How many of you have had to take a client to court due to non payment or not paying the final balance? I never have.
In 16 years I have never been to court. However, These are my stats after hundreds of booked events.
1. I had a couple bounce their check they gave to my sister at the gig in 2010. They said it would be in the mail on Monday. It never came in. Left 3 voice mails for the bride. No response. Finally got a hold of the Groom who is in the military after leaving him 2 voice mails. He apologized and said it will be in the mail. We finally got the balance payment paid a full 7 weeks after the wedding. This was the worst situation I have dealt with.
2. I had another couple bounce a check in 2010. They apologized, and did rectify the problem with an additional $100 added in with an apology. ...However, It took nearly 3 weeks to receive their payment after the wedding.
3. I had a couple forget their check book" back in 2010. They said it would be in the mail right away. They went on their honeymoon and forgot to mail it. They didn't put it in the mail until they came back from their honeymoon. It took just over 2 weeks to get payment after the wedding.
4. This one wasn't a booking I did, but another one of my DJs did a wedding where she "forgot her check book" ...Apparently, the bride/groom did this with every vendor at their wedding. They even ducked out on a $1300 remaining bill on the catering. All the vendors took the bride to court, and got judgements. However, my DJ was never able to collect the money from the bride. She still never paid him. She owes him $450 to this day and that was in 2012.
2010 was THE WORST year for collecting payments. I blame it on the effects of the recession at the time. It was pulling teeth to get brides/grooms to pay their deposits to book that year as well. I'm glad things are better since then. Totally prefer not to deal with a recession again as a Mobile DJ.
I will add that we had 2 other checks bounce back in 2010 that were deposit payments...That was pretty bad. ...That lead to adding the "$35 bounce check fee" clause on our agreements. We did not have that in the agreement back in 2010.
Outside of that, I've dealt with other companies who took forever to pay me after an event.