Hey Vlad,

There is a old urban legend here in Greece about some company that had similar problems. They decided to start sending only really beautiful young women around to collect payments. Seems if a pretty girl is asking if you can make a payment, no man will ever want to look like he isn’t rolling in it.

As the legend goes collections went up.
Clients couldn’t wait for the end of the month to chat with the pretty girls…

For our hosting customers, the only thing I’ve found that works is sticking to our TOS and suspending past due accounts. I didn’t do this for the longest time (trying to be the nice guy) and would try to track people down and have to listen to their stories on how their CC was just lost/stolen (some people had amazingly bad luck in that this happened every few months…), they’ll have the money next week, etc. It took too much time and didn’t get the desired result.

Once we started being strict and suspending past due accounts, the money magically appeared quicker. It seem to have also had the affect of causing people to keep their email address current so they get the past due notices

Collections is the worst part of being a business owner. I let my company get abused too. I just sent a letter of policy change to every client that we are no longer making purchases on their behalf. The Bank of HCS is closed. It’s a crowded boat you’re in. I don’t know that any of us have the solution.

I have been using suspension policy for the past year, and over the previous years it helps a lot. Most of the clients that did not pay before we started suspended, I notice pay as soon as they get the invoice to avoid the suspension. We do send out 3 warning emails before the suspension tho. So I don’t feel as bad, because they knew it was coming.

Alex

Looking for a backdoor man? For a fee I know who can do the deed. Pick up the phone and five them a call. They specialize in dirty deeds, and they are done dirt cheap.

It’s brutal. I feel your pain. I just fired a client who wasn’t paying. One of the minor things we solved was outsourcing the bad check collections to FARS. They don’t charge anything to you and you get your money. DONE!