Predicament
My business is starting to take off, it’s still a month or two away from being fully set up, but I’m well on my way.
And so I have been looking towards the future.
A big concern of mine is non-paying customers, I hope I never have one, but let’s face it, it will probably happen sooner or later. I do some work for someone, fix their computer and they refuse to pay for it, what do I do?
There are ways to sort out problems like this, obviously taking them to court is one option, but the amount of time and effort involved in following up problems in such a manner may not be worth it.
I came up with an idea.
You geeks are not going to like it, but the businessmen would love it.
I install a small piece of software on every computer I fix, it remains unseen by the user and sits dormant on their hard drive for 2 weeks, 99% of customers will have paid me within a week and when they do I make the piece of software I installed delete itself via the internet. For the customers who have not paid, the software remains on their computer.
After 2 weeks the program I installed runs and opens a window asking them to contact me due to them not paying for their service yet. This message remains on the screen until I tell the software to stop via the internet after they have paid their bill.
The equivalent of having your phone line or electricity cut off, you just have your computer “cut off”, an obvious incentive for the customer to pay their bill, so they can use their computer again.
I can hear the screams now!!
“You can’t do that!”, “Just as bad as M$”, “it’s like DRM”, “invasion of privacy”
But put yourself in my position, they have already used your service and are refusing to pay, basically stealing.
What if they cannot pay? Then perhaps they should not have asked for the service in the first place?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to implement anything like this in my business.
I believe it would just cause problems and turn customers away from me, but it made me think a lot, question my values and most of all, I saw from Microsoft’s point of view.I understood why they put digital rights management and other annoying anti-piracy functions in their programs.
I still think they do it in a very bad way, (only yesterday DRM put my mum off ever buying music downloads just because of the hassle and time it took to put a free mp3 she won onto her mobile), but I can see why they have to do it, it’s all a numbers game.
The percentage of people who have no trouble with DRM and anti-piracy is large, which equals a lot of people, they don’t mind it and they don’t mind paying for Microsoft’s products.
(This may be partly because they don’t realise that there are open source alternatives, but that is for another day)
My business is only small, and it’s not going to reach anywhere near the size when problems like that would become a regular issue anytime soon, but it’s interesting to think about the future.
If you are gonna take a dig at DRM, surely Apple should be the first target? Keeping a closed DRM technology for the majority of MP3 (sorry, iPods) players.
I have never understood why people spend money on iTunes - 3 years and £200 on music later, iPods aren’t popular anymore - I want another music payer, but have to right off that £200 of music. Yeah, I could burn CD’s and re-rip them, but thats involves circumventing copyright which isn’t what these companies want to encourage.
At least Microsoft licence thier DRM technology to others. With WM DRM, I can at least choose devices from multiple providers.
Chris on June 27, 2006 8:45 am
What I was trying to say was that I understand why companies use DRM.
I still think that nearly every use of it is flawed, but they are just trying to protect their interests.
Apple is a hardware company first, a software company second and a music store third, I completely understand why they want people to only use their products with their store, but I also know how frustrating that fact can be. I’ve only ever bought 4 songs from itunes so its not so much of an issue for me.
I tend to buy the cd and get drm-free mp3s, although in the future I may use Allofmp3.com unless it gets shut down!
Andrew on June 27, 2006 9:48 am
You have two errors on ur links page.
1. Call to undefined function: expand_comment_div() in /home/.jerold/teabass/teabass.com/wp-content/themes/TeaBass/page.php on line 39
2. Im not listed
I stay as far away as I can from DRM protected stuff because it gets annoying when it claims I have to pay and I have already. (I actually did encounter this once)
Daniel Swiecki on June 27, 2006 3:19 pm
I think that your idea is actually quite brilliant. Sure, some could argue that it’s invasion of privacy and all.
I say, have them sign some sort of documentation when you first accept their project. Put in print (could be small, could be normal sized) what you would be doing to assure yourself that you get paid. That way, people are informed on what you are doing to their computer. If they don’t like it, you can tell them they agreed to it at the beginning.
Yes, this does sound evil. But hey, you have to protect yourself somehow.
adam on June 27, 2006 3:57 pm
Actually, it would count as spyware, and thus law might be a problem with this implementation…
stabani on June 27, 2006 5:11 pm
I don’t believe, with the consent of the customer, that it would be spyware.
Like adam said, as long as I inform the customer what I’m doing it and they agree then there would not be any problems.
It was just a thought really, nothing more, but interesting to ponder.
Andrew on June 27, 2006 7:37 pm
Dan, you must have look during the 50 seconds or so when i was messing with a plugin on the front page, that error was fixed pretty quickly
Andrew on June 27, 2006 7:38 pm
That would explain why its still there eh Andrew?
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: expand_comment_div() in /home/.jerold/teabass/teabass.com/wp-content/themes/TeaBass/page.php on line 39
Its on the links page btw.
