Ever had a customer reach into a gun safe overflowing with cash to pay for a service call? We've got a cracker of a chat lined up where we share our bemusing and sometimes perplexing experiences with customers doling out large amounts of cash for our services. From navigating the logistics of hefty bank deposits to the discomfort of possibly handling counterfeit money, we dive deep into this emerging trend that's got our brains buzzing.
More than just an unexpected change in customer behavior, we grapple with the implications this trend has on our financial reporting and business operations. We're not out here on a mission to cook the books and with this surge in cash payments, it’s more than just a bit of a headache. Whether it's the anxious moment of holding tens of thousands of dollars or the cumbersome need to make multiple bank deposits, we're certainly in some tricky territory. Tune into our chat and discover how we're maneuvering through this fascinating conundrum.
Send us your feedback or topic ideas over on our social channels!
Eric Aune @mechanicalhub
Andy Mickelson @mick_plumb
Check out our website: mechanical-hub.com
Ever had a customer reach into a gun safe overflowing with cash to pay for a service call? We've got a cracker of a chat lined up where we share our bemusing and sometimes perplexing experiences with customers doling out large amounts of cash for our services. From navigating the logistics of hefty bank deposits to the discomfort of possibly handling counterfeit money, we dive deep into this emerging trend that's got our brains buzzing.
More than just an unexpected change in customer behavior, we grapple with the implications this trend has on our financial reporting and business operations. We're not out here on a mission to cook the books and with this surge in cash payments, it’s more than just a bit of a headache. Whether it's the anxious moment of holding tens of thousands of dollars or the cumbersome need to make multiple bank deposits, we're certainly in some tricky territory. Tune into our chat and discover how we're maneuvering through this fascinating conundrum.
Send us your feedback or topic ideas over on our social channels!
Eric Aune @mechanicalhub
Andy Mickelson @mick_plumb
Check out our website: mechanical-hub.com
Oh, to pay for my service call. You know it's 300 bucks or whatever. You'd get in there and you want 20s or 50s or I know, and you're standing there like yeah, and you're like why did you just walk me over?
Speaker 2:You're safe and open. Like that's weird.
Speaker 1:It's just, yeah, it's almost like a uh, you know big, big guy flex or whatever. But hey, dude, how you doing. Good, how are you?
Speaker 2:Hey, good, I'm good, Andy, today. Quick question for you. Yeah, do people? Have you been getting people wanting to pay you a cash a lot lately for your jobs?
Speaker 1:We've had a few.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean not, it isn't very common. I'm always super leery and like suspicious, like not for any reason, I'm suspicious because I've had so many people go oh, I'm going to pay you in cash and then not. Then then cut a check, you know, and it's like I mean.
Speaker 2:So I ask because I have three jobs, one I completed yesterday and I have two that are coming up, and all three have made deposits with cash. And the one I completed yesterday I've got payment on in cash when I was done. Yeah, all right, on site. And it's not that nobody's asked me for discount or anything, they're just literally what's the number and will you accept cash? And it's like I'm really leery because I there's a, there's a few things I don't like about it, but I'm leery because, like, I don't know if it's real or not, like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like I'm not suspicious, like I don't think.
Speaker 2:I've ever been right given counterfeit money.
Speaker 1:But it's a lot of money.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1:These aren't like $200 jobs.
Speaker 2:These are like multi, thousands, of, tens of thousands of dollar jobs.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, it it brings up. I mean there's, there's some, some pitfalls to it. I mean, you know, if you're the, if you're the type of individual that likes to have 50 grand in the safe, then it's great. You know, because you got 50 grand in the safe. I'm we're not, we're not cash hoarders. I guess, if you will, there's not a.
Speaker 2:You're the reason that we had to have exact change during covid.
Speaker 1:Is he right? Yeah, yeah, because I had like 75, 50 gallon drums of quarters.
Speaker 2:Put that back into circulation.
Speaker 1:They'll never find it here, they'll never take me alive, copper.
Speaker 2:Let's go to go grab a bucket of quarters.
Speaker 1:Exactly. No, it's, it's so, it's so, yeah, it's, it's, there's that thing. And then you know, you take that other, the other side of it, and go well, you know, the customer pays you for the $12,000 boiler installer, the $12,000 of whatever you know, in cash, yeah, and so what do you do with it?
Speaker 1:Right, so you're not going to stick it in the safe, you're going to take it to the bank. Well, if you walk in the door at the bank with 12 grand and say I want to deposit this, you better have your pen ready because you're going to have to fill out some forms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's a great point. There is a daily maximum cash deposit limit, and I'm just going to read this real quick yeah, it's, banks are required to report when customers deposit more than $10,000 in cash at once. A currency transaction report, which is what you're just talking about, must be filled out and sent to the IRS and FinCEN. Whatever that is. The Bank Security Act of 1970 dictates that banks keep records of deposits over 10 grand to help prevent financial crime. So I'm thinking of I'm like my brain immediately goes like oh, 1970, here's this guy in like this big, like like double-breasted suit walking around with like a feather in his hat, and he's like bell bottom Got a briefcase full of cash.
Speaker 2:He's got yep briefcase full of cash. That's exactly it Going into the bank, yeah.
Speaker 1:Got a handcuff on it. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:No, no, so, yeah, so we covered it. A. I get a little nervous, like when I start my brain goes to well, what if it's not real? So then I'm thinking like, oh crap, don't, why did you just think of that? Now my brain stuck on that for the next two days, right, but ultimately it's this. So like, aside from people asking for discounts or anything we've talked about that, we can get into that too in a minute here.
