Just a vent about a customer complaining about a late charge- this one made me laugh!

[Right Touch]

So we've had a 1.5% late charge in effect for a long time. Our maintenance bills are sent on the first of the month and due on the 21st. Most people pay on time. I send out a newsletter every month and with last months I told everyone that the late charge will become mandatory with any late payments (i admit im usually lenient unless its a recurring thing) So we have this one hot headed Italian (I am Italian too so I guess its ok for me to say that :laugh:) who always pays his bill on like the 29th of every month. The computer program automatically adds the late fee in now and he received the fee on his last bill. I think it was like $2.89. He called me and said I was crazy for giving him a late charge and he would never pay it- he always pays all his bills on time every month. The guy has been a customer for 3 years and didnt even know there was a due date on the invoices. He told me he pays all his bills on the 25th of the month and I HAVE to change my billing policy for him. I actually started laughing when he said this. He told me there was no way he was ever paying a late charge. Aww man thats funny. I really dont care if he doesnt pay a late charge and I can go manually into the program and delete the charge (he does pay every month) I just thought it was funny the way he came at me like that.

[Woody82986]

Some people are just plain crazy. I still get the occasional new client that expects me to tailor their due dates or not even have a due date to suit their wants, but hey don't get very far. Most people I have come across have realized I'm not the dude down the street mowing for beer money, and I think the biggest thing I did to combat that image was to start accepting credit/debit card payments.

[supercuts]

gotta love people, i do a $25 late/processing fee. i rarely use it on late payments unless its month after month. people are stupid, rich guy in a 1.5 million house said, "i pay on time, every time you send me an overdue notice i pay it immediately."

[Stillwater]

So we've had a 1.5% late charge in effect for a long time. Our maintenance bills are sent on the first of the month and due on the 21st. Most people pay on time. I send out a newsletter every month and with last months I told everyone that the late charge will become mandatory with any late payments (i admit im usually lenient unless its a recurring thing) So we have this one hot headed Italian (I am Italian too so I guess its ok for me to say that :laugh:) who always pays his bill on like the 29th of every month. The computer program automatically adds the late fee in now and he received the fee on his last bill. I think it was like $2.89. He called me and said I was crazy for giving him a late charge and he would never pay it- he always pays all his bills on time every month. The guy has been a customer for 3 years and didnt even know there was a due date on the invoices. He told me he pays all his bills on the 25th of the month and I HAVE to change my billing policy for him. I actually started laughing when he said this. He told me there was no way he was ever paying a late charge. Aww man thats funny. I really dont care if he doesnt pay a late charge and I can go manually into the program and delete the charge (he does pay every month) I just thought it was funny the way he came at me like that.


DUDE he was insulted, he has been a loyal customer for 3 years always paying on time and BAM! you kick him in the balls and smack him in the face with a late charge. What did you expect a loyal customer who had prided himself with a great payment record to do?

[Roger]

.... who always pays his bill on like the 29th of every month. ...he always pays all his bills on time every month. ...

Your post implies that you disagree with his choice of paying his bills on the 29th of the month. Remember, you made an arbitrary choice of using the first day of the month for your cycle -- no different than his choice of the 29th of the month for his payment cycles.

All utility companies that we use have a payment cycle OTHER THAN the first of the month. Likewise with credit card accounts. My point is that rarely does anybody have the first of the month as their billing cycle. In this man's case, perhaps he can collect all his bills and use the 29th as the time to pay them all, without any penalty. He has one odd bill -- yours.

Why not change his cycle to the 20th, 25th, or something similar? Is the software you are using for financial management unable to deal with a cycle other than the first of the month? I use QuickBooks, and I can create an invoice any time during the month, and the due date is established within the software, determined by my choice on a per-customer basis (e.g. net 15 days, on receipt, etc).

I agree with the above post about having a loyal customer, and then hitting him with late charges. If I had been paying somebody promptly for three years, and then they started adding a late charge, I would find another contractor.