I'm sorry to bring up another personal business issue, but I just feel like I don't have any where to turn. If this is against the forum rules or might be an issue I will not post about my business issues . There is a clothing manufacturer using our ERP software. The owner knows my father the founder and got an extreme discounted monthly rate for the whole company ($100 for their whole company...). We particularly lose money and they take full advantage of it and I can't justify supporting their company without collecting those measly $100 dollars per month. As we have tons of other customers that need support that are paying on time and at the full rate. My account department just told me they haven't paid for 2 Years (I thought there was some missing payments here and there I did not know they consistently didn't pay, this wasn't the first I had to talk to them about payment issues) I am at my our overseas office which is in the same country as one of his vendors. We had trained the factory on 3 different occasions over 6 Hours to make labels for their sample clothing and they seem to be playing roulette with who gets the training. My staff told me they do not comprehend mapping database columns to the label textfields. (all 6 hours was billed, only 1 hour was payed for) (The usual training for this is one time training for 1 Hour and to save $ and time for our clients we inform them that one staff should train the other employees) I sent an email addressing the payment issues and training. The owner sends another email directed at my father. I send one back, apologizing that we can't afford the time to do this without addressing the balancing issues and whether their staff is capable. He called me absurd and told me to talk to my 'father' before I write these emails. I've been doing this for over 10 years and this isn't the first time I had accounting issues with a client. I've never had someone approach me like this. For some reason its bothering me and causing me to have a heavy heart and I just want an outside opinion about my response. Me We need to take care of the standing balance you have with us. Also we need to confirm what we are actually training your staff because we already spent 5 hours (which only 1 hour was paid for) which is unusual for bartender training. I can’t have my staff repeatedly train on the same thing and without getting payment. This is taking our time from other projects and support issues. I apologize but we have projects pending during my limited time here in Chennai that I intend to complete . I can’t justify going there without coming to an agreement on your balance. Please let the Factory know that time is billed and training needs to be taken in a serious manner. We have already created one label for you and submitted to your factory in addition to your training. Owner This is nonsense have you dad call me I am in India now I told him to go to the office in NY and speak to Ashok Absurd way to deal with a customer I have known your dad For 30 years is this the way you talk to your customers
I don't think your viewpoint is necessarily wrong Loon3y, but I would guess that if you've had billing issues with him before that leading off the email by mentioning that outstanding balance probably put the guy in defensive mode. I'm sure he has a lot of pride and even though it is your job and right to collect payment, it just rubbed him the wrong way. It can be difficult with international business, but I would recommend trying to connect on a phone call, swallow a little pride and apologize for how the email came across, but re-explain your position. Again, I don't believe you're in the wrong, but i deal with paper tigers via email a lot and there's the dynamic of them interpreting emails in a more hostile manner than intended. A lot of times these sorts of people soften their stance when they can't hide behind a keyboard.
