6 months. in and I get to the ugly side of busines

I am owed 1200 dollars from a commercial account, llate by nearly 3 months. Naturally it's hard to find anyone to talk to, and no one,in the whole corporation will connect you up. I finally get a number though. I was told I filled out a paper wrong so no payment was sent. My invoice did not,include everything they needed, but I was given no guidelines. I recited 3 emails saying the invoices were accepted and processed. I emailed them and told the rep whom I did talk to that telling me an,invoice was accepted, then not filing it and choosing not to pay me without notice borders on fraud and theft and to issue the,check by June or my,lawyer will file a suit.

Hoping for the best!

We've had late payments and sometimes people you work directly with are filing the invoices and there can be issues.

I'd use it for knowing in the future they need to let you know what they expect in an invoice and your expectations on the contract if you didn't have them in terms of payment conditions.

Even though I get up every day for $1200.00 jobs if be cautious in talking lawyers until you are sure they aren't just mired in bad communication in house.

Just my .02

The reason I threatened was the lack of communication. The manager local got fired, and they tell me,I have to call their office in Arizona, who refused to connect me to billing and no one would,talk to me at all. Copirate separation. Then they ignored my,invoice for three months. Took me 8 hours to talk to anyone.

Corp's are famous for dragging their feet on payment's, they have to go thru too many hands for approval.

Commercial jobs are fun sometimes

Sorry to hear that, hope it gets better. Never a good time chasing money.

Agreed collecting money is a pain. I wouldnt give up on calling them.

However, I wouldn't go through the hassle of a lawyer for $1200. You could make that money back on other jobs with the time and energy it takes to go through that process and the other jobs will be more fun.

Bob, there are a lot better things i would rather do, and so many better things with the money. I literally got 63 cents til the next job pays. But, the only reason they can do this is people do walk away. Maybe when I'm older I will but not now.

Been a landlord for 13 years so I know what the inside of a courtroom looks like more than I care to.

But taking someone to court doesn't mean they walk in and hand you a check. You have to front the money for your lawyer, win, and then collect. If they really want to be jerks its just not worth it.

Going to send you a pm.

I do understand that aspect Bob, it would cost about 300 just to have him send the letter. But I look forward to your pm

Could be a great place to release skunks in the future hahaha

Throw back,

you seem like a nice enough fella, but you have a lot to learn about the business side of this. I had a large locally based company with over 50 commercial buildings 120 days after invoice on around $7,000 and I wasn't threatening anything. Anytime you are going into business with a company that has either more than one location, or a base elsewhere you can expect late payments. it is your duty before the work starts to hammer down the payment structure and options. heck I do it with every job.

I work for one of the largest custom home builders here all the time and although by the time my final retainer payment is made it is 6 months (at least) after the job started, I can take as many draws for up to 95% of the total bill anytime I want. Now when I start a large job for them I draw them for 50% and let the rest come when it will. I never call them and hassle them about payment, or anything like that, and they no longer call any other wildlife or pest control company.

you will likely never work for this company ever again and you can be sure they talk with other companies in the area. if your running thin on money you need to get a down payment ahead of the job, its simple you just have to put it in the contract. ive two sweated a check coming in the beginning, and when you own money and are owed more it sucks, but companies don't want to work with other companied they don't feel are going to survive. if you are threatening a lawyer at under 90 days on $1200 your showing your hand that your weakness right now is the financial side of things. you have to shore it up. it is most likely too late with this company, but I wouldn't sweat the next customer over something as simple as payment. you say this happens because some are willing to walk away, but that isn't true. with many locations they might be on a 90 day payment to begin with.

take a breath and spend your time and energy looking for other work right now. this job is done and in the books, any more time you put into it is money out of your pocket.

oh and to get back to the $7000 account, ive since booked 2 more jobs with them, and $8400 and a $6200 job. That would've been 14.6k out the window if I would have been busting their balls over the 7k. Last year this company spent over 100k on pest control- that's a contract im desperately seeking and eventually it will be mine but its going to take me working with them on many projects before they are willing to drop their national chain pest supplier.

I see your point Travelintrapper. My real problem is there was no one who would even accept responsibility. Local told me go to coporate, who wouldnt even talk to me and then told me to go to local, who doesnt process invoices. I know I left out details, but the disconnected me about 5 times in the 8 hours I talked to them, and told me several times " We cant get ahold of supervisors", like thats true. Then the rep I finally talked to after 8 hours of phone time tells me that they were not intending to pay due to misfiled paperwork and that they were not intending to contact me to clear it up.

Their coporate structure does not allow me to get a nickel up front.

I dont think I burnt the bridge, as local wants me to due more work for them in the relatively near future, and I am on good terms with the (possibly) to be manager. Sure coprotate may choose to drop me, and if so, I'll work it out. I have no problem with late payments, I do have problem with being disconnected, lied to, and told that there was no intention to solve the situation.

