mikeschuler

I always get a 50% deposit. My contracts almost always require complete payment upon completion of the installation. Sometimes, I will let them pay the balance in 12 monthly payments. My contracts say "In the event that the Buyer fails to make the agreed upon payments, the Seller reserves the right to remove the sign installation." Every once in awhile, I still get burned, like I did on 10/02/2008 by a jerk named Chris Yoo who owns an Econo Lodge motel and was desperate for a sign. For some reason he can't understand that there are city zoning laws that govern the size, number, and placement of signs. In his zone, he is only allowed one sign on his building. Two days before we did the installation, he was demanding that we put the sign up that day. He wouldn't understand that the sign was still being manufactured. Then he demanded that we raise the parapet sign up, so that the letters would stick up above the roof line. We told him that that was illegal, and if we did that, the city inspector would red-tag it. Roof signs are outlawed, and no part of any sign can extend even one inch above a roof line, and they are very strict about this. When my technicians were installing the sign, he came out and told them to raise the sign up above the roof line. They told him again, that it just wasn't possible. Now he refuses to pay because we wouldn't install a second, shipped in sign on his building without a permit (over $1,000 fine if you get caught). He needs to go to city hall and bitch at them about the sign restrictions. Refusing to pay me makes him a low-life rip-off dead beat. I know he owns other motels around the country, so think twice before working for this jerk. He is one of those problem customers that intends to not pay contractors by making up lame excuses and objections about the work done. There is nothing illegal about having a black list of bad customers. http://www.angieslist.com/Angieslist/ is a black-list of bad contractors. Any customer can put you on that list if they want. Also, there are many websites like Travelocity, or Price Line dot com that let people give negative reviews of motels and restaurants, and that is essentially a black list. Watch out for Chris Yoo, owner of Pacific Motel Development Corporation.

I used to put "NET 30" on my service call invoices until I heard a customer say "Oh good,... I don't have to pay for 30 days?" Now they all say "Due Upon Receipt" unless it's a regular customer that I have agreed to allow for NET 30. On my contracts, just above where the customer signs their names it reads "In the event the Buyer fails to make the agreed upon payments, the Seller reserves the right to remove the sign installation." On my letter that informs the delinquent customer of the day I plan to file the small claims lawsuit unless payment is received, I tell them that $2,000.00 will be added to the bill to cover my time for taking the court action. This does work. I've only been to small claims court 3 times, and each time they paid the full bill plus court costs before the court day. Still though, I have a home loan center that is now 18 months over due on their bill. They still owe me about $975. The sign was installed in March of 2007. I sent the threatening letter in July 2008, and they offered to make $500 monthly payments (the original deal was for cash upon completion of the installation), so I didn't file. They said they would pay on the 15th of each month. I received a check August 15th, but nothing yet this month, and when I called them a couple of days ago, I got a recording wishing everybody a happy holiday season. It's pretty bad when a place that sells home equity loans and reverse mortgages can't even make a lousy $500 a month sign payment. It gets frustrating, because I have bills to pay too, only I can't string my insurance company along for months without paying, nor anybody else for that matter. For some reason, business people think that the sign guy is so rich that they don't need to pay their bill, and they think the sign guy won't miss it.

Skippers Seafood and Skippers Fish & Chips is a bum pay. I run into this problem a lot with local non-franchise restaurants too. If I walked into the waffle house and ordered a $12.00 breakfast and then walked out the door without paying, they'd call the cops and I'd go right straight to jail at that moment, yet they can get $900 dollars worth of repairs on their POS 37 year old neon sign, and then mysteriously vanish after they agreed to pay as soon as the repairs were completed, and it's perfectly okay. When an invoice has a birthday, I've gone out at 2:30 a.m. and removed the neon or disconnected the power to their signs. Sometimes, all you have to do is turn off the switch on a sign that is 30 or 40 feet above elevation, and they suddenly find the money to pay their bill.

Half? Last year for me, the quarterly inspection was $180, this year it's $400. That's a 225% increase. I say that the increase is unreasonable because UL can't give a reason for it. Gas didn't go up that much. Maybe the increase will give some other NRTL the incentive to list signs and perform the state required quarterly inspections. At this time, I couldn't find anybody else that does it in Washington State, otherwise I'd be done with UL.