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A job was quoted that requires two different crews at two different times to do. 1st part of job was complete, then invoiced. Second part of job isn't scheduled for another 5-6 weeks. Customer calls to complain that he got invoiced for the first portion of his job, some his comments:
I don't even know what this is, how can I pay this when I don't know what I'll be charged for the next part (If you subtract what was invoiced from what was quoted you know exactly what will be charged)
The quote only showed one price, it's illegal to send two bills unless the quote shows two prices for the different stages (No, no it's not, not even a little bit)
It's illegal to charge for work that isn't complete (We actually charged for the portion of the work that is complete, like it clearly says on the invoice)
Nobody else would ever bill for work done if the whole job wasn't complete (except for every other place I've worked, and most of the ones I've heard about)
I'm not paying anything until all the work is done.
The last one is the funniest. Total billed to date: $1400, total work left to complete and amount remaining to be billed $1100, time before we can't lien a house 30 days, time until the next portion will be ready, about 40 days, cost to lien a house, which is 100% included in the recovery fee unless the bill is paid in full before the 30 days is up about $900. The chance we are coming to do any more work without BOTH the bills (after this little stunt) being paid in full 0%
Congratulations on adding about 40% to your bill, or guaranteeing your work will never be finished unless you hire someone else (who will charge you more for taking over part way through the project) and then guaranteeing you can never sell or mortgage your house. Well thought out plan. If you hadn't screamed and yelled and been a dick on the phone we might have worked something out with you. And we won't be taking your suggestion that we should warn people on the quote that partial invoices might be made against a portion of the job completed, because no one else needs that warning, it's universally known by people who occasionally go outside and talk to others.
I don't even know what this is, how can I pay this when I don't know what I'll be charged for the next part (If you subtract what was invoiced from what was quoted you know exactly what will be charged)
The quote only showed one price, it's illegal to send two bills unless the quote shows two prices for the different stages (No, no it's not, not even a little bit)
It's illegal to charge for work that isn't complete (We actually charged for the portion of the work that is complete, like it clearly says on the invoice)
Nobody else would ever bill for work done if the whole job wasn't complete (except for every other place I've worked, and most of the ones I've heard about)
I'm not paying anything until all the work is done.
The last one is the funniest. Total billed to date: $1400, total work left to complete and amount remaining to be billed $1100, time before we can't lien a house 30 days, time until the next portion will be ready, about 40 days, cost to lien a house, which is 100% included in the recovery fee unless the bill is paid in full before the 30 days is up about $900. The chance we are coming to do any more work without BOTH the bills (after this little stunt) being paid in full 0%
Congratulations on adding about 40% to your bill, or guaranteeing your work will never be finished unless you hire someone else (who will charge you more for taking over part way through the project) and then guaranteeing you can never sell or mortgage your house. Well thought out plan. If you hadn't screamed and yelled and been a dick on the phone we might have worked something out with you. And we won't be taking your suggestion that we should warn people on the quote that partial invoices might be made against a portion of the job completed, because no one else needs that warning, it's universally known by people who occasionally go outside and talk to others.
So, it's not an actual lien. It's just a document saying that if the roofing company doesn't pay for the materials, the roofing vendor (for example, Convoy) will put a lien on the home. We have had vendors send these and we were current with our account. But they can send them out as long as the material has been delivered. It completely freaks out the homeowners, and is totally unnecessary. At least that's how we feel. Thankfully, my parent's company has a very solid history of payments, and only one place is still doing this. It's a small-ish metal roofing company, and they only do it if the job is very large. We did a job that was 100 sq, and they sent an intent to lien to that customer. I believe in that case we preemptively sent over a lien release form, which (I think) meant that if we (the roofing company) didn't pay the roofing vendor, the vendor could not put a lien on the customer's home. 
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