth that will stick you with little or no warning.Those that appear to have something are either so in debt they are swimming in it, or they have wealth because they are so tight they don't pay anything until they feel they have to. I can just see some of them trying to negotiate with some little girl scout over girl scout cookie prices or something similar to that scenario

Over the years I have fount that the hardest bills to collect on are from those that apear to be very wealthy and pastors. Seams like the wealthy want to hang onto the money owed until just before a small claims court date and pastors just think they are owed these services. At least these have been my experiances.

 

[easyrider]

We do a lot of work in industrial plants. It always seems that the larger and more well known the customer, the longer it takes to get paid. And God forbid if there is a "T" not crossed or an "I" not dotted on the invoice.

 

[iceworm]

As an owner's agent (we function as our own GC), where the electrical contractor is supplying material, I have had the material vendor send me a "notice of intent to lien". First time it happened, I called and asked, "What's this for?"

Response: Your contractor got a lot of material out of us. It's net 30, and if he doesn't pay us, we are geting the money from you - doesn't matter if you paid him for the material or not.

I knew the EC pretty well and it didn't worry me. However, that time and every time after, I called the material vendors and checked if they had been paid before I would authorize the final payment.

Question: When the EC is working for a GC, can the EC file a similar "notice of intent to lien" and put the owner under an oblication to pay is the GC does not?

This is curiousity - I'm out of my element here.

ice

 

[Fulthrotl]

As an owner's agent (we function as our own GC), where the electrical contractor is supplying material, I have had the material vendor send me a "notice of intent to lien". First time it happened, I called and asked, "What's this for?"

Response: Your contractor got a lot of material out of us. It's net 30, and if he doesn't pay us, we are geting the money from you - doesn't matter if you paid him for the material or not.

I knew the EC pretty well and it didn't worry me. However, that time and every time after, I called the material vendors and checked if they had been paid before I would authorize the final payment.

Question: When the EC is working for a GC, can the EC file a similar "notice of intent to lien" and put the owner under an oblication to pay is the GC does not?

This is curiousity - I'm out of my element here.

ice

varies from state to state, but in calif. you have to file a preliminary notice
of intent to lien, or you lose the right to file a lien at a point later on down the
road.

for a supplier to lien here, the material must be delivered to the jobsite, not
picked up at the supply house. in addition, i will file a preliminary notice as
well, for the full contract price. this protects not only me, but my suppliers as
well, giving them recourse thru me if they don't get paid.

normally, you get a lien release for progress payments you have given on
work in progress, and those should include supply houses. if you don't get
releases for last months check, no way in hell would i issue this months check.

i've got a job right now, all job paperwork, and documentation is on a dropbox
account, and everything, from invoices to checks, to cashed check abstracts for
materials paid for can be viewed by all parties involved.

the work's being done on a handshake, as that is the way the owner does business,
but full documentation eliminates surprises for anyone.

 

[iceworm]

What's a "dropbox account"? That sounds interesting.

ice

 

[GoldDigger]

Drop box, in the internet cloud refers to a file storage account where one or more people can add files, usually everybody on the job read all the files, and only one party if any can delete or edit the files once that have been dropped into the virtual box.
You can set up this kind of account with box.com, Google Drive, and a host of other free and pay services.

Tapatalk!

 

[Fulthrotl]

What's a "dropbox account"? That sounds interesting.

ice

it's an encrypted server you can put files in, and give a link to anyone you wish
who can view it by clicking on the link.

you can also password protect it, etc. unless you give edit privledges to someone,
you are the only one who can change stuff on the folder.

if someone want's a copy of your stuff, they can click on the stuff they want, and save
it to their dropbox account. it's secure, and my backup software on my personal computer
backs up my dropbox as well, so i've got it offline.

google docs is the same scheme, and is free, as is dropbox, for a small account.

100 gigs of storage is $100 a year. you can get up to 500 gigs at that price.

a five gig account is free.