This is How We Get the $ Due

The Project Director (PD) phoned immediately after receiving my text message, even though it was the weekend! “Oh! I had NO idea!” And I do believe that he was indeed telling the truth.

Weeks earlier, I had completed what was asked of me without any hitch. The Project Manager (PM) was present towards the end of what we were working on, and was supposed to hand over the payment by cheque. The same company had done this before and I was quite comfortable with the arrangement.

At the end of this job though – it was very late at night because of problems with their equipment – PD said that PM had forgotten to get the boss to sign the cheque before he left, and to leave my banking details so that she could deposit it into my account. That too was quite acceptable. Like the rest of us she had been focusing on getting the job completed by a very tight deadline. BUT a whole week later? Nothing had been banked in. Aaaargh! What a terrible nuisance.

However, what became disconcerting is when no one would pick up the phone when I called. HUH? Something’s not quite right is it? So I went down to the office to investigate. The staff were in the dark about the matter, and very helpfully called the HQ, where this time the phone was answered (for a familiar caller id ha ha) PM then said the boss was overseas and would be back the following Tuesday, and she would get the check signed and bank it in on Wednesday. Hmmm – this was beginning to sound familiar, but okay – these things do happen sometimes, don’t they? Just maybe he had flown off without being accessible to his staff?

But Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – no payment. This was not funny anymore, so my PA – using our office number, called to investigate. Her experience was not in the least bit comforting, to put it mildly. She was transferred back and forth from the Accounts to the PM – it seemed neither wanted to handle the hot potato! And finally – do you know what she was told? “We don’t know when the cheque will be ready, we will call you” What was that original statment about the cheque being ready during the job but was unsigned?

Now this was an abomination!!! Totally unacceptable. So PM received an emailed letter from me which was copied to my lawyer, and the PD got a gentle text message from me saying that regrettably the matter would be passed onto my lawyer if payment was not made within X days. Bingo! His immediate reaction was to phone me reassuring that he would personally see to the cheque being banked into my account pronto. And it was. You know – of course you do, this is not the first occurrence of this sort for me or countless others. (You too?)

Why? Why? Why? Do finance people in particular have no qualms about saying things they don’t mean? When, when, when will finance people understand that because of their tactics, there WILL be types of retaliation that will either raise the cost of their doing business, or lower the quality of the resources they get and ultimately affect their own products? Sigh.

Integrity IS bankable, people! Trust and dependability reduce costs and raise quality. That’s precisely why word-of-mouth (WOM) business referrals are the MOST prized and sought after – they are the most effective method of marketing a business can engage in because reputations and survival are at stake.