Hi, all -

I have a customer who I had originally had set up on a paypal subscription for his Web hosting.

The problem is his subscription charge was rejected three times by Paypal (probably for insufficient funds) just close to Christmas, so his subscription was cancelled.

After trying to get a hold of him for a while, he finally e-mailed me today, wanting to pay with a cheque for the outstanding balance (around $20).

He's only been a customer for 3 months, and I haven't taken cheques from anyone before. Should I accept the cheque from this guy? What would the best was to deal with this customer in your opinion?

thanks,
Neil

If he has had three checks rejected by Paypal, would you really consider taking the chance they wouldn't? I'm sorry, but this is not the place for you to start accepting checks.

I would say yes. It's only $20 and I assume the actual cost for hosting him is much lower. I mean what is the maximum loss you can do/already have done?

Compare that to what you can loose if you turn him down, I mean this is one way to please a customer and one of the things that could turn him to a really longterm client of yours.

What about going forward? Is he going pay by check, paypal or CC?

The problem with checks is that people forget to send them (or use it as an excuse to delay paying).

Thanks for your input!

I've decided to say "no" to this client. My thinking was it'd be different if his payment history was good, and he just wanted to switch over to cheque payments instead.

I would have still insisted on advance payment only - three, six, or twelve months in advance, if only because as Jaiem mentioned, it'd become a HUGE hassle to collect from him every month.

Plus, I don't want the hassle of having to deal with a bounced cheque - all in all, I'm a small operation and can't afford to keep chasing after clients for payment...

For what it's worth, YMMV.

Neil