The customer that will rip you off

You will hear stories about how a contractor took advantage of a customer by taking their money and not providing a service.  In fact, you will hear a lot of these stories.  However, on the other side of that coin you will find that customers do the exact same thing.  There are several scenarios in which a contractor may not get paid by a customer.  Providing poor service or poor quality can certainly lead to non-payment from a customer.  Sometimes disagreements arise on the job.  Disputes can occur over the nature of the scope of work.  Again, this can lead to non-payment. 

The one that really strikes a nerve is the one that just simply doesn’t pay.  You can do a great job and the customer will say thank you and seem very appreciative of the completed work.  Ultimately you send the customer the invoice and all you get back is crickets.  Repeated attempts to collect and numerous threats and you still don’t receive payment.  What the hell?  Getting ripped off really freaking sucks.

So, you take the customer to small claims court, racking up more expenses and time.  So, you win your argument in court and the judge awards you the payment.  Guess what?  You still won’t get paid.  Then you put a lien on the customer’s home.  Guess what again?  If that home has a homestead exemption on it, you still won’t get paid.  Let’s face the facts.  You will eventually get bent over a barrel.  It sucks.  Don’t expect the judicial system to help you.  Those are the facts.

I really don’t have any good advice on this.  You never know when someone is going to stiff you.  There is not magic 8 ball that will give you heads up.  I have been ripped off at least ten times to the tune of 30k.  All efforts to collect have resulted in zero recoupment.  The judicial system is not designed to help the contractor.  Yet, interestingly enough you can go to your local Walmart and steal something that costs 10 dollars and you get hauled off to the police stationed and be booked into jail.  Go figure.  People will stiff you because they can and there aren’t any real repercussions.  They just admire your beautiful work every day with a smile and a big middle finger toward you. Sad truth.

I contacted many attorneys.  If you have a judgement from a judge, the collection attorney isn’t interested in going after the money.  Other attorneys will tell you up front that it’s just a waste of time.  You can spend some money on a subscription service to see if the customer has any previous judgements against them before you enter into an agreement for services with them.