Lost a check from a customer

[paulney]

My wife and I run a small business. Last week a customer made a payment with a check, and my wife misplaced it somewhere instead of putting it in the usual place. Now we can't find it. The amount was for about $200.

Should I eat it and chalk it up as a lesson in organizing everything or ask a customer for a new one? How do you approach a customer in a situation like this? Refund them for whatever ti costs to void a previous check?

 

[tasmanian]

Just ask them to write you a new one and put a stop payment on the old one.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: tasmanian
Just ask them to write you a new one and put a stop payment on the old one.

Yes. OP needs to tell the customer that he lost the check. It's not very likely but there are people out there who "wash" checks (chemically erase the ink), replace the original amounts with thousands of dollars and try to cash them.

Edit: Checks also have personal info on them as well

Name
Address
Phone numbers
Acct & Routing #'s
DL# (sometimes)
SS# (sometimes)

This is why I don't use checks. Ever.

 

[ajikan]

Perhaps you can deduct a small amount for the inconvenience, too.

 

[doze]

Eat the loss it's not the customers fault you lost their check.

If you decide to tell them and they offer to write another one then give them a gift certificate or a nice discount on their next order.

 

[Legendary]

Ask for another check minus the stop payment fee.
Also, checks never have SSNs on them anymore, so it's not that big a deal once the stop payment is placed.

 

[miri]

.

 

[bonkers325]

you wont lose anything by asking, just man up and do it

 

[gsethi]

ask for another check and pay the stop payment fees. The customer might give you a postdated check just to make sure that the original check is not cashed. Its not a big thing in the business world and happens quite often.

Most of the Retail business runs on checks (all 3 of our businesses uses checks 99% of the time....makes accounting/tracking expenses a lot easier)

 

[paulney]

Thanks for all the advice, guys.