Btw what is the name of the annoying plugins you use which 1: censor certain words
2: change I’m into im and tell you what an im is.
Daniel Swiecki on June 27, 2006 9:15 pm
Ah, I’ve fixed it now, they links page is not finished yet, i just dumped all the links i had on fishbitt on a copy of the index page.
I’ve still to sort them into any kind of meaningful lists yet
That plugin is called acronym replacer, i find it quite useful but if you dont put a ‘ in im then it thinks you mean instant messenger.
There is a seperate plugin to block certain swear words too.
Andrew on June 27, 2006 9:21 pm
Aha! I have downloaded them both. Much Thanks.
Dan on June 27, 2006 9:56 pm
hmmmm…the left hand side of the page seems to be missing in both firefox and explorer. are there some settings i have to change? my knowledge of computers is somewhat lacking.
also, could you please tell me where to find the gravatar plug-in?
cheers
Danny on June 28, 2006 10:46 am
Gravitar plguin here: http://www.gravatar.com/implement.php#section_2_2
what screen resoultion do you have danny? 800×600?
I need to make the whole site a litte bit thinner as it does not all fit on screens that size, and unfortunatly there is no scroll bar, I’ll sort this out later today.
Andrew on June 28, 2006 10:50 am
yes, i was using 800×600. it works just fine at 1024×768, thanks.
thanks for the gravatar link, i’ll see if i can add that to my very amateurish site.
cheers.
Danny on June 28, 2006 1:31 pm
Hello, well if you are going to do this properly and run your business the right way then i guess you will be submitting and paying your taxes for your business. If that is the case then you should be giving your customers a reciept for your services and make them sign the reciept too. A 2 or 3 sheet reciept book that does carbon copies, giving one copy to the customer and keeping a copy for your self. That way you have your customers bang to rights if they don’t pay, also it is the only way if you are serious about running your business professionally.
I hope that helps.
Nick.
Nick on June 28, 2006 8:00 pm
Test post.
With ‘ between the words: I’m
Without between the words: Im
Censor test: crap
nitro2k01 on June 29, 2006 10:40 am
Nice try Nitro, but crap is not in the list of bad words!!
Thanks for that reminder nick, I will be doing tax etc once it is fully set up (at the moment I\’m working out of my mums dinning room) that will make it much easier, but just becaused they signed saying they will pay doesn\’t mean they will pay, and that could take some time and effort to go through the motions to get them to pay, this idea would provide them a bit more of an incentive to pay.
Andrew on June 29, 2006 10:56 am
I’m glad you were only pondering it
I was a little shocked at the thought you might actually be installing spyware ;). I do see your point thought but I do feel that it is something you will have to learn to expect. It is just part of running a business. Sounds like its building up though, well done!
MikeD on June 29, 2006 11:15 am
Oh I was meant to say, even with their consent you would have to design the software properly as to not leave their computer open! And ethically you would need to explain to them that you are installing such software, not just leaving it in fine print, but thats just me!
MikeD on June 29, 2006 11:17 am
I don’t think I could ever implement something like that, I know that I would hate it, and I’m trying to run my business in a very user friendly way. Like i said, it was just a thought, as are most things that will be on this site.
Andrew on June 29, 2006 11:33 am
What did I learn from my test post? Since crap isn’t on the censor list on TB, not much. I’m pretty sure it was on FB though. But I did learn that Gravatar is case-sensitive when it comes to e-mail addys.
A new test: Fuck fuck
nitro2k01 on June 29, 2006 12:50 pm
i guess the fword is not on the censor list either.
stabani on June 29, 2006 2:00 pm
oops, I had it turned off!!
You can find the plugin here: http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2004/12/1/polite-ifier-wp-plugin/
Fuck
Andrew on June 29, 2006 2:04 pm
lol, looks like nitro found a way of getting round the bad word filter, i’m not too bothered, if you feel the need to use bad words then go for it.
I’ll delete/censor anything if i find it particually offensive.
Andrew on June 29, 2006 2:06 pm
What you could do is to liason with debt collection agency. You might ask..”don’t i have to ppay the fees?” Well, maybe. But as far as i know. if you write on your invoice, in small writing, that you all debt collection fees is liable to the client, then cost to your client when the debt collectors call at their house.
in addition they might get blacklisted in companies like Baycorp.
Software is not a way to go. They can just ignore it.
weiyen on June 29, 2006 11:35 pm
if microsoft can’t get away with it when they find pirate copies of their own software via WGA you’re unlikely to be able to get away with preventing people from using their legitimately owned equipment, even if you are the one who fixed it…
even if you got them to sign a contract which said they forfeited their kit, as it breaks their rights under statute… in fact I’m pretty sure that kind of activity wouldn’t even be considered a civil dispute, it would likely lead to criminal charges.
Steve S on July 4, 2006 11:11 pm