# Rec 35% Deposit but client stalling signing contract



## La Jolie Chef (Jun 22, 2018)

Client paid $200 nonrefundable deposit to book date a month ago and just sent 35% deposit of $650 . I have asked multiple times for her to sign contract. They are stalling. Suggestions? Gig is sit down dinner Xmas day 

La Jolie Chef


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

Send them the $650 back certified mail signature requested with a letter saying that without a signed contract you cannot do business with them.

People like this likely will try and screw you out of the final payment and without a signed contract it will be difficult to collect.

Better yet I would return the $850 and tell them you aren't interested. Save yourself a lot of grief.


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

I agree and have learned the hard way that even having a signed contract and winning a claims case doesn't guarantee any payment. If you are this close to the party date and no contract then I would cut my losses as well.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Must agree, theyre pulling something, and have possibly done it before. And if they HAVE your contract in their hands, and wont sign, thats even more conclusive to me. 
As to the stalling, I suspect its more like gettingyou to do the dinner before youre fully paid, 
which you never will be. 
The only safeguard for this is a signed contract, in which its stated all moneys to be paid in full 
minimum 3, but average 7 days prior to the event. Failure to do so forfeits your obligation, and all refundable portions will be returned. 
I know how hard it is to walk away from a potentially paying gig, especially at holiday time. 
But sooner or later, youre gonna decide you need to do business with people
on YOUR terms, not on their self serving ones. Hopefully youll adopt this policy now, 
before you learn by getting ripped off a few times. I think most of us here wouldnt touch this at this point, and even if you do, IMO they cant be trusted for reputable referrals anyway. The disadvanteges out weigh.... you know. 
Inform them youre refunding, (and since you have no contract you may want to consider refunding all of it, ) that youre releasing their date to the next client, and that they are in violation of your booking, contracting and payment policies, or, whatever.


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

There is a reason why she isn't signing the contract. Call her and ask what her concerns are. Address the concerns and put her mind at ease. I would bet because it's a Holiday meal she maybe having problems with the head count. She's trying to cover her ass, hand her a blanket. Catering is a two way street, right now it's only a OneWay street..... ChefBillyB


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Well I believe this has been resolved to a degree (see HalBs profile page) but good point
Chef Billy about the head count. If that did end up being the case, if a potential client
was genuinely worried about having a guaranteed count, there are ways to compromise.
One is to tell them you'll allow a 20 percent per head reduction on the under count figure, 
but you'll charge 20 percent more per head for anyone over the count,
This way, neither of you gets arse bit fully.

For example, if client guarantees 50 ppl at 20.00 per person, but only gets 40 show up,
she only loses 160.00 instead of the full 200, and the caterer still benefits from the guaranteed 
count (to cover the food, labor etc.) (10 x 20.00 =200.00 minus 20% = 160.00)

Conversely, if 210 show up, she pays 24.00 per person, or an extra 240.00. Which is only fair.
(20.00 x 1.2 = 24.00 x 10 = 240.00)

You can also write this into your price without anyone being the wiser.
Anyway, that's one way.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

meezenplaz said:


> Well I believe this has been resolved to a degree (see HalBs profile page)


Wow, thanks for the heads up. I don't know how you knew to look there, I had no idea someone could post there. And why did they instead of here?

With people starting topics in "conversations" (which is really PM) and now this, this board doesn't cease to amaze me. It looks like keeping posts and topics within the forums for everybody to see is something the admins need to work on.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

halb said:


> I don't know how you knew to look there


left click the 3 bars next to the cheftalk icon
under what's new, scroll down to latest activity & left click
shows posts, messages, likes, media additions, etc. etc. etc.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Well, posting on someones profile page can also be mistaken for 
PMing, under the new system it's kinda easy to do.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

cheflayne said:


> left click the 3 bars next to the cheftalk icon
> under what's new, scroll down to latest activity & left click
> shows posts, messages, likes, media additions, etc. etc. etc.


My head hurts!

I see that if you hover on someones avatar you can "start a conversation" and if you click you bring up their profile page where you can also leave a message.

And you wonder why people get confused!

"Start a conversation" needs to be changed to "send a PM" because everybody should know what that means. Posting on a profile page needs to be removed. It serves no purpose. If you want to send a message to a member, send a PM. All I have as far as posts to my profile page is 12 pages of spam.

And all replies to a thread need to be posted in the thread for all to see. There could have been side conversations going on in any of these two places making the original topic useless. If somebody does get a reply to a post sent to them via PM it would be proper to ask the sender to repost it as a reply to the topic.

I don't think this was intentional on the part of the OP either, it's just too easy to get lost here.

ETA: I notice that if I enter the board at the main page instead of new posts I see my latest profile posts displayed on the right.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

here are examples of what clicking on latest activity brings up, even if you are not logged in
makes it easier to see what has been going on
i can just click on what I want to see without having to go to different forums, check messages, etc,

fatcook reacted to butzy's post in the thread December Cooking Challenge 2019 -- Cured Meats with Like.

sgsvirgil replied to the thread Olive Oil - real, fake, or...?.

cheflayne added the media item DinnerDec172019.jpg to Example Category.

Sabrina Wilson left a message on halb's profile.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

But that doesn't address the problem of replies to threads being posted in other places instead of the original thread. 

A few weeks ago I was part of a whole thread going on with several participants in "conversations" presumably because the original poster stumbled upon and mistook "Start Conversation" for (what should be called) Create a New Topic. It was only after I realized that the reason I couldn't find the topic in the regular forums was that it was never a regular topic which would be shared with all members.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

halb said:


> But that doesn't address the problem of replies to threads being posted in other places instead of the original thread.


I can do nothing about that problem other than make it not a problem for me. So I don't spin my wheels or time on it. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

cheflayne said:


> I can do nothing about that problem...


I wasn't suggesting that you could. I was only commenting on your workaround to a problem that shouldn't be a problem to begin with.

Navigating, reading and posting on this board shouldn't be a puzzle.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

halb said:


> I wasn't suggesting that you could.


I was merely expressing my philosophy on dealing with all the "shouldn't be" situations that crop up as I go about my daily life.


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