Warning from a dog walker
  • adogwalkeradogwalker
    I'm writing this note to warn as many dog walkers and dog walking agencies as I can about a client of mine, *** *****. He ran up a bill of over $1000 with me, ignored repeated requests to settle over a number of weeks, ignored all attempts at communication and eventually passed me a bad check for the amount. 

    I had given him the benefit of the doubt in allowing him to run up his bill given that he seemed like a very respectable guy and lives in an upscale luxury condo (stupid I know, but you live and learn!).  After passing me the bad check he has once again taken to ignoring phone calls and emails and it's become clear at this point that he has absolutely no intention of settling the debt. 

    Let me just make it clear that the guy had no beef with me and no reason whatsoever to complain about any aspect of the service I had provided him with. As of this date I have stopped walking his dog and I know he will now be in the process of finding another dog walker or dog walking agency. I really don't want this to happen to anyone else, so please pass this warning onto as many dog walkers or agencies as you can if you have the time. I am at this point left with no choice but to commence legal proceedings against this client in order to recover the money, which as you can imagine is a real headache. 

    The guy's name is **** ***** and he lives in Chelsea, Manhattan, and his dog is named ******. 

    If **** has contacted you to inquire about setting up walks for his dog, then please be aware that he has absolutely no scruples whatsoever when it comes to settling his bills and will simply not pay you for as long as you're prepared to walk his dog. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me and so I consider myself to have been far too naive and trusting up until this point. Never again!

    Thanks for your time. Do pass this on to others in the business that you know if you have time. It really bothers me to think that Mr. ***** might try to pull this stunt again. 

    Regards, 
    A dog walker. 
  • Pet+Sitter+BiblePet Sitter Bible
    Sorry to hear that, I had someone try and skip out on a bill of many thousands early in my business too ): It feels terrible and makes you doubt people in general but luckily I've found it's pretty rare. I made some big changes in billing after that and can I ask what form of payment you take? And how much of a debt you let clients run up? After my experience I went to credit cards on file, so I charge the bill, I don't wait for a client to pay me, and I have a maximum of 2 weeks non payment before halting service (especially if they are a new client.) Sorry again for this terrible experience you're going through and have you considered sending him a legal letter? I'd be happy to discuss this with you further.

    PS: per the forum's rules I had to take out the person's exact address but I did mention the area, thanks
  • Pet+Sitter+BiblePet Sitter Bible

    I created this video in response to this subject:


  • adogwalkeradogwalker
    Hi Josh, 

    Great video, many excellent points. I hope you don't mind that I went back and edited out the guy's name from my post, because I have since resolved the issue with the client and thus I felt a little uneasy that his name was posted online. It was only after I left the guy a voicemail threatening him with legal action and vowing to get the money back one way or another, that he actually returned my call and subsequently paid up. I guess I sounded a little angry in the call - I had actually worked myself up into quite a mood - and I'm not sure whether that's such a good idea in general, but the upshot is that it worked. The guy apologized for the "misunderstanding" regarding the check but to be honest I don't see how writing a bad check for that much is a misunderstanding, especially since everyone has access to their bank balance 24/7 online these days. I would call it more of a "felony" than a misunderstanding, lol. 

    Letting a bill run up that much is definitely a sign of not being entirely on top of things, and it's certainly been a wake up call for me. I guess I was half aware that his bill was getting higher week after week, but I put it in the back of my mind thinking that it would be resolved "eventually." It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when a client lives in a high end luxury doorman condo and wears a suit. What really angered me about this guy was his outright refusal to respond to any correspondence whatsoever over a period of weeks. I have never had a client act in this way before. To be honest out of hundreds of clients, I have never experienced anything like this. I have clients who will let it run up over 3 or 4 weeks but always pay eventually. 

    Good idea about keeping cards on file. We've survived without taking cards up until now, because everyone's been happy with either leaving a check out or paying with their bank's online bill payment system. It's funny but I have never had a potential client reject us for not taking credit cards, however as your business gets bigger and you're laying out more and more in wages every week, it makes sense to have the safety net of guaranteed payment. The extra fees do worry me and I had thought about whether it's a good idea to pass on at least some of that fee to the walker, given that they are being paid a percentage of the walking fee rather than on an hourly basis. Any thoughts? 
  • Pet+Sitter+BiblePet Sitter Bible
    Hey, no problem on the name and awesome you worked it out, so glad it had a nice ending (^_^)

    I think the threat of legal action will often times work. I'll post a free non payment on the website soon.

    I think you'll love cards on file and Quickbooks if you don't use it.

    In regards to passing off the fees on your walkers/sitters I think at least "some" of them might take it badly, no matter how you explain it. An idea might be doing a rate increase in your company to cover the extra cost. Keep in mind the cost shouldn't exceed 2-4% of the total you run (Amex can be a higher rate than visa/mc.) So for a $10 service you'd only need to raise it .20-.40 cents to not lose money (:

    *** an important note is if you need to charge sales tax, not sure if you do already? that can vary from state to to state, in New York City where I'm located we do need to charge sales tax, so I'd check with a CPA to get their expert opinion

    Hope that helps? best, Josh
  • adogwalkeradogwalker
    I use Quickbooks and love it. I did suffer a huge problem recently whereby a whole bunch of client payments that I'd entered were mysteriously gone by the time I send out the next invoices, meaning a lot of angry emails from customers who noticed their balances didn't reflect their last payments, and hours of work for me in checking my bank deposits to work out which payments were missing. I think it was something to do with using Windows Live Mesh to sync the company file to my Microsoft Sky Drive - it seemed to revert the file back to an earlier version for some reason. Just sticking that in there as a warning for anyone who uses Quickbooks with Live Mesh!

    With regard the rate increase to cover card fees, I know it's not legal to blatantly add the card fee to the bill, so if you're increasing rates across the board would you then offer a discount for cash payments?

    I do charge sales tax. I know a lot of walkers don't but when you're operating above the radar as a legal business it's crazy not to. 
  • Pet+Sitter+BiblePet Sitter Bible
    re.: I did suffer a huge problem recently whereby a whole bunch of client
    payments that I'd entered were mysteriously gone by the time I send out
    the next invoices

    Oyy that's brutal, know the feeling. My one bad experience with Quickbooks came when the file size exceeded what they recommend and it did get buggy ): I think we'd both say it's the best thing going though.

    re.: With regard the rate increase to cover card fees, I know it's not legal
    to blatantly add the card fee to the bill, so if you're increasing rates
    across the board would you then offer a discount for cash payments?

    Good question and maybe in the beginning to lessen the blow/fear of some clients but over time I'd personally recommend going all cc's. My thinking is if you make one deal for this, someone will expect a deal for that and on and on. Personally I like having everyone on the same playing field but obviously we all have our own systems, thanks!
  • ThePurrfectNannyThePurrfectNanny
    On the first topic, I have to say that in the early beginnings of my business I had some issues to with clients not holding up their end of the bargain. I changed my policies to upfront payment only and we don't do any pet sittings before the bill is paid. All my clients are booked and invoiced via Professional Pet Sitter (Blue wave) and we require a credit card on file. For every pet sitting I ran the card upfront and send a final confirmation. All our first confirmations state that the status is tentative until the payment has been received.
  • Pet+Sitter+BiblePet Sitter Bible
    @ThePurfectnanny

    That's awesome, sounds like you are really on top of things.

    re: Blue Wave

    Have you enjoyed it? Is there anything you feel it's lacking? I've been thinking about creating a custom scheduling/billing software myself, thanks!
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