Full Version: Returned Check Fee
From: basehorawards [#1]
29 Mar 2007
To: ALL
By luck I have not needed to enforce it yet but I have this statement on my Invoices : "A service charge of $35 will be applied on all returned checks."
The question that came to mind yesterday is how exactly do you enforce this? How do you get the financial institution on which the check is drawn to give you the $35?
Thanks,
From: Doug (JDOUG5170) [#2]
29 Mar 2007
To: basehorawards [#1] 29 Mar 2007
you don't go after the bank, you go after the person that wrote the bad check, along with the monies due to you for the job.
Doug
From: Cindy (CINDYM) [#3]
29 Mar 2007
To: basehorawards [#1] 29 Mar 2007
Considering that it is against the law to write a bad check, you definitely go after the person who wrote the check. I've only had two bad checks in 21 years. A simple call requesting they come in with the amount of the check + the bad check fee in cash took care of the problem. The people were happy to take care of it within the week.
Things happen sometimes with bank accounts, so I've always started with the premise that they simply overlooked or rushed writing a check on a deposit that wasn't credited when they thought it was going to be. Usually that is the case.
Cindy
From: PenTrophy (PENINSULATROPHY) [#4]
29 Mar 2007
To: basehorawards [#1] 29 Mar 2007
I also had been lucky with the NSF check. I have had only two checks that were rubber... and it turns out that they were not really NFS..... they were StopPayments......... Both by youth team coaches.......
Collect Team money- cash , Write a check, pay for trophies, Have party, stoppayment on check.. cost $25. Pocket rest of money..... Trophies in kids hands.. Coach won't answer phone. Police and bank say it is a civil dispute. Collections won't handle it. Theft yes...... crime no. not worth going after..
Solution...........no more checks from new retail customers.... commercial accounts have been 100% paid up. on time (cross the fingers, knock on wood.)
Even the banks are asking why I still accept checks........???????
EDITED: 29 Mar 2007 by PENINSULATROPHY
From: basehorawards [#5]
29 Mar 2007
To: ALL
I had a customer the other day pay for a $170 order in cash. Sad thing is I wondered whether I was getting counterfeit money. :|
Thanks for the info. I would have looked kind of dumb asking a bank to collect the fee for me.
Short trip down memory lane.
I once had a roommate in college that wrote a bad check to me for $7.48. By the time he paid his bank overdraft fee, my bank overdraft fee and the fee to get the cable turned back on it cost him almost $100. And that was back in the 80's.
From: Dave Jones (DAVERJ) [#6]
29 Mar 2007
To: basehorawards [#5] 30 Mar 2007
I live in a fairly small town, and even here there is a surprising amount of counterfeit money floating around. Most retailers use testing pens on $20 and larger bills.
From: UncleSteve [#7]
29 Mar 2007
To: PenTrophy (PENINSULATROPHY) [#4] 30 Mar 2007
Neither the parents OR the coach want word to get out.... (devil)
From: Dee (DEENA-ONLY) [#8]
29 Mar 2007
To: Dave Jones (DAVERJ) [#6] 30 Mar 2007
All those pens do is check the acid content of the paper. They can not tell you if the money has been washed. Washing is the process where $1.00 bills are bleached & reprinted on. It is much harder to do since they started embedding the "invisible" stripes. The week they started circulating the new with color $100s there were counterfeits already in circulation. This money is frequently manufactured in Iran.
Dee
From: Dave Jones (DAVERJ) [#9]
30 Mar 2007
To: Dee (DEENA-ONLY) [#8] 30 Mar 2007
From: Cindy (CINDYM) [#10]
30 Mar 2007
To: PenTrophy (PENINSULATROPHY) [#4] 30 Mar 2007
Last time I trusted a coach to take trophies and bring check in he ended up buying cocaine with the money instead. Went to his house to collect multiple times after phone calls failed to get any resolution. Finally one of the team moms shared with me that he would never pay and I was out $170. This was not a new coach - had purchased from me for over 5 years and no payment problems ever with him prior to this. This time he told me he just barely could make it in to the showroom to pick up after his work and the banquet was that night and could I trust him to come back the next afternoon with the payment? Of course by that time he was a good client, so I said yes. Never again no matter what the circumstances.
Did I mention 'last time I trusted a coach'? Not that they are all bad, but by now I've heard too many horror stories to bill or wait for payment from any of them.
Besides the bad check part, we started years ago having new clients that were having us do small orders for them pay prior to any work being done. In the past we would do the work, then have them pay. But too many of them were 'forgetting' to pick up, which meant orders sat here until after the event and went unclaimed, and unpaid. Bigger orders are 50% down, small orders 100% paid up front now.
Cindy
From: Cody (BOBTNAILER) [#11]
30 Mar 2007
To: PenTrophy (PENINSULATROPHY) [#4] 30 Mar 2007
I don't know about Washington, but that is most DEFINITELY a crime in Texas. The arrest title is "Theft By Check", and it is viciously prosecuted in our area....even more so than "deadbeat dads".
It's one thing to have a check bounce because you made a bookkeeping error (I've certainly done that :-$ ), but another thing altogether to CHEAT / STEAL by doing what you've described.
If I were to see that coach, and be in the wrong state of mind, I might have to take it out of his hide! (devil)
From: basehorawards [#12]
30 Mar 2007
To: Dave Jones (DAVERJ) [#6] 30 Mar 2007
I thought about getting one of them. That brought to mind the question of how to handle it with the customer if it came up bad.
Many years ago I worked as a CSR in a print shop. I had a customer from Texas who was a Big man. I am 5' 5" and he was easily 6' 9". His credit card was declined and the message said to call a number. When I called they told me to keep the card and send it in. They would send me $50 as a reward for taking a stolen card out of circulation. He got mad when I told him I was supposed to keep his card. Mel being a person who enjoys being alive, I called my manager who at 6' 6" was no shrimp. He came to the counter and asked what I needed. When I told him he took one look at the guy, handed him his card, and asked if he had another card. He did, he paid and he left. After he left the manager said "Fifty bucks ain't worth p***ing off a guy that big."
I have never been stuck with counterfeit money as identified by one of those pens. I wonder how I would react if I ever am.
From: UncleSteve [#13]
30 Mar 2007
To: basehorawards [#12] 30 Mar 2007
"I'm sorry, it looks like someone gave you a bad bill and I can't accept it."
No accusation and no trouble (except maybe losing the sale if they don't have any more money.....)
From: basehorawards [#14]
30 Mar 2007
To: UncleSteve [#13] 30 Mar 2007
Such a simple answer.
That's what I like.
Thanks for the idea.