#37 - He Ghosted Every Invoice — Until I Sent This One Text

Roger Magalhaes: So When these happened the last time, I send a bill the next day after the staller was done. And then I follow up with an email. And then I follow up with a second email. And then I follow up with a third email. And then I send a text. And then he didn't respond to any of that. And then I called Hello, hello, welcome to another show of No Shrinks Attached. My name is Roger McGallis and I am your host. If this is your first time here, welcome to the show. But if you have been here before, welcome back. Today I am going to share an experience, a bad one actually, about payment for a job that I did. But before I get that. I wanted to share with you my book that just came out called Nobody Told Me That, is available on Amazon for pre-order. They are available on Kingdo, PDF, in back hardcover, and also paperback. So if you are curious about Twenty years of stories for business and personal situations, how you get up when life gets knocks you down. I have plenty of that to share with you. Please check the link on the comments and I appreciate your support. Now, back to the situation that I had last month. I already did work for this guy before. He he's a dealer in a different state and he bids on projects all over the country. So we did a few jobs for this guy before. It always worked the same way. He always on top of it when he's asking for the bid, the appointments, when we're gonna go there, when you're gonna receive the product, really on top of it. And then When we send the invoice, he disappears. He doesn't respond emails. He doesn't answer text messages. And that happened three times. And I said, I feel a pattern here. But he ended up paying after we charge after we follow up three or four times, right? And I said, I just don't wanna work with this guy anymore. So When these happened the last time, I send a bill the next day after the staller was done. And then I follow up with an email. And then I follow up with a second email. And then I follow up with a third email. And then I send a text. And then he didn't respond to any of that. And then I called and he answered it. And as soon as he realized it was me, he said, I cannot talk now, I'll call you back. I was pissed, really, because we scheduled it, we measured it, we sent it, we received the product, we installed it, everything done the way it's supposed to be done. We followed the days, we did, you know, as best as we could, we cleared the schedule, and this guy just pushing me to the side. When he answered and said, I cannot talk now, I said fine. So I text him back and I said, You don't need to call me back. Just pay the invoice by Friday, or I'll bring you to court. And that triggered him really, really fast. He started answering the text right away. He said, This is spiss money. I don't know why you're doing that. And then he went on and on, started bashing. You should know what you're doing. Yada yada yada. you should set the expectations right. And then I just answered it. I said, Dude, this is not the first time we're doing business. We did four installs for you. And every install You paid after the the installation was completed. We never set 30 day expectation for your jobs. You should know that. You should have that on your profile. But I also take responsibility because I did I only assumed he knew while we already knew it. So I should be more upfront. And kind of refresh his mind every time he sent a new inquiry and say, Hey, by the way, that's how we work. We send you a bill right after the job is completed. So make sure you paid us. Or maybe he will come back and say, We only work thirty days, net thirty, and then you have to wait thirty days. It it would've been fine. The whole problem was the miscommunication. was the lack of communication that he just assumed that it was 30 day net 30 that I have to wait. It was a poor communication situation. And that obviously escalated big time really fast. So my problem was I didn't refresh or remind him that we had terms. I would agree with his terms if that was the case. The problem on his end is because he didn't reply to me. To me, he was just ditching me or dodging the bullet. And, you know, I don't have a leverage. I already did the install. I already did everything. So I got no leverage to work with this guy other than say, hey, I'll bring you to court. So Perhaps that could be a good situation for you to reassess how you do business with your people. Perhaps you explain to your clients up front, you charge 75%, you charge 100%, you charge 50%. So make sure, don't expect people, don't assume people will know how you work, because honestly, everyone does in a different way. Perhaps when you deal with your vendors is the same thing. Your vendor give you thirty days, whatever, perhaps, you know, you need to pay upon receipt. And I have vendors that charge net thirty and I have vendors that I need to pay upon they invoice me. So there's not there's no right or wrong. Obviously, when you have more time to pay, it helps you with cash flow. Because sometimes you need to pay right away, but your clients don't pay you right away. I have a workroom that I work with. She actually charges a hundred percent before she collects everything before the jobs get installed. I don't do that. I I charge 75% up front. I leave 25% on the table as a way to show my goodwill with my clients. Obviously, Lowe's doesn't do that, Amazon doesn't do that, no retail online retailer do that. So clients, consumers always pay up front a hundred percent, and people are fine. I like to give them the benefit of the doubt something goes wrong. If I'm going to come back, if I'm going to fix it. So I leave twenty-five percent on the table. And honestly, it is also an incentive. To get the job complete, because let's be honest, the job is completed. the the money is already paying full, and I have another emergency emergency coming up. That is a chance that I'm gonna put this emergency first instead of taking care of the other client. Now, if I have money with this client, it's like an incentive for me to complete this job ASAP. Perhaps it's just something that you would like to do as well, instead of just pushing them around because you already got paid, you might feel a little comfortable that way. So again, clear communication is the best way. If you own it, make sure you show up, make sure you show your face, make sure you cli you call your client, you call your installer. You kind of communicate that you are aware of the situation. What really aggravated this whole entire deal was the fact that this guy never responded. And that really upsets me. Do you have a situation, similar situation? Do you have a tip to share how you coordinate your jobs, your projects, your payments? Let me know in the comments. I read everything. I appreciate you for being here, all your support, and I'll see you next time. Take care.