Non payment

[LOCALPUMPER]

Anyone having trouble getting paid once you've pumped a tank?? Seems to be getting harder to get your money these days... We go as far as telling the coustomer when they call in we require payment when complete, and they still have some excuse not to pay... How many contractors add late charges for bill out jobs if they are not paid on time??

[KPToilets]

you might trying to tell the customer that it is this price on completion and $20 more if you bill them...... there are cellphone credit card machine out there........ you can also just unload the truck back into the septic tank, They usually find a way to pay you befor you get all your hose strung out.

[txshriner]

in my opinion a customer that dont like to pay is not a good customer. they either have money problems and wont be a customer long anyway or they are just playing games. either way the method that i have used is increase the price. if they go to another company what have you really lost other than a headache? the ones that i have had problems with are nursing homes. my example is one that i had been charging $250 per month and got a check on the spot. they wanted me to start billing them and my checks came about 90 days after i did the job, so i upped the price to $375. they started being even later so i went to $550. when i didnt get paid for 6 months i went to $675. they went another 6 months before sending me a check. i went to $975 and they pay about every 6 months but when i get paid its well worth the wait. i have several that are paying 4-5 times my rate and smile when they finally send payment. i have had others flip out over the rate increase :eek: and after politely explaining that with prompt payment they can get back to the prompt payment rate. this is my way of getting over the frustration and it works very well for me.

[Trent]

We require payment at time of service, or no service. Before you start make sure the checkbook is there, there are checks in it, collect a deposit check against the work you plan to do. We take VISA/MC which helps alot in getting paid.

I know it's hard to do, but you have to be hard nosed about it. People will eventually start to realize you are not messing around. It's just not worth it for us to work our tails off and not get paid, or have to wait forever to get paid.

The plumber is getting paid, the appliance repairman is getting paid, why not us?

Make it policy and stick to it!

Good luck,

Trent

[little can]

We require payment at the time of service also. What we do is leave our hoses hooked up from the truck to the tank until we recieve cash or check. If a non-payment is recieved we simply reverse the pump on the truck,and put in what we take out. With dumping cost,fuel,and everything else going up the last thing we need is to be on the other side of town and be stuck with a load that we did'nt get paid for! 98% of the thime when you say you are going to unload back into their tank they find a way real quick to pay.I also understand that we have alot of people in unfortunate circumstances. we do help people that are having a hard time. Dad is a vietnam vet so we help vets with free or low cost service,because of fixed income.

[jack darling]

:)I tell my clients who charge that I am not worried about getting paid because I can just bring it back. I only get a few customers a year that do not pay. I do not want all of my customers to think I do not trust them to pay me because of a few bad accounts. It's the cost of doing business. I have on rare occasions left a five gallon pail full of product on the front step with a note telling them the rest will be returned at a later date. This works most of the time. Having been in business for over 45 years helps a lot because I have built up a long list of honest customers and refer the people with a bad credit history to my competition.

[RaiderRooter]

man, i dont know about leaving a bucket on their doorstep. People down here are itching to sue somebody, ANYBODY. Plus I'm not sure the health department would like to hear about that either. We have a fair number of accounts (almost all commercial) and rarely have any issues. For residential if they want to send us money at a later time we usually ask for a credit card to keep on hand until we receive and clear a check. Of course every year there are a handful of bums that dont pay even after constant harassment and home visits. Not worth it most times to send to collection

[zseptic]

I have late charges of $5.00 per 15 days on my invoices which seems to speed up payments also i have a good lawyer who i send my late invoices to and he sends a letter explaing payment due or a lien will be put on property

[etnpumper]

We do business in a very poor area so we get a fair amount of mostly late and just a few non payment problems. Sometimes the fix is as easy as holding a check till payday or allowing the customer to pay over the course of a few months. For bounced checks a phone call to find out whats going on will help too. Helping people out is the right thing to do and besides its pretty good PR. Most of the time it's the ones that have money that are most likely to beat you and we ran into one of those guys about a month ago. The tank had tree roots in it and was a really tough job. We tacked on 40 dollars to the price and the guy had a ring eyed dammit fit, said he wasn't paying us one red cent and went back inside. I dug the lid back up then removed it. He came back outside to ask why we were still there, I ask if he had ever inspected a septic tank before. He reached in his pocket and peeled off 2 crisp 100 dollar bills.

[jack darling]

;)If anyone out there has time on their hands, why not make a video of your septic tank truck filling up a customer's car or suv thu the sun roof out of your truck because of non-payment? Just find ajunk car that still looks good, and use just water(the viewers will not know), and state this is the first guy that did not really believe you would acutally bring it back if he did not pay his bill. You could become the next you tube sensatation! Maybe that will help the rest of u out.

[Mackman]

I only been doing this for 2 months part time. Pumped out 31 people. 80% of them pay me when im there. The other 20% i leave a bill. Longest i waited for a check was 2 weeks.

I just started so i know sooner or later im going to run into this problem.

[txshriner]

I only been doing this for 2 months part time. Pumped out 31 people. 80% of them pay me when im there. The other 20% i leave a bill. Longest i waited for a check was 2 weeks.

I just started so i know sooner or later im going to run into this problem.

if you are charging septic cleaning to residential customers you will without a doubt want to change that program. but if you dont thinks so right now, your customers will educate you.

[Mackman]

if you are charging septic cleaning to residential customers you will without a doubt want to change that program. but if you dont thinks so right now, your customers will educate you.

Well the last septic company i worked for had 3 full time trucks on the road and thats how he did all his billing. He didnt really have to many problems with it.

[brk]

Ive just bought a what we call here an eftpos machine, it takes peoples cards over the mobile phone network, well worth it, I always get paid on all my residential jobs, I explain that i want payment either check, cash or machine payment before i even turn up, I am not a bank, nowdays we just cant afford to not be paid. I dont want to spend my evenings and time off chasing people who dont want to pay. Most people are pretty good but you will always get people who try it on.

[LOCALPUMPER]

we'v taken credit cards in the past, they charge us % of the total job, depending on the kind of credit card the coustomer uses up to 6%. i have heard of some kinds that have a flat monthly fee, how does yours charge..

[brk]

I dont take credit cards, the cards that i take tranfser the money from their account to mine same day. Total cost is $24 a month for up to 1000 transactions. I had the option of buying the machine or leasing it on top of that cost. lease was $75 /month or $1300 to buy. I bought mine. The way I looked at it was I only had to be "not paid" for about 4 pump outs for the machine to pay for itself. My machine can be set up to take credit cards but the bank will charge 4.5% of the price I charge.I may do this at a later date if I find I am asked for it