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A customer

Started by Peter Drouin, November 20, 2017, 08:32:46 PM

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thecfarm

Probably if he would of talked to you about the check being 3-4 working days late,instead of just throwing that out after plans was made for Friday,things might of been differant.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

YellowHammer

Although some bosses don't want their employees to have the company credit card when they pick up the lumber, (some do), any company that has a business account with a bank will have a company credit card.  The account is guaranteed with the bank.   

Some of he owners call up and tell me their people are coming and give me the credit card number over the phone, real time.  The owners like it because they get an electronic receipt to their phone or email even if they are a hundred miles away as soon as I run their card.

It takes the unknowns out of the transaction.   

YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Crossroads

I signed up for a paypal business account that came with a free card reader. I haven't used it yet, but I think it will be a handy tool.
With the right fulcrum and enough leverage, you can move the world!

2017 LT40 wide, BMS250 and BMT250,036 stihl, 2001 Dodge 3500 5.9 Cummins, l8000 Ford dump truck, hr16 Terex excavator, Valley je 2x24 edger, Gehl ctl65 skid steer, JD350c dozer

longtime lurker

All I can say to that guys is I'm jealous. It's not that we dont do cash on the barrellhead transactions with people we dont know, it's that as a % of total sales value its nothing compared to the couple of bigger retail guys that make up 90% of my work.

I get it... mostly their regular sales are to account customers that dont pay them for a month and they have the same cashflow headaches I do because of it. And theres a fair bit (at times) of they would find another supplier if I insisted on cash on delivery simply because of the cash flow drama it would create for them.
But there's other times when I get a bit peeved that little old me is carrying a couple of timber merchants with 6-10 staff and a yard full of stock each and scratching mid month because every bit of cash I've got is tied up in either logs for this month and receivables from last month. Sometimes I'll do a "maintenance standdown" mid to late in the month for a day or so and its not really a maintenance stand down.... its a waiting for some guy to walk off the street and buy something so I can get fuel in my tanks to switch her on again.
The upside of those guys of course is sheer volume. I cant really compete with the big mills further south on cost of production but I can when the freight bill to land it at this end of the state comes on top... the size of some of those jobs even at the low wholesale margins still adds up. (3 x 1... 4000 at 8', 4000 at 10' deliver ASAP but not later then christmas is the next one and as y'all know thats some tonnage of logs to chew through, and fuel, and wages and something will break and need fixing every week for sure)

What I really need to do is organise myself a bit better and try and do some more of that local retail stuff just to keep those regular small payments coming in. I havent sold enough timber in my immediate area this year to keep me in beer and cigarettes. I'll just set myself up for that in my spare time :D :D :D
The quickest way to make a million dollars with a sawmill is to start with two million.

rjwoelk

Most of our transactions are etransfers has worked very well.
Lt15 palax wood processor,3020 JD 7120 CIH 36x72 hay shed for workshop coop tractor with a duetz for power plant

Jim_Rogers

A customer called me the other day and said, as we speak a big black walnut tree is being cut down in my yard. And he wanted me to come over and view it.
The answer machine took the message as I was out cutting timbers for a timber frame shed in progress here in my yard.
He called again the next day. I happened to answer the phone.
I told him that I maybe able to get to it in February.
Oh my you should have heard his comments about that.
I asked him who cut it down?
He told me so and so company.
I asked if they had a log truck or not.
He said he didn't know what a log truck was.
I promptly told him a log truck is a truck that hauls logs, duh.
He said he didn't know if they did or not.

So anyway, my guy is suppose to move it over here for him, sometime.
We'll see how good it is when it gets here.

Another electrician, hauled a bunch of walnut in here last week on a flat bed truck.
I looked at it before we did anything.
I asked him: "what do you want me to do with this load of 'firewood'"?
He said, well some of it is straight.
We got it off his truck.
Thursday he called to see if he could pick it up. I told him it wasn't sawn out yet.
He said he was leaving for vacation on Wednesday.
I told him to call me when he gets back and we'll see when it will be done around then.

Some people expect their order to go to the top of the list just because it's them.

Some get an education about lists.
(end rant)
Jim Rogers

Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Southside

Had a guy call me a couple of weeks back looking for an order of cedar for board and batten siding.   I called him back and left a message that it would be two weeks before it would be ready and gave him the price.  So he calls me back, says he needs the wood now as the "horse lady" wants the run in shed done before the bad weather sets in - I guess this year the calendar must be different than other years so they were caught by surprise, so suddenly this is my problem.  I politely explained to him that his siding was still in tree form and not even felled yet, plus our ERC always has hidden surprises so when sawing a cut list I have a lot of non target wood that ends up in the sale pile,  so two weeks was a pretty good deal, $2 / BFT.  Then he says he thinks it "should be cheaper", wants to know how much trim will be left on the boards, and he will call me back.  I wrote it off right then and there, figured if he called back he was going to have to put down a deposit.  He did call back a few days later - wanted to know if the wood was ready, umm no, so he goes into a fit about how he has to get this shed closed in and he has run out of cedar.  For some reason I decided to offer him pine as an option - it's unfinished board and batten siding anyway, I figure I can use some of the logs I have sitting right on the pile, and pine saws fast.  I offer it to him for $0.60 / BFT - figure how can he say no.  Never hear back from the guy - just as well.  There are some customers who are not worth having. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

reedco

        Every business has its likenesses and differences. I dug 53000 dollars worth of ditch, on come do the job. I say I will be there. Then the office manager (part owner) says i will send you a check if you send me a W 9 I could not see the equity but it all worked out. May be next time 1/2 down?
Not many trees

PA_Walnut

$53K of ditch sounds like a whoopee of job. How big was it?
I need to start digging more ditches with my backhoe...have a capable machine and like digging, so why not?  ;D
I own my own small piece of the world on an 8 acre plot on the side of a mountain with walnut, hickory, ash and spruce.
LT40HD Wide 35HP Diesel
Peterson Dedicated Wide Slabber
Kubota M62 Tractor/Backhoe
WoodMizer KD250 Kiln
Northland 800 Kiln

WDH

I had a customer call and say that he was on the way to get some wood for a project, and needed it ASAP.  Said that he was 30 minutes out and he would be there by 6:30 p.m.  It was later than I usually meet people, but because he was in a bind, I decided to wait for him.  6:30 comes, 7:00 comes.  No guy.  Call him, no answer.  7:30 comes.  No guy.  Call him.  No answer.