We will see how it pans out though. You may be right, but by the way I was passed around and lied to, it didnt seem like good business for me either. IF there is nothing to hide, why are they afraid to just tell me anything.

Last thing for the night travelin, I like that you mentioned I have a lot to learn about the business side. The best advice I was given latley was to "change my obsession".

I told a mentor that I probably read trapping and industry related material 3 hours a day and business probably an hour or so. He told me once you feel comfortable in your industry to change that all around. Update yourself on the industry 25% and learn about business 75%. That is how you will grow a company.

Not to hi jack the thread but I have to ask 1 question of travallin....what kind of critters are u removing for 7k, 6k,8k pay days?

Probably doing exclusions for bats n birds.

Travelin, after long and careful consideration, you may be right. I guess I let the frustration get to me. I truly dont think anything negative will come from this instance, and I dont necessarily think I was out of line by the way I was treated.

HOWEVER, (and I know the following isnt true, THIS time, but what if?) what if the local branch was going to reccomend me to do exclusionary work tri county, or ask for a bid for monthly service, and I could have blown 40k deal.

So on that note, I do thank you. I will take the lesson and be better for it.

I always try and get very familiar with whoever invoices the monies. In all my jobs I get along very well with my point of contact and there's never been a problem. If a payment is a bit late I only speak to the POC and they always seem to sort it. Bills are much more readily sorted by an insider than by an outsider like you and I.I learnt a long timer ago, whatever 'terms' you put on your invoice/contract, it doesn't matter to the larger corporations. They don't care about YOUR terms, only their own.

All of my individual contracts are "due on receipt"
Contracts with business' are due in 30 days.
All include 2% interest added per month on the outstanding balance.
It's funny how quick things get paid when the second bill is a bit higher then the first.

Plan on submitting a Copy of your License, Certificate of Liability Insurance, Certificate of Workers Comp. & a W-9. Most larger corporations will not process your payment until those documents are on file with them.

Sometimes they will refuse payment if you do not have the proper level of Liability Insurance, so make sure you find out what limits they require PRIOR to starting a project. It is not uncommon for the local guy to schedule the work and have no clue as to what requirements will be requested of you in order to get paid.

Those that require a bunch of hoops, or dog and pony shows, get charged an appropriate fee to put on a private performance! I only run into a couple of those each year and the additional fee is nominal, but certainly deserved, if they will likely be a one and done client.

I had a client earlier in the year that sent me a twelve page contract to trap and remove a single beaver!!!! They also required insurance that exceeded my coverage by three times. I added a clause to my proposal that made them responsible for any coverage exceeding my current limits. They waived the excess insurance requirement pretty quick. MAKE SURE YOU READ THOSE CONTRACTS!!!!

Dirk brings up a good point about just how much insurance you need for a particular company. Ive got the standard 1mm/2mm general liability and I know for a fact that there are some national chain stores which require more. Where they tend to be at odds with my insurance is the number on my commercial auto policy. One national chain store requires a 5mm policy on your auto--- that is until they are in a huge bind, there is a muskrat running around their store full of customers, and Ecolab cant get their till tomorrow although they have a 2 hour response contract.... Then when they are begging in my phone and I bring up the insurance thing they don't care about it at this time... lol Funny how that works.


Throwback- I mean no disrespect to you at all and this isn't meant towards you at all but ill guarantee you money mismanagement and no business skills have closed the doors of more wildlife and pest control companies than all other mishaps combined. anyone can kill an ant and anyone can trap a gopher, but to keep it all together especially when it grows takes dedication and perseverance.

I wish you the best

80-c- those were all 3 pigeon jobs. 2 exclusions one crap collection...

Lots of good info. here, folks. Dirk, what do you call the additional "jumping through hoops" charge?

Again I agree with Dave. I'm just glad that we have three secretaries because trying to figure out just the insurance forms, drives

me up a wall. I did appreciate the 12 page form to trap a single beaver. How long did it take the beaver to fill out all those pages,

Dirk?

I don't know that I can agree with this. What ever the price is, we need to do all within our power to collect.

Had a lady try to stiff me on a small bill once. $117.00. I tried to collect for about three weeks. I'd call and she'd tell me to come by and she would pay me but when I got there, she was never home. Finally, I showed up unannounced and surprised her. That's when she told me just what I had already figured. She had no intention of paying me and was hoping I'd just give up.

I told her then that I had to collect or I would have to take her to court. That's when she got all huffy and asked, "You would take me to court over just a hundred and seventeen dollars?" She continued, "It will cost you more than you'll get!"

I told her, "Yes, Mam. But it' not fair to my customers who DO pay me."

Begrudgingly, she wrote me a check.

But that's the thing. Yes, we would be better off just to forget some of these non payments, but it's not fair for the ones who do pay. They are paying us in good faith that we're not making up someone else's slack on them.