# Is Delivery Worth The Trouble? Not Sure It Is



## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

I am an infrequent poster here. I mostly just lurk in the background reading this and that, but this is something I need to share with some folks who can appreciate what I am writing about and why it has/had me a little on the impatient side of things. Last week, a regular hay customer (horse gal) called to arrange an immediate hay delivery. She didn't call until she was completely out of hay, and expected that we could rush out to her place and deliver her hay immediately. I work off the farm, run a small business and we have three kids in sports, but I can wiggle things around to accommodate most of our customers without too much trouble. This gal was profoundly disappointed (angry is more like it) that I couldn't/wouldn't make the delivery as we were talking on the phone, but I told her we could make the delivery after church on Sunday since we were meeting family for lunch sort of on the way to her place. We don't normally do deliveries on Sunday but since she was out of hay, and has been a customer for several years, we made an exception.

On Sunday, we left our place and called to tell her we were on the way. We got to her place and noticed she had her horse penned up behind a temporary fence in the alleyway we back down to access her hay storage area. I must pause here to describe the barn. It is new and very elaborate board and batten siding, fancy doors. It has a large riding arena, and 5 top of the line horse stalls, an indoor wash rack etc. It does not have a door large enough to back a truck of any size inside the barn, nor does it have any hay storage area, so they store the hay in the wash rack area-go figure. Back to the delivery, I honk the horn to let her know we're in the driveway (wife and kids still in their Sunday best, me dressed down somewhat) waiting for her. After a few minutes she walked down the long driveway pulling a rinky dink dolly behind her, which I believe she thought would help to move the hay from where we were parked to the hay stack. The hay storage/wash rack is located at the opposite side of the barn approximately 100 feet away from the 3ft wide door that we can access from the driveway. There are 5 steps leading up from the driveway to the door and the driveway is too narrow for me to back up to door even if the steps weren't in the way. So I ask if she expects that I am going to carry 30 bales of hay up the stairs and across the barn floor to her wash rack/hay stack. She looks at me funny and asks, "Haven't you been here before?" Now we have delivered hay to this place at least five times, and she was there each time. I answered, "Yes, we've been here before, and we have always been able to back up to the door nearest your hay stack." She says, "Well I have my horse right there now." As if it provided some rationale for me to begin carrying hay bales 130 feet instead of about 10 feet. I told her the delivery cost would be much higher if that were the case, and it would be better if she put her horse in a stall and let us take down the fence so we can back around to the other door or even put the hay in an empty clean stall with an exterior door we could back right up against but she didn't respond. Hell, she has five stalls and only one horse, why not? At this point she broke into tears and wandered off without saying a word. I told her if she didn't want the hay we could just leave no big deal. I walked over to tell the wife I thought we should just leave and I noticed the customer was having a tantrum trying to get the stall door closed. It wouldn't close because there was so much manure built up both in the stall and outside in the barnyard that the door wouldn't swing closed. She finally got the door closed then ripped the temporary fence out and threw it against the barn-energizer and all. We backed around and unloaded the hay got it stacked up nice (had to move a bunch of crap out of the way and put down some boards to hold the hay off the floor too). While we were working, she made the statement there is no way she could get the fence back up, and she had no idea what she would do with her horse. I asked if she would like some help putting the fence back up but she didn't say anything. So we pulled around I stopped in the driveway and the wife and I had the fence back in and hooked up in less than two minutes. The customer didn't thank us, didn't say anything to speak of and I made it clear to her that we are sold out of hay. I need to rethink deliveries. I may start charging by the hour or just quit doing them all together.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

After I read your story I remembered an ad I saw the other day.

Looking for approximately 400 squares, maybe a few more. Looking to pay only $5-$6 DELIVERED by Lacombe. I am not too picky on hay but must be good quality, prefer orchard/ alfalfa/ Timothy. Must be at least 65lb bales.
Please let me know

If anything you had some sunday entertainment. Cheaper than taking the family to the movies.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I have never delivered small squares when we were baling them, but have delivered a few loads of big square bales. For me it's a waste of time and money and I never have delivered into a story like you have. There are plenty of guys around here that all they do is deliver hay. In the summer and when I sell most of our hay my time is pretty important. Much more then what people are willing to pay for me to deliver a load of hay which takes a minimum of an hour pretty much no matter where I deliver. Most hay buyers in my area are perfectly willing to come pick it up. So when people call and complain that I don't deliver that's fine. There are buyers out there that will come get it. Or there are hay haulers that will haul the hay. I let the hay haulers negotiate their rate and delivery schedule directly with the hay buyer. I stay out of that. I do realize there are places that you have to deliver hay in order to sell it. In my location that is not necessary.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Deliveries can be incredibly trying. I do deliver some.....mainly to commercial accounts, on occasion to individual customers, but NEVER to customers that do not have men folk waiting to unload. It was remarkable how I was thinking deja vu when you were describing everything in your post.....including the Sunday after church. I have lost business in order to avoid confrontation that I was almost certain that could or would happen because of circumstances you described. Some folks think they are buying you along with your hay. I produce high quality hay for the most part and have learned that I will sell it, and I do not have to endure emotional instability to do so.

Regards, Mike


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

As has been mentioned in other threads. Why can't hay buyers see a day or two ahead of time that they are going to be out of hay so they better do something about it? I guess they just think hay sellers aren't do anything and can jump when called.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Sorry for your experience. It will however be a great story you will laugh over and share many times. Might just take awhile for the laughing to happen.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I have gone through very similar situations. In almost all ceases its the same common symptoms
Single woman
Spoiled
Emotional or menopausal. 
Absolutely no regard for the value of your time
Expects you to unload and stack hay a great distance from what you were originally told.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

A saying I learned some years ago might be applicable to these kind of situations:

"Poor planning on your part does not constitute a crises on my part!"

If appropriate, you might have replied that you would happily come back when you can unload easily but would have to charge for the extra trip. All too many people nowadays think that they HAVE to be catered to, and most people cave in.

Ralph


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I thought I was the only one to meet her, it sounds like we all have.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

SVFHAY said:


> I thought I was the only one to meet her, it sounds like we all have.


I didn't meet her, but my hay delivery guy did a few years ago. Then the next year when I was thinking of telling her I wouldn't be selling her hay anymore she called and said she needed me to sell her only Timothy hay that year. This was two weeks before 1st cutting. She usually bought 1500 small bales of orchard/brome. Problem solved. I don't grow Timothy.


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## JMT (Aug 10, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> I have gone through very similar situations. In almost all ceases its the same common symptoms
> Single woman
> Spoiled
> Emotional or menopausal.
> ...


The last time I met "her" was when we were trying to determine the location of a property line on some rented pasture. She wrote us a note that included the location. The note said (and this is a quote) "the property line is located EXACTLY 10 to 15 feet from the gate post".

Thanks a lot lady. Now, no matter where we put the fence it will end up being 5 feet out of place.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

We have had similar problems with new customers. Usually I just carry the hay how ever far it is with a smile and make a mental note. Next time they call I raise delivery price enough that it makes it worth my time and effort, and some times they are willing to pay. The first time I may work cheap the 2nd time I get paid well.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Reminds me of the last "rocket scientist" who wanted me to roll 5' tall bales under a 4' high opening. 
Never mind the fact that the bales had to be rolled uphill over about 30 tons of junk......
Then she sends me a text about a week later to inform me she found 6' bales even cheaper than mine, just to be a spiteful little b*tch.

The question I always go back to over and over is why are these horse women such tight wads with the hay supplier? Do they all think were beer guzzling white trash that are just fine with breaking even on hay so they can buy a $70,000 dodge dually to pull their little princess horse trailer?

There are some days when I really wish we'd all agree to not sell hay for anything less than $8/sq or $90/RB.

