Thanks to everyone who responded to my ramblings. I am combining your thoughts for my solution. I have decided that I will stop giving the multiple piano discount to each of these churches. I was charging $110 for the first tuning and $100 for each tuning after that. I know $10 don't seem like much of a discount, but sense they each have 5 pianos I was taking $40 off the bill and to me that's a decent discount... So that's the first thing I'm going to do. My next solution is to charge $120 per tuning if I'm not going to be paid on the date that services are rendered. I understand that some large churches do have to jump through hoops to get a check out to a contractor but these people are just taking advantage of me. In each of the 2 churches the music director makes the appointment and he also has the ability to sign a check. In addition to this fact keep in mind each time I have turned in my invoice to the music director. I always get the same words from each of these guys, "I'll have this in the mail to you in a day or two." The day or two always turns into more than thirty days. Some times it has been 2 months! To me that's just B-S and making more on the job or not performing the work is the only way it can be handled. Thanks again, Shawn Brock RPT ----- Original Message ----- From: wimblees at aol.com To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:09 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] slow paying customers revisited Shawn. With a big church, it usually not just one or two people who are involved in getting bills paid. Bills have to be approved the appropriate person, (choir director), then sent to the finance committee, which meets once a month, then the accountant, who approves the disbursement, and then finally to the person who actually writes the check. Once the check has been printed, it needs to be signed by the accountant, or treasurer, and maybe even counter signed. All that takes time, and, as you indicated, if any one of those people are sick or out of town, it further delays the process. Two suggestions. One, talk to the choir director, or music chairman, tell him/her your concern, and ask for his/her recommendation on how to get paid faster. Two, Put on the bill that if it is paid within 14/30 day, they will get a 10% discount. Or the other way around, say that interest at 18% will be added to bill if it is paid after 30 days. If they don't pay the extra, add it to the next bill. You can either itemize the bill, and put on it, "balance carried forward", or if you give them a discount for multiple pianos, don't give them the discount the next time you tune for them. As far as last minute tunings, add 25% to the tuning bill for "emergency service." They will either remember to call you sooner, or you'll get paid extra for going out of your way. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Mililani, Oahu, HI 808-349-2943 Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Shawn Brock <shawnbrock at fuse.net> To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 4:28 am Subject: [pianotech] slow paying customers revisited List, I know we had a thread going not long ago on slow paying customers and last year I had complained a little about some of the churches I serve. I have some questions that I would like to gather some answers for and some statements that may or may not be out of line (you tell me.) First: how long do you give commercial/institutional/church customers to pay the balance for your services? For most of these types of account I have been giving 14 days from the date of service to the date of payment due. That seems more than reasonable to me, after all the phone company and other utilities don't give you that much time from when you receive the bill to the due date. Perhaps I'm being unreasonable though? I have 2 churches that are my slowest paying customers, and they are maybe the richest churches I work for. Each has 5 pianos that get regular service and both are slow paying. Its funny... It seems that the people with the least amount of money are the first to pay, I find that those folks are the ones who have a check waiting on the date of the appointment... So back to the topic at hand. I had cut the slow payers back to a 10 day due date or a "payment due on date of service" instead of the 14 days I had been giving them. That hasn't seemed to help! Each time I work for them it never fails that I have to make numerous phone calls to get my money. They both have a long list of excuses that they run through (the accountant is on vacation, the accountant is sick, we misplaced the invoice, we thought we had 30 days, a check should have been in the mail to you, I will have to check with someone and get back with you) and so on. I could have understood this once or even more, but this is every time I deal with these people and I'm sick of it! These 2 churches were served in a 2 day period and now they are both past due by more than a week. I wouldn't be as quick to complain but we are talking over $1000 that is due to me and I could use it. Last I checked I still have bills to pay. So what's the answer? Maybe I should charge more and give them a discount if they pay on time? Or is that to complicated? Maybe I should just stop working for them? Damn! I'm sorry but when it takes people more than 30 days to pay that seems a little excessive to me. Its not like these people even have to pay taxes... One thing that fuels my fire is these are the same people who will call you and want you to come out to tune for a concert the same day, or the next day. They new about the concert months ago but didn't have the foresight to schedule the tuning. And then... They show you gratitude by paying in a month and a half! "We need you now and we will pay you when ever we want." Well, that's how it seems any how. Come on people and share your wisdom with me. I could use it... After all we are not just talking about $1000 which is in my opinion still a substantial amount of money. We are talking about 2 days worth of work and we are also talking about principles. If they couldn't afford to pay it would be different but at a glance you know that you are just getting kicked around. All comments and ideas are appreciated. Regards, Shawn Brock, RPT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090305/eac3f8ac/attachment.html>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC