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RE: Contractors: Run Credit Checks for Questionable Customers?
Subject:RE: Contractors: Run Credit Checks for Questionable Customers? From:"Alan Oslick" <aoslick -at- hteinc -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 17 Aug 2001 13:06:26 -0400
More on doing contract work for a firm of doubtful credit worthiness:
>No they don't. I would never pay a contractor up front for work. Never,
>ever. How do I know the contractor won't take my money and just run and
>never do the job. Do you pay the plumber, lawyer, or doctor upfront? No.
Andy Plato's cases (above) typically apply to services of very brief
duration, particularly single visits. Anyone who engages a construction
contractor, including a plumber, for any extended period of time (say a week
or more) often has to pay out for advance partial payments for time and
materials. Except in certain cases (often involving insurance-backed
claims) lawyers and doctors expect periodic payments as well. This is not
to suggest that the tech writer as prospective contractor has the same
bargainin power as the those in the three cited professions.
What is wrong with running a credit check? The firm won't get a line of
credit to buy computer paper from an office supply firm without the supplier
running a a credit check first. If the firm is well beyond 90 days in
payments, there's good reason to doubt that the tech writer will see
payment, contract or no contract (though a contract is almost always clearly
the way to go). Do be aware that the credit reporting firm is likely to
inform the firm queried of your query. However very recent cash flow
problems are unlikely to appear in a $25 credit report. (Dunn & Bradstreet
does rate firms, but I believe their reports are a bit more costly,
particularly for non-subscribers.)
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