Problem is, there's so many guys out there perfectly fine with selling for $3/ bale


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

I am always in awe of the procrastinators (of which seems to be a prerequisite of owning a horse). You know the animal has got to eat so make provisions for feed or get rid of the horse. I've had people ask me in late October, "when do you think you'll be cutting again?" And when I respond about May of next year, they say "oh my that long!" I have to wonder what these folks kitchen cabinets and refrigerators look like. If they wait until they are completely empty before going to the grocery store. I think of the story my grandmother told me about my great grandfather. He had a team of mules and my grandmother said those mules ate better than us!


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I store and deliver for a good customer but I shouldn't, you can't charge enough to make it worth it. I work full time so the delivery eats up my weekends for very little reward.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Conversely, I delivered a load to a very well prepared cattle owner. When I got there, he was waiting at the end of the driveway. He got in passenger side and directed me to a running tractor with a bale spear. While I unstrapped, he put $1,100 cash in my hand- the pre agreed price. He unloaded me in 15 minutes. We chatted about 5 minutes about the next delivery and I was down the road.

Why is it every woman I deliver to wants to renegotiate the price after I arrive, has no tractor (but tells me she has "help" to unload) and wants hay stacked after she tells me we will "unload it right next to trailer"?

I took another HT members advice from a few months ago to get "cash in fist" BEFORE you even unstrap the hay. Once it comes off, it ain't going back on.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

JD3430 said:


> Do they all think were beer guzzling white trash that are just fine with breaking even on hay so they can buy a $70,000 dodge dually to pull their little princess horse trailer?


If they do, they're wrong. Some of us are Scotch guzzlers.

Ralph

Quote of the day: "Women! You can't live with 'em and you can't shoot 'em."


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Hay cost is one of the few costs the horse princess thinks she can control. The truck payment is due every month and is fixed. The stable rent is fixed. The hay cost can be haggled, bought elsewhere, etc etc. Many of these horse people are just shy of broke. Squeezing you for another $20 puts fuel in the gas tank that week....


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

PaMike said:


> Many of these horse people are just shy of broke.


Very true. To many horse owners, a horse is a status symbol. Image is everything.

A guy up the road went to the big house for threatening a federal judge. While gone his wife began collecting horses, had around 20. She leased some of her pasture to a guy with cows and would turn her horses in with the cows after he put hay out and left. Horses ate all the hay and the cows dropped condition.

She did not figure he was smart enough to notice the horse tracks at the hay rings. She did not think it was a big deal, only a little hay each day.

He loaded his cows and left.

A segment of horse owners think we are supposed to be impressed with the fact they are horse owners.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

95% of my hay is weighed and delivered.I wouldn't be in hay biz if I couldn't deliver.Most of the ones that want to pick it up are hay jocky's trying to steal it.Or someone wants heck of a discount for picking it up.

Finishing up a 225 Rd bale order today.70 min per load.Load it,wiegh at elevator,deliver and back to field.about 25 miles rd trip.

I'd sooner do this anyday then deliver to horsey people that want 2 bales a time and want it now and put it in the hay feeder for them also.And hold the check until next week.


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## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

Seems to be a common thread. I thought maybe our area had the corner on the horse gals driving a $70K dually pulling a $40K horse trailer (with a 600 dollar "quarter horse" in it. They usually park it next toi their rented single wide trailer house on 2 acres. I would say 3/4 of our customers either pick up hay out of the field, or take it off the stack at our barns. I do deliveries when I can, but I don't push it. I will not deliver any quantity of hay to a place I havent checked out first. The last time I pulled our 25' trailer (with 7 ton of hay on it) to a horse boarding stable we had quite a fiasco. The owner told me we could "back right up to the stack" and guess what? We have some great customers (horse gals too) that we would go to great extremes to make sure they're taken care of with hay. But every now and then. . . .like the time we had a guy and his wife show up with a bathroom scale to weigh each bale as we loaded the trailer ( I educated him on that one) or the horse gal that told me our orchard grass was "too green" and she thought it would mold-despite the fact that it was at 14% percent moisture,she told me she had talked to guy about 300 miles away who had some hay at 13% moisture, I told she should just go get hay from him. One of my favorites is when a customer says they will help unload, but all the do is stand in the way with their work gloves on as if putting work clothes on is all that is needed to save on delivery. Or the horse gal who told me she needed four tons of hay to get through the winter then told us after we had it unloaded and stacked in the barn that she only needed two tons-she came and got her hay this year. I could keep going as I am sure most of you could, or I could mention one of our horse customers who built a storage area to specifically accomodate our truck or another who has four or five high school kids waiting to unload the trailer when we pull up. There is always bad with the good or vice versa.

Best regards,

Mike


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I had a nice horse customer lady who gave me a $50 tip every time.


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

I had a guy pay for 80 ton and agreed to haul it himself, in June. The stack is still there minus what they hauled on 3 rickety trailers and trucks. The wife has called him several times and always gets promises to get it out of there. How many years before I can burn it?


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Lostin55 said:


> I had a guy pay for 80 ton and agreed to haul it himself, in June. The stack is still there minus what they hauled on 3 rickety trailers and trucks. The wife has called him several times and always gets promises to get it out of there. How many years before I can burn it?


I always give customers a time frame to get it. For example. If they don't call me within a month or come get the hay within a month I will sell it if I can and they get their money back. If after that month I can't sell the hay for as much as I sold it to them they get back their money minus what I didn't get to sell for later. Haven't had a problem with people not getting their hay in years so giving money back hasn't had to be done.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

*Most* all smell good (horsey gals)....

Most equine barns are not set up for hay delivery, not in the design realm of horse barn construction.

Personally, I don't have issues. Cash in hand and parameters up front and I'm not adverse to driving away and not coming back...ever.

The older I get, the less patience I have anyway. Not a people person, I have over 100 drivers to deal with their 'problems'...... thats enough.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I guess I'm the odd guy on this. We haul about 95% of what we make. About 4.5% gets fed on the farm to some nags that folks actually pay to board, and the tiny little .5% gets picked up. I wish that I could make that 0%. Takes about an hour to load 330 bales on our truck, and it takes just as long to load 50 bales (or less) on somebody's PU truck, and tell them how to strap it down. And that's after they show up....... never mind that they either come out of he blue, or roll in about 30 minutes late. Like I have nothing to do 'cept wait to load a few bales of hay.

Rodney


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## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

Same here Rodney, pretty much only keep lower quality hay for cows(not moldy or really dusty), I deliver probably 80%+ of what we make except straw, which is picked up usually. I don't mind delivering most of the time since its repeat customers. What sucks is training new customers. You would think most people have never gotten a delivery before. Either way within 2 deliveries they are trained. Or they are not customers anymore; which has happened on multiple occasions. The guy selling 3 dollar hay can deal with that, I don't need too.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

ARD Farm said:


> Most equine barns are not set up for hay delivery, not in the design realm of horse barn construction.


I will agree about the horse barns not being designed correctly. When I first started shipping hay to Florida (where most of my hay goes), almost all the places I shipped to didn't have enough room for a full semi load, so I ended up having to arrange split loads. Then the customers started complaining that the shipping cost went up, but that's what happens when you have a double or triple stop for the load!

I now have three customers that I ship to that end up taking all the hay I have. One has a barn big enough for a full load, the second has an old van trailer on site to store the hay in and the last one picks up her hay from the guy with the van trailer (she used to take a full load, but moved locations and now can't get a truck in). All of them are pretty good at getting hay crews together when the load gets there and I've never had a truck driver complain about taking to long to unload.

I do sell a few bales right off the field to one other customer, but he comes with his truck and a nice goose-neck flatbed and takes it away on time. I still move it to the front of the barn with the stacker wagon just in case he has a breakdown or something and we end up having to put the hay in my barn.

