I have probably been lucky but got my first bad check the other day. I had sawed some firewood sized Paulonia pieces into 9/4 boards for a customer and stacked near the end of the mill where we had sawed the rest of the logs. I told customer if I was gone he knew where they were and just get them and leave check on the truck seat. Only caution was keep the gates closed so horse and mule did not get out. We went on our trip a week or so and I forgot about it till I got in my truck and saw the check. I had not even noticed the wood was gone. I cashed the check the next time I went to town.
The same guy called me wanting a 2X4 to make some stanchions for some sideboards he had already bought from me for his trailer. He came to get the 2X4 and paid cash for it. I got a letter from the bank and as he pulled out I opened it and found it was his earlier check. The bank had marked it "Closed account." I called him but no answer. Called later when he was home and told him and he asked which bank it was drawn on and he confirmed it was on an account he had closed and he had written on it by mistake. He said he'd send me another one and I did get it in the mail today. As I said I have probably been lucky and just some minor inconvenience.
Don't know about there, but here writing a check on a closed account is a Theft by Deception, unlike a simple bad check charge (which is a pyramiding offense).
Hopefully, it was a legit mistake. If not paid promptly, send a certified letter with demand for payment, including fees. After which you can let the court handle it for you, if he doesn't make good.
Good luck!
Ooops. Saw you got a new one. Hope it's good!
PA,
I am confident it was just an honest mistake and has been made good.
This may help others, from my experience. Fellow gave me a check for around $500.00 . Went to cash it, no good. Called police. The check had been post dated. I had not noticed. If you accept a post dated check, It now becomes a promisery note. Not illegal. Went to small claims court. Won.Never did get my money. You can't take something from someone who has nothing. I look at the date now. Muggs :'( :'( :'(
Quote from: muggs on August 06, 2018, 04:27:55 PM
This may help others, from my experience. Fellow gave me a check for around $500.00 . Went to cash it, no good. Called police. The check had been post dated. I had not noticed. If you accept a post dated check, It now becomes a promisery note. Not illegal. Went to small claims court. Won.Never did get my money. You can't take something from someone who has nothing. I look at the date now. Muggs :'( :'( :'(
You can put a lien on this Fellow. Will stop him from doing a lot of things until he settles with you.
Had the same thing happen to me. Closed account and wrong checkbook. Gave us the amount owing including extra bank charges
You would think if you close an account to destroy the checks.
RJ,
I did not think about any bank charges. Just checked and see you are right and looks like my bank charged me $12 for the returned check processing. I guess I will have to call him back to collect that too.
Muggs,
As to the post dated check is that a change? I had always heard no matter what the date the check was cashable. Did you know it was post dated when you started to cash it? Had he told you when he gave you the check? If a customer asked me if he could post date a check and I agreed I would hold it till then. I did once have a customer give me a partial payment and tell he he'd pay the rest in 2 weeks when he got his pay check and he did. I would have preferred he told me in advance and would have agreed
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on August 06, 2018, 07:21:06 PM
RJ,
I did not think about any bank charges. Just checked and see you are right and looks like my bank charged me $12 for the returned check processing. I guess I will have to call him back to collect that too.
Muggs,
As to the post dated check is that a change? I had always heard no matter what the date the check was cashable. Did you know it was post dated when you started to cash it? Had he told you when he gave you the check? If a customer asked me if he could post date a check and I agreed I would hold it till then. I did once have a customer give me a partial payment and tell he he'd pay the rest in 2 weeks when he got his pay check and he did. I would have preferred he told me in advance and would have agreed
No he did not tell me it was post dated, I'm sure he knew what he was doing. It may be a Ca. law. I was determined to get my money, I even had the sheriff go get his truck. The sheriff called me and said It had no wheels and weeds were growing through it. Do I still want to pay for towing it. (I don't think so) Like the song says, know when to hold and know when to fold. Muggs >:( >:( >:(
I had I guy give me a junk check. Called him the next day, told him to have the cash. I'll be there in an hr.
I showed up, he came out and stared the bull. I told him to get the $$. Or I'll finch cutting his wood. It was still piled up like I left it.
Then he looked in my truck and saw the chainsaw. Paid in full.
smiley_big-grin2
I have now been sawing for 15½ years. Never the first bad check nor work not paid for. :)
Same here Lynn, every check I've ever gotten was good!
Seems anytime I have had a bad check it was from folks who put on the appearance that they have money - mostly "horse folks" - and I don't mean someone with a couple ponies in the back 40. It was always the same excuse that "the accountant" forgot to transfer money, or something like that. Of course those folks become hard to get a hold of when that happens so I discovered that by calling friends or known associates of my debtor and asking how I could get ahold of whom ever - let it slip as to why I need to reach them - they suddenly find a way to call me right away and fix the issue.
I actually have one customer right now who seems to have decided he wants to play games with his invoices, I suspect he prefers chess, personally I will use the que from the movie "War Games" and go the Global Thermal Nuclear War route instead.
