Cash only for elderly customers?

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: Chris142
We have had a few bad dealings lately. And it's from people over 70. They will OK the work then pay with a ck on a closed account or call the credit card company and have the charges reversed.

We basically have no recourse. The D/A is too busy to mess with bounced checks and the CC companies always side with the card holder and not us.

Had another $900 job get cancelled today by a CC company. Think I'm going to be cash only from now on.

Thoughts?


In typical BITOG fashion, there are speculations without facts. The first thing you need to do is to find out why it's happening, and if the reasons are legitimate. If they are, then you need to correct the problem. If the reasons are not legitimate, then as a business owner you do have recourse available. If your local district attorney refuses to do their job, then there is the option of small claims court.

Your comment of "CC companies always side with the credit card holder and not us" raises a red flag. There must be a reason why the credit card companies are upholding the disputed claim, despite your proof of an acknowledged, signed estimate and invoice. I suspect there is a piece of the puzzle that isn't being told.


No.

Unless you have a high volume merchant account, Amex, for example is notorious for siding with the customer almost regardless of what the merchant puts up. In a he-said-she-said battle, Amex just assumes the merchant is wrong.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I thought every business had that "telecheck" thing since the 90's that reads it immediately and will kick it back if it's no good,then prints out a receipt you give the customer with a number for them to contact about their account.


Nope.

Telecheck uses a proprietary system of information to determine the likelihood that a check is good. It knows nothing of balance or stop-payment policies.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
Double wasp its whats in the contract that matters because even with cash they can win it back in court.. Or in some cases if they go into bankruptcy 6 months after they handed you the cash the court can ask for the money back in full even if you did a perfect job. It happens all the time with corporate bankruptcy here in nj.
I forget how long they can go back i believe its around 7 months but i could be wrong.


The contract is king, for sure. My payment policies simply make sure I'm not spending any time chasing my own money.

I've been to Court before over dubious claims, (only 3 times in 11 years), and was victorious on every occasion because of contract, a ton of photos, emails, and the all-important work authorization.

Bankruptcy claims are always a possibility, but as I've never run into that one, I'm going to say it's infrequent enough to not lose sleep over.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: Chris142
We have had a few bad dealings lately. And it's from people over 70. They will OK the work then pay with a ck on a closed account or call the credit card company and have the charges reversed.

We basically have no recourse. The D/A is too busy to mess with bounced checks and the CC companies always side with the card holder and not us.

Had another $900 job get cancelled today by a CC company. Think I'm going to be cash only from now on.

Thoughts?


In typical BITOG fashion, there are speculations without facts. The first thing you need to do is to find out why it's happening, and if the reasons are legitimate. If they are, then you need to correct the problem. If the reasons are not legitimate, then as a business owner you do have recourse available. If your local district attorney refuses to do their job, then there is the option of small claims court.

Your comment of "CC companies always side with the credit card holder and not us" raises a red flag. There must be a reason why the credit card companies are upholding the disputed claim, despite your proof of an acknowledged, signed estimate and invoice. I suspect there is a piece of the puzzle that isn't being told.


No.

Unless you have a high volume merchant account, Amex, for example is notorious for siding with the customer almost regardless of what the merchant puts up. In a he-said-she-said battle, Amex just assumes the merchant is wrong.

And I would venture a guess it's because they assume a business can absorb a loss better than an individual.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Al
Originally Posted By: spasm3

Then you need to take them to small claims court. Its possible a few of these customers know each other and are getting over on the shop. Take one or two to court and it may stop.

This..its cheap. You don't need a lawyer. They get a hand delivered summons. The limit is $7500 in Cali. Its a no brainer.


Small claims in California is 10K. I had to go to court in September of last year. I won BTW.

 

[DoubleWasp]

[/quote]
And I would venture a guess it's because they assume a business can absorb a loss better than an individual. [/quote]

CC companies sell their service on the ideal that they'll protect the customer. Amex is more customer-service oriented than most. They also charge the highest merchant fees, which is why you see so many businesses that do take cards don't take Amex.

You can put up whatever you want, but if they say that you screwed up the repair or other unverifiable claim, they're going to side with the customer more often than not.

Win or lose, there is a fee associated with simply having a charge back made on your merchant account. One way or another, it's a hit.

 

[raytseng]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: Chris142
We have had a few bad dealings lately. And it's from people over 70. They will OK the work then pay with a ck on a closed account or call the credit card company and have the charges reversed.

We basically have no recourse. The D/A is too busy to mess with bounced checks and the CC companies always side with the card holder and not us.

Had another $900 job get cancelled today by a CC company. Think I'm going to be cash only from now on.

Thoughts?


In typical BITOG fashion, there are speculations without facts. The first thing you need to do is to find out why it's happening, and if the reasons are legitimate. If they are, then you need to correct the problem. If the reasons are not legitimate, then as a business owner you do have recourse available. If your local district attorney refuses to do their job, then there is the option of small claims court.

Your comment of "CC companies always side with the credit card holder and not us" raises a red flag. There must be a reason why the credit card companies are upholding the disputed claim, despite your proof of an acknowledged, signed estimate and invoice. I suspect there is a piece of the puzzle that isn't being told.


And you speculate on the speculation.
The OP can be correctly stating his scenario. There are definitely lots of merchant agreements where your company auto agree to accept all chargebacks and are just notified and there's no dispute clause.
It makes more sense in other business scenarios where you don't want to dispute chargebacks, but are going to go after the customer in another way to get your money.

If this is not what you want, you may want to look for a different merchant agreement and processing that gives you more recourse.


But even if you do have recourse, you can't count on the creditcard company's to absolve every chargeback scenario; it's something that can happen. If the payment doesn't come through, the bill still remains, you just need to go after the money owed just as if someone dine and dashed on your restaurant.

Perhaps take a person's ID and thumbprint when credit as they do in stories involving strip clubs or clubs. Then collection agency or court or what have you. The small claims court is not necessary because you have a bill, not an argument over that, so a claim isn't what you need.

The credit card/check is just 1 method of payment and it's no good, forget about the "fraud" part, that's going nowhere.

Just google on it to find all the other ways to collect money from people who owe you. You can tack on an extra fee for the chargeback fee as well as add it to your fine print if it's not there.

 

[Andrew1972]

I would never do business personally with a shop that only takes cash unless the price was really decent/low. I am suspicious of anyone who does this because I feel business is hiding from IRS. If someone insists on cash I ask for automatic 25% discount!

I would peek at the amount of customers who uses credit or check and actually pay properly vs the deadbeats. You have the potential of losing a good portion of paying cc and check folks.....

Have you taking the methods to contact these folks for payment, threatened legally and then finally small claims? Or just trying to jump to DA?

Sorry about these deadbeats!

 

[The_Jeff]

Check the guy's registration for big jobs. If they're local go on google street view and see if the car's really parked there.

If the registration doesn't match the license doesn't match the check address, they're up to no good.

The sticky wicket is if you take MC/Visa you have to have a MC/Visa sticker in your door window, and a nosey customer can point to that when they get denied. Your loophole is to say the machine's busted and they'll have to wait for a few days of impound or pay cash.

You also seem to need a fenced in area with "blocker" vehicle. I know you have some big stuff that'll work.