[REQUEST] Billing after a remote repair - Late Payments

Archon Prime

Archon Prime

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Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I have a customer, who I've been doing work for for awhile now. This is a residential client, I've invoiced her through Square and the due date was for Monday. she's now 2 days overdue. I've sent the email again as a reminder. Nothing. I've never had issues with getting payment from a client before so this is, surprisingly, a first. (90% of my jobs are onsite and payment is upon completion, so I don't run into this often). I'm not entirely sure what the "best" way is to proceed with this. I can text/call her again about it. I just don't want to seem demanding/pushy. This customer is by no means "cheap". They own their own business and 2 houses, Lexus in the yard...etc.

Now, they DO have their card saved to the Square account. Would it be ethical to just charge it? I don't think it would be a good practice.

What do you guys usually do in this case scenario? I was thinking of pre-payments for remote, but I never know how long it will take unless it's something stupid easy.
 
Mick said:
OTOH, two days late? I'm not even starting to worry at that point...
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Exactly. If you are going to start invoicing customers, you have to put up with them taking a while to pay. Absolutely put a "Due By" on your invoice, even "Due on Receipt" if you feel strongly about that. You can't have "invoices" without also having the job of "following up on invoices." It sounds like you've done a follow-up, now you get to wait until it's time to do another followup. You can stamp your feet and demand payment, I suppose - but that will likely be at the expense of losing a customer.

The 201 course is doing this with businesses - you can explain the process all you want and get them to sign the agreement with language about payment, but if a business wants to string you along for 60 days, you usually don't have much leverage to make them do otherwise. You can fire them, of course, but as long as they pay, I'd rather just build in some kind of inconvenience fee and suck it up.

I'm about 50% residential and 50% commercial with my clientele and my receivables average somewhere around an entire month's revenue. It sucks, but it's a fact of life.
 
My worst situation was a client who owed me $12k 60-days out. They eventually paid, I'm sure she will too. Obviously the circumstances are probably a little different but I wouldn't worry about 2-days out.
 
@McFarland IT

Is this the longest you have had the wait to be paid for Remote work? I only do Remote work for established clients, and once we get off the phone I will e-mail them and attach the invoice. In the e-mail, I will include how they can pay me and when I expect payment to be due by. The only issue I did have with a client is because she was out of town and I wasn't made aware of it. Besides that everything has been good.

I hate chasing payments but I learned to give it some time and follow up when needed.

When it comes to the keeping the Credit Card on file with Square you need the form signed by the client and it should be scanned for proof. I wouldn't charge them unless you have prior arrangements to do this in the past. I know it would leave it a bad taste in my mouth if someone did that to me.
 
I usually do payments over the phone after it's complete. I did the invoice again with her since I had no issues previously.
Ya I wouldn't dare charge it without their authorisation for sure. i'll give it a bit and see what happens. :)
 
I walk them right through it if they are residential. Half of them wouldn't be able to complete it sadly without my help lol.
 
I'll never understand you people. Why do you complete work without being paid FIRST? My job is fixing computers, not chasing invoices. I'm a computer repair technician, NOT a debt collection agency. I won't even head out to an on-site appointment without the trip charge being paid IN FULL over the phone first. And at the end of the on site, I collect the payment immediately. No excuses. If I'm dealing with a larger company that might not have the owner available at the time I complete the work, then I collect ALL money UP FRONT before I start working. If it goes over, I collect the additional funds when the work is completed. If I'm able to do it for less than my estimate, they get a partial refund (this happens almost every time as I usually over quote and hand them a smaller bill at the end - it makes my clients really happy and makes it seem like I did everything I could to save them money). I've avoided being stiffed SO MANY TIMES by doing this, and the hours and hours of time I save by not chasing invoices really adds up to a lot of money at the end of the year.
 
Mick said:
@sapphirescales: Well...I guess you know your customers better than I do. Most of mine would just walk away if I wanted money from them before I'd even done anything.
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No offense intended, but perhaps part of it has to do with being reputable and having a professional business presence (I'm not saying you don't run a professional business, but maybe something about your website or shop or something is throwing people off). Or maybe it has to do with different markets (you're in the UK while I'm in the US). Or maybe it has to do with location. I'm in a large suburb (about 100k people) less than 15 minutes from the big city (750k people). Or maybe it has to do with your target clientele. My clients are almost exclusively high end home based businesses and wealthy residential clients. There are a million different things it could be. But it's definitely not that they know me better. I get a call out of the blue from a client I've never had before, they want me to come out, we agree on a day and time, I collect my trip charge immediately over the phone. No one objects to this unless they object to the trip charge itself.

I should clarify that I don't demand payment upfront for in shop work unless it's a real dud of a computer or has very high parts costs for little profit. As an example, I just replaced a logic board on a Macbook Pro. The part was $800, the total bill was $1,200. I tried to talk them out of it, but they wanted me to fix it as Apple just quoted them $1,600 for the same job, so I collected the full $1,200 up front because I didn't want to be stuck with it. A few days ago a guy came in with an XP tower that needed $350 worth of work. You bet your butt I collected payment up front. Again, I suggested he buy another computer, but he was adamant that he wanted his old clunker fixed. But I didn't want to be stuck with a $5 doorstop after putting 4 hours into it so I collected payment upfront.
 
None taken! Interesting, all the same. Most of my residential clients are in some ways like yours - high-earning, not stupid, often getting on a bit, or retired. I can honestly say I can count the number of non-payments I've had over the past five years or so on one hand. Thing is - and maybe this a Brit thing - none of the competition round here charge in advance (for anything on the domestic front - obviously, business outlay is a bit different) and I can't think of any other trades (plumbers, sparks, garages, chippies etc) who do, either. So, it's kind of a cultural thing, maybe. My view - having considered this before - is that asking for money up-front just gives the customer (particularly if it's someone new to you) the impression that you regard him/her as a pretty sneaky, untrustworthy type or, at the very least, a poor risk.

Maybe they are, but IME, usually they're not. There have been times when I've done a fair bit of diagnostic work on a machine and wound up telling the customer: "This isn't a technical matter anymore - it's an economic one" and sent them away to size up the idea of replacing their machine. At that point, I've swallowed the loss on some occasions. But - when they decide to replace (and they usually do) it's me they come to for the setup, file transfers etc, because, in their eyes, I didn't stiff them by charging X pounds just to tell them: It's broken. Guess in the end it comes down to knowing your market ans what suits it and you.
 
Collecting in advance? There's just so much wrong with that I won't even go there...............

2 days? I don't get excited until 2 months but things are a little slower out here in the country. Thing is, I've never not gotten paid.
 
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Mick said:
Well...I guess you know your customers better than I do. Most of mine would just walk away if I wanted money from them before I'd even done anything.
Click to expand...

Same. I'm not doing business in a big city. I'm in a small town with Clients who know others. I wouldn't pre-charge for work that was not done. I also have a no-fix-no-fee policy and I stand behind that 110%.
 
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McFarland IT said:
Now, they DO have their card saved to the Square account. Would it be ethical to just charge it?
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You can only charge it if the customer has filled out a CCA form (search this forum for one I posted). This is per Square regulations - and I use Square as well, have quite a few clients CC saved to it and charge them once the job is finished - but everyone has signed a CCA. I had only 1 issue (months ago) Square contacted me, I emailed them a scanned CCA and all was good. Pro tip: A CCA is a good CYA :D
 
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