How to deal with Customer - No Payment

[simplydivine]

I have a customer's Halloween quilt that has not been picked up. I call and leave messages, but either they don't answer the phone, or answer the messages I leave. They called back one time saying they can't make it because of illness. That was 2 months ago.

I've offered to drop off the quilt at their house in exchange for payment, (I had to leave a voice message- of course), but I have not heard back from them.

At this point, I am going to call again AND write a letter, asking them to contact me. I can make arrangements to ship it to them (but I want my check first), drop off or they can pick up.

If they still don't respond, what do I do with a KING size Halloween Bed Quilt and matching Shams! The bill is $300.

What should I do in this situation? Your comments, suggestions are always appreciated!

[Quilting Heidi]

Julie,

My immediate thought is that they have a serious illness and either weren\'t able to respond or something. I can\'t imagine somebody spending all that money on fabric to make a king quilt and then not wanting to have the finished product. The other thought is that they might not have thought about how much it was going to cost to be quilted and are too embarrassed to tell you they don\'t have the money to pay. I would send written notification and give them 30 days notice officially. Then you might want to post it on Ebay and put a minimum of $300. Is it a customer that you have quilted for before? Is this norm for this person? I would take that into consideration as well. Maybe she frequents the LQS and they would be able to give you some insite.

Good luck.

Heidi

[busybee]

That is tuff. I have a clause in my quilting guildlines saying, If not picked up and payed for within 3 months after I finished quilting, then I would have to sell to recoup my cost for the quilting. This has not been a problem. Nita

[AnnHenry]

It never occurred to me that this situation might arise. What a good idea to provide for this eventuality in the contract, Busybee.

Simplydivine, whatever contact you have with this person from now on must have a paper trail. Forget about making any additional phone calls, but try to document the attempts you have made as much as you can remember. Keep copies of all future correspondence, all of which must be sent requiring she (only) signs for it. There are special forms for this at the Post Office. "Deliver to Addressee Only / Signature Required" so she can\'t say someone else got her mail. Before you do anything drastic with her quilt, you have to be able to prove that she was properly notified.

Does anyone charge an upfront deposit? For lots of contracted work I have had done, I had to pay half up front.

[Bonnie]

My clause in my contract actually states that they have 30 days from time of finished to make payment arrangements or I have the right to sell their quilt. With that said in all the years that I have been doing this I have only had one who just didn\'t come get a quilt or make arrangements for payment.

I kept the quilt for 1 year before her neighbor called me and asked if I still had her quilt....yes, I still had it....in the back of my mind I would never really sell a quilt, just let them think that. The neighbor asked if I would sell her the quilt so that she could give it to her friend (the customer) for a Christmas present....it turned out that it wasn\'t the customer who didn\'t want to pay the money for the quilting it was the husband.

He controlled ALL of the money and she had been sneaking out funds for the material and didn\'t get enough before he found out what she was doing... If she had just said she was having problems I would have been willing to work with her, instead I just thought she was a flake and really just didn\'t care. When they don\'t call you back you have only your private thoughts of what is going on.

Personally if my husband did this to me I wouldn\'t be married to him today, but I guess some just don\'t get it.

[Mary Beth]

I was stung once! My customer dropped off 6 tops (small) in October, wanted for Christmas, I hurt my shoulder had to have surgery and explained it to her. Since I was new and doing the quilting at 50%off (stupid) she decided she was in no hurry.....right.....finally she picked them up a year later-the week of Christmas. All I had was a cell phone number. Now I get every bit of information I can on a person. Thankfully I have not had that happen since. But make sure you at least get all of their contact information.

[quiltmonkey]

Hmmm interesting topic! If I were ever to encounter a no-pay customer, all I would have to do is threaten them by saying I know a monkey-armed Ozarkian in Kansas City and honey, you do not want to cross paths with that gal cuz if you do, honey, she will grab you by those long arms of hers pinch your little head off!

[Mary Beth]

You are so right!! I don\'t care if they don\'t understand Ozarkian:D

[DB]

I have to agree with keeping a paper trail, otherwise it\'s one person\'s say so against the other. Send a note with a signiture required return receipt stating that they have so many days to claim the quilt or contact you otherwise it becomes your property. I guess in the future I will have to consider a deposit with the quilt drop off just to cover the cost of thread, batting and electric. You might be able to donate the quilt and then write the donation off on your taxes. DB

[mrsbishwit]

Sounds like the customer doesn\'t have the money to pay, which is why she has been avoiding you, she\'s embarrassed. But that\'s not your problem, you are in a business and you need this money to cover your time and expenses. I would send her a registered letter, that requires a signature and explain to he r that she has "X" amount of days to come pick her quilt up and make sure you tell her you want either cash for the entire amount or a certified check. If she does not pick up by the date you want then tell her in the leter the quilt becomes your property due to insuficent funds. Make sure you make a copy of the letter and keep the receipt of when the letter was signed/delivered.