I was told that if I accepted a check to get a copy of their drivers license as well
I do not accept checks anymore, I was stung twice, once a mistake, another I never did get my money.
I now have "Square" , It plugs in my phone and I can take a credit card. I charge an extra 3% for using it. The money is my account by the end of the day.
I also accept Etransfer which is my account right away.
PA,
Why get the driver's license? Is that scare tactics or does the DMV offer some help collecting debts? Or is that just for address confirmation?
As I said all along, this case was apparently an honest mistake and he immediately made it good. I did not notice the bank charge or mention it and am confident he will make that good too.
RJ,
Good point about destroying the checks but he probably kept the register for taxes an such and did not think about the unwritten checks. If not for this case I don't know that I'd have thought about it. We use 2 banks (Local bank and Navy Federal Credit Union we have used for 41+ years) and my wife, the accountant in the family, is forever chastising me most severe for using the wrong one. Both have various overdraft protections set up so it would be pretty hard to really bounce a check.
Stephen1,
I'm not that high tech yet. Most of my customers are pretty rural, salt of the earth kind of folks and pretty dang trust worthy. I hope I never have to get to that level.
SouthSide,
I have seen local businesses post a copy of bounced checks at the register where everyone could see it. That seemed to work pretty good to get them to make it good. Probably some law out there in many states about that as too traumatic for them to embarrass them that way.
When we had the greenhouse business,had a customer buy $20.46 of plants. He put the numbers 20.46 than wrote out ten dollars and 46 cents. That is what the bank goes by,the written out amount. Took us more than a month to get the other 10 dollars from him. :o >:( >:( Was not the amount of money,but just the run around he kept giving us.
I have made a math mistake before,but I went good on the check the same day. Now I have the automatic mistake. The credit union goes into my savings if I make a math mistake now,cheaper that way too.
Quote from: Magicman on August 06, 2018, 09:29:52 PM
I have now been sawing for 15½ years. Never the first bad check nor work not paid for. :)
That is impossible, you must be the local judge.
Or just lucky. :D :D :D
Maybe I only saw for honest customers which are the only customers that I saw for. :D
What is a check? I can't recall the last time I saw one! Haven't had a check book for at least 8 or more years. Old obsolete technology in this part of the world.
Get paid deposit by e-transfer or Interac and balance is paid BEFORE I leave site by E-transfer, Interac or Apple pay. Haven't had a payment go bad yet, and I dont cut for people that dont use those systems with their bank.
Also accept cash.
Yeah, checks are getting to be rare beasts here too. Not even used car dealers take them any more. :D
Bought a new(er) car for Lil earlier in the year. Went to pick it up, borrow dealers PC, transfer money, 2 factor authentication via cellphone because of the amount, and send a confirmation to his printer. I could have done it via my own laptop and phone, but it was easier to just borrow his.
His secretary checks on her PC a couple of minutes later. "Yup, transfer has gone through"
The "asking for drivers licence" is a valid thing. First it proves the person you are taking the check from has the same name as the one printed on the check. Second if someone is running around passing off dud checks, you have some clue as to their identity when you go to the cops. At least here, KNOWINGLY passing out bad checks counts as fraud. "Accidentally" writing out a bad check might be considered a "civil" matter, and that can be sorted out without the cops. But if someone is running around passing out checks on an account they know is closed, or not theirs, that will get the cops attention, especially if you have a good ID for them.
Was in town the other day. Heck the new parking meters take Visa. Good thing too, I didn't have any coins.
I have a "Square" to accept credit cards and have a PayPal account but I have never been asked about either and won't volunteer it as long as check$ and ca$h are available.
Ian & Bandmill,
Yeah, we must still be operating in the Stone Age around here using checks and such. I did a project in Norway in 2007-2009 and served as the Office Manager and I was the only one on the project with a bank account. I had the petty cash account and paid most all the local bills and such. All the bills had an account number and I'd log on to the internet and pay and get a receipt then.
I remember our company auditors did not like it because they wanted us to use 2 party checks requiring my signature and one other and Norway did not commonly use checks. The petty cash was in my name as a cash advance to me and I was entirely and personally responsible for it and kept accurate and detailed records of every Krone spent.
When they found I also worked with our other ex-pat employees to help them pay their local bills they really got upset. If the employee wanted to rent a ski lodge for the weekend or even pay a local parking ticket they'd bring me the bill and cash and I'd pay it. The auditors said that was not standard business practice. I told them it made business sense to me to keep everyone working. I could do it in a minute or so or they would have to take off for an hour or so during the middle of the day and drive a company vehicle (which was all we had) to town during the middle of the work day when the bank was open. The auditors always worked in a big central office and had never worked a field project. My boss knew and endorsed my practice so we continued till we were done with the job and closed everything down at the end.
A copy of the drivers license is so I have their license number to be able to track them down if it bounces.
Anyone have credit card charges reversed when a customer complains about the product they received?
I take cash or checks. Probably 4 bad checks in 11+ years, very embarrassed customer each time, made good on it right away. I do wonder whether taking cards might encourage more jobs. Just don't like idea of making some bank a 3% partner.