Lost Check...this really bothers me....

Parent Cafe
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<p>Last week, I had my tall (washingtonia) palm trees cleaned by what I thought was a reputable company. The owner had trucks with company logos, dba, insurance etc. I wanted a legit outfit because climbing those trees requires special equipment and is dangerous. It is also expensive and we usually have the trees cleaned once a year. They did a great job and I paid the owner with a check. </p>

<p>Yesterday, he showed up on my doorstep claiming he lost my check and said he ‘needed me to write him another’. Of course, I told him I would have to cancel the check first and I would deduct the cost to do so from the second check amount. And I asked him to come back Monday after I had a chance to do this. He started getting really whiny about it and told me his workers were going unpaid because he lost this check. And I told him I was sorry, he would have to come back for a second check after I contacted the bank on Monday.</p>

<p>But, the more I think about it, the more angry I get. If he wasn’t trying to scam me, he certainly was sticking it to his workers. I think I need to tell him what I think of his business practices when he picks up his check on Monday. It’s probably none of my business, and I’ll certainly not use him again…but I felt so bad for the workers, I almost succumbed and gave him a second check. </p>

<p>Am I out of line if I tell him I don’t think it’s right for him to make his workers suffer for his mistake?</p>

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<p>Good thing you told him to return Monday. Of course you should be contacting your bank first to make sure that the first check is cancelled. I am sure the owner of the business would have some funds to at least partially pay his workers. He was careless about the check, but I am sure he was just using the workers as a ruse to get you to write a second check right away. Seriously, he sounds sketchy and unprofessional, and I would rather not make any personal comments to someone like that, because who knows…</p>

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<p>Maybe it’s none of your business, but you should tell him anyway. It will make you feel better. He tried to guilt you into paying his workers for his mistake. You have the right to tell him what you think about it.</p>

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<p>okay, he came on a Saturday, are you banks open then, could you have stopped the check online, which is what I would have done…you can tel if the check had cleared with a phone call and then stop the check via the phone</p>

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<p>I give you much credit for sticking to your guns and telling him to come back AFTER you had a chance to cancel the check. Many would have caved in to his whining. That behavior has “scam” written all over it, and if he was not scamming, then I misread “stupid” as “scam” </p>

<p>A check cashed on Friday afternoon may not have posted by Saturday online. You done good. His workers are not your problem.</p>

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<p>wow, guess none of you ever had your own business, he could very well have lost the check</p>

<p>I have had people work for me who lost a check, the process is so simple now to stop payment on the phone using the automatic system, to not try that seems cruel to me</p>

<p>if you had done that, you would have seen if the check was cashed already, and if not, stopped payment</p>

<p>I give the guy more benefit of the doubt then you guys do, at least he took a check, hoping that it would clear, these days contractors get ripped off all the time</p>

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<p>CGM-
I believe that the bank wont show activity that happened on Friday until after midnight on Monday. So even if her bank was open, the information isnt there. And why pay to stop a check that might have already cleared? Costs money. I’d recommend calling a 24 hr customer service number and see what they hve to say about it. Til all is known-- no second check for the tree guy. Not in my book. Any guy that doesnt have enough cash on hand to pay his coworkers makes me nervous. I’d also check the better business bureau. It doesnt pass the smell test to me.</p>

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<p>When he showed up at 5 p.m. yesterday, I was literally walking out the door to chaperone a bus full of drumline kids headed to the football game, but I did check to see that the check had not yet cleared as of midnight last night. cgm - I forgot completely about cancelling it via phone…I was just thinking I’d pop into the branch tomorrow a.m. So thanks!..you just saved me a trip.</p>

<p>My husband actually thought it might be a scam where if I had fallen for it, as soon as I handed him the second check, he would have made a quick phone call to an accomplice to cash the first check…and that he would leave the first check outstanding until he got his hands on the second check to make me more inclined to believe the check was really lost. I think maybe the tree guy wasn’t that bright and that my husband was overly suspicious. But he travels a lot and has been defrauded in about every way possible over the years…so maybe…</p>

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<p>did you do any kind of google search on his company after he showed up? Or perhaps check the BBB. It does sound fishy with him showing up on a Saturday (due to many banks being closed), but honestly, if he can’t front the money to pay his workers for one pay period, then his business isn’t very solvent. To have trucks with company logos, etc., would lend some credibility to his business, because it would be easy to track him down if he’s trying to rip you off, unless he’s repainting trucks every week.</p>

<p>You handled it very professionally, and whether or not you give him a piece of your mind tomorrow could depend on his attitude when he shows up - he may actually be remorseful when he realizes he’s about to lose a potential referral.</p>

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<p>One thing…he really almost convinced me to write that second check when he mentioned his workers were asking for their money. I actually felt very bad for taking a hard line. So I’m kinda mad at me for allowing him to manipulate me and mad at him for (supposedly) not paying his workers.</p>

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<p>well, if you cancel the check online, and some other bank or place cashes it, then THEY are liable, not you</p>

<p>It is odd his timing, and if he said he lost the check , put the stop payment on that check now…</p>

<p>If someone does indeed try and cash the check, well, it will be noted and then you will have a bigger clue if it was a scam</p>

<p>if you stop the check, then hand him a new one, if the bank cashes both, the bank is at fault and that is the risk the bank takes</p>

<p>if he is going to a cash checking place, that is their risk</p>

<p>if he deposits it, the bank can decide whether to release the funds, depending on his record, etc</p>

