Collecting money

[big b]

Does anyone out there had trouble collecting your money that after no luck you made a "debt collection letter" and it worked? Let me know if it worked or not and how you wrote it. As we have one customer that still has not paid for 2009 grass cutting as we have sent them lots of over-due bills and nothing..... .......

[jklawncare]

Lawn care business tips

Hey there We had one customer last season that didnt pay anything..we sent him invoices,talked to him,called him..he wouldnt budge so we put his service on hold and a week later it was payed off..if this dosnt work i was planning on sending him this really good letter i found in the forums. ill look for the link and post it in a minute

__________________
Just Kut Lawn and Landscape
"Where Service is Always in Season"
Reach for the stars so if you fall you land on a cloud.

[jklawncare]

Heres the Letter itself..theres also a second i will post thats not so harsh..this is the one i was going to go with though.



Your Name
Street Address
City, State zip


Defendant name
Street Address
City, State zip



Dear deadbeat:

You had hired ABC Company on (insert date) to perform garden maintenance at 3 week intervals, starting this day. At the same time, you hired us for lawn maintenance at an agreed price of $$, starting this day. Since then, I've performed garden maintenance per our contract on this day and lawn maintenance was performed on the following dates. Payment terms per our contract are due upon completion. Payments for the services listed above are now due immediately. Despite several phone calls to you to collect payment, you have stated on 3 separate occasions that your payment is in the mail. Since I have not received payment to date, your services were terminated by ABC Company on said date, due to theft of services.

As per our contract, I am requesting to be paid $$$ for our services.

If I do not hear from you within 5 days from the receipt of this letter, then I will file a petition with small claims court in Oakland County.

I look forward to working with you toward a resolution of this matter.

Very truly,

Your Name

[jklawncare]

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=7209

thats the link to a bunch of customer letters from thank you's and renewal letters to retention and collection letters

I hope i helped some.

~Good Luck!~

[Steve]

How has dealing with customers like this changed your way of handling payment?

Do you try and get paid after the service now or a month in advance?

Or does it not happen often enough to change things?

[big b]

Originally Posted by Steve

How has dealing with customers like this changed your way of handling payment?

Do you try and get paid after the service now or a month in advance?

Or does it not happen often enough to change things?

We are changing things...like taking visa/mc......getting people to pay at the 1st of the month
We tried getting people to pay at the 1st of the month this winter and it work better..now its time to try taking visa/mc

[CHEESE2009]

I hate when customers dick around.

[Steve]

We are changing things...like taking visa/mc......getting people to pay at the 1st of the month
We tried getting people to pay at the 1st of the month this winter and it work better..now its time to try taking visa/mc

How do you feel using credit cards effects the bottom line? Do you feel they take too much money in their processing fees? Or no?

Also how do you get customers to transition to paying by credit card?

I had a customer tell me at the end of the month that they no longer wanted my services I had to call every other day he DID NOT answer my phone so I used a different phone he DID answer every time. and he told me he was out of town, working, or some other reason, It took me 3 months to get him to pay. ever since that I MUST have the money before I mow or do any work.