Good luck

[mrmquilt]

I am having the same problem. I have had this ladies quilt done for over

6 months. I called her this week to see if a payment plan would help and

she is suppose to come pick it up this morning. We\'ll see if she shows.

I really need to do what everyone up here is advising. Make a contract and brochures. Maybe I\'ll work on that today instead of cleaning. LOL

Michele

[fabric007]

Whoa there Michele....a payment plan where it gets paid for before she picks it up...you may never see the rest of the payments...if she doesnt pay, make sure she knows it is now your quilt

[michaelalan]

I use to ask for 50% up front and like Bonnie had a part in my contract with the customer picking up the quilt no less than 30 days from finish of quilt.

I also had a storage charge after the 30 day from finish. I never had to use it.

I would call or e-mail the customer one last time and tell her that the quilt is done. Your attempts to contact the customer and not having her call back indicates that she is shining you on. In your case I think a call stating that you will have to go to small claims court for your money might work, also let the customer know that they will be responsible for the court costs. And last but not least never take any of her quilts again and warn other local LA\'s.

I\'m not an uncaring person, but it sounds like your customer is avoiding you on purpose, illness or not they are responsible to pay for your services. Take action soon, or you will lose out.

Michele, don\'t let her have the quilt till you have all the money in your hand. Having her sign a contract now won\'t work, it\'s to late the job is done, you\'ll never see any money if you give her the quilt, be quilt smart and money wise.

[sewingupastorm]

Julie if your customer is indeed sick then I would cut them some slack. Unless you know the details they might really be unable to pay you right now and have priorities elsewhere. If they are local you would likely be able to find out whats up. I know how it is to have illness in the family and believe me depending on what it is a quilt might not be their top priority right now. Unless you are desparate for that money you might just give them time to come back to you. If illness is the case it would be heartless in my opinion to push too hard right now.

Michele as for you do not let that quilt leave your studio till it is paid in full or you will likely never see the rest of your money. That is quilt is your colateral.

[Bonnie]

Julie....regardless if someone is sick or not they are still responsible to at least call you back....I agree that if someone is sick, cut them some slack and not be as pushy, but until you get that phone call you have no real idea what is happening in their lives, and they could be just avoiding you due to lack of funds or whatever reason.

This does not give them the right to not pay. They must commuicate with you in some fashion otherwise, I would continue with "Small Claims" or a certified letter with intent of collection, and state in the letter if you do not recieve a call back within a certain time that you have no choice, but to sell the quilt for damages done.

I would almost bet the letter will come back unclaimed, which you need to keep as a record that you did try to contact them...and go ahead and do whatever you need to do.

[mrmquilt]

I only make the same mistake once, usually, LOL.

She won\'t get the quilt till it is completely paid for and I will never

quilt for her again.

She is an hour late now so I might end up with this cute quilt.

I hate being a meany but it is business and if I can\'t handle it I shouldn\'t

be in business. I\'m sure most of you know what I am talking about.

Julie, I sure hope you get a call soon. Anything to let you know what

is going on.

Michele

[mxley]

Bad debts are tough to handle! Do make sure you keep a paper trail as suggested above. Phone calls mean nothing in the court, should you decide to pursue that route. Put something on the work order the customer must sign about pick-up times, and storage costs.

When I was doing furniture re-upholstery, if the customer purchased fabric through my shop, that was their deposit on the job. If they brought their own fabric, then I charged 50% of the labor as a deposit. I still had to sell a few pieces for non-payment.

Sometimes it really was a change in the family\'s circumstances, and they had to cut their losses by abandoning the piece - but I still needed to be paid. I sold the pieces through a high-end consignment shop, and usually got at least my labor costs, but with the commission, I was still out a bit usually.

I\'m not quilting professionally, but I would absolutely require that a customer pay for the batting up front, if buying from you, or a 25-30% deposit on the labor. HEY! Stores require a deposit if they order something for you! I\'ve noticed a perception out there in the public that if you work from your home, you\'ve got it easy, it\'s a hobby, whatever, but you\'re *not really* in business. But I doubt they would be trying to stiff a department store.

There is also a place on your Schedule C tax form for deducting bad debts. Enter the full amount owed. Sell the quilt next year, if the problem hasn\'t been resolved. If you sell it this year, do try to get MORE than your labor costs alone!

Good luck resolving this.

[Quilting Heidi]

Julie,

Did you ever hear anything?

