Embroiderers who haven't paid their digitizers

Sorry to hear that. We did experience that in 2012 as you can read above, but I think some of our clients at that time were either consolidating or going out of business. This seems to have changed and we loosened our terms policy again in 2014 and so far have had very little issue. (nothing like it was during the economic problems a few years ago!)

As a barometer do you think you are seeing the start of another problem period? Right now it seems corporations are flush and spending their budgets so they dont lose them next year. A welcomed come back from harder times.

So who contacted him, its really bad.................

ha, well if another digitizer is dumb enough to knowingly go after a client that has been shown NOT to pay for digitizing.. well, stupid them. Let them do it. I mentioned really large clients.. best of luck to any digitizer that wants to go after those... we sure don't care.

Best way is to show them digital picture and ask them to pay... After payment let them download file. Credit only for regular customers.

UPDATE.

Well for 2015 we had to write off very little in bad debt! VERY little, not even worth questioning the clients over... maybe they skipped an invoice or whatever, but nothing like years past. In fact this year we had several clients DOUBLE PAY invoices... YEP... had to call to see if they wanted a credit, a refund, the checks sent back or the checks destroyed.

thank you Powerstitch, but you dont have to do that. Send it to one of the US digitizers that market on this site instead. but thanks for the offer.

yes, do you have a problem with client's not paying you?

Well , it has been about 3 months. We have been much better at checking the orders that they enter themselves have PO's attached... we send every one back on clarification to ask for a PO .. delays their orders but they dont seem to mind... and we are getting paid from corporate.

October 15th we are contacting any Terms client that has had payment problems and letting them know that effective Nov 15th they will either have to go to cc or start using another service provider. My reasoning is that our busiest time of the year is from mid Nov to Christmas.... so we will be packed and wont miss those that leave.... and it should be harder for them to find another terms provider as most others will be busy as well and Don't offer terms anyway.

This should make 2013 much easier to manage.

I guess you never heard of how the old saying goes.
Screw me once shame on you. Screw me twice shame on me.
Demand a credit card up front with no exceptions. If it doesn't clear then don't send the files. If they won't pay you up front, do you actually think they will pay you after?

Don't let them tell you how to run your business when they can't run theirs.
You own it, so make your own rules. If you don't have the balls to do so, then you will always be screwed.

May be you are right

Today had a client who paid an invoice in OCTOBER for work done in FEBRUARY..... and got all upset that today when she placed an order that we had the nerve to ask for her credit card information...

I am sorry, paying an invoice 8 months later is not acceptable.. thank you for coming back to us.. but you will need to pay when services are rendered... no . no.. why would you think we were questioning your character... has nothing to do with that mam... just we do a service for you and I am sorry but I do not think it unrealistic to be paid at that time... but I do think it unrealistic for ANYONE to think it is OK to pay 8 months later.. sorry...

I hear you Ink Guy, but doing that means you will not have the Club Colors, AIA, or Proforma franchisees then.. They each have dozens if not Hundreds of sales reps with all invoices being paid from a centralized office by check only. So the gamble with them is bankruptcy or foreclosure as happened with our client, but in the history of working with them for as long as we have you are still talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars that to me is worth the $555 loss. And still quite a savings over cc fees we would have paid if they were not terms... I was just complaining that it still should not have happened.

As far as the smaller clients we still tend to err to the side of trusting people and allowing terms to many that ask. Most are great payers but for those that do not pay I just see it as a character flaw in them not something I should penalize others for. I am just pointing out what does happen.

You are correct, it is a personal business decision that to us, even with the bad apples still makes us feel like we are providing a little bit of old school courtesy.

My client said he will start paying me next week...its almost 2 months, hope he pays me

no, I think that you dont really think you are going to get those clients back do you? I dont want the ones who have not paid me to come back, period... I dont care if they pay up front or not.. they have shown what type of people they are and I will not compromise my beliefs for their money.. There are TOO many clients as well as TOO many digitizers to do that.

So I dont care if YOU go after the clients I have mentioned.. But personally I dont think you are that dumb.. but for those that are... well, let them deal with the headaches. the more my competitors deal with stuff like that the less time they can spend actually digitizing.. win win.

If I were you, from now on, I would send them a sewout only. They cannot use the sewout for anything except approval, and they cannot use the file. In my opinion, they are paying for a service of digitizing and do not own the artwork. You do...

I am tired of two customers. Let me wait for more three days then I am going to post their detail here.

One of my client own lot of money from last 4 months, he saying business is slow, i hope he pays me.

well I think the days of offering credit to digitizing clients are dwindling pretty quickly... much harder for those that used to go from one to another without paying... they are now having to pay up front. The best they can do now is dispute the cc charges.. and that only works a few times with different vendors and the cc company gets involved with them.

I hope he does too Gnizitigid... unfortunately being the cynic that I am.. lol.. it is TOO easy just to use another digitizer.