How many times must you ask for a bill?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We have a 36’ sailboat. Back in May, we decided to have a short haul done, which involves lifting the boat out of the water, pressure washing winter’s slime off the hull, and putting it back in the water. No biggie - we’ve had many boats over the years and had this done many times.

Except this time, the pressure washer was knocking sheets of paint off the bottom. Apparently the $100/gallon bottom paint wasn’t very good. So we had to be blocked in the boat yard so we could sand and repaint the hull. All told, we were out of the water for about a week, give or take.

For those unfamiliar with boat yard operations, you pay pretty much by the foot of boat length for everything, so our haul out and haul in, the pressure washing, and the blocking of the boat (supporting it with stands) would all cost based on our 36’ of boat. When the boat went back in, the marina manager was busy, and he said he’d bill us later. No biggie - we keep our boat there so he knew how to find us.

A few weeks later, my husband asked him again about our yard bill. Oh yeah, we’ll send that out. A month after that, we asked again. That was 2 months ago.

How long are we obligated to beg him to bill us? I have no intention of cheating the man, but at this point, I’ve forgotten exactly how long we were out (was it 4 days or 7? That matters.) Heck, I don’t recall exactly when it was anyway, although I suppose I could check back on our VISA to see when we bought that $250/gallon paint. 3 gallons… :eek: :eek: :eek:

Anyway, the last few times we went out on the boat, he wasn’t even around, so we couldn’t ask again. I honestly think he’s forgotten. Should I just make a guess and send him a check?

2

I write down all the pertinent information and stick it on the calendar on the month that the work was done, and then forget about it. If he doesn’t care enough to bill you, I wouldn’t keep chasing it, but I would also prepare for him miraculously remembering long after I’d forgotten about it (like when his accountant comes in and asks him why his books aren’t balancing or something).

3

Send him a letter (or at least email) so that it’s in writing, giving a time frame. State when you’ve asked him, and say that you’ll expect a bill within fourteen days, or something like that.

4

I’m in a similar situation at home. We purchased some replacement windows, and the guy we hired to install them never bothered to bill us. It’s been about 18 months now, and we’ve made a partial payment (he was out giving us an estimate for additional work but didn’t have an invoice, so I cut him a check for part it), but dang, you’d think this guy would want to be paid.

5

Purchasing guy checking in here. Never pay anything until you get a bill and are satisfied. Period. But as pointed out, be ready to pay that bill should it surface some day.

Around 1% of what I buy annually never gets invoiced. I’ve noticed this number is pretty constant through the years.

6

I’ve had this happen twice to me. Once in 1985 I bought a chair from Wieboldt’s. I asked them three times for the bill. They said, don’t worry it’s coming. A year later they went out of business.

I guess they never charged people :smiley:

Another time my cable company hooked up cable, every month I called asking where was my bill. After the fourth time the snotty clerk said “Look you’ll be billed when you’re billed.”

I had cable for two years and never got a bill.

7

Or what? You’ll refuse to pay when a bill arrives after sixteen more days?

No, if you owe the money, you owe the money. Be prepared to pay when the bill comes. Personally, I’d remind a creditor just once, and it’s on him after that. If no bill comes for a year, there probably won’t be one, but you can’t ethically dismiss a debt regardless.

I should point out that this may be a cultural thing. Old-school country folk in both America and Ireland (IME; probably in some other places too) may seem to forget about monies owed to them, and show little concern about collection, and then suddenly turn up looking for payment. Because–well, you both know you owe them, and nobody was in a hurry.

So don’t nag somebody with reminders (once is fine), and don’t send a guessed-amount payment. Just remember that there is a debt.

8

Asking for cash, and with a suitcase in hand.

9

If you haven’t already asked in writing, I’d make my next request for a bill in writing.

I’m not sure there’s a magic number of times, and I agree generally with the viewpoint that they may still come ask you to pay up, even though by rights they should have given you a bill to begin with.

Amusing semi-related anecdote: My parents owned this house for six months before their mortgage company bothered to give them an address for them to send payments.

10

I’ve worked in quite a few accounting departments, and I’m a little shocked when I find out that people don’t keep track of payables and receivables. The companies I work for aren’t usually too bad (they’ve actually hired people like me to keep track of things), but a lot of Mom and Pop type outfits lose crazy money by just not keeping track of invoicing and payments. It seems like the most obvious thing in the world, but not if you’re a carpenter or something and have never really had any accounting training.

11

What’s your hurry? Make your best guess, and put that much money in an interest bearing account.

12

Not after the statute of limitations expires. Every state has a statute of limitations on debt, which ranges from 6 to 10 years. When that period expires, you are no longer legally obligated to pay the debt. I don’t see where ethics is involved; it is a business relationship governed by the laws of the state where the transaction occurred. I have no ethical obligation to exceed the terms of the original contract.

13

This made me giggle - I think my credit union pays a whopping 1% on savings and .25% on checking.

Frankly, I expect by now, the manager has forgotten. If it was $20, I wouldn’t much sweat it, but I’m pretty sure the bill was between $800 and $1000 based on past experience in other boatyards. That’s a lot of money to forget about.

What really makes this funny - our electricity is metered there, but mostly we just have the battery charger hooked up, so I’ll give him $25 on account and that’ll cover us for the year. But one month towards the end of the year, we got a bill in the mail for something like 36 cents. I suspect someone else may be in charge of electrical billing.

Heck of a way to run a business…

14

I had a vendor get downright adversarial once. He delivered a daily out-of-town newspaper to my store. It sold poorly, and we canceled the account. There was a relatively small balance owed him - less than $150. We called him several times over several months to get him to bill us or come get the money, no dice. The last time we called, he said something along the lines of, “Stop bothering me! I’ve got so many irons in the fire that I can’t deal with you!”

Whatever, dude.

Joe

15

You don’t see where ethics is involved? Good god. You made an agreement–gave your word–I can’t properly respond to this in this forum. It has nothing to do with laws.

16

A debtor has no ethical responsibility to pay a debt when the other party refuses to make any effort to claim it.

She’s asked for the bill three times. Not her problem if the boatyard doesn’t bill her.

17

I had an exterminator out to kill some moles in our yard. He charged something like $20 up front for setting the traps, plus $30 for each mole he actually caught. He ended up getting two moles but never billed us the per-mole fee. He’s a one-man shop and a real nice guy; we didn’t want him to get shorted.

We called & emailed a couple times asking about the bill for the two moles. Nothing.

Wife’s a lawyer & she finally made up serious-sounding demand letter that he either bill us or return our moles. We did finally get a bill & a laugh out of that.
My answer to the OP? Bug 'em 3 times, then stop bugging them. But do keep notes so you can help them remember the right stuff to bill for. And if they never remember? Being a disorganized business has its costs.

18

We found this to be the with various trade workers when we were doing home renovations. We found some minor termite damage when we ripped down a wall, and since we’d gutted the place it was a perfect time for an exterminator to come in to treat everything so that all the new construction was covered with a preventative spray. We never got a bill and paid them only when we sold the house and noticed the discrepancy while reviewing our paperwork.

Window guy, floor guy… same with them. TEA: But those guy we tracked down faster. The bug guy we’d forgotten about because there was a second treatment scheduled for spring when the ground had thawed.

19

But when he does, even late, the debt is still there.

I agree. In fact I think asking three times is a little excessive.

20

If he does after six years, I think the debtor is entirely within his ethical rights to tell him where to stick it.