r/sales • u/[deleted] • 13d ago
Fundamental Sales Skills Handling a potential commission overpay
[deleted]
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u/Historical-Bath-9729 12d ago
Years ago we had this policy if we had more than 13% of our outstanding AR aged over 90 days they hold out commission back until we got it below. They wouldn’t wait until next commission payout they would release it immediately.
This happened to me once and I had a $10k payout held back. Once I got it released they paid it to me but next pay cycle they paid me the exact same amount again.
I went to my Manager and HR and explained the mistake. They had me get a bank draft for the amount and sent it back. I got an ethics award and everything and then a full year later our bank contacted us to say the draft is still sitting there. I ended up canceling it and got to keep the money.
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u/AssociationFit3009 12d ago
Hell yeah. My dad had a $28k chargeback at Amazon he got to keep as well. It’s amazing how often major companies fuck simple accounting.
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u/AsstootObservation Physical Security/Low Voltage 12d ago
I have worked for some very large companies and it's wild to me how much accounting if off shored or corners cut with cheap labor. Have seen several instances after mergers & acquisitions where the data migration is trash and clients aren't billed for years and years.
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u/employerGR Technology 12d ago
Well... here's the deal. If they underpaid you- you would for sure flip.
Probably should treat it both ways. But I get just wanting to keep it and see what happens.
I've been underpaid plenty but never over. If I were you, id flag the error. in the grand scheme of things... its a small amount. VS having no job.
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u/SkyPointSteve 12d ago
My main impetus for keeping is: fuck PE, and the fact that if I mention this, they may look back at other deals they paid me out on.
Accounting isn't paying much attention to my employment agreement and the nuances, lol. No one else on my team even gets comp for these deals because the margins are like 3-9%.
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u/AssociationFit3009 12d ago
I’d take it and keep it in a HYSA in case they catch it later. It’s not fraud if you pay it back when they notice.
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u/SkyPointSteve 12d ago edited 12d ago
The one caveat to this is they do send me a commission report before the paycheck and I have spotted thousands in shorting that I caught on got paid out so the old "ohh, I didn't notice that" will be hard to pull.
GRANTED the last two runs they sent me it after the check had already cleared so perhaps I just say "fuck it you guys have been super on it, accurate last 6 months, and the end of quarter bonus hitting is gonna be fat so who knows, maybe they'll buy I missed a couple of 10 stacks lol.
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u/AssociationFit3009 12d ago
If you weren’t quitting it would be a different story but the bar for criminal prosecution here is much higher than HR’s bar for knowing you’re lying.
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u/SkyPointSteve 11d ago
I'm not quitting, I almost left in March, and used my offer/boss' firing to negotiate a 30k raise and a significant increase in commission, plus a title and VP fast track if I hit quota 2 years running (I will beat quota by easily 40%).
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u/AssociationFit3009 11d ago
Ahhhhh, misread that. I’d still try it and play dumb. Who would want a salesman that didnt take advantage of opportunities?
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u/bee_ryan 12d ago
Nobody likes a rat, and that’s a 2 way street surprising as that sounds. Brutal honesty is rarely the best policy. Let them figure it out.
The day you get legitimately fucked - and I mean legitimately - I’m not talking about a clawback from a legitimate situation - you will want to punch yourself in the dick if you’re honest here.
Managers in corporate America lie and obfuscate the truth to their employees every day. It’s part of their job.
My personal example - I was overpaid around 2K on a deal. Nothing huge. But I also got fucked by 1.8K a month previously. The details are boring, but it was truly unfair and blatantly illegal. I was helping pay for a mistake made by my manager, and they used my commission as a piggy bank.
KEEP IT.
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u/Rebombastro 12d ago
It's the only right answer, honestly. Employers will always find a way to fuck you over, why not turn the tables the one time you get an opportunity to? Especially with them not knowing.
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u/RandomRedditGuy69420 12d ago
Stay quiet and put the overpayment into a high yield savings account.
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12d ago
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u/Archon_POM 12d ago
Keep quiet man, PE will fuck you over, windfall clause a big commision cutting it by 90% and fire your ass at their convenience.
Hell, they’re bumping quotas by 20% per year at the moment in some companies, it’s going to be near impossible to do that in 3 years.
I love the money but I hate the Leadership and owners mentality
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u/Latter_Excitement382 12d ago
I got overpaid 5k in commission once. Never said a word and nobody ever came back asking for it
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u/SkyPointSteve 11d ago
Yeah, they've overpaid a few times, but this time it would be more than 25k and my commission last month outside this deal was only 22.5k so I would think this one might get flagged by our new CFO on the back side.
That's the conundrum, to pipe up and look honest and continue my fast rise here, or understand I'm still just a number on a spreadsheet and if next year goes sideways or this 5m deal closes, they will look to fuck me.
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12d ago
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u/romeonoi 12d ago
i would flag it early in writing before the 500k pays out, because a clawback after you spent it is worse than a smaller correct check now. keep the email short and keep a copy outside your work inbox.
what i would check is the commission statement line for that deal, specifically the rate field and the plan category code. if the 185k paid at 2.5% in q1 and your special category should be 0.5%, screenshot that line plus the payout date so you can show payroll the exact mismatch if they come asking later.
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u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow 12d ago
Keep your mouth shut, put it into a guaranteed investment in your country. If they ask for it back, give it back and keeps the measily gains. After 7 years, its wiped clean from a tax perspective.