​Customer is straight up ghosting us

Hi everyone,

I work for a small niche business. We offer something that’s considered more of a luxury than a necessity. I’m the one and only office manager/office worker here. Everyone else works out on the field but I stay in the office managing the books. I also have no previous experience to this lol. I went from answering the phone & writing invoices to taking care of pretty much everything on the office side of things.

We have a customer who called in for our services November of 2023. Her invoice is $339. I understand that may not be a crazy amount, but a lot of our clients live in mansions in HOA’s with second mansion homes out of state so it’s not like they’re pinching pennies. She hired us to replace something of hers that was just old, not necessarily in need of replacement so this wasn’t an URGENT necessity.

We ask people to please not pay the invoice until the work is all done and they’re happy with the job. We did the job the same week the order was placed and have not heard from her since. We normally send an email reminder if payment isn’t received after a week or two, but again this has been past due since November.

Every time I call this lady her phone goes straight to voicemail. I’ve tried texting her off my personal cell and I saw she has an iPhone so the messages are being delivered but she’s just ignoring us. We’ve even sent her a past due letter in the mail and nothing. We have other jobs in her same community but my boss said he doesn’t want to go knocking on her door asking for payment.. Not sure why. This had been going on for months.

I did some snooping and I found another phone number for her. I called, someone answered, I explained who I was and why I was calling and they told me “I’ll let her know you called” and hung up. I searched that phone number and it turns out it’s her accounting firm business. The business is literally in her name so it’s hers, not someone she works for. I called the number and have left about 3 messages with who I’m assuming now is her receptionist and again she’s refusing to call us back.

Yesterday I called again and I told her receptionist I’ve already left 3 messages in the past 2 weeks but she’s not calling me back. The receptionist laughed and said “I don’t know what to tell you.” I asked for an email, refused, I asked for a different phone number, refused, I asked for her to send me to her voicemail, refused. I called their office from a different phone number and asked to speak with that lady and her receptionist told me she wasn’t in. I waited 10 minutes and called from our office number and the receptionist then said “She’s with a client she’s going to be a while” I asked about how long and she told me about an hour. I called back an hour later, she was still with the client so I told her I don’t mind being on hold since it seems she might be getting done soon. The receptionist scoffed and laughed and said ok. I was on hold for 37 minutes until they hung up on me. I called back, someone new answered & told me I had the wrong number and hung up. They closed at 4 and they kept me on hold 5 minutes before they closed to then hang up on me. I’m 100% sure I don’t have the wrong number because google is free and I did my research, this is the same lady! It’s not a common name either and the addresses match up and everything so this is her!

I’m not sure what to do at this point. I have her address for a home in a different state so I’m considering sending her a past due invoice to that address. My manage isn’t too worked up about it but this is seriously one of the oldest past due invoices we have and I have to look at it every day so I’ve adopted this responsibility. Part of me also feels kind of bad because I feel like I’m harassing this lady..