It took me a while to get good customers like this, so I do my best to make sure they are happy... that way I don't have to worry about finding the next "good" customer from out of all the "bad" ones out there. As long as I have enough good customers to move all my hay to, I have no problem telling the others "Sorry, but I have no hay to sell you."


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I have a buddy that throws a portable elevator on top of his load of hay. He will put the hay anywhere the elevator will reach. Kinda seams like a pain to me, but he makes it work....


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

PaMike said:


> I have a buddy that throws a portable elevator on top of his load of hay. He will put the hay anywhere the elevator will reach. Kinda seams like a pain to me, but he makes it work....


This made me laugh... both of the customers in Florida that I am shipping to have asked me to keep an eye out for an elevator for them. If I can find one in decent shape at an auction, I'll put it on the next load to them and settle up from there.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

PaMike said:


> I have a buddy that throws a portable elevator on top of his load of hay. He will put the hay anywhere the elevator will reach. Kinda seams like a pain to me, but he makes it work....


Better than not knowing and finding out when you arrive that the customer needs 300 bales in an otherwise inaccessible loft.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

If you want to wear out an elevator in a hurry take it along on deliveries. All those little welds on the tubing just love rattling around on the bed. Throw in a little road salt and your golden.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I run one of my conveyors around a much in the summer but only for good customers.

RE the road salt, I won't take my haywagons on the road once they salt the roads in Oct/Nov, just use my flatbed thats rusty already.


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## JoshA (Apr 16, 2008)

We stay away from deliveries, but when we do it's on a cash by the bale basis, not per ton. I actually like deliveries, even do it as a side business.

Have hauled.... 4 loads of small squares to a customer, friend of dads, two part loads last year on my gooseneck, loaded hauled unloaded into his barn with his full assistance. Two full loads this year on his car hauler, picked up his trailer from work (halfway point), loaded it, returned it to halfway point, he took it home and brought it back to halfway point a couple days later, loaded it again and delivered it to half way point again. Both ways worked dandy for me.

When I was in high school I was selling bales (large square) to the race track in the city. Some of the trainers were very good, would make regular deliveries, while others would phone me at 4:30 in the morning demanding I deliver hay to them between 1pm and 3pm that day. What do you mean no, I've got $80k+ horses that got no hay in front of them!! Good gig and I didn't like school anyway, so I'd hook up my gooseneck, load up 10-12 bales and head into school, leave after my morning classes, sometimes take a classmate with me, and head into the city to deliver hay. When I got there sure enough the Mexicans would be sweeping the leaves into a pile to feed one more horse, and if I got any flack about the hay or the price I'd offer to drop it off a few hundred feet further down at another trainer..... no no no, ok! $1,000 a trip, skipped my afternoon classes, sure I suppose I can do that.

Have bought straw bales from a neighbor and delivered them half hour away several times before now.

Have delivered large bales by semi, good way to blow an afternoon watching them unload one at a time. Have sold hay before now where the driver has horror stories. Sold a load last year, 54 3x4x9 big squares on a semi, the guy got unloaded on the road, was there for 6 hours.

Only had one nightmare, few years ago delivered hay to a girl just up the road 6 miles orso with the tractor and gooseneck. Yes no problem, can just pull through the yard and past the barn, turn around in the field and head out again. I should have walked in, but it was -40 outside and a long driveway, not long before dark, took her word for it. The pathway past the barn was neither wide enough for my tractor nor tall enough, even if you took the trees down you still wouldn't clear the power line. Luckily with it being middle of winter and lots of snow, I dropped the trailer, skidded it sideways to one edge of the yard, unloaded, then using the safety chains, pushed and pulled and skidded the trailer all over until it was sort of facing the road. Think she gave me a couple hundred bucks extra, for my trouble, even though she probably couldn't afford it, by that time I wasn't going to say no.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

I've gotten out of the hay delivery business for the most part. Never did it that much anyway. I figure when the good Lord calls me home, it's not going to be the result of tossing hay into someone else's loft in the middle of July.


