What would you do?

[Radio Bob]

I was doing contracting engineering for a station when all of a sudden they started ghosting me after running up a $2000 +bill. They Would not answer phones, e mail or texts. Six months later their remote control started calling me in the middle of the night to report it was off the air. I called and e mailed them even talked to another engineer that still worked for them telling him to take my phone number out of the remote. Calls continued I added an app that wouldn't answer from their number but the remote now fills up all of my voice mail blocking me from calls. I sent certified letters to the station owner, manager and former engineer demanding they program my number out of their remote but it still calls when something goes wrong and they don't answer it first at their studio. It's been over a year. What would you do to stop this?

 

[radiofan2023]

I was doing contracting engineering for a station when all of a sudden they started ghosting me after running up a $2000 +bill. They Would not answer phones, e mail or texts. Six months later their remote control started calling me in the middle of the night to report it was off the air. I called and e mailed them even talked to another engineer that still worked for them telling him to take my phone number out of the remote. Calls continued I added an app that wouldn't answer from their number but the remote now fills up all of my voice mail blocking me from calls. I sent certified letters to the station owner, manager and former engineer demanding they program my number out of their remote but it still calls when something goes wrong and they don't answer it first at their studio. It's been over a year. What would you do to stop this?

File a small claims suit for the money you’re owed & block the remote control number unless it comes up as unlisted/private. You could get a new number and add the cost, in terms of how much the time is worth that you spend getting the new number, to the small claims suit.

 

[midatlanticengineer]

I had a station that went three months without paying. After various emails, text and phone calls that netted zero results, I promptly informed them that if the total amount owed was not paid within 30 days, a lien was going to be placed on the station. Within 3 weeks, they paid in full and I then canceled the contract. No one needs to deal with that nonsense!

The point here is, do not let stations take advantage of you. Engineers do not work for charity and are not charity organizations. We have businesses to run, bills, taxes, insurance etc to pay and families to support. If stations look to skip out on engineers and or try to cheapen their rate, then those station need to look at what would happen if the station started having lots of down time or other technical issues due to the lack of engineers around to manage preventive maintenance and emergency calls.

Engineers that work for peanuts make it difficult for the rest of us that are trying to earn an honest living and are delivering a service that is worth its weight in the long run. Managers and accountants need to keep that in mind when they are trying to skip out on the engineer and or cheapen their service. Companies wonder why engineers are becoming short in supply, this would be one of the few reasons.

 

[fybush]

Most phone carriers these days have a way to block an incoming number completely. That's the first thing I would do in this situation.

As for bad clients, I have learned the hard way to be very careful who I take on. I now require cash in advance for the first service for most new clients, and it's amazing who suddenly finds a different way to get the job done when I make that request. It's a good sign that we wouldn't have had a good client-contractor relationship.

 

[dc2bluelight]

I was doing contracting engineering for a station when all of a sudden they started ghosting me after running up a $2000 +bill. They Would not answer phones, e mail or texts. Six months later their remote control started calling me in the middle of the night to report it was off the air. I called and e mailed them even talked to another engineer that still worked for them telling him to take my phone number out of the remote. Calls continued I added an app that wouldn't answer from their number but the remote now fills up all of my voice mail blocking me from calls. I sent certified letters to the station owner, manager and former engineer demanding they program my number out of their remote but it still calls when something goes wrong and they don't answer it first at their studio. It's been over a year. What would you do to stop this?

Block the number at your provider, and get that small claims suit going. I learned my lesson on this 3 decades ago when a client ran up a several-thousand dollar bill with no payment in sight. I refused to do any further work until paid. Instead of paying, he got angry at me. A couple years later when his next engineer worked for me also, he asked me about documentation on some of the work I did. I said sure, it'll cost him the amount owed to get it. Long>short, I never got it, and didn't file the suit. Should have.

But there's something to know about small claims, or really, any lawsuit. Winning isn't hard, collecting is. Just because you win doesn't mean you'll ever collect. That takes yet another legal action, and that too could be decided in your favor, to no avail. People don't just get thrown in jail for not paying up. Yeah, I know from experience, filed a small claims against a bad contractor. That doesn't mean you shouldn't take legal action, you should.

The lien is a very good idea. If they ever sell the station, you'll have to be paid for the sale to close. Again, though, caution: if anybody else files suit, and wins, or they file for bankruptcy, your lien places you in the position of being responsible in part for the companies debts as someone with a claimed interest in the company. Yeah, it can backfire, had that happen too. Same contractor I sued went bankrupt, and the next thing I know I get served papers as part of debt collection against them. I vacated the lien as fast as I could, and got out of it before the case started. So when you find out how to place the lien, also find out how to vacate the lien, and do so quickly if the station gets into an deeper trouble you don't want to be part of.

Get legal advise on all of this. It's worth 20 minutes of consultation time. Debt collectors take half, but that's sometimes better than nothing. Sometimes a 30 day demand letter from a law firm is enough to scare the money out of them.

And do your engineering community a favor and warn others off of them before they get in too deep too.

 

[The Beat]

Never let them build up a tab. It won't get paid. One month past due. 15th of next month = service over.

 

[exdjted]

I was doing contracting engineering for a station when all of a sudden they started ghosting me after running up a $2000 +bill. They Would not answer phones, e mail or texts. Six months later their remote control started calling me in the middle of the night to report it was off the air. I called and e mailed them even talked to another engineer that still worked for them telling him to take my phone number out of the remote. Calls continued I added an app that wouldn't answer from their number but the remote now fills up all of my voice mail blocking me from calls. I sent certified letters to the station owner, manager and former engineer demanding they program my number out of their remote but it still calls when something goes wrong and they don't answer it first at their studio. It's been over a year. What would you do to stop this?

Depending on where you are, I bet a lot of us could guess WHO the bad owner is. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them.

 

[dc2bluelight]

Never let them build up a tab. It won't get paid. One month past due. 15th of next month = service over.

Works for most. Doesn't work for educational/non-coms. Try 60-90 as routine. But at least they pay.

 

[Radio Bob]

Was the Tampa area