Dear Mr Mega Corp President,
Regarding: Your recent letter dictating what terms you will (or won't) pay us on.
1st off, I am at a loss as to why you are writing to me except possibly as "fair warning." We have no business relationship with Mega Corp, and have no history with Mega Corp either as a vendor or as a client. You can not even claim that we have an assumed contract or agreement because of a previous relationship with Pervious Mega Corp or Prior Mega Corp when they occupied your locations in our small town as we cancelled their service and terminated our relationship with them due to similar policies and the resulting affects it had on their account with us, and how it conflicted with our policies.We are a small locally owned contractor. Our terms are:
Recurring Services:
Payment is due on or before the first day of the period for which it covers. If not received in our office by the fifth day penalties (not interest) are charged and the client is no longer considered in good standing or as having a good history with us.
Maintenance & Repairs:
Labor and materials due upon completion. A grace period of upto seven days may be allowed for clients with an established relationship and history of prompt payment.
Contracting For Smaller Jobs:
1/3 down1/3 when equipment is delivered to site before work begins
Balance upon substantial completion.
Contracting for Larger Jobs:
Progressive payments as set by us and in no circumstances to allow for a lower relative payment than with payment for small jobs.
We never accept any preconditions to work or service after a service has been provided, work has begun, materials have been delivered, or a contract has been signed. We don't care what anybody else does. This is our policy.
We are very much aware of the policy of larger contractors to try and do business on the backs of smaller contractors, but we simply do not work for people like that. It does limit our client pool, but we are able to provide a better quality of service to our customers by not letting others dictate terms to our company. Why should our good customers suffer because of others who demand exceptional terms.
I would also like to point out that you have equipment on your current sites that is either not functioning, or is transmitting data to us at our expense. The former needs to be rectified for your benefit, and the latter needs to be rectified to prevent legal problems. If you need to have our assistance to rectify these situations or to allow you to have somebody else rectify these situations we can give you an estimate of charges and will expect payment before we begin work as we have no established relationship of any kind.
Based on the last two letters received from your company we do not see how we can currently provide ANY services for you. I hope you understand that this is a set of policies and conditions that has kept us in business in Yuma for more than fifteen years inspite of many companies we have dealt with over the years who are no longer here. The "we are big and important you are little and unimportant" mentatilty just doesn't work with us. We understand that there are other companies that may be will to acceed to your terms, and we understand if we do not get your business.
Sincerely,
Small business owner surviving yet another recession and still paying his bills.