Yes, but very rarely.

Great customers combined with our high satisfaction rates, integrity, professionalism, sensible pricing and clear communication, deliver a non-payment rate of virtually zero for us. Operating ethically actually generates goodwill that typically shields us from would-be non-payers.

I also carefully filter enquiries and avoid assisting those who I think might be problematic. That said, I’ve had two non-paying customers in a decade, maybe three now, given the most recent one in 2024.

Non-Payers

The first was a crooked real estate agent, let’s call him JVS… I repaired his turntable, but he failed to respond to emails about collecting it and my final warning after 12 long months stated that I would sell his turntable to recoup funds if he did not collect and pay for it immediately. He suddenly wanted to collect his equipment!

The collection was a drama, with a crying baby, a screaming wife with strange blue contact lenses and an odd, sweaty man attempting to wiggle out of paying the additional charges he’d accrued over 12 months of abandoning his equipment. Luckily, I had witnesses, and the gentleman was forced to pay in cash.

The second non-payer asked me to service and repair his turntable as a high-priority job. I did that for him and had his deck running perfectly again, but he neither responded to attempts to contact him nor thanked me for fixing his turntable. After the mandatory warnings, we sold his turntable for considerably more than he owed. Another completely unnecessary waste of time and energy. Hello Mr John Messina!

The third is a gentleman who asked me to repair and refurbish his Mitusbish pre/power amplifiers, to a maximum of $1000. I came in comfortably under that limit, but when I sent the invoices, he disappeared and has never replied, nearly 6 months on. I’m selling these two absolute classics, so keep an eye out for them in the store.

UPDATE: This gentleman finally reappeared, paid and collected his equipment!

Takeaway

There are some in this world who struggle to do the right thing. My colleagues and I have a simple policy for dealing with people like this, placing them on our customer blacklist. I treat everyone kindly, professionally and respectfully, even the people in the examples above. They will, however, be unable to engage our services again.