I've Been Challenged...

[rmc20021]

As some of you may remember, I sent a final bill to a client who had not shown up for over 3 consecutive days as they had dropped once before without notice and left owing me money. I took them back upon agreement they would pay the amount they owed.

During the next couple months I had their child in my care I had to fight to get payments from them which was always at least 5 days late and they had excuses every time, had to beg them to give me their weekly schedule, have them show up unexpectedly to drop dcg off, come 45 minutes late on two occasions and I gave them permission to pickup an hour after my closing time on Fridays (which they STILL abused by not showing up for another half hour after the time we agreed on). It was just never ending with them.

So I sent them a final bill along with early term fees and stated that if they paid their full amount due within 5 days I would not charge any late payment fees. They never paid so I sent another letter stating how much they owed and gave them another 3 days to pay half that amount or I would take them to small claims court.

When they got the first letter, they stated they had not intended to remove dcg from dc (yet they had failed to notify me she wasn't going to be there and had already duped me once before). They also said they had 'planned' to pay me for the time she had been here (so far I have received nothing...INCLUDING the amount they owed me for even the time she WAS here).

So just now I get a text from them stating they have documentation and witnesses stating they tried to pay me for a full week. Nope, I have the text where she stated they planned to pay me for the time she was here. Then they said they have phone records and text messages letting me know they had the money and that they were not terminating...so if I wanted to go to court that their grandfather's lawyer was ready to represent them and to 'bring it on'. WOW!!!!

They NEVER EVER communicated with me by text. When I'd send them a text, they NEVER responded. As for phone 'records'...what phone records? They never called or answered when I called them. Even if there was any phone contact, there would be no 'record' of what was said.

How stupid do these people think I am? I gave them so many chances it wasn't even funny and all they ever did was take advantage of EVERYTHING.

I can tell they are trying to scare me off...but I have news for them. I've won in court before when someone refused to pay me, and I'll win again.

There is nothing in my handbook that says anything about termination after no show/no call after 3 days, but since they had burned me once I assumed they had every intention of doing it again. I did tell them in the final bill I was charging them an early term fee (that part I may not be able to collect on and that's fine with me. I added it in because there had been so many other fees I never charged them for and since it appeared they had discontinued care I felt I had every right to charge them the early term fee...which IS in my contract) So since there was nothing in there about missing 3 days with no call/no show...that was why I told them I would not charge late payment fees if they paid within 5 days.

Then, to hopefully be able to collect at least what they owed for the time the child was actually in care, I tried to give them incentive to pay by telling them I'd only charge them half of what their bill was which included the late pay fees and early term fees...which would have been about what they actually owed me for the time she was in care.

I tried everything to work with these people and kept getting the short end of the stick...I refuse to allow them to take any further advantage of me.

Ughhhhhh...so angry right now!!! All they had to do was pay what they owed...I gave them the opportunity to do that and they never responded until now saying they TRIED to pay me and have witnesses to prove it!!!!

[Happy Hearts]

That's weird.... how could they try to pay you? How does that scenario play out? And, why would you refuse payment? I'm very sure you would have taken the payment. Witnesses? I'd ask for a notarized copy of their statement. They must be crazy people. Good luck.

[AmyKidsCo]

You probably know this already, but if you're definitely going to court be sure to document everything. What you did, said, texted, what they did, said, texted. I've never had to go to court but I'd arrange it by date so it's easy to follow.

What nut jobs!

[rmc20021]

Yes I have everything documented...there's not that much because they never communicated ANYTHING...that was part of the problem. she left a voicemail saying she had tried to call me 800 times but I never returned her calls. tonight is the ONLY time she's ever tried to call even when she would tell me she was going to call to give me a schedule...she never responded to my texts asking when ECB was coming so is really like to see her documentation. they have absolutely nothing but their inconsistent lies...for which I DO have documentation. if she had tried to pay me, then why didn't she when I requested it? Because they had no intention of paying. I'm so ready for this just for the principal of the many times they took advantage and was constantly abusing my policy.

[countrymom]

I wonder if they had pulled this stunt before. Usually when people flop from one place to another they are not paying and leaving or threatening with law suits. Good for you to take them to court, some people just need to be stopped.

[TheGoodLife]

I wonder if they had pulled this stunt before. Usually when people flop from one place to another they are not paying and leaving or threatening with law suits. Good for you to take them to court, some people just need to be stopped.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

That sounds stressful and for that I am sorry. When are you planning to go to court/file (I'm not exactly sure of the procedure)?