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## Hokelund Farm (Feb 4, 2014)

I think a big reason that horse people don't plan ahead with hay is that they don't have any money to buy more so they wait until it is a "crisis" (the horse can go hungry for a day - its not a crisis). They are in debt up to their eyes with the trucks, trailers, barns, and pretty fencing and don't have any actual cash to pay for hay.

Maybe I'll start accepting credit cards for payment. Then the hay people can charge up their account, I get paid, and the credit card company can deal with it when they can't pay the bill! As long as it's not a check/debit card!


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Hokelund Farm said:


> I think a big reason that horse people don't plan ahead with hay is that they don't have any money to buy more so they wait until it is a "crisis" (the horse can go hungry for a day - its not a crisis). They are in debt up to their eyes with the trucks, trailers, barns, and pretty fencing and don't have any actual cash to pay for hay.
> 
> Maybe I'll start accepting credit cards for payment. Then the hay people can charge up their account, I get paid, and the credit card company can deal with it when they can't pay the bill! As long as it's not a check/debit card!


Freakin awesome idea right there. 
Just build the 2-3% less you get into the hay/delivery price.


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

I've thought about the credit/debit reader myself.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

JD3430 said:


> Freakin awesome idea right there.
> Just build the 2-3% less you get into the hay/delivery price.





Troy Farmer said:


> I've thought about the credit/debit reader myself.


Yes, we had that discussion here in depth when square one first came out about two years ago....very easy to do with the smartphones.

Regards, Mike


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Vol said:


> Yes, we had that discussion here in depth when square one first came out about two years ago....very easy to do with the smartphones.
> 
> Regards, Mike


I have the square. I haven't used it once. I would charge the fee to whoever wanted to use it. Interestingly this year nearly every one of my customers brought cash.


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## Idaho Jade (Aug 3, 2011)

I don't mean to drift too far off topic, but you guys that have mentioned the square card reader and have one, is there any catch to their claims? Is I really "free" except for the % they charge at each transaction? Was curious the same as mentioned if someone would rather run a card and was willing to pay the premium to do so, if it would be worth having that as an option.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Idaho Jade said:


> I don't mean to drift too far off topic, but you guys that have mentioned the square card reader and have one, is there any catch to their claims? Is I really "free" except for the % they charge at each transaction? Was curious the same as mentioned if someone would rather run a card and was willing to pay the premium to do so, if it would be worth having that as an option.


No catches.....just a percentage. But it used to be "illegal" by the card recipient to charge a "premium" to use the card. I'm not so sure that's the case any more with all the folks taking cards now, fairly common practice.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

somedevildawg said:


> No catches.....just a percentage. But it used to be "illegal" by the card recipient to charge a "premium" to use the card. I'm not so sure that's the case any more with all the folks taking cards now, fairly common practice.


I think that's why you see people giving a "discount" for cash or check instead of charging the "premium" to take a card.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

You either have to charge extra or give a discount for using cash or check with square or any other types of things like that. I see them used in coffee shops and such. But 2% on a coffee isn't that much. But on a semi load of hay 2% is quite a bit.


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## Idaho Jade (Aug 3, 2011)

Good info in the square reader. A thought to tie back into the original topic would be if the square reader would let you put a hold on a card which would guarantee some form of payment before a possible distant delivery then release that hold if they produce cash. My day job involves service truck calls and we are require to put a hold on any cash customer card we go out to. That way we don't get there, possibly get a repair done then get stiffed when they say they will mail a check or give a bogus card number to run back at the shop when they are long gone. My personal hay business is nowhere near the point of worrying to that point yet though.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Idaho Jade said:


> Good info in the square reader. A thought to tie back into the original topic would be if the square reader would let you put a hold on a card which would guarantee some form of payment before a possible distant delivery then release that hold if they produce cash. My day job involves service truck calls and we are require to put a hold on any cash customer card we go out to. That way we don't get there, possibly get a repair done then get stiffed when they say they will mail a check or give a bogus card number to run back at the shop when they are long gone. My personal hay business is nowhere near the point of worrying to that point yet though.


