Abandoned Saws

[bluto]

What do you fellas do with a customers saw when it is dropped off and never picked up? I have several saws, that have money owed, that I have tried to contact the customer to no avail. Some have been in the shop for more than a year. Some have had their phones disconnected or won't return calls. Some are nice saws, while others are little more than well worn parts saws. Anyone have a policy on how long a saw has to be left before they sell it to get their money out of the deal. I have a piece of crap 029 that has had a piston, bearings, seals and a carb kit put in it. The plastic is bad and the bar and chain are shot, don't think I can sell it for what is in it. But, on the other hand I have two 044's that an out of business construction co. brought in to have the chains sharpened, plugs and fuel filters changed. These two are like almost new.
Jim

 

[Lakeside53]

We eventually sell them... if the owner subsequently turns up (rarely)... we talk...

 

[STLfirewood]

Thanks for reminding me about those saws. I couldn;t make a go at construction so I let the business go and moved to St. Louis and started cutting firewood. I'll send you my address so you can send the saws. I pay for shipping and send you a fifty for your trouble.

Thanks Scott

 

[BloodOnTheIce]

Our work order state "Equipment left unpaid 60 days, will be sold and the money will be a applied to your bill."
The customer has to read and sign the work order. We record dates when we tried to reach by phone,
we leave three messages then, we send them an invoice and give them every chance to pay.
If it goes past 30 days we send them a registered letter with a copy of the invoice and we tell them until what
date they have to pick up and pay for the equipment, or it will be sold. We hold on to most equipment for 6 months before we actually sell it.
We're not hard asses about it either, if someone needs a couple months to pay off a bill we;ll work with them, as long as they make arrangements with us.

 

[bluto]

Scott, you are a funny guy....nice try. LOLOLOL

 

[Freehand]

Scott, you are a funny guy....nice try. LOLOLOL

And I thought that was a sincere post.........sniff........

 

[STLfirewood]

I thought it was worth a try.

Scott

 

[bluto]

it was worth a try....gave me a chuckle.

 

[Messenger]

Bluto --

Make sure you have a sign posted concerning this.
[60] days is good on the time limit.
A "Storage Fee" per day [$1.00] should be listed.
We never enforce it though....
It simply covers us in case a customer demands hs equipment back after 10 months!
Yes Sir, it's the repair bill plus 10 mos storage!
Hardly ever, ever happens.

You have your parts that are paid for, and your labor invested. At the present, like all of us, you're in the RED on the deal.

We ususally wait 4-6 mos. before selling an item. Bend way over backwards.

Clean the saws up well, make sure they're as good as reasonable.
Sell them exactly like used inventory of the store--They Are!
They were abandoned....

We always have less saws left, than mowers. 6-12 mowers at the end of each year like clockwork. Most of the 2008 abandoned stuff is already sold.

Most of the time repair items can be worth MORE than the repair. So, an easier pill to swallow. It covers your having to "finance" the repair.

Best of good fortune in 2009.
Regards.

 

[mga]

keep some kind of records of the times and dates you attempted to contact the people. phone call copies, registered mail receipts, etc.

always do a documented CYA paper trail.

as others have said..post a sign stating how long you will hold products in for repairs.

 

[Paul001]

keep some kind of records of the times and dates you attempted to contact the people. phone call copies, registered mail receipts, etc.

always do a documented CYA paper trail.

as others have said..post a sign stating how long you will hold products in for repairs.

And put a statement on your work order/estimate stating the time frame they have to pick up the equipment. Make sure they sign it.

I typically put them up for sale around the 6 month mark and sell them for the cost of the repairs. I've been told, but not confirmed that if the bill was $50 and I sell the saw for $100, I'm suppost to get the additional monies to the original owner.

Now I sure you could eat that $50 up in storage fee's, interest, etc. I'd rather get someone a deal that they will remember, or put the saw into the hands of someone who needed it but couldn't afford it, than worry about refunding monies to someone that was a PITA to begin with.

 

[SteveH]

Yeah, put something on work order, make sure customer sees it. I'm not a dealer, but I'd pay attention to something like that as a customer.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Our work order state "Equipment left unpaid 60 days, will be sold and the money will be a applied to your bill."
The customer has to read and sign the work order. We record dates when we tried to reach by phone,
we leave three messages then, we send them an invoice and give them every chance to pay.
If it goes past 30 days we send them a registered letter with a copy of the invoice and we tell them until what
date they have to pick up and pay for the equipment, or it will be sold. We hold on to most equipment for 6 months before we actually sell it.
We're not hard asses about it either, if someone needs a couple months to pay off a bill we;ll work with them, as long as they make arrangements with us.