[Blackcat31]

I'm sorry that you went the extra mile and the family won't pay.

That DOES ****.

However, I don't mean this rude or mean but the whole situation (according to what you wrote) is really confusing and you made a lot of exceptions for this family so I guess I can see why they are now refusing to pay and using scare tactics to get out of any responsibility but when you aren't consistent as a provider in regards to your rules and policies, I think it just serves as an open invitation to families to go ahead and take advantage of you and that is exactly what this family did/is doing.

I AM sorry that you are having to deal with this though...we shouldn't have to chase our paychecks. ever.

[rmc20021]

wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!!!!

This mom is blowing up my phone this morning with texts...first she said that any other daycare would not assume they were leaving because they had not shown up/called for 3 days. Well *I* assumed they would because they had already done it once before to me.

Then she said I was being unreasonable because I changed my contract and made them sign it. I hand delivered 2 letters in March stating that I was revising my handbook and that there would be new contracts for everyone to sign and was due back to me on April 1. I extended the time for them to be returned until April 15...also by letter, hand delivered to each parent.

She said I 'forced' dcd to sign it. On April 15 they had not returned the contract so when dcd dropped dcg off, I had another one prepared for him to sign. She said she never would have signed it. UHHHHHH, no contract, no services...sorry.

Then she said I was consistently never home. I NEVER go anywhere with the daycare kids unless there is a day I only have one or two kids because I only have a small car and no room for more...that has happened 2 times, when I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch, and then once on my birthday on May 17 when I had one kid and we went to garage sales.

She also said she had to watch another one of my dck's because I was not home on two different times (the two dcm's are friends). She did keep the dcb, but one time was when I was sick and called each parent and let them know dc was closed (this was Feb 7 and this dcg wasn't even coming to my dc then so it didn't even affect them...it was during the month or so after they had stopped showing up). The other time was when I was not going to have ANY kids and this second dcm had ALSO not shown up or called for 3-4 days (you may remember my post about that when dcb had told me he was going to another daycare and then after 3-4 days they just showed up on my doorstep and I refused to answer the door since they had not contacted me)

She states she should not have to pay late pay fees because they wanted to come on that last Friday after I had not heard from them in 3 days. She also states dcd had text me at 9 am to say he was bringing dcg at noon. He text me exactly at 12:17 saying he was bringing her shortly...and I never heard anything else from them until I sent the letter with the final bill.

I text her last night and told her to not contact me any more, so now if she sends any other text messages I'm going to tell her if there is any further harrassment (as that's the way I'm taking it now after telling her not to contact me any further...I'm not going to argue with her over any of this) that I will file a complaint against her.

She's also stating she TOLD me in the text after she got the final bill that she would pay what she owed me or I could file court papers. She only said that she HAD planned to pay me for the time dcg was here. If she so insistent that she wanted to pay me...then WHY HASN'T SHE???

I can't wait to take this into the courtroom with all the documentation she's claiming she has...when there is none. If she thinks she's going to bluff me into backing down she's very mistaken.

[rmc20021]

I'm sorry that you went the extra mile and the family won't pay.

That DOES ****.

However, I don't mean this rude or mean but the whole situation (according to what you wrote) is really confusing and you made a lot of exceptions for this family so I guess I can see why they are now refusing to pay and using scare tactics to get out of any responsibility but when you aren't consistent as a provider in regards to your rules and policies, I think it just serves as an open invitation to families to go ahead and take advantage of you and that is exactly what this family did/is doing.

I AM sorry that you are having to deal with this though...we shouldn't have to chase our paychecks. ever.

I know...I totally agree and even though I was giving them a lot of exceptions, I also made it clear to her what my expectations were and they still kept pushing the limits. I take full responsibility for that and that's why now I'm not taking anything from anyone. I've only been back in business a little over a year and when I did daycare 20 years ago, I never had any of these types of issues as I've been having with this family so it's taken me some time to man up.

The thing that makes me so upset though are the lies about documentation etc...they can argue the point all they want and I would probably have been more accepting, but when someone lies to/about me it really puts me on the defensive.

[rmc20021]

That sounds stressful and for that I am sorry. When are you planning to go to court/file (I'm not exactly sure of the procedure)?

All you do is go to the courthouse and ask to file a claim in small claims court. There is a fee for it and I don't remember if you have to pay that up front and then get reimbursed for it when the person you take to court pays up or what...I only remember the person being sued are the ones responsible for paying for it.

They will set a court date and then before the court time, you go into mediation in order to come to an agreement. If none can be made, then it goes before the judge.