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My Client Won’t Pay Me!🤬

Hello everyone.

 

QUESTION: Can I keep her wigs?


I’m a Wig Care Professional. I have a client that won’t pay for her wig repair  services. I repaired and maintained 5 wigs for her and she keeps dodging paying the invoice. Note…I still have her wigs in my office with shipment pending payment. 

 

It has been since April 2022. Despite repeated invoice reminders and text messages she keeps dodging. In my latest text to her , I even offered a pay half now and the balance in a week option). She replied with so sorry, I’ve been so busy (recently got married traveling living it up) and excuse after excuse. Her said then I’m going to pay it blah blah blah. What should I do? Can I keep her wigs in lieu of paying? If so, how would I word that in order to protect myself.

 

 

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I would honestly just set them in a box and forget about them. If she wants her wigs back she'll pay for the services rendered or in a year or two just sell them. Don't even waste your time asking for payment, if she wants her wigs she'll reach out to pay. I know it sucks especially if you've already done the work but there's no point stressing yourself out trying to hunt down a payment that probably won't come.

 

For services like this I would strongly consider getting paid up front as that will reduce the likelihood of people not paying/trying to haggle after the work is already done. In the past I was way more lenient when it came to pre-orders or anything involving custom orders, now it's pay upfront in order to reduce risk.

 

I had a rather large order request come through last week but she wanted to pay after the event and I declined because there's no way I'm doing a large order for an individual without payment in advance. (Large companies I will occasionally bill after the event but that's very rare)

www.PartyManiaBethesda.com
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I agree with @PartyManiaMD , get paid upfront or at least a nice deposit before doing custom work.  We do Custom candles and people agree to our price then want to haggle or ask for discounts when they come in to pick it up or just do not pick it up.  So I made a policy to take a 50% deposit for our custom candles since they cannot be sold to anyone else.  Our custom candles for a wedding might have a picture of the couple or their wedding invitation on them.  We just had a customer trying to say that the price was $39.99 and the cheapest custom candle we have is $69.99.  $39.99 would be a regular 6x6 scented 3 wick candle not one with LED lights and their wedding invitation embedded in it.   

 

The other thing before you sell the wigs or anything is check with your local laws to see if there are laws that you would be violating.  You do not want to have them damaged or missing and she shows up with the $$ for your work and then you do not have them or they are damaged and you are responsible.  I am not sure if you have a clause stating items must be picked up within X days or a storage protection fee is added.  Another idea is you could put in if items are not picked up in 30/60/90/??? days from completion the customer forfeits the items.  

 

I know this will not help with your current situation but may help protect you from losses in the future.  

Keith
Owner
Pocono Candle

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Good point about checking out the local laws regarding orders not picked up. IMO (I AM NOT A LAWYER), you'd probably be in the clear after a couple of years given you gave them more than a reasonable amount of time to pay and pick up or have them delivered.

 

About 10 years I had a lady PREPAY for over $1,000 worth of Christmas Gift Bags, she declined to leave her phone number or address and she never came back for them. I think we waited 4 or 5 years before selling them?

 

People not prepaying are super risky IMO

www.PartyManiaBethesda.com
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Hey!! Thanks so much for this reply!! I do have terms and conditions established, but it doesn’t include a pickup timeframe with consequence. I’ll include that now. I’ll send her one last email with the consequence of her forfeiting the wigs if payment isn’t submitted within a specific timeframe. I appreciate your input!

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