Embroiderers who haven't paid their digitizers

Hi Powerstitch
I do acknowledge there is an outstanding balance
lets put things in context after trading with you for 18 months
we left you €30 outstanding

Declan
Promotex.ie

I have also few clients from EmbroidMe Franchise which has not paid us after getting bulk work, we trusted because of embroidme.com brand name...

so today a client who has several invoices past due tries to place an order.. we advise them that they have some late invoices but if they offer to pay those by cc then we will gladly digitize the new file within a matter of hours and then charge it to the cc as well. effectively converting them from terms to cc. They agree... after trying 3 different cards ALL of them were declined.... How are they in business as a promotional products distributor??? really?

will try my best to name few if no payments after 2 months also

I now understand why my digitizer e-mails me requesting payment if I have not paid by pay pal within a day or two after receiving my design. It only seems fair that if I expect them to get my designs back in 24 hours, that they should expect prompt payment from me as well.

closed out 2012 and lost over $4200 to non paying terms clients. Really makes it a struggle to NOT be cynical and a real a-hole in business when so many take advantage. will slowly ween off all terms clients during this first half of 2013. sorry.

Powerstitch... I've got about 100 designs I'd like digitized but want to check your consistency. Could you do 4 different designs for free so I can test? Then could you do the other 96 on credit before my month's grace period is over? ;-) just kidding but dang you need to change your way of business if you plan on having any money. The embroidery business is almost as bad as the metal working business which is awful at paying their bills. I think terms are pretty much a dying thing nowadays anyway. If you want it now you pay up front or you don't get it. Not saying they should pay before seeing what you've done, but definitely before you give them the file.

so that makes it ok not to pay? because you gave him business for 18months this 30 pound outstanding should be a freebee?? Sorry I am not following your logic? You make it sound like he should be counting his blessings and not worried about the last design or two that you did not pay for.. ?? really?? Wonder if I can do that with my car payment? Gee, I paid you for 4 years and 11 months.. why are you upset that I did not pay the LAST month of the note? you got 59 months.. geez... let it rest. lol really??

Yes, i am at WalMart.. but I dont plan on coming back.. so this last basket full of merchandise should be free. I mean I have shopped at WalMart for 20 years.. why are you NOT letting me go out with this last basket? really??

Sorry I just dont get how people dont pay for your services. If $15-30 or however much you guys charge for digitizing will break their bank I have no idea how they stay in business. It is such a small part (expense wise) of the job that it just does not make sense to me.

today a potential new client calls in requesting terms, we advise that we are no longer allowing terms. This is their response via email:

"I am sorry but that is just not acceptable to us… I understand that you are a digitizing co first as I am a promotional company first. A rather large one that send your co a lot of business.. I guess I will just have to contact our main office and let them know this response and let them contact the rest of our franchises that do business with you and have them stop doing business… "

So he thinks the best way to begin a business relationship is by Threatening?? ha. I just simply advised he could do whatever he liked but I doubt those franchisees that ARE using us from their group are going to Stop just because HE did not get terms. lol Apparently when he bought into the group they must have over inflated how important they are as a collective. Nor is he aware apparently how FEW of his group use us... but someone must have sent him our way...

Number of clients increasing who even do not respond for invoice emails, any idea

any response from them powerstitch? for him to log on to this forum JUST to respond to you must mean he really believes YOU are in the wrong... I just don't get it.

I have been doing this a long time and it seems the ones I got jilted on were the ones that said they needed it "as a super rush", "their regular digitizer wasn't responding to them so they were trying someone else" and "I am doing this as a favor for my son's school" etc... They all say they will pay right away via paypal and after multiple requests, emails, calls not returned...never hear from them again. So frustrating.

I had the oddest thing happen a while back and still never paid. I had done some work for a guy out of Minnesota and then two of the last designs I didn't get paid for. I contacted him on the two outstanding invoices and he told me the two ladies in charge of that dept. in his company, their emails, numbers etc... The ladies actually told me he wasn't allowed to order designs that was not his dept, to do so and wouldn't believe me that this guy was the one who ordered the designs. I told them I had emails to prove it was him not someone else from the company. They seemed upset that this guy did this because he was not in the dept. that dealt with this. I went back and forth with these ladies on and off for a year. I finally didn't want to spend anymore time on it.

Thanks God I got my money after 2 month :)

we just got an email today advising us that we were being NOT paid for $550.00 in digitizing fees :

"These invoices have been billed under Club Colors Inc. and on October 27, 2011 the assets of Club Colors Inc. were sold to a third party in an article 9 UCC sale.

