Company still hasn’t cashed check ~ $7,000

[echopark]

Around 2 months ago I had some work done on my bathrooms. One company I used was very good in final, but had issues on their end during the working process (wrong measurements, scheduling issues, etc.) When the work was finally done I paid the remainder of the bill which was just north of 7,000 usd. Cut to today months later and they STILL haven’t cashed the check or contacted me. Do I call them? My bank? Wait longer?

 

[luvtogrow2]

@echopark A personal check is good for 6 months, so they might still cash it. I would wait without touching the money, but if you are inclined you can call the company and ask.

 

[xushuhua]

@luvtogrow2 In my experience with contractors 2 months just to process an invoice sounds about right. You'd think they'd want to get paid sooner but I guess a bunch of work men and women don't see the importance of that type of "office work". It's usually one person handling all their paperwork.

 

[salsamendoza]

@xushuhua Oh man so much this! Our commercial HVAC guys were the worst at invoicing us. Probably saw them every other week or so and we'd still be begging them 6 months later to send an invoice so we could pay them for work done. They finally got a new secretary to handle their invoicing and apparently they had something like half a million in un-billed work across their whole business!

 

[resjudicata]

@salsamendoza Used to sell a SaaS product that made it real easy for the trades to invoice clients straight from their phones, management appointments, etc, it'd even send reminders to client to pay.

Shit sold like hot cakes, I would walk into a HVAC business, find the owner and I would ask "How much work do you think your guys have done for free cause they never invoiced the customer?" and the owners would tend to go "To fucking much"

Anyway good times trades people are horrible at paperwork.

 

[melody63]

@resjudicata Am trades guy, can confirm. Too busy trying to get my work done so that I get home in less than 12 hours. My paperwork is rarely done to spec, my recurring safety forms and vehicle inspections are often a point of contention with the office. I'm pretty horrible at paperwork.

I do nice work though, and am often complimented by the office on my ability to complete work in a timely fashion and with quality, so the paperwork issue gets to ride.

 

[resjudicata]

@melody63 I'm in sales, I also suck at paperwork its why we have sales admins

 

[lindacastledavie]

@resjudicata Sales admin here. I am so god damned behind on my paperwork.

 

[rogervw]

@melody63 As someone that has ADHD and had similar issues in a different kind of job (worked in a vet hospital - gray with patients and medical stuff, awesome at triage or handling irate customers, terrible at say, sending out reminder postcards, never caught up on filing, always forgetting to clock in on time card) I wonder how much of this is undiagnosed ADHD in people who are in trades? Being great at the urgent but bad at the important is a huge sign.

 

[melody63]

@rogervw I actually am diagnosed ADHD as is this year

It could be that ADHD brains are attracted to trades

 

[rogervw]

@melody63 Yup- we can’t sit at a desk doing the same thing all day. Lots of ADhD in medicine as well

 

[melody63]

@rogervw I learned that the hard way. Tried a desk job, did not do well or cope well.

 

[memerelynda]

@resjudicata Perhaps the software design mistake is requiring the data entry to be "perfect".

Getting reasonable data into the system so that it can be tracked and improved might be a better choice.

Having accurate invoices is important. You don't want customer reviews complaining about being over charged.

Giving the installer a financial incentive for timely billing seems wise too.

 

[azureblue]

@salsamendoza i work for a big company that requires invoices to go through their ERP system, and only accepts them submitted directly by the vendor (can't just email me a PDF and fuck off while I figure it out).

you'd be shocked how many companies don't give a fuck about getting paid and don't bother invoicing properly. even other big name companies take forever, then the reps bitch at me about the consequences of the work I explicitly told them to do & they didn't do.

 

[idl]

@xushuhua I had an ac guy come look at my unit to see why it wasn't cooling. Finally got my bill a year later, the kicker though...

Be diagnosed it to be the condenser fan, we're rural so he said he'd get one next time he was in city to save in shipping. I happened to be up there couple days later, offered to pick it up, turned out I wasn't able to charge it to his account, so paid for it myself. It sat at home for 2 weeks, he had started a big job so didn't know when he'd be able to make it, so I installed it myself.

The bill was for diagnose, source and install parts lol. When I went to talk to him about it he had a huge stack of invoices, notes scribbled down, etc, zero organization. We got it straightened out and I tried to pay for the diagnosing right away. Nope, I'll have to figure it out and send you a bill, that was ~7 years ago lol.