Maggie, You do not need therapy you need a backbone with this client. ALL of us have a client like this. How long we let them walk all over us is up to us. So you actually like not getting a paycheck? That is what that is. You should have run to the bank and cashed it right away. One thing you did not mention is if she is paying the fees for her bounced checks. Are you covering her ass on them? What are your fees? What are you telling your clients your bounced fees are for them? I have a $20 fee. Some banks charge their patrons $30. That is $50 per bounced check. Who can afford that? I have a client that USED to do this to me. I dreaded that tell tale envelope from the bank. KNEW it was hers. Her bank used to tell me over the phone if the funds were available but now with that stupid HIPA I have to go to her bank. For a while the bouncing stopped. Then she asked me to hold the check. I deposit my salon money on Mondays only. She knows this. So she wanted me to hold it until the FOLLOWING Monday. Three days before her next appointment. YET she would go to Walmart before here and get all kinds of wants. Walmart knows immediately if there are available funds. No money, no bags. One time she came with an iPod but wanted me to hold her check. That was the very last time I did it. I told her that four other people asked me to hold their checks that week. (Not true) So this kept me from getting paid for that week. I told her it would be as if her boss gave her her check but said she could not cash it for ten days. That was the very last time I got a bounced check or her asking me to hold it. Who cares if your client gets mad if you cash it? You deserve to be paid. How dare she even question it. For your own sanity I would not put her back in the book. But it is your business, your sanity, your empty paycheck!! Buenos dias, Lynnette Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
-----Original Message----- From: Maggie in Visalia <onykoph...@yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 13:48:43 To: 1Nail Tech list<nailtech@googlegroups.com> Subject: NailTech:: What the he!! is wrong with me? I admit, at this point most of what I'm about to rant about is rhetorical, but by all means! If anyone has input that help me gain new perspective I sure would like to hear it! So, I have THIS ONE CLIENT, right? Here's the skinny: This gal has been off and on my books since 2000 or 2001. I'm talking, she and I go way back. She is more on than off-- only taking her nails off for a few weeks or months at a time for major events like having a baby, moving, losing her job, etc. She LOVES her nails and she takes very good care of them. So she OUGHT to be a great client, right? Except that whenever I get a notice from my bank that someone's check has been returned, I know it's hers. I don't get many returned checks at all, and I haven't had one I couldn't collect on since the 1900s. Even this client always manages to take care of the problem plus the fees-- it's just that she bounces a check at least once a year. Or she used to. She has been really good for the last year. But that's because she writes me the check and then texts me the next day saying, "don't deposit that check, I'll bring cash after work." Or, "don't deposit that check, I'll pay you on Pay Pal." Which is irritating in it's "OMG, you are 33 years old, when will you grow up and figure out how to balance your checkbook?!" way-- but wouldn't be TOOOOOO inconvenient on me IF she actually came by after work the very next day and actually dropped off the cash. But instead, it usually takes her several days. If I call her on it, she says "blah blah blah...have to wait till I get paid." Like I said... I have received several bank notices from her checks in the past-- I'd just as soon wait for the cash. OR, she comes in as scheduled, gets her nails done, writes out her check, hands it to me and says, "Can you hold that until....?" I know I know! You are thinking, "Maggie! Stop taking checks from this girl!" DUH, huh? Something in my brain says I can't refuse to take checks from just one client. Discrimination issues and such. Maybe that's not true? But wait! There's more! ASIDE from her fiduciary immaturity, there is the constant rescheduling. It is not unusual for her to reschedule 2 to 3 times in a row! Sometimes she's, "cough cough...sick" sometimes "the baby is sick" sometimes "it's too foggy to drive" (she lives in a neighboring town and it does get foggy around here) sometimes *...