Great advise, I am going to burn those rules into memory. On 1 Aug 2003 at 16:02, Dennis Fleming wrote:
> I've enjoyed following this thread. We all certainly have our horror > stories regarding "collections". > > FWIW- > > 1. If you decide to play hard ball with a customer, I found that you might > eventually collect, but you've probably lost the customer. > > 2. If your s/w is to a vertical market, the word gets out quickly on who is > a deadbeat, and for that matter, if you are providing a good product, > support, price, etc. > > 3. A competitor of ours who had serial port keys required to run their app, > and a drop dead date for non payment, should have spent more time on > development and support. They're gone. If you have a system which is > constantly being improved at a fair price, you've made it worth it for > folks to pay their bills. > > 4. I've had customers eventually pay their bills (many months late) because > they were concerned about their credit rating, D&B report, or "imagine" in > the community. Also, you could have a customer who is going through a > temporary cash flow crunch. He'll appreciate those folks who gave him an > extra 30 days grace. > > 5. I don't believe in "sneaky code" which stops working at a certain date. > Your user may not be the bill payer, and will never forgive you for turning > out the lights on the night they needed a critical report or program run. > > 6. Having said that, even if you don't have a contract, make sure your > customer knows your payment terms (in writing) before starting any work. > > 7. LBNL- It's OK to fire a customer. Move on to those who appreciate your > work and pay their bills on time. > > Dennis > ***** > > > At 03:38 PM 7/31/2003 -0700, you wrote: > >Why not be upfront about it. Do it like a shareware program or something > like > >that tell the customer that the program is going to disable on this date. > Seem > >a little sneeky to me. Maybe Microsoft could take some tips from you and put > >some bugs in their software to!!! > > > > > Dennis Fleming > IISCO > http://www.TheBestCMMS.com > Phone: 570 775-7593 > Fax: 570 775-9797 > > Victor Timmons Tiz's Door Sales, Inc 425-258-2391
