Getting paid
- Thread starter Slasher
- Start date
I don't take deposits on cues I am building, if some one doesn't pay I just sell the cue, but I will never do any work or build another cue for that individual again in most cases.
For repairs the customer pays after they have inspected the work and are satisfied with the repair completed. If they don't pay they don't get the shaft or the cue back, I have a policy that after one year all items not picked up are sold at my discretion.
JIMO
I have 2 customers I do repair work for. Both of these guys have left their shafts here for over a year. I only work on their cues if they pay up front...JER
It depends on the type of work being done and the value of the cue. If they have a really cheap cue they want to sink some money into then I want a deposit. If it is a medium to high end cue I am not worried about getting a deposit as the cue is worth more than the repair work.
I just want to know how you got stiffed. Did you give them the cue without getting the money first? I would never do that.
The last cue I made, I did leave a cue with a guy, but he commissioned me to do it for a friend. This guy I left the cue with is part owner of Magoo's and if I woulda gotten stiffed I suppose that's just free pool time for me :grin:
On a serious note, I did get my money two weeks later and everybody is happy.
Normally, I don't ask anything for making cues up front. When the time comes to make the deal, I show the cue. He can roll it on the table, show it to his buddy, hit a ball with it and even see if it fits in his case, but under no circumstances to I let that person walk out the door without paying me in full.
I have not had this happen to date, but probably the only way I would ask for a deposit is if someone wanted me to make an ivory pointed cue with an ivory joint, ivory handle, and ivory hoppe ring.
The last cue I made, I did leave a cue with a guy, but he commissioned me to do it for a friend. This guy I left the cue with is part owner of Magoo's and if I woulda gotten stiffed I suppose that's just free pool time for me :grin:
On a serious note, I did get my money two weeks later and everybody is happy.
Normally, I don't ask anything for making cues up front. When the time comes to make the deal, I show the cue. He can roll it on the table, show it to his buddy, hit a ball with it and even see if it fits in his case, but under no circumstances to I let that person walk out the door without paying me in full.
I have not had this happen to date, but probably the only way I would ask for a deposit is if someone wanted me to make an ivory pointed cue with an ivory joint, ivory handle, and ivory hoppe ring.
I don't ask for any money up front. I have a pretty good line on most of my customers. I've known most for a long time and know which ones that I can trust. I have financed a couple of my cues in the past but had one person take longer than our agreed time to pay. I got paid but there's no more financing, but I do take lawaway. :grin:
Man Jer after more than 25 years of cue building, you need to expand your client base. :rotflmao:
Yah this was my bad, these are people I know and fell for the "pay you next payday but I need my cue for league tonight" spiel.
You usually get paid as in all service business when the service is completed. Not sure why you would get stiffed unless you just didn't collect what was owed to you. Not a good idea to let people owe you money. You may lose the money as well as the customer. They duck you because they owe you money. The longer it goes on the less likely you are to get paid as well. At a point they just don't want to pay regardless.
well spent
Actually, if someone owes you $20 and you never see them again, it is probably the best $20 you ever spent ;-)
Actually, if someone owes you $20 and you never see them again, it is probably the best $20 you ever spent ;-)
I would attend to agree with your statement in many cases.
But here is what I have run into with billing. I have very few customers that I bill. One reason is I hate keeping up with the paperwork. Another is that when one finds that they can't pay the bill, they go somewhere else until they can pay the bill. I know we are talking about repair work, but I will address business in general for a moment. I have had customers that might be buying two or three hundred dollars of stuff a month from me. Then they can't pay one bill. So they buy their tips and such elsewhere for months or maybe forever to not have to address the bill already owed.
I have lost a few long time customers on this very this very issue. Check bounced, but since they are friends or long time customers, instead of turning it over to the law, I wait for payment that has been many months and still not here. So now instead of selling them hundreds of dollars of stuff like normal, there is a barrier over a one order bill.
Back when I was in the gameroom business, I had a bad habit of loaning customers money with the promise of getting it back on payday. Most made good, but sometimes reports would come back that they have been playing up the street at the other poolroom to avoid having to pay back $10 or $20 to me. They might drop $50 or more per week in my place normally.
So having people owe you money even small money like $20 and not being seen again is not always the best $20 we spent.
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I had a bad habit of letting some people pay me " in a couple of days". Unfortunately, it seems that, as it has been stated in earlier post, it is no longer possible to conduct business this way. Some customers I can still trust about payment for a repair, but on the whole no money no cue.