@!ifiknow-- she just reschedules. I have always had a relaxed policy on how much notice I require for cancels and reschedules. I have always said, "At least 2 hours" because that is the bare minimum for managing to call someone else and get them in on short notice. Recently I've changed everything to "24 hours greatly appreciated" but I know that there are days when you went to bed feeling fine and wake up with a fever, puking your guts up-- I just don't understand why you wouldn't call and cancel ALL your day's appointments at the same time you call your boss to let them know you won't be in that day? Nevertheless, it's not unusual for THIS ONE CLIENT to call me up barely 2 hours before she's supposed to be in my chair with her best little girl "I'm sick" voice to tell me she can't make her appointment. THEN she proceeds to validate her claim by letting me know that she was so sick all day that she didn't even go to work! Ummmmm-- why didn't you call me earlier than? Oh! Trust me, the list goes on and on! And YES! I HAVE fired her before! LOL! And everytime she has stopped coming in I have noted in her file that I DO NOT WANT HER BACK! But eventually she comes crawling back. Literally BEGGING me to take her back. She has even bribed me with gift cards! Seriously, if she were a boyfriend I was trying to break up with, I'd change my phone number! Usually what happens is that she'll eventually come begging at a time when I'm slow and looking to fill spots and I give in. It starts out ok, then goes right back to the old crap. But for the most part-- she walks that thin line between crappy-but-acceptable and past-the-point-of-my-patience. Truth is, I have had WAY worse clients over the years. And I have some unwritten set of conditions in my head where I draw my lines. This client is always dancing right at that edge and just when she's about to put her other foot over the line, she jumps back instead. So I don't like her. I don't miss her when she's gone. But I just don't feel like she's done anything to warrant a flat out refusal of service. Her latest drama: Last week I did her fill. She wrote me a check for $50 (BTW: She has NEVER tipped me. Not once. She does not bring me presents-- she even went through a phase where she was constantly late to her appointments and arrived with Starbucks in hand-- for HER, never brought me one! she only bribes me when she can't get an appointment.) She was my last client and she left. Mom was at the salon with me and as I locked up, I looked at the check and noticed which bank it was written on. It's the same bank my grandmother banks with and since Mom has recently been tasked with doing g'ma's banking, I asked if that bank was one of the ones that charges non-customers to cash a check? Mom said, "no." So I had EVERY intention of cashing the check at the bank in the a.m. EXCEPT! First thing the next morning I got a text from the client to tell me to "hold on to that check" because over night her car had been broken into and her purse had been stolen. Nevermind why the heck was her purse in the car overnight?! So began a week long saga of me shaking my head thinking it's always something with this one. The BF said I should have run to my bank and deposited the check pronto. Then demanded a copy of the police report. Mind you: I was not really comprehending his grand plan at the time. He was thinking it was a line of BS and she was making up the story because she didn't have the funds. (For the record, I don't think so. I think her purse really got stolen. She's just not that creative and she's never had a problem just plain telling me to hold a check before.) I was thinking that it wasn't really worth the bank fees just to call B.S. I wasn't really thinking that if I did produce a police report that the bank would reverse any charges associated with the check not clearing. But whatever. So now I have had this check sitting around for over a week. The day after I got her message, I left her a message asking about the check. I did not receive a reply for a week. One week after her appointment she informed me that her checking account was wiped out by the woman who stole her purse. And that the bank will not "replace" the money in her account until the 15th, so she can't pay anyone till then. The thing is: if it were anyone else, I'd be sympathetic. But it's not anyone else, it's this one. And even though I don't think she's making it up, I don't care. But I just don't understand why I haven't plain and simple cut her off? I've never had any trouble firing clients who deserved it before. Everyone around me has heard this story. Everyone around me says I should just stop doing her nails. But there's got to be some reason in my head that makes me feel like my line hasn't been truly crossed. Something must not be as clear as the telling of the story makes it seem, right? I honestly can't think of anyone else in the history of my clientelle who has been allowed to skate this close to the line for so long before. I need therapy. Maggie Franklin: Attitudes Salon; Visalia, CA "Visionary rebel dreamer; obviously way ahead of my time." http://www.nailsbymaggie.biz http://blogs.nailsmag.com/maggie/ http://myspace.com/nailsbymaggie http://twitter.com/Artofnailz --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to NailTech@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nailtech+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/NailTech?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
