WAHM Forums

I had one person who was supposed to pay by money order and I never recieved payment from her. I will be adding her info on here later so that noone will be taken advantage of from her next year.
cindy

i had a few that said they mailed me a money order and i never received them. Did you mail out the package or do you wait for payment.

i wait until payment has cleared before mailing out payment

I had several people not pay me this year. I never send out product without payment. If it's something that needs to be paid for right away, then I ask people to pay with paypal or google checkout or something. I always let people know that their letter will NOT be sent out until payment is received. If I don't receive payment, I don't send out the goods.

I create a spreadsheet to trackmy orders as they come in. It includes their personalization info, how they purchased, what they purchased, and if they paid. Once they pay, I create their letter(s) and prepare it/them. If they don't pay, the letters never get created. In the case of the Santa Letters, it was easy to know my deadline. So, I sentoutreminders that said something like "If I don't received payment by such-and-such date, then your order will be cancelled." I did have to cancel several letters because of non-payment, but no worries. :)

I wouldn't recommend posting your customer information online. I know that it is upsetting when people don't follow through with what they say they will do, but it might cause you more harm than good to post the info.Perhaps your customer simply thought by not paying you that you wouldn't send the letter.

She assured me that payment was sent. There was a mixup with the letters she had trouble filling out the info sheet (none of my other customers had this problem she kept erasing it instead of submitting it) so against my normal policy I went ahead and mailed the letters since there was such a mixup. I have emailed her over and over again about the payment and now she doesn't acknowledge the emails at all. Believe me I will not be so nice next time. I just want everyone to be aware of her name and email so they know she doesn't pay.
cindy

Ahh...I see.





I would also send her an invoice in the mail. You can send it certified mail to make sure she receives it. Of course, that also costs money, so it would really depend on how much she owes you. Best of luck collecting!

Caryn

can you turn this around and use it as a marketing piece. Send her an email stating the letters are free and hopefully next year things might go smoother. I had 2 customers who said they mailed me their money order but due to my po box (still having issues) i never received them. My husband suggested sending them out anyway and saying it was on us so the kids would have their letter from santa. Well i never received payment but did receive an email saying they would be interested in my easter letters

Honestly, I don't think that posting her info on a public forum is the way to go.

If you sent the letter before receiving payment, it's really your fault. Just chalk it up to lesson learned.

Not trying to be mean at all, but we all have to learn hard lessons sometimes.

I think Cathy's idea is a great one. Use the experience to your advantage.