I recently had a repair come to me through a trusted friend, for someone we both knew, and after fixing his joint pin problem I gave the cue back to my friend and told him what was owed. My friend passed along the price of the repair (cheap !) to our mutual friend and after about 10 mins he managed to grab the cue and left the poolhall that night.....long story short Im still waiting for payment.......
You cant afford to keep having $20 or $50 repair work "walk out the door". :grin:
I recently had a repair come to me through a trusted friend, for someone we both knew, and after fixing his joint pin problem I gave the cue back to my friend and told him what was owed. My friend passed along the price of the repair (cheap !) to our mutual friend and after about 10 mins he managed to grab the cue and left the poolhall that night.....long story short Im still waiting for payment.......
You cant afford to keep having $20 or $50 repair work "walk out the door". :grin:
That may have been a clever line from the movie "A Bronx Tale" but it is not true in business. Letting people owe you money in business can lose what would have been a long term customer. As well as, depending on how you deal with it, may even create an enemy who will go out of their way to bad mouth you, something that whether what they say is true or not can hurt you. You see it on this forum all the time. Even in a bar when you run tabs if they get too big or you cut them off till they pay, you find the guy down the street drinking in a different bar. You lost your money and your customer. People in general don't really want to stiff you but when it comes to money people are funny.
Let them owe you money and they may pay but it will not be at the top of their agenda. I have rental property and often people get behind, of course I have good deposits. But then you drive buy to see them and there is a brand new flat screen TV sitting there as they can't pay you. It is not they don't have the money it is they would rather spend it on themselves before paying you. 40 years of owning businesses from bars to pool rooms to rental properties and I have a pretty good handle on how people think when it comes to money.They will even try to rationalize in their minds a reason why not to pay, such as, you had the nerve to actually ask them for it. Pay as you go is best in business, it keeps all happy.
You know, in business it is sometimes not a good idea to do business with your own customers. In other words say you own a bar, don't hire one of your customers to do say a plumbing job for you. One thing you learn is these people are not your friends, they are your customers. In your entire life you will only have a hand full of real friends if you are lucky. The rest are just strangers who pass through you life, they come and go and for the most part can't really be trusted. I had a bar once and was building a stage. I was doing the work myself, I'm a good carpenter. One of my customers, a guy who was almost always out of work but did some carpentry asked if I wanted some help. I didn't really say yes but he began doing a few things and I just let him help.
That weekend I was going to a 9 ball tournament and my wife was working while I was away. I get a call on Saturday night with her asking is she supposed to pay $300.00 to Les for work he did for me. WTF, he didn't do any work for me yet he tried to con my wife into paying what he said was 10 hours at $30.00 an hour. I told her not to give him a dime and tell him she doesn't know anything about it and speak to me when I get back. Needless to say he never mentioned it again. Now this is a guy who never has any money I always was giving him free pool, when we went to dinner or breakfast I was always picking up the tab, he borrowed my car when his was not running and so on. Yet the first time he has a chance to maybe help me a little as somewhat of a repayment for a zillion favors, it's $30.00 an hour. I don't have to tell you the free pool ended as did everything else. I am sorry for sounding so jaded.
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I've been stiffed on a couple of cue deals. Production and not mine.
Simple repairs for friends, I just tell them, buy me a couple of beer next time you see me.
I did retaper a shaft for a guy while he was watching. I told him I would only do a bit at a time as I didn't want to go hole hog all at once.
While he was at my house, he managed to polish off 6 beer. I got 2 beer back for that job so I got stiffed for four.
Once in a while he asks about doing more on the shaft, I just have to hide the beer next time.
Simple repairs for friends, I just tell them, buy me a couple of beer next time you see me.
I did retaper a shaft for a guy while he was watching. I told him I would only do a bit at a time as I didn't want to go hole hog all at once.
While he was at my house, he managed to polish off 6 beer. I got 2 beer back for that job so I got stiffed for four.
Once in a while he asks about doing more on the shaft, I just have to hide the beer next time.
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Have him bring the beer next time. I used to bring a 6 pack whenever I would go to my motorcycle mechanic. A little grease goes a long way.
If you don't collect when you deliver or do the work, people get lax about paying. Then they become embarrassed that they haven't paid you and avoid you. Eventually they make up excuses why they haven't paid you and spread false rumors. You end up losing the money and the customer/friend. Better to keep the business run as a business and collect at the time you deliver the cue. JMHO