My company accepts payment via worlpay, cheque, bank transfer or postal order. Originally we could not accept payment via credit card so in order to keep customers using us, those paying by cheque had 10 days to pay and their account was opened instantly.
11 days ago i set up a clients account, they are running a small ikonboard on their site etc. CGI went down partially for a day or 2 due to low memory on the server and we had 2 upgrade. This guy was the only one of my customers to complain saying "i hope you get it sorted quickly" after me saying several times that it would be done in the next 48 hours.
He has sent a few emails saying i will send payment as soon as possible but as i said its been 11 days and i still havent received anything from him, and i am getting suspicious that he doesnt actually have the money to pay.
I want to email him with a pay up kind of notice but i dont know how 2 say it in a way that doesnt sound too rude.
Also just after the cghi incident i received a bad review on findsp.com from anonymous and i suspect that it is from him as i have had no complaints from other customers, who have all made good comments about my company.
What shall i do?

Send him a simple email stating "You're XX days past due. In order for your service to continue we need payment by $DATE. If we do not have payment by $DATE your service will be suspended."

You don't need to keep the extra baggage. If he doesn't pay dump him. Plain and simple.

Bend over backwards now to see if its possible to fix the situation.

I would send him a very nice email....something to the nature of

I was just following up on your payment as I haven't received it as of <date>. I just wanted to make sure it hasn't gotten lost in the mail. Please advise if it has been sent. If not, please advise when you will remit payment, so we can avoid any possible interruption of your service. (Note: I now have my credit card processing setup if that would be more convenient). Again, I apologize for the problems earlier and hope you found the resolution satisfactory. For the inconvenience, I am not charging you for the first <five/ten> days, so your effective start date of service is <date>. If I can be of further assistance, do not hesitate to contact me at xxx@xxx.com

There are some very good related ideas in this thread: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43194

I agree with Incognito... ;)

But if payment is not received, then I would follow up after a few days with another email politely stating a definite cut-off date. Something like:

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I am disappointed that you have not responded to my last email dated April 19, 2002. When I set-up your account up on April XX, it was with the understanding that payment would be received within 10 days.

While I value your business, the server and bandwidth that your site is using does cost me money on a daily basis. Therefore, if I do not receive the agreed upon amount of $ XX.XX by April XX, 2002 then you will force me to suspend your account.

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Then if payment is not received, follow through and suspend the account. If you don't, then you will lose your credibility. Then the customer won't respect you and will never believe another word you say.

Just my two cents...

Thanks Guys :D

incident i received a bad review on findsp.com from anonymous
a lot of good hosting companies recieved bad review from hostsearch also don't worry much about it but i think anonymous review should not allow, i don't know why findsp allow it. and if you worry about the review post the reply in reivew explain every thing or you may post findsp banner in your web and let your user review your service (if your user is satisfy)
this may help
monchai a.