The asset sale did not include any liabilities and the purchaser did not assume the payables from Club Colors Inc."

nice. so a major franchiser in the promotional products industry thinks this is a GREAT way to stiff other companies. GOTTA LOVE IT. Our last invoice to them was Oct 24th.. 3 days before the sale that they only now are telling us about and advising why we are not being paid and why we should stop requesting payment.

Hello,

Some are good clients and some are those as well which have got 10+ designs and after that never responded me when i asked for payments.

From the Home page on their website: "In this internet age, many companies and web sites are just virtual with no physical presence. At Club Colors, we want you also to know about the reality of our company that stands behind this high tech e-commerce site." and yes Virginia, the reason we CAN stand behind it is we found a way not to pay our vendors in 2011, so we are in a MUCH better financial position to use new vendors in 2012.

I just hope they fixed their management or same ole same ole will put them out for the count I bet.

Let me tell you that a client who sent 19 designs, subject was "artwork", so i started vectoring, and done all 19 vectors, than he told me he need stitch file, i did all 19 designs, he paid $50 upfront and now no response on payments

i almost never get stiffed. i offer lots of options. debit/credit card, checks, prepay paypal, or monthly paypal. i do invoicing once a month. i'm getting a lot of business owners lately (not embroiderers) that have me do their designs so they can keep their design and shop them around to embroidery shops. these guys are on prepay debit/credit or paypal. for embroidery shops, i set them up with an account, and if they want to pay by monthly paypal, or by check, i keep a back-up credit card on file, and tell them that if it isn't paid within 60 days i charge the balance to the card. it works great. i only have one now that owes me...their back-up credit card was declined. had a feeling it was coming. their credit card number changed about 6 times in a year. but i feel pretty lucky in general with that!

Robert,

You guys do great work, we have been very please with your service.

Why not just set (Everyone) up on a pay as you go? Would you lose that many folks?

I know for our business we have less than 10 customers total that we allow to take their goods before payment is received....we tell the folks who want terms that are not major companies that we are in the printing business and not the bill collecting business..Most fine a way to pay.

Jon

Deleted $325 in invoices today.. can do that since we are cash based accounting and not accrual..... because client's salespeople entered orders onto our website but did not provide PO's and home office will not pay without a PO.... so we are trying to be better at catching their order entry skills.... AND a few of those had POs.. but apparently were not VALID POs according to that company.. not sure how we would know that? I wonder where else they will go to get digitizing terms? I guess only the largest of the brokerage houses maybe?

They paid... I think they borrowed their son's cc. lol

Digidana,

I am glad to hear you haven't issues in this regard! It might also be a function of size... the larger you are, the more clients, the more opportunity to come across those that do not like to pay.

true! i'm a one-woman show. i like it that way. guess i'm a bit of a control freak. but payment policies that help safeguard don't hurt. my least favorite part of the business is playing bill collector.

how big is your company? do you do digitizing only?

Today a client that has not paid us for work done in Feb calls all upset because her acct is suspended. She remembers getting the invoices and the reminders, but her husband pays the bills so why are we hurting HER by suspending her acct?

I can't make stuff like this up! unbelievable!!

All you can do is shake your head sometimes.... I had a customer who kept saying she sent the check in the mail. Still didn't get it. Then she says the mail was returned to her. So she said she resent it and it kept going on and on. I finally said, you know what I feel like taking a drive today. Cancel the old check that you "sent in the mail" and I will come to your place to pick up the new check. Mind you it was a pretty good amount or I wouldn't have wasted my gas.

Hi Robert,
I am also waiting for a payments which is big ones from one client and its two months, he is from this forum as well, i hope he pays me.

i too changed my policy now, i ask for payments once i reach 4 to 5 designs, the one who pays are good clients, and those who do not pay, i know they were fake or just trying to get free work from me

i could see where that would be a worry when you offer free designs. have you had people come back and try to use different names, etc? people can be pretty devious! the only time i do freebies is if its for a good cause. i don't think i've ever had a customer ask for a free design. i just always surprise them with it.

Thanks, we try to offer terms to those that request it and many larger groups ONLY do terms as the one that stiffed us.

Here is another that we learned about today.. A new client asks for terms so we say OK. they use us for 6 weeks before we shut them down for non payment. (2 weeks after the first invoice at net 30 should have been paid) They got us for $415 in that time... and NEVER paid a dime.

Well today I had a client's cc be declined.. so I went into their acct to see what might be wrong.. maybe the card expired or something... low and behold the client that stiffed us for the $415 opened an acct under a NEW NAME a few weeks after we suspended them... and we have been doing work for them as a cc account since then. Same street address only one is suite 102 and the new one is suite 103... same contact person even!!

What crooks! I have closed their new account. I know they are paying now, but the point is if they are crooked enough to stiff us for digitizing payments then to me they are crooked enough to dispute their cc charges and screw us again.