Customer doesnt want to pay

[Tristan]

Hey guys, i need some advice on what i should do.

I used to cut this womans lawn for 20 bucks a cut and trim. She said everyother week, but her boyfriend said every week....that was after she told me every other week. I said your wife just said every other week, and he said no don't listen to her. So i cut every week from then on....then i went to get paid, she said next thursday, i said ok well the next schuled date to cut your lawn is next friday, so how about if you just pay me on friday because i'll be by on friday anyways..she said ok, i never seen the woman for 2 months...so she owed me 40 bucks and when i stop cutting, her lawn was being cut every week some how, not sure how, she didnt have a mower. then she gives me 15 bucks after like 3 months, she still owes me 25 bucks. what should i do to get that money from her ?? Take her to small claims court with 55 bucks or should i just keep bugging her ? Everytime i see her shes drinking and says she has no money and i will have to come back next week, then i dont see her for a while. This is my 2nd cousin, someone i don't really bother with any how.


I learned one lesson from this, Don't do business with family, business always turns personal some how. This is the 3rd time i've done business with someone and it always ends out with me not getting paid or them taking a long time to pay.

TristanA

[Lawn Forum]

Welcome to the Forum.

First of all. Stop cutting yards for $20.
Second, stop cutting every other week unless the grass is slowly growing.
Always listen to the one that pays you. You do what they tell you to do. If it is a husband wife deal, you need to tell them to work it out themselves and then let you know. Don't get caught in the middle.

$25 is not worth your time in court. Your time is valuable, you can make that all back in an hour on another yard. If it was more i would worry about it. I would bug her though, like calling early in the morninn or late at night.

She should eventually pay to get you off her back.

Thanks for the post,
Kevin

[Team Gopher]

Hi Tristan,

I would just write it off too as a learning experience. Sorry about that happening.

[Tristan]

Lawn Forum, Thanks for the info. If you seen how small it was, you would be charging no more then 20 bucks either. it was just a small lawn, it took 12 minutes to cut and trim.

[martinlawncare]

12 minutes to cut and trim or not, remember all the trouble it was to get paid?
and what about your drive time? i wont touch a yard....even if it takes 5 minutes, for less than 30.00. just my opinion.

[candersen]

From my experiences, they won't pay. This is probably not the only bill they aren't paying and they know you will have the least impact on their financial situation if they ignore you. The credit cards and financial institutions can ding their credit and get bill collectors.

On the bright side, you just learned a valuable lesson for what amounts to be very little money. You could have gotten stiffed on a major lawn or commecial account. From now on, make sure they pay in advance. If they want it every two weeks, have them pay for four mowings. Half way through the mowings, bill them again for the next four. You will always be one step ahead. If they stop paying, you stop the service.

[nherweck]

When a client doesn't pay me, i send them a warning letter letting them know that I will be sending their information to a collecting agency. Usually, within the week, they mail their payment to my P.O. Box. For the customers that really don't want to pay and ignore the letters, I DO send them to a collections agency. They are EXTREMELY easy to use. They may not be the cheapest option, but they work quite well. 5 out of the 6 clients I have sent to the agency have paid and paid quite quick. The website for the agency is http://www.baddebtrecovery.com/ . Thanks and GOOD LUCK WITH THE BIZ!

[ford2581]

Although it is family in a way One way to get back is a sprayer full of roundup when they aren't around. They won't know what happened but it will at least make you feel good in the mean time. And if you don't have a signed contract then going to court is useless because its all word of mouth and besides it will cost more then its for. The sprayer works pretty good for me, I've made a couple of late night visits to people who have screwed me out of money and thats when I was doing them a favor in the first place by cutting them an awesome deal. They didn't like the word "***" mysterously appearing in the middle of their grass but "I don't know how it got there"

[bigguy41]

we use waterballons with roundup they work real good,and so easy to do

[corey4671]

Wow! See, the way I see it, if they don't care enough to pay you, you are only doing them a favor by killing the grass for them. I see it the other way around. Invest in a bag of ammonium nitrate and kick that sucker up a few notches!! Especially if you now rain is coming! Make that puppy grow! Most neighborhoods have ordinances about tall grass and when they don't keep up with it, they'll start getting fines! As for the money. Forget it! You'll never see it. As was stated earlier, chalk it up to what Dave Ramsey calls stupid tax! That is an awesome education for only $40.