This is what is known as, "Business 101". If you are not doing something like this, you have a lot to learn about running a business.

 

[Honkie]

Whacha selling the 044s fer.....might be interested

 

[bluto]

Thanks to all of you who had a positive response to my question. Doing business in a small town has its own challenges. We have the legal end covered by the layout of our work orders and, if we want, can use whatever means to recover our costs after 45 days. This is the can of worms that we are trying to avoid opening, and as Blood On The Ice stated, we don't want to be hard asses. I got alot of good info, thanks. I got a few PM's that were like the post that BlueRidgeMark made. A vain attempt to elevate the ego of some self important individuals at my expense....Oh Well.
I also have received many requests to buy the 044's. As of right now we are doing our best to get them, all of the saws, back to the folks that own them. If this does'nt work out, one of them is spoken for and a site member has first dibs on the other one. The others will go on ebay. Again, thanks for your time fellas.
Jim

 

[spike60]

We eventually sell them... if the owner subsequently turns up (rarely)... we talk...

I'm pretty much the same way. I don't have a concrete policy, and I wouldn't stick to it if I did. This doesn't really happen all that often. I did once sell a tractor that hung around for 3 or 4 years. Tried to contact the people several times. Phone numbers changed, the house where we picked it up was vacant. Sure enough, a month or two after I sold it the lady called looking for it. She didn't have a chance to complain, because I beat her to it, telling her that it was insane to expect us to store her tractor for 4 years. She just said "Oh well" and hung up.

We have a rack where we put our work orders in. Couple of slots for completed jobs, one slot waiting for payment, one slot for units that have to be delivered, and one slot labeled "mold", for invoices on things that have been around too long.

I think I only have 2 or 3 "mold" saws right now, which have really become "shop" saws. We use them around the store property, loan them out to a decent customer who's in a jam, open the tractor crates. One is a like new 353 that has been there over two years.

One clever way to avoid a confrontation is don't say that you sold it. "We don't have anything here under that name. When did you say you brought it in? A year and a half ago? Wow, that's a pretty long time. Maybe you picked it up a while ago and don't remember. Are you sure you brought it here and not the place down the road?" As Maxwell Smart would say: "The oooooooold smokescreen trick."

 

[Brian S]

Well, this is a kinda funny and true story about something being left somewhere for a looong time.

Back in the year 2001, sometime before the 9/11 attacks a customer special ordered a brand new 24,000 lb capacity gooseneck backhoe trailer from the company I work for. It was pretty nice, had a Warn industrial loading winch and some other options. The customer paid in full for the trailer but then around that time the attacks happened, weeks go by and the guy never shows. Folks begin to wonder what happened. Finally the guy makes contact and lets us know that he was deployed with the National Guard or something somewhere overseas. I think everyone figured he would come get the trailer as soon as his tour was over. The trailer was still sitting there on 03/2003 when I started working there. We had to store it outside and the elements took a terrible toll on it, by 2008 the oak decking was warped and beginning to rot, tires were dry rotting, birds had nested in the winch spool, rodents chewed up some of the wiring. Still no word from the owner at this point.

Well, the guy shows up late last summer ready to pick up his "new" trailer. I think he was disappointed that the trailer looked so rough but what can you do, he left it there for 7 years!

 

[Mad Professor]

What do you fellas do with a customers saw when it is dropped off and never picked up? I have several saws, that have money owed, that I have tried to contact the customer to no avail. Some have been in the shop for more than a year. Some have had their phones disconnected or won't return calls. Some are nice saws, while others are little more than well worn parts saws. Anyone have a policy on how long a saw has to be left before they sell it to get their money out of the deal. I have a piece of crap 029 that has had a piston, bearings, seals and a carb kit put in it. The plastic is bad and the bar and chain are shot, don't think I can sell it for what is in it. But, on the other hand I have two 044's that an out of business construction co. brought in to have the chains sharpened, plugs and fuel filters changed. These two are like almost new.
Jim

RUBBER ROW:

Well displayed on the wall when you arrive/come in. All the deadbeat checks on display.

One of the best dealers around, so the word got around............

 

[Vibes]

I got a J-Red 2065 from a local dealer who did a rebuild for a guy who had a bad pipe habbit. He sold it to me after 2 years of it sitting in his shop and me bugging him about when he was going to sell it to me.

The customer shows up not a week after I buy it, and didn't blink an eye when told the saw was sold. The guy wips out cash and buys a 2159 off the shelf.

Also at this same shop. They had a fire years before this, that was a total loss. He had every customer who had ever left a repair behind showing up looking for there saw, mower, trimmer knowing that the paper trail was gone. He told them to bring in the receipt and they would cover it. When the customer showed up he talyed the late fees and asked the them for the money.