Does it matter which customer your service truck goes out to? Like I've often wondered if dealers or servicers put priority on servicing customers that pay everything right away over others that do not pay in a timely matter, bounce checks or whatever.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Well, I just went against everything I said I would do and took a check for $300 and the rest ($500) in cash. 
She was real insulted when I said I told her cash, buuuuuuuuut, I said OK. 
I needed to get rid of this load.

Customers never cease to amaze me. They lie to me and tell me they have cash, tell you they will unload, tell you its easy to access their barn, then you show up to deliver and its always some surprise.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

JD3430 said:


> Well, I just went against everything I said I would do and took a check for $300 and the rest ($500) in cash.
> She was real insulted when I said I told her cash, buuuuuuuuut, I said OK.
> I needed to get rid of this load.
> 
> Customers never cease to amaze me. They lie to me and tell me they have cash, tell you they will unload, tell you its easy to access their barn, then you show up to deliver and its always some surprise.


Maybe you need to ask them specifically for what vehicle is it easy to access their barn with? A Honda Civic or a large truck with a trailer?  I don't know what else to do with the other lies.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

When I ask them if they have CASH, they always give me that look like I'm a criminal.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Teslan said:


> Maybe you need to ask them specifically for what vehicle is it easy to access their barn with? A Honda Civic or a large truck with a trailer?  I don't know what else to do with the other lies.


Thats excally what I was thinking.

I have no problem driving my car down the lane you should be fine.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Be careful with credit cards, when customers call their card and stop payment seems like 99% time vendor loses and eats the cost of sale. Terms are very slanted to customers side not vender.



Idaho Jade said:


> Good info in the square reader. A thought to tie back into the original topic would be if the square reader would let you put a hold on a card which would guarantee some form of payment before a possible distant delivery then release that hold if they produce cash. My day job involves service truck calls and we are require to put a hold on any cash customer card we go out to. That way we don't get there, possibly get a repair done then get stiffed when they say they will mail a check or give a bogus card number to run back at the shop when they are long gone. My personal hay business is nowhere near the point of worrying to that point yet though.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

I just sell wholesale to a couple of brokers. They get to deal with all the headaches and their checks have always cleared. Plus they bring their own loading crew. Once it is in the barn that is the end of my involvement. When they need it they come get it.


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## Idaho Jade (Aug 3, 2011)

I should have clarified what a cash customer is to us as an equipment dealer. There it would be anyone who doesn't have an internal charge account. We try and schedule based on other needs vs who pays now instead of at the end of the month. To tell you the truth, when someone want to pay with actual cold hard cash in hand, it'd kind of a pain having to go get change. We prefer a card or billing to their internal account. After I hit the invoice button my job is done, afgter that, it becomes the accounts receivable departments problem if they don't pay. They usually aren't as nice if we get stiffed and trust me they are good at their job so it rarely happens. I do my scheduling purely based on severity, logistics of time and people and hardly ever think about whether they are cash of not.

Now my side business being hay and small scale, cold hard cash is king. Just thinking out loud on the original topic of delivery and thinking how we all can minimize our headaches and losses from a delivery gone bad.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Many good LOL moment in all your experiences,have had many of the same experiences.The first post I would call The Princes complex,from the description of facility she may have the money but no beats . The no common sense thing goes much further than horse people.Here wine people are just as bad,Oh wait many of them have a horse as well.Had a winery next door that would buy 100's of tons of grapes and any semis would have to back in 200 yards to get unloaded and that was far from a straight shot to get any were close.

