Needing some cheap parts

[bertsmobile1]

How you recover monies will depend upon your individual state laws, but unless you are a registered business that can be a double edged sword as down here the taxman reviews all of the small claims cases looking for undeclaired income from cash businesses. We also have a federal body called the Credit Review Tribunal that compiles the cases and distributes the results to credit providers that subscribe to the service so an advese finding will kill the customers credit rating , which in my case caused a customer to loose their farm on which 4 families lived, all over a $ 685 bill .
The best defense is to have a good relationship with the other local repairers. Here it is easy as there are only 2 of us and 15 miles away 4 more.
I know them all and see them regularly to buy OEM parts ( and i don't push for discounts ) so i make sure we have a chat and non- payers are always mentioned.

Now if you want to see funny faces, try telling some one they did not pay the Still shop last year so they will have to pay me $ 200 up front before I will even look at their machine.
I even made some one stump up $ 1000 if they wanted the work done then gave them back the change.
There is no formal mower shop organization, but if the customers think there is then they can not divide & dupe . .

And just a note, when I have to buy OEM parts, I add $ 15 "courier" fee to the bill explaining that not being an XYZ agent I have to pay a delivery fee for the parts that I would not have paid if they had allowed me to fit after market parts from my suppliers .

 

[StarTech]

How you recover monies will depend upon your individual state laws, but unless you are a registered business that can be a double edged sword as down here the taxman reviews all of the small claims cases looking for undeclaired income from cash businesses.

And just a note, when I have to buy OEM parts, I add $ 15 "courier" fee to the bill explaining that not being an XYZ agent I have to pay a delivery fee for the parts that I would not have paid if they had allowed me to fit after market parts from my suppliers .

I wish I could have decent business relationship with the local shops but to be honest nearly all of them are a holes. I even get several their half done jobs in my shop every year where whoever their techs are they are terrible. Must be just part replacers.

Personally I don't like those DYIers cash businesses in the first place. Before I even open any of my businesses I had all the necessary licenses in hand including the sales tax licenses. Yes new customers thinks I am one those DYIer cash businesses and don't want to pay the sales tax on the invoices just because I work out a two car garage. I even had few to turn me in the local tax offices. But when the enforcement office looks up my businesses they find that I up to date on my payments; although, one enforcement guy tried tricking me by bringing in push mower for repairs. When I had it ready and handed him the bill, he pull his badge on me. He wanted to see my records so pointed him the file cabinet and said have at it and I said "Oh by the way the business license is on the wall by the door".

Boy the tax man can be hateful if they think they can get you over a barrel.

As far charging shipping and handling, I only charge them on rush, off season, or special orders. My normal markups take care of most shipping charges, besides like the order I just received had free shipping or the OEM order I placed this morning was large enough to qualify for free shipping. That Generac carburetor repair kit I just got was only $2 thru Amazon more than my distributor price. My distributor wanted another $10 to ship it too. Sometimes it pays to shop around a little. It also probably why I currently have over $26,000 in parts on hand as I order extra of the common items. That is actually down from $35,000 last year as I switch to a distributor that delivers in 2 days.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Who is your distributor if i may ask? Lately i have been getting faster delivery from parts off ebay vs the distributor i deal with. I am a low volume customer so i think i get "whenever" shipping. I have a business license and a tax exempt ID if they require one.
Thanks

 

[StarTech]

Currently I am using Gardner (1 day if shipped out of my assigned warehouse), Power Distributors (2 days), A&I (2 days), and RBI (2 days). Now I do use Amazon, Partstree, Repair Clinic, Partzilla, among others that are further out shipping times. Even Amazon is most times only 2 days out. For might seem strange but most of the current vendors are only a few days out.

And yes all require your sales tax exemption certificate and some even a copy of your business license.

Now take these with a grain of salt if an item gets back ordered.

Here is an example of what I have spent recently . Now ignore Spectrum and Mapco as one is internet service and the other is the fuel depot. There are other vendors that I did include in the snap shot.


Now I just place my first order with A&I and it is still too early for an order with Gardner as I have inventory on hand for most of the early season repairs. Plus I just started with RBI.