A week goes by.  Dude calls again at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning.  Said something came up before and that he could not make it.  Said he was on the way again, be there in 20 minutes.  About 45 minutes go by.  No dude.  Call.  No answer.  Call again about 20 minutes later.  No answer.  Never showed.

About 2 weeks go by.  Get a call.  By now after calling that # so many times, I recognize the #.  Decide not to answer as I am PO'ed at this dude.  No respect for me, cannot even call and tell me that he is standing me up.  Call rolls over to voice mail.  Dude leaves a message.  He is obvious upset that I did not answer, and is at the point of yelling at me on the message because he needs wood NOW.  Now this dude is on the "Bad Peter" list...(new old saying). 

About a month goes by.  Watching the local news at supper.  News report of a domestic incident.  Police called.  A man has a gun and is threatening to kill wife.  Police show up, guy comes out of house with gun, begins shooting police.  Police shoot back.  Dude is dead.  When I heard the guy's name, could not believe it.  It was my dude.  Poor dude, never got his wood, had to end up settling for lead.

As I pondered this, I realized that this dude had problems, and I could have been in danger if he somehow got upset at me or the wood.  Glad that he was a low down, unreliable, loser, and never showed up.  Sometimes it is best to be stood up (old saying).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Magicman

Maybe he needed the lumber to build a coffin, just didn't know when he would need it??    ::)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Peter Drouin

WOW, Dose this mean you will keep a 45 on your hip now,  :D :D :D :D
Just never know.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

xlogger

Quote from: WDH on December 24, 2017, 07:36:55 AM
I had a customer call and say that he was on the way to get some wood for a project, and needed it ASAP.  Said that he was 30 minutes out and he would be there by 6:30 p.m.  It was later than I usually meet people, but because he was in a bind, I decided to wait for him.  6:30 comes, 7:00 comes.  No guy.  Call him, no answer.  7:30 comes.  No guy.  Call him.  No answer.

A week goes by.  Dude calls again at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning.  Said something came up before and that he could not make it.  Said he was on the way again, be there in 20 minutes.  About 45 minutes go by.  No dude.  Call.  No answer.  Call again about 20 minutes later.  No answer.  Never showed.

About 2 weeks go by.  Get a call.  By now after calling that # so many times, I recognize the #.  Decide not to answer as I am PO'ed at this dude.  No respect for me, cannot even call and tell me that he is standing me up.  Call rolls over to voice mail.  Dude leaves a message.  He is obvious upset that I did not answer, and is at the point of yelling at me on the message because he needs wood NOW.  Now this dude is on the "Bad Peter" list...(new old saying). 

About a month goes by.  Watching the local news at supper.  News report of a domestic incident.  Police called.  A man has a gun and is threatening to kill wife.  Police show up, guy comes out of house with gun, begins shooting police.  Police shoot back.  Dude is dead.  When I heard the guy's name, could not believe it.  It was my dude.  Poor dude, never got his wood, had to end up settling for lead.

As I pondered this, I realized that this dude had problems, and I could have been in danger if he somehow got upset at me or the wood.  Glad that he was a low down, unreliable, loser, and never showed up.  Sometimes it is best to be stood up (old saying).
Not a customer but after reading this it was near the same, the Tampa serial killer younger brother when to school with my grandkids. My daughter has been around him several times.
Timberking 2000, Turbo slabber Mill, 584 Case, Bobcat 773, solar kiln, Nyle L-53 DH kiln

YellowHammer

Crazy people out there.  Typically, there are warning signs.  I get occasional repeat no shows, after the second time I block their phone number, a couple button pushes on the iPhone.  I don't want to waste time with them, don't want to escalate the situation, and don't want to talk to them.  No different than scammers in my book.
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Magicman

I deal with a few "dead" calls for sawing.  I may drive by and yup they have logs staged and ready.  I may be in the area six month or so later and the logs are there but overgrown with tall grass.  A year or more later and the (no good) logs remain.  Either the need for lumber changed or the "customer" did not have the $$$ to have it sawn.

I also occasionally watch a stickered stack of lumber gradually go to waste.  I know of one location where there is over 12Mbf of Cypress that I sawed over 5 years ago.  The lodge was never built and the lumber rots.

Maybe health issues or financial woes, but things change.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

POSTON WIDEHEAD

Quote from: Peter Drouin on December 24, 2017, 08:02:01 AM
WOW, Dose this mean you will keep a 45 on your hip now,  :D :D :D :D


Bad Peter.  :D :D :D
The older I get I wish my body could Re-Gen.

POSTON WIDEHEAD

Quote from: Magicman on December 24, 2017, 08:28:23 AM
I know of one location where there is over 12Mbf of Cypress that I sawed over 5 years ago.  The lodge was never built and the lumber rots.


The 14,000 bf Barn Package I just finished will now not be built.

The customer had a northern come down and buy his farm for a very nice profit.
I got paid for sawing it and now I'm getting paid for selling it.
I wonder if who ever buys this lumber will pay me to build it?  :D
The older I get I wish my body could Re-Gen.

btulloh

HM126

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