Another Good Day. And A Bad One

Stone Mountain

So, as you may recall, last Thursday I banged out nearly $70,000.00 in one day.
Since then, looks like I've got confirmation for a couple more.
Yesterday, my salesman Phil did $55,000 in 4 different jobs.
In total, we've got nearly $150,000 since Thursday.

On the other hand, one of my snow plow customers has decided to stiff me for $20,000.00. I pretty much either take their offer of $8,000, or we go to small claims. I am so furious, because we bent over backwards for them. There's a whole backstory, which I won't go into, but I honestly believe they are wrong.

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BreyerConstruct

Any chance to offer a payment plan, or secondary loan... something to bring the final payment to 12k total?
(try to get a bit more out of them, but guage the cost of SC court carefully!)

~Matt

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Stone Mountain

Believe me, they have the money. This is a large and very prominent property management company and my total contract with them was originally $75,000.
It seems they decided in early February not to pay, but they let me continue on doing the work, expecting to get paid.
They're even backcharging me for a snow relocation that was never done.

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Mike Finley

F&&K them and F&&k them hard. Get as much out of them as you can, you probably have a limit to how much you can sue for in your small claims court. Over 10K is usually unheard of unless things are really different where you are, so try to get as much out of them to get you within that small claims limit as possible.

A month ago I had a devil customer try to stiff us. I say try, because that's exactly what they were doing -- testing the waters. She said out right to me that it would cost me more to collect the balance in court then the balance was. That's when I looked her in the eyes and slowly in my best Clint Eastwood style told her, I'd spend $10,000 of my money to get $2000 of hers. I burned that message into her skull with a stare of death as I said it. The husband called me later and back peddled and their check arrived 3 days later.

I simply will not accept being boned by anybody, no matter what. You want me to fly up there and take care of them?

MALCO.New.York

Property Management Companies are the worst to deal with. Their monthly/yearly budget is set. Anything they do not spend they KEEP and screw the Property Owner.

Worked for one in the early 1990's. Never have I seen such smiling cut-throat basturds, yes turds, in my life.

SUE, SUE, SUE the cajones off of them!

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AtlanticWBConst

What about getting your lawyer to send them a nice little letter?

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MALCO.New.York

They will most likely laugh at it. Lawsuits are a normalcy for them!

But that IS where you should start!

Resubmit your "past-due Invoice" via certified mail. Stop the phone calls. Stop the head-banging. Get it all on paper. Two weeks then a letter from your Legal Council.

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Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
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Stone Mountain

This is an old company. My father-in-law worked for them in the 60's. (He had a roofing company). They were very good to him.
I have been working for them since 1999. I've done several fence projects, including one for $20,000+, and never had problems.
I've also plowed for them for 8 seasons. Always got paid.
2 years ago, the old managment sold out to the employees. Now, the same people I was dealing with over the years, the managers, are now the owners. Totally different attitudes now.
As far as court, there are 6 individual contracts, with 6 separate companies as owners. The small claims limit here is $10,000, and each contract is lower than that, so I can go to court: unfortunately 6 times.
I won't actually be suing the management company, but the owners directly.
Won't the owners just love that.
Again, there's much more to it than this but I just don't have the energy right now to go into it.

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Ed the Roofer

Since there are 6 different contracts with outstanding debt, it seems as if some definite illegal collusion was going on.

Ask your attorney about bringing additional charges against all 6 of the priciples, which they "May" be held accountable for, due to those actions.

Without knowing the details, and I don't need to, I would also see if their is any viable fraud that occurred, especially if any of these transactions occurred with the postal system. I am not sure about the Canadian Postal System, but if illegal transpirings occur via regular mail, there "Can" be even more severe penalties.

When they are confronted with these additional potential litigations to contend with, their perspective on the matter may coincidentally change for the better of all concerned.

Definitely speak with your attorney.

Ed

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MALCO.New.York

Do not wait too long. The is a limitation on filing.

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Something to One may be Nothing to another!

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firemike

You got that right - Been there - Done that. I worked (past tense) for guy that was a manager for a large commercial property company, signed my proposals and invoices without even a second look, then became an owner with a whole new attitude about what I was getting paid.

Like Cyndi Lauper's song says - "Money changes everything!"

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Mike Finley

That sounds even better! I'd go after the biggest baddest one first. Just like in a fist fight, you take out the biggest baddest dude out of the group and the rest sue for peace. Much easier to go after 1 then all 6 and then watch the rest of them write you checks.

MALCO.New.York

Good advice.

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Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
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mickeyco

I'm assuming they had no problem with the work and were just trying to apply a weasel discount. I hate those type of people and I never spot them until it's too late. But when people say it'll cost more to recover I take it as a challenge, and let them know a little of my track record. I do find it amusing in court how they were unhappy with the work but never said anything and hadn't had any problems "fixed" in the interim.



.

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onhitch

the red flag is the customer who wants you to bend over backwards for them. what they are really saying is they put no value on you and are 100% self serving.- just a guess?

Stone Mountain

I have been to small claims court about 30 times over the years. That's since 1979. There have of course been other difficult customers, but usually a small discount satisfies them.
When I do go to court, I've so far never lost. People have such silly perceptions of what is right and wrong.

I'm not afraid to take these guys on. That's the beauty of small claims. The judges HATE lawyers. So I have a very good chance to win, especially since they breached their own contract. I just need the money NOW!

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