I had a client two or three years ago that stopped paying due to running out of money. Their brother in law was the GC and drained their budget and used horrible construction crews, the jobsite was always filthy, and the town fined them for keeping the yard a job site dumping ground. I prewired for everything, they signed off on the scope of work and I thought the job would succeed. I ran the wires, terminated, added speakers, dressed in the head end low voltage can. At the end of that phase was a $200-400 balance, suddenly they stopped answering the phones, emails, and literally hiding behind doors when I would stop by. I wrote off the job and figured that was the end of it when the Verizon guy called asking how to hook up the phone system to a data block- I told him I was waiting on payment and they agreed to pay before anything else was finished. He angrily hung up on me and that was the end of it. Incidentally I pinched a nerve in my neck on this job, didn't use a ladder to pull myself up into the attic. Fast forward to Thursday and the customer calls saying their is a lean on the house and they are stuck. She said they wanted music through out the house and demanded I come out to finish the job. I politely stated there is a balance for the previous work, and that I had no commitment from them as far as equipment. She asked what her options were, I said she could go and purchase a few Sonos Amps and hire an A/V company to install them. I stated I wasn't interested in working for them as I don't have time for new work and that didn't know if they would pay if I performed anything else. Being from Nepal, the conversation went quick on her end and by the end if the call she imagined a scenario that I will be there Monday with everything I need to set up a system for them. I said to have a nice weekend and I wouldn't be in touch.
