I have sent statements, called, and used a lawyer to collect past due accounts and I still have a significant amount of money out.

What service do some of you use? Please do not respond with "return their animals" or "break their legs" I have already considered those and reluctantly decided against it.

Do any of you use the credit reporting services?

This is frustrating. If I could get every account to pay at once, I could buy a brand new truck cash. Thanks.

By the way. We do collect the initial service fee when we start. Furthermore, as a corporation, if we go to court I have to hire an attorney. Since I am not an attorney I can't represent my own "company" as it is its own legal entity.

An intent to lean signed at the initial service date will get you your money someday,,..........(in wa anyway)

Vinke,

I looked into this somewhat. I don't think you can do it for services in Ohio. It functions more as a mechanics lien so you have to do improvements to the home to be able to do it. May work on jobs that had repairs. It is worth doing a bit more research on.

Thank you for your reply!

Dirk, I think that you have just asked the most significant question that this industry faces. It is not how do you catch an animal that is uncatchable. It is how do you get the customer to pay for that uncatchable animal, once you have caught it?

I am particularly glad that you posted that you won't start a job without the initial service call. Neither will we. This no longer keeps people from owing us a sizeable amount of money. We could buy two of those new trucks you talked about. ( And I'm sorry to admit that )

There will be no one listening to the answers any more intently than Advanced Wildlife Control Inc.

A bill wrote up with a 20 % discount if paid in 14 days.Gives you some money to pay for the chase.And a good paper trail for the courts.As well add 2 % on the 15 th day, collection costs and 2% on unpaid balances are added to the invoice the first of each month till paid.This should be wrote up on initial contact contract

I don't invoice many customers any more. I do the work... pay me now. In the event of an absent home owner, Mail the check and Ill put you on the calender.

My business used to run like Flick's: I'm done, write me a check. Electronic and paper invoicing gives people the opportunity to put off payments. I've tried hard this year to get away from the invoicing whenever possible. I usually have a few stragglers, but glad I don't have a ton of late payments due like you guys.

My wife sends out the 30 day notices. If we hit 45-60 days I pick up the phone and don't let them off until I get a credit card number. Rarely do I have to knock on a door to get a check that is more than 60 days overdue. The long delays are most often a corporate office of an apartment complex that is holding up payment because they need a W-9 or current COI, but nobody bothered to contact me to get the info. I did have a local university that was constantly late with payments...60,90,120 days. Then I found out from other business owners that the university is always late paying everyone, and it takes constant calling and late payment reminders to get paid. So after the last payment was received I fired them.

Generally I've been able to read most of our customers. If I get a good feeling about them I rarely have any problems getting paid. Several times we delayed sending bills because we were too busy to do invoicing, and customers have called requesting the bill or offering credit card numbers over the phone.

If I don't get a good feeling about a customer, I either decline the job or get as much up front (including credit card number) as possible. If there's any hesitation or pushback before we get started, then it's obvious there will be more trouble when the work is done, since these folks know it would take more time and money on my part to undo the work rather than leave it in place.

I know this isn't much help in solving your problems Dirk and Paul, but that's my experience.

My invoice says 2% added plus 35 dollar late fee per month

after 30 days $225.00 lien filing fee (or in you case possibly legal/collection fees

( I have more trouble with remembering to invoice then I do with not getting paid,...........)

Bad part is debtors have more rights then you........

That's good advice, Kevin; just the other day I had a customer who argued that my clearly-written, airtight, checked-by-several-lawyers contract with her signature on it was an estimate, and that she didn't agree to have the exclusion done. I should have fired her when I found out for the second time that she hadn't been checking the traps. But the big exclusion ticket blinded me to her lack of responsibility, and I let her slide.
The real question is "what's an effective way to be paid by the deadbeats?" I would have NO trouble getting a judgment against her, but that still doesn't mean I'll be paid. We can put all kinds of verbiage in our contracts, require overdue accounts to pay filing/court/collection fees, etc., etc., but how do I ensure I'll collect?
(I think I know the answer: if people are gonna stiff me over a few hundred bucks, they often know it's not worth my while to pursue payment.)