 

[PTmowerMech]

I delivered one to a woman today, who lived in a fancy house. Called her on my way, she said she was there and had the money. When I got there, for some reason, I decided not to unload it until I got the money. I normally just unload and then knock on the door, if they don't hear me pull up. But this time, I knocked first. I seen her in the house, but she wouldn't answer the door. I knocked like 5 times in 10 minutes. Finally went back to the truck and called her. About that time, she answered the door.

THE first words out of her mouth was, "You're not going to unload it til you get the money?" Not sure why that was the first thing she said, instead of something like "I was putting up the clothes, groceries, was in the john, or something along those lines. But it made me pretty proud of myself that I didn't unload it first.

One of those "gut feeling" things, I guess.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Nothing comes off the trailer till I know they have the money, cash cheque or direct deposit .
I go through the bill with them , explain it then ask do you want to try it out now or where would you like me to leave it ?
Then you can say will grab the mower while you get the payment.
All nice & friendly .

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I always bring my very large friend named Guido with the new york accent. I let him collect payment while i unload the mower. He must be into baseball because he always has a bat with him.

 

[StarTech]

You do learn to trust your instincts, and I firm believe listening to them. It has kept me out a lot trouble over the years plus just it help me out on repairs.

Oh when I first got out school I was very green behind the ears and I fell for a lot things. Dealing the US Army and Marines I learn a lot words I never heard before for example. Boy our schools doesn't prepare for real life either as I didn't even know how to get around in multi floor buildings. When I think back what an embarrassment I must have been to my boss. Back then the worst customers were doctors and lawyers, next in line were the churches. They would get charge accounts and then not want to pay until you start not returning or refusing to repair their equipment until their accounts were up to date. Those clients that me lessons that after I went into business myself fall back on today.

PT, I had one those customers last year that I nearly drove off before she came to door. Then she accused me of terrible customer service as I had charged her a pickup and delivery for replacing a bad battery that her father said was good. I later found out that they do this all the time. Strange she is real estate agent. Well as I said I had a customer, Her and her father are barred from service now from my business. I reconken having a handful of barred customers is not too bad considering I have 315 registered good customers. I know there businesses with 1000s of customers but I happy with the few good customer I have.

Bert, That is the way I getting now on not unloading until paid especially new clients. Normally I don't do pickups or deliveries. I have always give a fairly detail bill parts used wise, the labor not so much. The customer doesn't need to know how to do the work though some think they should. I got rid of one recently that he would do was to come in for estimates. I kinda pissed that one day he came in while I was gone to local DG for a bottle alcohol he had left a board full of nails in my yard. I didn't see it as I rounded a shrub and had gotten several flat tires on another customer's mower. I still ran the basic diagnostics and he had a worn out engine. He said thank you and drove off without paying any part of the estimate fee.

Oh Hammer you are so mean. I don't blame you though. We work hard most times on those repairs, and under charge for our time because it cheap equipment.

 

[PTmowerMech]

My dad was in the fence business several years ago, and did a $15,000 fence for a big church. After it was completed and he went to get the money, the preacher had the check almost made out, except for the amount. He knew how much the amount was, but when he still asked my dad, "How much of this do you want to give to the lord," as in, thinking my dad would fall for the sympathy preachers commonly use. Dad smiled and said "Well, the lord was gracious enough to help me get this fence job, I'd better be gracious right back and keep the whole amount."

He said the look on the preachers face was priceless. Someone had come up with a better line than him.

The fence business can be tough. You can never get the full amount up front. So there's always money owed at after completion. He's been to court several times. Once we went back to a place we'd built a fence like 2 months prior with a bobcat and two trailers. 5ft chainlink. 250+ft long. While two guys undid the chainlink, I and a helper was pulling the posts with the bobcat. Took us two days to put the fence up. And about 20 minutes to take it all down, load it on the trailer and haul arse. All because the guy wouldn't pay. Of course the guy tried to sue my dad over it. But it didn't work out for him. But ONLY because the man didn't have a fence prior to the one we put up.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes one of the real nice things about working for yourself is you don't have to keep morons on the books.
And I have no problems telling people that I will no longer service their equipment and the reason why .
There was one person who tried a religious persecution claim till he found out that my grandfather was of the same religion & I had several people of the same faith still on my books.
But it was a fun day in court and that cost him a lot of money.