Speaker 2:But it is a logistical like pain in my butt. I'm just going to say it. I you know somebody listening to be like, yeah, get over it. Or some people listening to be like, why aren't you taking cash? You don't have to report that. Like that's so much easier. I'm like, no, here's the deal on a 10, let's just say, $10,000 job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I don't do very many $10,000 jobs that don't have a serious amount of materials coming from my suppliers attached to that job. I got to pay for that material somehow. I'm not trying to cook my books and hide it on another project. That's not how I operate. Uh, mostly because I don't have the energy or or probably the technical know how to pull it off and not get caught If it came down to me getting it audited or something like that.
Speaker 2:I don't do business that way because I don't like every time you lie about something you have to come up with a lie to cover up that lie. Like I don't, I can't keep track of crap like that, it's not my thing and so I'm. I don't give discounts right For cash. It just doesn't work that way in my how I run my business. But the logistics part of it, that $10,000 limit, so what? So, of course, then your brain goes, if you're like me, well, if I do $9,999, I don't have to fill out a form, you know what I mean. Like I'll do the math and be like I'm only going to bring four grand instead of 10.
Speaker 1:And I'll do it three times instead.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, but there's a limit to what you can do, like in an ATM, and this is 2023. Who is walking into a bank, like, why do banks exist now? Like I'm not walking into a bank because I ain't got that briefcase, double-breasted suit, bell bottoms and handcuff. You know I got other handcuffs but they're furry and they don't put them on.
Speaker 1:Different purposes, yeah, different purposes.
Speaker 2:But there's a limit to what you can put in your ATM too on a day, not just a trend like in a day, because we found that out recently because of this kind of phenomenon that's going. You know just kind of we find ourselves in every once in a while, and yeah, I don't know. I'm just wondering where the cash is coming from and why people all of a sudden have it like that amount. Or is that normal? Did people have that kind of money?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I, you know I look at. I ran into that on a couple of occasions. I've got a couple of customers that I know personally want. There's one particular gentleman that I'm not even sure that he's still even live. It's been quite a few years since I've worked for him. But he had in his garage, in the back of his garage, like around the corner from the wood pile type thing, literally a gun safe that was stacked with cash.
Speaker 1:We're not talking like a little desktop safe, like this was a big ass gun safe. And it was stacked with cash and coins and stuff like that and I'm like holy crap, you know, because he did that, you know he's always like I'm gonna pay for my service call.
Speaker 2:You know it was 300 bucks or whatever You'd get in there and you want 20s or 50s or I know and you're standing there like yeah, and you're like why did you just walk me over your safe and open? Like that's weird.
Speaker 1:It's just yeah, it's almost like a big guy flex or whatever, but in whatever to each his own. But I was always like you burn wood and oil in your garage.
Speaker 2:Telling you that's whatever my business idea is going remember.
Speaker 1:Right and you have a wood pile and your cash safe, is hidden in the wood pile. There's better, safer, more secure places for paper money.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, you know, start a fire. No, the I have a couple of customers like that too, but I just have always and I didn't put much thought into it, but in my head it was always just that was that customer.
Speaker 1:And now.
Speaker 2:I'm starting to run into it where people are saying, you know, okay, 15,000,. Yeah, okay, will you take cash? And it's like I'm used to asking, being asked if I will take credit card right, like, can I get the miles? I'd like to pay with my card? I'm like, yeah, price is built in, like I'm not charging anymore. It is that's the price, no matter how you pay, and I'm not giving you a discount for cash, right, and it just feel like I'm not having that conversation anymore. But people are bringing the cash into it and honestly, it's kind of turned into a pain in the butt because I do report it all and I got to make multiple trips sometimes and like Heather's been doing it for me and she's like here's your receipts for your cash deposits. Psycho, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess if it came down to a you know to where it was like a significantly routine thing, then I guess I'd have to think about it. But I don't know that we've had cash payments in excess of $10,000, maybe three or four times in 10 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, and maybe this will just be an isolated thing and it just happens to kind of time out close to you know. Oh, somehow I'm thinking COVID's related. Yeah, it's just like hush money from the government.
Speaker 1:Oh, good to be.
Speaker 2:I already know what hush money is.
Speaker 1:I don't either. The one thing that drives me nuts is when you get a customer that's like, oh, you know, I'd like you to do this job, you know. And when you do it for cash, you know, it's like they do it as this incentive, right? Oh yeah, people want cash. And then I'm like, yeah, okay, I guess, whatever, that's fine. And then you show up and they're like, okay, so how much was the amount? And then I'm like, well, I mean, you told me it was gonna be cash. So you know, this is what we, you know not the amount we agreed on, because it was cash, but this is what the job was worth. And you owe me $6,000 today. And then they're like, okay. And then they write a check and you're like, okay, well, that's fine, I'm fine with the check, because that's even easier, but did I mean you did say you were doing cash?
Speaker 2:I know I'd rather have a check.
Speaker 1:Well, this is like cash, you could check, you could cash this, and I'm like that's not how this works. I mean, whatever, okay, that's fine. I mean I'll take your $6,000 and a check or cash or card or whatever. If you want to, yeah, I just turn around.
Speaker 2:When somebody hands me a check, I immediately mobile deposit it immediately to my bank. Yeah, Like I don't even leave their drive. I'm like it's already in the bank. Yeah, it's in process. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Cash cash is cash king. No, you know what. Honestly it's. I'm super thankful for the work. I don't love being paid. I'm not going to lie. It's just turning to being a pain in my butt. If somebody, you know, if I did a little call and it was like a cup on her box and like that's a different conversation. Yeah, that we should not be recorded because governments are listening in on this. Of course they're always listening to the MTG.
Speaker 1:There's a whole rack of pigeons out there charging, currently right outside your house. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's probably a bird on my roof of my awning shop. Charging birds have been audited. All right, dude, cool bonus episode. Thank you, brother, have a good one. Go out there and slay. I will Insert emojis now. Slay, that's right, slay.