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My late fee trick of $75 per week got me paid in 9 days and my 'nice guy' rep is gone
Everyone on here says the way to keep a slow payer is to stay patient and keep the tone friendly, and I tried that for two years with a web design shop down in Tampa, Florida. They owed me $2,100 on a site rebuild and it sat for 94 days with the same "the check is processing" line every Monday. What finally worked was a flat $75 per week late fee spelled out in the original contract and invoiced as a separate line every Friday, not folded into the main bill. Once that second invoice showed up three Fridays in a row, their bookkeeper called me directly and the main balance cleared in 9 days. The part nobody warns you about is that some of these people will test whether you actually enforce it, so you have to send that extra invoice even when you feel like a jerk for doing it. So my firm take is that a paper late fee beats a friendly phone call every single time, and I'd rather lose the bad ones than float them for free. Has anyone here had a late fee backfire on them, or does it always shake the deadbeats loose for you too?
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