<p>it takes me about 2 minutes to place a stop payment on the phone</p>

<p>He may be stupid and careless, but he may not be a thief</p>

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<p>google is a good idea btw…I’m gonna do that right now! :)</p>

<p>And hubby, the supersleuth, doesn’t want to stop payment…he wants to see if the guy actually has the check and will have someone cash it…lol.</p>

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<p>teriwtt-
We said the same thing! These thing cant be easily checked out on a Saturday. He will jsut have to wait. So sorry, Charlie. I agree. Smells fishy. If it was a simple mistake, it can be rectified-- during regular business hours.</p>

<p>Oh, and by the way CGM. I have my own business. Fotrtunately I havn’t lost a check, yet. The good ol’ USPS has lost checks, but I haven’t. The bank has, but fortunately I copy every deposit before taking it to the bank so could get the bank to correct their mistake. So, so far, in 15 yrs, no lost check yet. Whew. I will cross my fingers and hope for continued good bookkeeping! That said, I don’t do outdoor work, and of course a check put in a pocket can get lost. But this is a potential big liability for the OP. The tree guy is just going to have to understand and deal with it on her terms.</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t give him a piece of your mind. All he did to you was lose a check and ask for another one. </p>

<p>Most small businesses work very close to the wire and depend upon the client’s fee to pay off the workers at week’s end. </p>

<p>I think what’s making you uncomfortable is that he’s violating good ethics towards his workers (it’s even a Biblical commandment in a code of ethics: “Don’t let the sun set on your laborer’s wages.” In other words, pay your people on time, an honest wage for an honest day’s work). </p>

<p>It’s good of you to think of the workers. If he were a better employer or had a wider margin in his small business, he’d have some kind of back supply of money to cover emergencies. If, however, other things happened this week (his truck needed repair unexpectedly, etc.) then he got caught short in his cash flow.</p>

<p>But I don’t think that’s for you to lecture him about. I just don’t.</p>

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<p>This was the business owner’s problem - not yours. You did exactly the right thing. I think he was just using the ‘unpaid workers’ ruse as a way to appeal to you to get the check. In reality, the wages for those workers for the timeframe when they worked on your trees probably wasn’t much and it’d be hard to believe he wouldn’t have enough money to pay them - even if it had to come out of his personal account. It also sounds a bit like a scam.</p>

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<p>cgm-
If the guy goes to a check cashing place, and then the OP writes another check which also gets cashed at one of those places, do you really think the place is going to pony up and write her a large refund? I doubt it. If the check has been cashed already but isnt yet seen on the system, it cuold be a problem, even if the OP stops payment now (which she should do anyway, I would think, just to protect herself). Maybe he isnt a thief-- but an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of harm, IMO.</p>

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<p>Something else to consider</p>

<p>My H has been given checks that have bounced, suddenly, when he thought there was $5000 more in an account, there wasn’t </p>

<p>And suddenly, he has to go find ways to cover what he thought was there</p>

<p>No fault of my Hs, none at all, but he has to cover that money</p>

<p>Being a small business owner, expecially any kind of contracting, is much on trust…</p>

<p>My H does very little work for people that haven’t been recommened, not any more, because of getting ripped off by people</p>

<p>Those days were long ago when he needed to take jobs to get through the week</p>

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<p>that is NOT how banks work,…</p>

<p>if the check was stopped, the OPs bank will not honor it, period, and if they do, that is the banks fault, not the OP</p>

<p>if the check cashing place gives the guy cash, that is the risk of them doing business, that is why they charge the fees they do</p>

<p>when the check cashing place sends the check to the bank to be honored, and the bank rejects it, that is a risk the check cashing place takes</p>

<p>if the check hasn’t hit the bank, no matter who cashes it, if the OP has stopped the check, the bank will reject the check and those that cashed it are the ones with a loss, or the bank will eat the cost and pursure the check casher</p>

<p>and if the bank accepts the stop payment online, that is the risk THEY take, if the check is in the system</p>

<p>if the guy deposits the check at his bank, and takes cash back, if the check is stopped, HIS bank is the one with the loss, not the OPs bank</p>

<p>often, a bank will hold the funds and not release them for a few days to be sure the check is honored, or they won’t release any cash back if there is not enough $ in the account to cover the cash if the check is bad</p>

<p>banking is about risk, and part of the cost of doing business is some bad checks here and there, or cashing a check that has a stop on it, that is why they have rules and guidelines and ways to protect themselves</p>

<p>sure, some times things slip through, but that is the nature of $$</p>

<p>if the cash checking place eats a check, that is their cost of doing business </p>

<p>if a bank teller cashes a check she shouldn’t have that is her banks fault</p>

<p>if a check slips through, even though a stop has been made, the bank will honor the stop</p>

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<p>p3t - </p>

<p>I really wasn’t intending to give him a “piece of my mind” or even be ugly with him…they did do a very good job on the trees. But thought I would diplomatically tell him I was not happy to hear that those on the short end of the stick ended up being his workers, and that I was not happy with him trying to make me feel badly about it.</p>

<p>But, he probably doesn’t care what I think anyway…;)</p>

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<p>We don’t really know if this guy is a small operator with a few employees or has a big company with a fleet of trucks and laborers. Even so, it isnt the op’s problem to pay them again until all is clear. If this guy is reputable, he would probably want to keep a good business relationship with the OP (didn’t she say she handles the landscaping for her neighborhood?) He can wait a day or 2. He can take out a loan to pay his laborers-- he can put a cash advance on a credit card. Its his issue, not hers.</p>