Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Commission Backslide

As I've mentioned before, I work in sales. My salary isn't very large, and a good chuck of my income is made through commissions. In January 2007, I helped to sell a large deal that was worth $2483 in commissions to me (before tax). For comparison, the majority of my deals are worth $200-$600 pre-tax. So this was obviously a big deal (pun intended).

In October, we ran into an issue with the billing of the customer. Turns out that there was an error and the customer never received any invoices. They hadn't made a payment on the equipment in the 9 months that they were using it. After much back and forth and getting the runaround, visiting the customer 4-5 times, the two companies decided that an agreement couldn't be reached that everyone was happy with. So the equipment is going to be returned and the sale will be effectively canceled.

Why is this relevant? My company has asked me to pay them back the commissions I earned on the deal. All $2483. On paper, this is the correct way to deal with the situation. They have to protect themselves from anyone who places false orders and then cancels them, cheating the system.

However, this is an extenuating circumstance and a rare case. I was advised to write a strongly worded letter protesting having to pay the company back. Two weeks ago. But I haven't done it yet. I don't have any good reason why not. I'm a little bit of a procrastinator (example: I started writing this post Monday morning). I think I'm almost embarrassed to ask for my own money. Which is ridiculous, of course. I earned the money to begin with and did everything in my power to prevent the order being canceled.

I just need to man up and do it. Writing this post is a start - it will hold me accountable if I try to wimp out again. I will have my protesting email sent by midnight Wednesday. It's not like I have $2500 laying around to give back to my company. It's already been applied to the credit cards! Months ago! Having to pay it back would seriously inhibit my budget and debt payoff.

5 comments:

paidtwice said...

jiminy crickets!

that stinks. I hope the letter (which you HAVE written right lol) works.

Ugh.

Anonymous said...

If you are reading this comment and haven't started that letter do it now! I'm just trying to help you out :-).

That is a bad situation and obviously you weren't placing false orders or anything along those lines.

JvW said...

Thanks for the kick in the arse!!

wealthy_1 said...

You don't need to "man" up, you need to "woman" up and write the letter...oh, wait, it's a week later. The letter is written and sent. Right?

It really sucks that these two companies couldn't reach an agreement. And it really, really sucks that your company asked you for the commission back.

Hang in there. This too shall pass.

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