08/18/2024
Friends, colleagues, clients, and future clients.
I posted on Facebook that a client was looking for some yard work. Bobby reached out to me with a sad story, and I fell for it. I don’t know who that owner hired for the job.
I have an owner that I help find tenants for. This owner needed an apartment, and the common area/hallway (all tenants in the building have access to), cleaned. Bobby knew the entire time that I was not the one hiring him, but I was local, and I was helping out this out of town owner. He gave an estimate, the owner agreed, and I relayed that to Bobby. I did NOT hire Bobby, I was the liaison between Bobby and the owner.
July 25th Bobby sent me an invoice (for $75 + tax) at 11:49:41am (about three weeks ago, NOT over 30 days) which I forwarded to the owner on July 25th at 11:52:34am. The owners response was “got it. will he do the other 2 once they are available?” The owner was hoping to find someone to clean the common areas monthly, and to clean the apartments when vacant. Currently two apartments are under construction.
I was under the impression that the owner had sent the check, and I told Bobby this. Yesterday (Saturday, August 17th) at 6:27pm, I told Bobby that I sent another message to the owner and maybe it was lost in the mail? Bobby was unwilling to wait even an hour for a response and chose to post in a Hagerstown Facebook group that I didn’t pay him.
Those of you that didn’t automatically believe that I would risk my reputation, and not pay someone over $75 (plus illegal tax), I hope we can work together soon.
When you provide a “service” and not “sell items” you don’t charge or pay sales tax. He charged sales tax on this invoice. Will he be sending the government the tax he’s collecting as legally required?
As a compassionate person who has struggled a LOT in the past, I try to help others when I can.
I’m so grateful for all the people that did reach out to me regarding this to tell me that this was going on. So many of you I don’t even know, but are concerned about my reputation. It makes me feel like there are good people in my part of the world, and I’m very happy I’m part of it. I’ve always felt that I can’t change the world, but I can help my little corner. I have always worked with the philosophy that if I help you, we all win! The older I get, the harder it is to keep this compassion. After having been burned so many times, most of us don’t want to try to help any more.
To all of you that are building your side hustle with the hopes of turning it into a full fledged business, this is one of the reasons why people don’t hire someone that is not licensed. No, you don’t need a license to clean, landscape, paint, and some other things that are great for a side hustle. But when you have a legitimate business, there’s paperwork involved. And when you do try to help someone, and they publicly persecute you through the Facebook court of horrors, this shows legitimate business owners NOT to hire you. I’ve been a licensed Realtor for over 35 years and I will NOT argue in a public forum where people make decisions based on false information. But after the accusations, and threats (yes threats), I decided I needed to say something.
Here's his invoice. I removed the phone number. Anyone can send an invoice, to anyone, with ANY name on it. It does NOT constitute a contract, nor acceptance of an agreement by the person receiving the invoice.
