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

Parent Cafe
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<p>My secretary had someone access her account recently-- wiped out her checking and savings account (they were linked). Even though the bank should cover all this (it was clearly fraud) they are giving her an incredibly hard time, stalling, not guaranteeing to replace the funds, implying that she is at fault, etc. Her dad happened to be on one of the accounts so could step in and help. Only when he did did the bank shape up and begin, slowly, to fly right. So , banks aren’t always the high and mighty upstanding institutions they should be. Geez.</p>

<p>PS-- she is still out $1800. Bank is doing their “investigation”… she is stuck with no $$$.</p>

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<p>He does do work in our neighborhood and he cold-called me to do our trees. He was a good salesman and the trees were in desperate need of cleaning, so I had him give me an estimate, asked him questions about his business license and insurance and then we set up an appt for the work. </p>

<p>I realize cashflow can be a problem with sbo’s, but our residence was his second job that day. Could he not have paid his workers from his other proceeds and assumed the lost check risk by himself?</p>

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<p>

Why the attitude, cgm?? Sheesh.</p>

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<p>yes, ldmom, i actually went back and pulled out quotation marks around “piece of mind” when I realized that wasn’t your language at all. Not your style, either.</p>

<p>I think you were troubled on an ethical level, that I agree with: he should have it set up to deal better with his workers, that’s ethical. And if not, he was babyish to pass along the bad feeling to you. </p>

<p>Of course you’d be diplomatic about it!! You can own what you felt in the transaction…that as a customer, you didn’'t enjoy hearing about his internal business problems. He did a good job, and then you lost a bit of confidence in him because of that discussion. Maybe it’ll improve his approach in the future with others…</p>

<p>but if you decide not to speak up on it, that’s also okay since you actually did not cause him to be late with his workers, he did.</p>

<p>I wrote all this to mop up in case it sounded like I wasn’t assuming you’d be diplomatic, as you always are!</p>

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<p>I bet it wasn’t a scam. I know many small business men (roofers, landscapers - a couple in my very close circle LOL) who are terribly disorganized with their paperwork and payroll. </p>

<p>Still, you were right in how you handled it.</p>

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<p>Agreed, weenie. Hopefully it is an oversight, but it is better to wait and error on the side of caution and good judgement. Ya nevah know.</p>

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<p>thanks p3t…I actually re-read my words and they definitely could have been taken either way…especially where I say ‘tell him what I think’. </p>

<p>And everyone is right…the big thing eating me is those guys waiting on their money after doing all that extremely hard work. I have a big imagination I’m afraid…I jump ahead to kids waiting for a new pair of shoes or someone trying to get their utility bill paid before the lights go out and I get upset. But jym is absolutely right about that ounce of prevention. It was a big check and I also couldn’t afford to pay that amount twice should a scam have been in play. And a scam may not even have to involve the sb owner. What if the check slipped out his pocket (which I imagine it did) and someone else found it and was able to cash it?</p>

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<p>Excuse my ignorance-- sb owner?? But true enough- a lost check can get into anyones hands. And in this day of wonderful scanners, computers and printers, someone could make duplicate checks or use an account and routing number in nefarious ways. No fun, and better to be careful. I have had someone access my bank account illegally. No fun, I promise you.</p>

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<p>How big a check was it? What kind of company? How well do you know the owner? I do business regularly with the same guy, have for ten years, and a few years ago, in the middle of a big job, he asked me if I could pay that day, as otherwise he was going to have to hold payroll (2001 and 2002 were tough around here!). No problem for me to pay, I had the money ready… and I know those employees, they’ve been doing my landscaping for years; they are (legal) immigrants who are living pretty close to the line.</p>

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<p>wouldn’t it be funny if he showed up on Monday and said he found the check and apologized. Ahhhh… come on, everyone here knows it happens! How many of us have misplaced a check or deposit or something. </p>

<p>As a matter of fact, last Tuesday evening, I got called out to work in the evening to a nursing home in a nearby suburb. As I got out of my car and looked down, there was a $100 bill lying on the pavement. Yes, I typed in the correct number of zeros. There were no other cars in the parking lot near mine, so I had no way of knowing where to even begin to find its owner. When I return from my little vacation, I will call the facility and see if someone reported losing something, and if they say yes, I will have them tell me what is missing. If they say $100 bill, I will return in, as I’m the only one (and the person who lost it) who knows exactly what it is. </p>