One of the best cussing I ever got was from a rich women rescuing jackasses. Had a large stack near her place she called I gave my price said it is for sale until I had money for it but other people were looking.She called 3 weeks later and I said it was sold, but she says it is still there ,I said a broker I had sold to many times had bought it and his money was always good ,and boy did I get it she needed that hay and the broker would sell it for more and on and on. Another one to remember was people coming from the other end the county for a pickup load when there was hay much closer advertized in the same place mine was listed.I would leave a few bales pickup high and pull bales from the top and they loaded there truck how ever they wanted but I didn't put it on there truck, and as they were almost loaded bales were push off the truck back at me they don't weight enough.Another that was always funny to me was new neighbor about 2 miles away had a short bed truck and always wanted a big bed load and never had a rope to tie it on,a good hill to get to the black top from my barn always had some fall off and unload at his barn and come back for the others.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

I deliver 95% of my hay and 95% of that goes to dairy or beef. I only have 2 sizes of loads, gooseneck is 24 bales and semi is 60. That is how it goes. I can load my semi in the same length of time as it takes to jack with a horsey person to come pick up a bale. The usually never show up when they say so I am sitting around wasting time waiting on them. Most of my sales are to repeat clients, I know the money is good, so I send them a bill and they send me a check. Still have about 25 semi loads to deliver before spring.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

haybaler101 said:


> I deliver 95% of my hay and 95% of that goes to dairy or beef. I only have 2 sizes of loads, gooseneck is 24 bales and semi is 60. That is how it goes. I can load my semi in the same length of time as it takes to jack with a horsey person to come pick up a bale. The usually never show up when they say so I am sitting around wasting time waiting on them. Most of my sales are to repeat clients, I know the money is good, so I send them a bill and they send me a check. Still have about 25 semi loads to deliver before spring.


I've had horsey people spend 30 minutes strapping in a gooseneck trailer of 18 bales before. But then I've also had a supposedly professional couple of truck drivers that said they hauled lots of hay spend 3 hours tarping and strapping a semi load of 54 bales. Luckily that isn't my time spent. I load. They strap. Not sure what the truck drivers problem was that took them that long. I also had some Russian truck drivers strap and tarp 54 bales on a semi in about 45 minutes and that was the first load of hay they had ever hauled or even seen.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

BTW Teslan, DOT/ICC regulations state... One strap for every 10 feet of lineal distance and/or 13.500 pounds of cargo weight. and/or whatever the maximum working load of the securement device is..... and the smaller straps are considered illegal for Interstate Commerce in the Continental US and Canada.

Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead tarping a load of large squares, I'm way too old for that crap. I make my customer deliveries on sunny days only, I despise tarping anything


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## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

Ray 54 said:


> One of the best cussing I ever got was from a rich women rescuing jackasses.
> 
> My wife is still trying to rescue a jackass  .


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

ARD Farm said:


> BTW Teslan, DOT/ICC regulations state... One strap for every 10 feet of lineal distance and/or 13.500 pounds of cargo weight. and/or whatever the maximum working load of the securement device is..... and the smaller straps are considered illegal for Interstate Commerce in the Continental US and Canada.
> 
> Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead tarping a load of large squares, I'm way too old for that crap. I make my customer deliveries on sunny days only, I despise tarping anything


Oh they got it strapped just fine. It was the tarping that for some reason took them forever. The broker that bought the hay required the trucking company to tarp it for it's trip to Texas. Probably required by the buyer.


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

I deliver somewhere near 2/3 of my production! The picture to the left is how it gets delivered! Otherwise, it goes into the barn, and it's up to the customer to get it out & home!

Sure, I sell by the ton! Lets see 50 40lb bales x $5.50, that'll be $275.00 per ton! Or if it's 2nd crop, 50 40# bales x $6.50, that'll be $325.00 per ton! No problemo!!


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

I should qualify the above by saying that I do provide an elevator and a good share of the labor for unloading and stacking. I will also discount a buck a bale, if the customers are able to come and take it off the wagons themselves. For a good customer, like my local DPW, I will even haul the wagon to them, and retrieve it when empty!


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