Matthew For late paying customers, I would look into going to small claims court. The good news is, it doesn't cost too much. (I paid $25 when I was still in St. Louis, but it has probably gone up). You can represent yourself, and unless your customer has a legitimate reason, usually pays before the court date. The bad news is that even if you win, all you have is a right to collect the money. Unless the customer sends you a check when the court tells him to pay you, you still have to collect the money. This is where it can get tricky. You either have to go to the person, in person, and with the court order, try to collect. Or you have to get the sheriff to find the person, and get the money from him/her. But unless that person has the money on him/her, the sheriff walks away, and you have to put in another order. And the sheriff doesn't do this for free. But chances are, the customer will pay, because the fact that he had a judgement against him will be on his credit record. And most people want to avoid that. But then the people who stiff you probably have a bad credit rating anyway, so they don't care. Personally, I've taken 5 people to small claims. I collected from 4 of them. (I won't go into why the fifth didn't because it's a long story). But one of the ones who did pay, sent me a check 6 months after the judgement. I sued him not so much for the money, but for the principal of the thing. (He defiantly told me he wasn't going to pay me). So I took him to court. I was very pleasantly surprised when got a check 6 months later. As far as collection agencies, it's not worth it. I had some bad experiences with one, and it almost cost me more money than I collected. If it's large amount, you might be better off asking your lawyer to send a threatening letter. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician 94-505 Kealakaa Str. Mililani, Oahu, HI 96789 808-349-2943 www.Bleespiano.com Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 5:32 pm Subject: [pianotech] Collection Agencies The recent topic regarding manufacturer payments has reminded me of something I have been wanting to throw at everyone. Has anyone ever had the sheer pleasure of turning in a non-paying client to collections? Is this even possible in our line of work? What kind of legal grounds would one need? I have each of my clients, or whoever is there, sign the invoice when my work is complete, showing that I have completed the work to their satisfaction. I know to some of you, dealing with a collection agency may not be at all worth it financially to you, as I am sure you would be lucky to recover 30% of your invoice amount. However, it's just the point that if someone did try to intentionally stiff you of your services, collections would at least leave a mark on their credit, which I feel would be better than just walking away. Thoughts anyone? Matthew -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091029/e8dc3f8b/attachment.htm>
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