<p>But yes, ldmom, I, too, thought of who lost it and how devastated they must have been when they realized it. Maybe it was some minimum-wage employee of the facility who was carrying it around to shop for their kids’s school needs. However, I was more inclined to think, anyone who carries around $100 can probably afford to lose it. I can’t remember when was the last time I had a $100 bill in my wallet… well, until last Tuesday.</p>

<p>P.S. No, I will not give out the name of the facility so you all can call in and claim you were there last Tuesday :)</p>

<p>And, I have a place in my car I call ‘no-man’s land’. It’s the itsy bitsy teenie weenie spot between the driver’s seat and the (ok - having a brain fart here) what’s the name of the console thing between driver’s and passenger seats? It’s just big enough for things to slip down there, but when I try to retrieve them, my hand ends up mangled because, no matter how hard I try to readjust the seat, I cannot get my hand to the floor of that area without massive pain. That’s where I’ve found pieces of mail, my job ID, etc. You’d think by now when something goes missing I’d look there first. However, what ends up happening is, at some point, when I’m stuck in traffic or something, I look down there, and discover missing things.</p>

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<p>teriwtt-
I have that same noman’s land in my car- between the seat and the center console (isn’t that the correct term?). If the tree guy finds the check, I’d hope he’d pick up the phone and call the OP (see post # 22-- he has her phone #). That would be the courteous thing to do, I would think.</p>

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<p>

It’s called the ‘console’.</p>

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<p>jym wrote

</p>

<p>I’m guessing it means small business owner. Not sure, though.</p>

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<p>oh, duh. Thanks, patsmom.</p>

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<p>Thanks, I think I lost my brain in between the console and the driver’s seat.</p>

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<p><i>come on, everyone here knows it happens! How many of us have misplaced a check or deposit or something.</i></p>

<p>I don’t think the OP has a problem with him loosing the check. The problem is with him trying to guilt-trip her into writing another one before she had a chance to check on the first one and cancel it (plus she feels that it is wrong of him not to pay his workers when he is the one who lost the check).</p>

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<p>you got it nngmm!</p>

<p>And I call that space between the driver’s seat and the console where my hand gets mangled… ‘french fry hell’. Invariably, if I succumb and eat those dastardly Wendy’s fries that are NOT good for me, they end up down there in ‘french fry hell’ and I have to bruise my knuckles to get them out. If I would just stick with the side of yogurt, I would never have this problem. ;)</p>

<p>Btw…first time using this guy. I have floated other contractors who (whom?) I know well and once loaned plane fare for a family emergency to same.</p>

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<p>nngmm - I get that she doesn’t have a problem with him losing a check… I was just speculating that perhaps he will find it before Monday and all will be hunky dory, except that his employees may not have been paid. And that’s not her problem; it’s his. But if the check shows up (he finds it), it would make all this speculation of whether he’s legit or not a moot point. I was just pointing out that it may end up being a simple mistake, although it was unprofessional of him to try to guilt ldmom into providing another check with such short notice.</p>

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<p>OP did nothing wrong. She PAID the guy. If he isn’t careful with money, it’s his problem. And how can he need the check to pay his workers the same day? Unless he’s going to a check-cashing store and paying his workers cash under the table. If he’s depositing the check in his account, then paying his workers by check, it won’t clear that fast anyway.</p>

<p>If his business practices are “iffy” and they sound that way to me, that is a problem between him and his workers. OP paid him. She has every right to wait till Monday and be sure the check hasn’t been deposited - in fact, she’d be a fool not to. His pressuring her makes the whole thing sound fishy.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t give him a piece of my mind though. Just give him another check when I found out the first one hadn’t cleared and I had placed the stop payment.</p>

<p>Perhaps the contractor will be more careful with money in the future.</p>

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<p>Thanks Momneeds. </p>

<p>I probably won’t say anything to him…he surely doesn’t care what I think anyway. It just one of those sucky things in life I suppose … that some people will take advantage of others in lower positions. That makes me sad.</p>