by Nancy Seiverd | Sep 9, 2020 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’ve been reading your column for a long time and I can’t believe I’m actually writing to you. But here I am and I’ve got a big problem. As the credit and collection manager for a small wholesale distributor (there are only six of us at the company), it...
by Nancy Seiverd | Jul 14, 2020 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’m the accounting and credit manager at a mid-sized shipping company and over the past few months, almost all the staff are working from home. In view of keeping safe and well, working remotely has been both a blessing and a curse. I have three teenage...
by Nancy Seiverd | May 12, 2020 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, As the credit manager at a small tools manufacturing and distribution company of 50 employees, we’ve been closed since April 1st and it looks like we’re going to be closed for the rest of May. Fortunately, during this time our company has continued to pay...
by Nancy Seiverd | Jan 7, 2020 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, Another year has passed by quickly and I’m looking towards this new year with hope and promise. As the credit and collection manager at a small company, my work is always very busy, which I generally love. I especially feel good when I can support...
by Nancy Seiverd | Oct 8, 2019 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I can’t believe I’m actually writing to you but glad you’re there to give me some badly needed advice. Our company is on the east coast and about one year ago we sent a claim for $25K to a collection attorney on the west coast, nearby the debtor. From the...
by Nancy Seiverd | Aug 13, 2019 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’ve been the person in charge of credit at my company (over 200 employees) for the past two years, and I’m the third credit professional in the last eight years to have this position. I found out that the turnover was rather high (they left on their own)...
by Nancy Seiverd | Jun 19, 2019 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I work at a mid-size company of about 150 employees and I’m part of a team of four collectors. I’ve been working at my company for over fifteen years and I have the title, Senior Collector. Over the past few months I’ve noticed that I’m getting more...
by Nancy Seiverd | Apr 17, 2019 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’m the accounting manager at a small wholesaler and like many small companies, we have just a handful of clients. Although there’s the general formula that 20% of your clients make up 80% of your sales, in our case we have one client that makes up 80% of...
by Nancy Seiverd | Feb 18, 2019 | Dear Crabby
Our company is a small business with about thirty employees and I have been there about five years as the person in charge of collections. After I arrived, I inherited a long time customer who always had a very up and down payment record with us. Although he would pay...
by Nancy Seiverd | Nov 7, 2018 | Dear Crabby, Uncategorized
Dear Crabby, I meant to reach out to you much sooner as I’ve got a customer (very small business, 2-3 employees) who rambles on and on with a new excuse each time I call them to make their payment. For example, four months ago the problem was due to severe cash flow...
by Nancy Seiverd | Sep 18, 2018 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’ve been reading your column for some time now and as the accountant at my company who is also managing some of the credit and collection functions, I finally decided to put pen to paper and seek your advice. My company is in the service business,...
by Nancy Seiverd | Apr 11, 2018 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’m at my wits end and I need to vent! To make a long story short, as the credit and collection manager at our mid-sized home interior decorating company, I’ve got dozens of past due accounts where the customer wants to pay but is holding back until we...
by Nancy Seiverd | Feb 6, 2018 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’m the credit and collection manager at my company and I have a customer who ended up owing us several tens of thousands of dollars. Since this customer had been with us for a couple of decades, our president agreed to let him pay off the receivable over...
by Nancy Seiverd | Nov 14, 2017 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, Although I’m not formally a credit professional, I was asked a few months ago to take over the credit position at our company. As I plod along, I’m evaluating some of the documentation we use in the credit granting process, which includes our new customer...
by Nancy Seiverd | Sep 20, 2017 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’ve been trying for the past several weeks to get my customer’s AP supervisor (at a very large company) to come to the phone regarding some past dues. Every time I call I can only leave messages with his secretary and they keep telling me the same...
by Nancy Seiverd | Aug 20, 2017 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’ve been enjoying your column and now find myself writing to you for help. Our staff collector was trained to be very polite, understanding, and to be reasonably, “accommodating” to our customers, as many of them have been with us for decades. I would...
by Nancy Seiverd | May 16, 2017 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’ve been having a problem at my company over the past couple of years trying to keep our collection people from getting bored and burned out in their jobs. Our company sells a magazine on credit and most customers who fill out the order form from the...
by Nancy Seiverd | Apr 7, 2017 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, I’m at my wits end. I have a customer who has gone through good and bad times over the years (decades) and our president continues to do business with him no matter how bad the bad times get. My problem is that one of those bad times has produced...
by Nancy Seiverd | Feb 22, 2017 | Dear Crabby
Dear Crabby, This is embarrassing but I completely messed up on a collection call. Here’s what happened. I had been calling one of our regularly delinquent, but long term, customers for the past three months and dealing with several broken promises. Then last week...
