# Need advice for a customer who won't pay



## illbuildit.dd (Jan 7, 2015)

Yeah those dudes have heart!


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## JBM (Mar 31, 2011)

I wouldnt waste more then 20 minutes chasing 80 bucks.


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## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

I think that in the future, the OP in these threads should be required to email the customer a link to the thread that was started. We could then get the full story.
It takes way too long to pry the story out by asking multiple questions and waiting for the poster to inadvertently reveal the truth.


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## erichhaag (Jul 21, 2008)

I just didnt like getting shorted money that I was owed...it was 235.00 total btw. In PA you cant lein until the amount is 500 or more. If the HO had a problem with any of the work they never told me about it. I have been doing business for 12 years and never had someone stiff me before. I guess I have been fortunate up to this point. Funniest thing is HO is in law enforcement.


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## erichhaag (Jul 21, 2008)

amen...to the new mason. The minute he exchanged numbers (price and telephone) behind my back I was looking for a new one...


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## deciduous (Jan 21, 2015)

I am in landscaping I had to learn with a lot of headaches that establishing a good customer base takes time but is well worth it. Avoid court over $250, if it is over $1000 take it to small claims. It's easy to like the frustration of getting burnt cost you more than $250 in anger and frustration don't let it. Good Luck!


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## sunkist (Apr 27, 2012)

illbuildit.dd said:


> I had a Mexican offer to sick the cartel on a guy for me upon going into the fourth week of waiting on a check. According to a good friend of mine, he was serious.


you do know chapo guzman is in jail, but the hombre's in the sinola cartel are still free, homes:blink:


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## bdog1234 (Feb 25, 2008)

sunkist said:


> you do know chapo guzman is in jail, but the hombre's in the sinola cartel are still free, homes:blink:


I really thought about this once. A guy stiffed me over 40k back in 2008. Contract was with his LLC which we later found out had nothing of value to sue for in the LLC and he shut it down. It really hacked me off because the guy was a pro baseball player and likely had the money but he set out to screw us from the beginning. Never did get a penny by the way. Anyway I had an acquaintance at the time with some friends in a 1% biker gang. He said they would likely collect the money for me for 50% of it. I was thinking 20k is better than nothing but then I decided against it because they may end up killing him or something. Money ain't that important.


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## illbuildit.dd (Jan 7, 2015)

sunkist said:


> you do know chapo guzman is in jail, but the hombre's in the sinola cartel are still free, homes:blink:


And they alwa


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## illbuildit.dd (Jan 7, 2015)

sunkist said:


> you do know chapo guzman is in jail, but the hombre's in the sinola cartel are still free, homes:blink:


Fat fingers

AND THEY ALWAYS WILL BE! :blink:


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## #1Painters (Jan 22, 2015)

J L said:


> Have a face to face chat with them. That usually sorts things out fairly quickly.


Agreed.


And threaten his credit score. That will change his mind real quick.


Don't let this guy play you.


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## #1Painters (Jan 22, 2015)

jaydee said:


> I wouldn't want to loss a reference and clearly a repeat customer for a couple hundred bucks.


Would you really want to repeat business with this guy again?

Also, don't let people play you... $50 or $500 000...


You give them an inch they take a mile...


...You let "this one time slide" you will let every time slide.


Knock on his door in person and demand your money.


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## Shellbuilder (May 14, 2006)

Ive built a lot of detached buildings and have never had any h.o. get involved with any part of that. Sounds to me like you were working as labor and not as a GC. Unless a contract is posted not sure any opinion matters


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

Was there supposed to be a brick skirt originally? i know you said he decided while you were framing the walls, but was it never mentioned before? 

I could see the HO feeling that you hired the block guy and communicated with him. There was no brick ledge (as the HO feels there should have been) so the angle iron is on you. he didn't want to go through you since your communication with the block guy wasn't great the first time. The $85 is "pain and suffering" or something

Just being the devils advocate since the HO isn't here to share his side. 

By the way, the 3x3 angle you installed is way too small, with a 1" airspace you'd only have the brick bearing on 2" (less since a 3" angle usually is the outside measurement not the inside measurement) 3.5" would be the smallest, preferably 4 or 4.5"


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## EthanB (Sep 28, 2011)

I think Dom has it. It sounds like he felt that the GC should have been responsible for the ledge(putting it up there for free meant you agreed with him) but it wasn't good enough so the brickie scrapped it and charged him. That means, to the HO, that he paid twice. He took the extra out of your end. Maybe he's wrong, maybe you didn't go over it clearly, I don't know. What I do know is that if a customer feels legitimately entitled to something, you're going to have a hard time convincing them otherwise.

I wouldn't risk the cred you got from this job over trying to get a couple hundred back. The problem was your brickie and you've corrected that problem. Finish up with the HO like a pro and get a referral.


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## Maxon100 (Feb 11, 2015)

If it was me I would just forget about it, you don't want to get into some long drawn out thing over a couple hundred bucks. You also don't know what lengths the customer will go to not pay you. Hope everything works out.

http://stormproofroofing.org/


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