"We've decided not to pay you this week."

[Athaelia]

I told her (my wife) later on that she should have said Junior could come back, but only at double the previous rate.

Double the previous rate, due in full *before* childcare services are rendered..

[Blade_Raver]

Charge $200/week, don't let the kid in until the week's money has been paid in advance.
Don't like it? See ya in small claims court for the $100 you owe me!

[LuckIsOnMySide]

There's no doubt in my mind that your wife did the right thing, if she were to let one thing like this slide then it would just escalate further down the line.

Also, if your SC had used the whole 'if you value me as a customer' bullshit on me, I would have straight up punched her in the face... not that I condone violence against women, of course .

[Clover]

If you had some sort of written agreement, I'd take that moron to court. That's part of why I don't babysit anymore-I got screwed over by a woman (as a kid, no less!) when she decided she didn't want to pay me and didn't give me a dime for watching her screaming bundles of terror for hours. Needless to say I never babysat for her again, which she whined about, but my mom took my side. That woman needs to be slapped-oh, it'll terribly inconvenience you? Well it terribly inconveniences us when we can't pay our bills because cheapskate idiots like you don't pay up what you owe!

Man. I probably would have done something worthy of assault charges if she fed me that line about 'valued customer' and taking it with a smile. Howabout you take a flamethrower to the face with a smile, you cheap bitch!

It's particularly unbelievable because she put her child's welfare at stake. Do you know how some people, particularly in lower-class communities, would react to someone withholding payment from them and expecting them to take care of their child again? At the very best, they'd call CPS after the child was dropped off and say that some lady had left a child on her doorstep, would you come pick him up? At worst, she'd never see her kid again.

[PepperElf]

Personally when she starts whining about her kid crying....

"YOU ARE A THIEF - hiding behind your child and your finances will not make you less of a thief. If you refuse to pay I WILL call the police and let them know that you're refusing to pay and threatening my business for daring to ask you to pay what you promised."


I mean really... even if you can't do a court case you can still file charges of theft. no?


and ... if not, i'd say it can't hurt to at least look at what the small court fee is... and whether or not you can stiff the bitch with the fees.

I'd say judge judy or the likes but... i'm not sure if ms. bitch would want the nation to see how entitled she is. ... or hey who knows. sometimes people ARE that stupid...

[underemployeed]

I guess it is one thing to ask to defer payment for a week or two, if you ask really really nicely. It sucks being paid net 14, which is what I am on right now. Good for your wife, like everyone else has said that woman was just going to be trouble. If you don't already have some form of a contract it might not hurt to get one because it would be best to prevent this from happening again. Funny how people think a business will just eat the cost since they are such a good customer, that isn't to say we don't go to places often and have them OFFER something free because we in all the time, but we don't ask.

[manybellsdown]

I've been on both sides of this issue. I worked for a wonderful preschool that fired parents all the time. They'd come in complaining about our prices (which were lower than anything else, since we were affiliated with the YMCA), or one of our polices, and the director would pull out a big notebook and say "You're free to take your child elsewhere. This is my waiting list." People would put their child on the list before it was even BORN.

Then one time I had a lady caring for my daughter in her home. It went well until the week she just ... wasn't home. She vanished. For a week. Without telling me. So naturally I assumed I'd been ditched and found alternate care. The next week the woman's mother showed up at my office SCREAMING that I owed her daughter money and she was going to sue me. Uhh ... I'd have paid your daughter if I could have FOUND her, lady!

[EricKei]

I'd say judge judy or the likes but... i'm not sure if ms. bitch would want the nation to see how entitled she is. ... or hey who knows. sometimes people ARE that stupid...

"Court shows" would not exist without them ^_^ Those shows have good and bad to them.

The bad:

- It's Arbitration. These are not sitting/elected Judges, they're mostly former Judges. They are paid Arbitrators who are effectively hired to assess the merits of each case
- The applicable laws are wherever the show is shot (usually NYC), regardless of where you live.
- Taking a case to them means that their decision is final, no appeals, no taking up a case in "normal" court over these matters, period.
- You have to deal with someone like Judge Judy Have your papers in order ^_^;>

The good (assuming they want you on the show):

- They fly/transport you to the studio and put you up in a hotel
- Much quicker than the real thing (tho the shows are heavily edited, I presume)
- They actually work on a "money in the pot" system -- AFAIK, they have a pile of money for each case, I think it's something like 5 grand per case these days. If nobody wins a case, each side gets $2500. If one side wins (or each gets a partial victory due to a Counterclaim), their Claim's amount goes to the winner(s), and the difference is split between them. Presumably, any applicable Costs are taken off of the top, as well. So, technically, it doesn't actually cost the participants anything to do these shows, and this is why they have a strict limit on the amounts involved. In this case, if you filed suit and won for $100, you would get $1300 and the woman would get $1200.

[Raerlynn]

I would bet the reason she did it is because she figures since it's an in-home daycare it's not a REAL daycare with REAL lawyers attached, and figured she could push your wife around. Good on her for showing her the road.

[dbuzman]

If there is a contract of some kind can't the op sell the debt to a collection agency? That might be way worse than small claims court.

[sweetj82]

My babysitter and I have a deal. The week i pay my mortgage I pay her half and than the folowing week i make it up.

She had to tell her DIL that if she didnt pay a certain amount by a certain date he would no longer take the kids. She owed the babysitter over $700. They didnt pay so when they showed up that monday the babysitter told her to hit the road.

[Sapphire Silk]

If there is a contract of some kind can't the op sell the debt to a collection agency? That might be way worse than small claims court.

Depends on the state.

In California, creditors can charge interest on debt, and you have to pay it. It can really run the bill up quick. Vulture debt collectors love this kind of debt because it is pure profit (they pay pennies on the dollar to the original creditor).

In North Carolina, you owe what you owe. The creditor can do little to you other than take you to court, and the system is not friendly to small amounts of debt like that. Small debts usually get charged off as uncollectible.

And if this lady is already in "tight finances", she's probably already being harassed by debt collectors looking for far larger sums than $100.

[MadMike]

$100 a week? I paid more than that for my son, and that was roughly 15 years ago.

[Binky]

wow! What a cow! Sounds like the lady that owed me 3 weeks pay, and when confronted told me that she only discussed invoices being done once a week, not pay...so apparently I was meant to work without pay till she decided to pay me.

Your wife did the right thing! Good on her!

[Dreamstalker]

I would bet the reason she did it is because she figures since it's an in-home daycare it's not a REAL daycare with REAL lawyers attached, and figured she could push your wife around.

I've gotten that attitude from a few "clients" who figured that since I was just one person and not a real computer shop/petsitting business then they could dick me around. Since I've started leaving official-looking invoices that's stopped for the most part.