Post fliers in his neighborhood to notify people he is a registered sex offender. I suggest doing it late at night so no one sees you

Among other things, I have in my contract:

"All equipment and materials shall remain the property of (my company) until all balances have been paid in full. Possession of the equipment as well as the right to possession of the equipment shall be given to (my company) until such time where all balances have been paid in full."

Back to your question of what to do now.....here is what I almost did a few months ago with a semi high profile client....the only reason I didnt do it is because he came up with payment. Had he not I was prepared to register a website such as www.joeblow-is-a-deadbeat.com or some variation of that. On the 1 page website would be an explanation of what the problem is and you have tried to contact, he's ignoring, etc etc, but be careful to only state the facts.

Email him the website or a copy of it and tell him he has 5 days for you to have a check in hand otherwise the site goes live, and you will extensively optimize it so any search on his name it will show at the top. Tell him once it goes live it will stay that way for 1 year at the least.

Is this fair, maybe not, but why should you even have to do this, why did it come to this point....you should not have to be wasting any more time with this....go right for the kill.
I can't stand some people and the nonsense they pull...

And don't use your company truck if it has the logo and phone number on it. Use your personal vehicle.

Zero equipment enters a house/business unless paid for in full

Then depending how long job is a portion of labor is due with equipment deposit.

Then remaining minus 10% holdback on labor is due at commencement of work

That 10 % is due in my hand before we leave job complete.

Never had a problem

ed's got it. we ran into this problem and worse -- after the client pushed to negotiate for the lowest price, we'd finish the work and they'd start to negotiate again. new policy: we do custom work, so everything is custom ordered. you want it, we order it, you pay for it, then we install it.

what ceied said. In some places, once the equipment is in the house it is considered their property and very difficult to get back out. A client can always take to the dark side on you. It's not personal, they are going to look after their own interests first.

Going through this a second time. Sued the first guy. The second guy was a referral, went from a one day hang and bang with an mx780 to needing a new receiver, etc...

I wound up on a job with no deposit and a $2600 bill. ive run into this guy 3 times out in public, always a smile and handshake and a promise, followed a week later with an excuse.


Now I'm in the process of suing him, he didn't respond to my lawyers letter.

This sort of thing was a lot easier in the car audio days decades ago. If we took on a car and the customer didn't feel like paying we would just keep the detachable face until they paid in full....always the same day :)

One GC we work with has his deposit and payment schedule set up so that at the completion of the job, he owes the client money back. He keeps it in a trust account and holds enough so they can't ever get over on him.

This may seem a strange way to do it (and won't help you in your current situation) but as others have stated equipment is paid for in full (cheque cleared) before I order it. On the advice of others here I have begun charging a design fee as well. The odd thing i do is that labour and any other parts I use are paid for at the end of each work day. I explain this to the client and it's agreed upon before the project starts so no one is surprised. If the client flakes out the most I'm ever out is a days labour. I can happily remove what i use that day and never return. Only one client has ever f-ed me. And would you believe it was a super rich guy. Actaully a very well known Toronto Maple Leaf, or at least he was.

This has worked for me since I started this gig. Scope screep? No problem. No need to write a new contract. You just pay me every day and I'll keep coming until you tell me I'm done.

Craig

I don't know of a state that it's any other way. Possession is 9/10 of ownership. Every state I have done business in is if it's in the house it belongs to them.

I used to lien the houses as well.

I've had 1 problem and thatvwas with change orders... The wife approved an signed and when it came down to paying the change orders the husband said no! Needless to say it went to court. We got out 22k plus all legal fees.

At that moment. All change orders became payable in full at time of change.

The hardware is a retail product. TV's Shades Lighting Keypads etc. The hardware all gets paid for in the same way you pay for everything before walking out of best buy or receive packages from amazon. Up front and since we aren't a retail location it gets paid for before its ordered.

Who can afford to bank roll the installation? Let them take out a bank loan if they want to pay later.

It is really a picture of his mom..........................


8>)

I do a 70/30 split. 70% deposit, 30% the day I am done. The clause about equipment ownership in my contract is there mostly as a deterrent, to keep people honest. I've never had to even think about trying it...And I agree it would be tough, but it serves it's purpose as a warning.

By the way, for the most part my 70/30 works. Once in a while I get someone that wants 60/40 or better....I let a project walk recently that did not want to do 70/30. I had a bad vibe on that one...