Check Was Cut-Lost-Client Now Won’t Pay

[Grinner Hester]

You may a little antsy. These things happen and are very seldom a big deal. So little of a deal they probably have pushed it off till pay day.
I don’t get stiffed as I am much more hard-headed than anyone else I do business with but I’d slow down on this one. Keep that perky happy conversation goin… call em Friday am.

[Steve Wargo]

If I’m dealing with Accounts Payable, they make us wait till a check run. We are just a line item to the bean counters. If I’m dealing with a person close to us, we can get a check cut sooner.

Be patient but if the check doesn’t come in a reasonable amount of time, do a drive-by on them.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Grinner Hester]

In person really has always been an affective way to get paid.
I had a production house in Dallas trying to stiff me after a check went 3 months late.
It’s not someone I was gonna work with again so having nothing to lose and everything to gain, I simply waited in their waiting room. When their clients would come in, I’d casually ask em if they were owed money as well.
lol
Left with a check pretty quick.

[Bill Paris]

UPDATE

OK guys…. i’ve heard back from my client regarding the lost check, but i need your insights into his response. Fist a little background.
He sent me the check for $3200 via UPS December 12, 2008….. I lost the check…… he says he switched banks 1/1/2009, but that the old bank paid out the $3200 on 1/26/2009 and has no cancelled check on record.

Here’s his latest response:

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. From what our accountant and our former bank have determined we likely have a case of fraud going on relative to your check. The bank has not been able to produce a cancelled check, yet shows your check as having been cashed and deducted from our account. None of this is adding up – and we’ve now had two other cases of checks drawn from this former bank that have shown to be cashed as well but neither vendor received these checks. Obviously yours we’re more concerned about because we know that it was received – yet it makes no sense how your check shows up as being cashed when you have not done so and so far our former bank cannot produce a cancelled check other than to report the amount of money we sent you has been deducted from our account. I have my attorney and accountant working with the fraud department of our former bank to see what is going on. I’ll be back in touch with you ASAP. I’m sorry for the confusion. Your patience is very much appreciated.

I wrote back:

Any word from your bank regarding the payment on the lost check? I really don’t understand how they can pay out on a check without a record of the transaction. I suppose the money could be taken from the account via a bank transfer…… either way there should be record of the transaction.

Please let me know what you find out.

Thanks!

Any thoughts from you guys would be appreciated. His explanation just doesn’t make sense to me.
1. Why would a bank he stopped using 1/1/2009 pay out the $3200 on 1/26/09?
2. Why would there be no record of any transaction taking place?

Thanks in advance!

Bill Paris