Posted by Mike Photon on 10/25/06 2:21pm
Msg #154932

New SS name, do you accept?

Curious. If some ss calls you for an assignment and agrees to your fee, do you accept if you have never heard of them?
I have recently got a call from some SS, whom I've never heard of and quoted me 50. I laughed and told him my fee, which is more than double their offer. Without any resistence he agreed. I declined because I felt he had no intention to pay me and he would agree to a thousand bucks to get the job done. When I got to my computer I looked them up and I'm glad I declined. There is no way I'd have seen a red cent.
So the question is if you don't recognize the name do you ask them to wait till you get to your computer and do your research, or do you accept it anyway and after research call them to decline?

Reply by SueW/Tn on 10/25/06 2:27pm
Msg #154935

Hi Mike

For me this month brought an awful lot of "new" companies my way. I read all that I can and IF I see that a specific company's name comes up too often I keep it fresh in my mind. One or two can have a problem while the majority do not for a number of reasons. Poor performance, not following directions...any number of things can make payment late and I can't recall a single time when someone said "I didn't ship in the correct envelope" or "I missed a sig and they refused to pay me". Lots of reasons for late payment and it's not always the other guy's fault. As my Dad was fond of saying "they can't all be wrong". So I'll take a chance on most but wouldn't think of contracting to a company who is on the boards daily for non-payment. I have never been left holding the bag, I have been very fortunate in being paid by all that I've done business with.

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 10/26/06 4:02am
Msg #155115

I'm with Sue ... all my friends were strangers once ..

When I get a call from someone I never heard of before, my first reaction IS NOT "oh oh they might not pay me!" I come from the complete opposite side of that perspective. The world (well, MY world) is not full of dogs just waiting for the chance to bite me.

Sue gives some great advice here - I totally agree with her about taking pymt info posted on boards with a grain of salt. If it's widespread and on-going, that's a smaller grain of salt perhaps.

For those very few companies that fall into the "notorious" category - shame on ME if ever I fall for that, and I have yet to.

Reply by Teddog/CO on 10/25/06 2:29pm
Msg #154936

If it's not to late in the day I will accept the job , then research it. Late in the day do the research while their on the phone or just ask them how long they've been business. Sad to say you get to know most of the bad ones by heart, no look up necessary. By the way it's not just SS anymore.

Reply by LauriecPA on 10/25/06 3:04pm
Msg #154940

If I'm on the road and a co. I never heard of calls, I accept, then call later if I read too many negative things about them. I have been polite, but did let them know why I was changing my mind. It's always funny the way they say "Really? I'm surprised, we've never had any problems before."

Reply by MichiganAl on 10/25/06 4:26pm
Msg #154957

If you had a gut feeling in talking with them, then only you can determine if you're going to take the signing or not. But if I've never heard of them, I'll take the assignment, and the second I can look them up, I will. I don't feel the least bit bad about calling back the SS that stiffs it's agents and telling them I'm declining the signing due to their payment issues.