Checks

[37chief]

I very seldom get paid with a check at my mowing jobs. Only one this year. Going through my 54 chevy flat bed a while back, I found a check that was at least 15 years old, when I was doing disking. it was for a small disking job, I just figure it a loss. Another time years ago my wife threw a check in our wood stove. I called he owner of the job, about all he said was too bad. Then had someone just not pay me. Ever had something like that happen? Over 35 or more years doing tractor work, I found most people are honest. Stan

 

[Fawteen]

When I was doing tractor work (mostly mowing, like you) I found that people that didn't appear to have two nickels to rub together would pay you as you were loading up, often in cash. People with obvious money would drag it out as long as possible, require multiple reminders or stiff you entirely.

Had a small backhoe job once, digging around a foundation for flower beds. Nice house, nice neighborhood, new truck in the drive. As I was unloading to start, the owner started whining at me about my quoted rate. I listened for a couple minutes, mentioned that shovels were about $20 at the hardware, chained the tractor back down and drove away.

 

[Harold Hubbard]

I have never had trouble getting paid for mowing. I got stiffed on a few hay sales over the years.

Snowplowing is another whole ball game. People hate the necessity of it, it looks real easy, and “You have the truck anyway “.
There are several people on my “Don’t p on them, even if they are on fire” list.

And, I absolutely refuse to work for tenants. I don’t care who actually pays me, but the owners name is on the account and contract. Before I smartened up about that, I got stiffed a few times. I did have a couple owners voluntarily cover for their deadbeat tenants.

For me the worst lost checks incident was my mailbox being hit by the town plow, scattering a bunch of mail, including some checks, up and down the road and in the snowbank. I found some of them, but I had to write explanations to a few customers and get the checks replaced.

 

[John in MD]

I had a middle-aged couple of attorneys by a farm I used to make hay on but didn't want me to make hay on anymore. They liked to see the rabbits and babv deer playing. Late fall they called and asked if I would mow it for them, I said it was useless for hay but I would rotary it for a fee, $150. They agreed and I mowed it, they never paid me. Next fall they called again about mowing and I quoted price of $325 cash. They called that weekend and told me to do it, my response was I needed cash up front for fuel. They were furious about price and prepay. They wanted to know why the price had doubled plus $25, I explained that I hadn't been paid for the previous year and the $25 was interest. Their response was they figured I could write it off. Next year they didn't call and 3 years later there's 10-12' tulip poplars taking over the fields.

 

[Harold Hubbard]

I had a middle-aged couple of attorneys by a farm I used to make hay on but didn't want me to make hay on anymore. They liked to see the rabbits and babv deer playing. Late fall they called and asked if I would mow it for them, I said it was useless for hay but I would rotary it for a fee, $150. They agreed and I mowed it, they never paid me. Next fall they called again about mowing and I quoted price of $325 cash. They called that weekend and told me to do it, my response was I needed cash up front for fuel. They were furious about price and prepay. They wanted to know why the price had doubled plus $25, I explained that I hadn't been paid for the previous year and the $25 was interest. Their response was they figured I could write it off. Next year they didn't call and 3 years later there's 10-12' tulip poplars taking over the fields.

If it had been you owing them, they would have had you in court so fast it would make your head spin.

 

[showcrop]

I very rarely got stiffed on hay or farm work, but my business was supplying to restaurants. They are notoriously bad, and you have to keep them tight on account, because if they get into you for more than you can comfortably walk away from, it gets to be a protracted struggle.

 

[miangus]

I got stiffed a couple of times selling freezer beef, the one that hurt was someone I considered a friend. A second person showed up a year later, they cleaned the counter and found the check that had been written to me carefully folded up in the corner. He had thought his wife had dropped the check off.

 

[miangus]

I very rarely got stiffed on hay or farm work, but my business was supplying to restaurants. They are notoriously bad, and you have to keep them tight on account, because if they get into you for more than you can comfortably walk away from, it gets to be a protracted struggle.

Apparently, the restaurant business is tougher than it looks. My sister-in-law and her husband partnered with another couple and bought a small restaurant. It was supposed to make them rich, but they nearly lost their house in the end. I spent a lot of time helping them get the electrical somewhat straight. It had been originally two separate building with separate service entrances. It had been converted to a single service entrance with a new main panel. The old existing panel at the other service entrance was feed as a subpanel. That would have worked ok except new circuits from the new pane were added in the portion of the building served by the older panel. I mapped plug location to breaker location; it should have had the remaining older panel replaced with a new subpanel and had all the circuits for that building portion moved to that panel. Thay lasted a couple of years, no body got rich.

 

[NY 986]

If I had a check issue then it has been so long ago and for such a small amount that I have forgotten about it. I have gotten stuck for a semi-trailer load of straw and a semi-load of corn over the years. Just flat out never got paid period. If a farmer has never got stuck for a load of grain, hay, or straw then he has done extremely well.

 

[rrlund]

My wife burned my Board of Review paycheck one time. I had gotten off the tractor and checked the mail and saw it was in there. I didn't want to carry it all on the tractor, so I put it back in the mail box, knowing she'd go out and get it. When I got home for dinner, I asked her where my check was. She said there wasn'r any check. Well, after some discussion, she said she threw it away and burned the trash. I called the treasurer and she sent me another one.

The best story I heard on the subject was the guy who owned the hardware store. He was one of the messiest, disorganized bookkeepers you'd ever meet. After he died and his kids took over the store, they remodeled and moved the counter to the front of the store. When they started tearing things apart where the counter had been for decades, they found checks that had fallen down cracks, checks under things that hadn't made it to the register, it was nuts. A lot of them from people who had died or accounts that didn't even exist anymore.

I wrote a check one time that never got cashed. A neighbor had a JD 16A chopper sitting out back with a new auger in it. He said he'd take $100 for the auger. He helped me take it out and I wrote him a check for it. He never did cash it.

 

[DoubleR]

I got a check for a class action suit on a stock I owned that I think I threw away as I thought it was just a report or something. A few years later I was talking with a brother that had the same stock and he said he got a check for his. I called the brokerage firm and they said they were all sent out a few years ago. After a few phone calls I was told a check was sent to me but never cashed. They sent me a new check, it was for almost a thousand bucks.