Michele - did your customer show up and pay?

It is too bad that even in our business we have to deal with this but there is always at least one bad apple! One big trouble maker and we have to deal with them no matter what we want to do!

Heidi

[ffq-lar]

Everyone seems shocked and outraged that this would happen.

Fortunately our customer base is made up of quilters--seemingly the nicest, kindest, most generous group of creative people.

Your customer may need to give up this treasure because of who-knows-what (and maybe we don\'t want to know how bad that who-knows-what might be!)

Can you ever imagine what would have to be happening in your life to cause you to turn away from a quilt top that you lovingly sweated over and spent all that money on--maybe destined to be a precious gift for a loved one? It makes me thankful I am not facing that choice.

Anyway, sappiness aside, give \'em notice that the quilt is now your property because they have forfeited it over non-payment. Then keep it, use it as a sample of your beautiful work, give it to charity, or sell it. Don\'t dwell on the bad taste in your mouth from a bad experience because it makes you resentful, suspicious, and unhappy.

It\'s easy for someone else to say, but make some lemonade from that quilt and move on.

(This has happened to me only once and I countered the bad feelings by giving the quilt to a friend for her to donate to the charity of her choice--that spread the joy a little farther, from me to her to someone we don\'t know.)

Warm thoughts and happy stitching to all!

[juliagraves]

I would be cautious about taking a check from somebody that seems to be a bad risk - like this person that\'s not responding. You may want to ask for cash or a money order. People that mail quilts back to customers typically wait for the check to clear prior to mailing the quilt.

Good luck -

Julia

[kathyb]

My concern would be if that person was so sick that they actually passed away. Since you just don\'t know, hold on to the quilt, but continue sending notices to her house. If she passed away, the household will be chaotic for some time, but it would eventually settle down. Surely a family member would be glad to pay for her last quilt. It\'s just not a priority at the moment.

Good luck!

[oregoncarol]

i had it happen twice, guess i didn\'t learn the first time.

learned alot the first year. remember you are in business to make

money not lose it.

[Merryjo2003]

I have a form I fill out with the customer when they drop off a quilt. It goes through all the usual stuff, size, Sq. inches, quilt description, type of quilting, batting, thread color, etc. Very specific stuff. I do all the calculations and final cost with tax, any discounts, etc. There is the disclaimer on this form that states the quilt becomes my property to sell to recoup my quilting costs if they do not pick up and pay for the service w/in 90 days of the finish date. They have to sign the form meaning they argee with the prices. I give them a copy and attach the original to the quilt. Then I know exactly what to do when it\'s turn comes up and they know exactly when it will be finished and what it costs.

If someone comes to me and can\'t pay because something has happened in their life (we all have that on occasion), I will work out a payment plan with them, but the quilt stays with me until paid. So far, I haven\'t had any problems. Keeping my fingers crossed.

For commission quilts, (I make the top) I require half the cost up front. That way, the cost of the fabric is covered and quilting is covered, just not the labor of putting the quilt together. I try to keep commission quilts to a minimum because they are so time consuming. Mostly, only someone serious about a custom quilt will pay the price. I start at $1200.00 for a queen, and it goes up from there if it\'s a complicated set of blocks. That usually stops all but the serious people which is fine by me! I\'d rather stay busy quilting than piecing. I find my per hour rate goes way down with piecing (maybe because I\'m picky and precise). I still love to piece, but rather do it for myself or family and friends gifts!

[quiltaholi_518]

I would, at this point, send a registered letter with return reciept that states you have tried repeatedly to reach her. Include the dates of your attempts. Then state that is you do not hear from her with 10 days, you willl put the quilt on E-Bay or similar auction type venue. If the quilt does not bring the $300 to cover the bill then you will still hold her legally responsible for the balance. (Not that that really means anything...)

I had a similar problem, I had a bad check from someone and another top not quilted. So I actually sold the top in this forum for about 1/2 of what I was owed on the other one.........

As long as you document, no one can fault you for doing what should be done.

[MarthaProvencher]

One thing I noticed is that this was a Halloween quilt. Sounds like you had it done in plenty of time for Halloween, but if she wasn\'t able to pick it up in time for her plans for halloween, maybe she figured you could just store it for her \'til next Halloween. Mary Beth mentioned something similar with the Christmas quilts. It\'s not right, it\'s still offensive, but maybe it\'s not that she doesn\'t want to pay, she just figures you should accommodate her schedule. Which you shouldn\'t. If she learns that her quilts won\'t be waiting next Halloween, maybe she\'ll come through. Tell her you need to resolve this by the end of the year to close your books for tax purposes. Maybe that will work.