Client wont pay.
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- Meeklo0
this pisses me off..
anyone thinks the exposing them on a blog is a bad move?
- ETM0
Yes, putting them in a blog can open you up for libel and they can sue you...
- why? I'm going to stick to what happened, I have all emails that prove my side of the story.Meeklo
- Because they always have a legal right against anything that may hurt them.ETM
- To be libel or slander, it doesn't need to be false... just damaging.ETM
- Correction... slander or libel IS false... but it's your burden to prove truth... as they can deny many things. Ensure the contract is air tight.ETM
- Ensure the contract is air tight.ETM
- ETM0
Look into putting a lein against the business and move on. Every locality is different, but it's surprisingly easy to do...
- former0
let it go. At some point you have to figure out how much your time is worth. I am guessing you have already expended more than $300 of your time.
It sucks, but sometimes its just not worth it. $30k or even $3k would be worth it, but not $300.
- mg330
you need to recode their site (if you did the coding) so that goatse pops up in 15 second intervals. Forever.
- xicast0
You're not done yet.
If you work with a lot of clients or have a regular turn-over with small projects like these, its time to learn about the business side of writing code for a living.
First step: Your Contract. It needs to include a very clear clause that payments received after their due date are subject to late penalties of a defined percentage. It also MUST state that the client is liable for any fees (legal or otherwise) arising due to the collection of their balance due.
Second: bill regularly and stop work when payments are late. I know it makes you sound like a hard ass and you think the client won't want to continue, but I've learned the hard way that if their payments are late, they are always going to be so. You don't want this client any more.
Third: Hire a Collection Agency. I use one that is ok. They haven't really been able to turn up any money for me but they do make the non-paying client's life absolute hell. The agency called one guy's wife at work and left daily messages. They called another debtor's NEIGHBOR trying to find him. Now that is humiliating. I had to pay like $500 to retain the agency (I think they apply that towards collecting against 60 clients or something to that affect). They keep 18% of what they collect. If it goes to court, they will find representation for you and keep 49% of the collected money. You have to pay legal fees, though. You contract will allow you to include those in the winnings.
It sounds expensive at first, and it is. But it gives you a HUGE edge for handling these kinds of jerkoffs. That way, you can go back to taking care of your good clients and leave the credit reporting to the agency.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
- grafiktees0
Sign his email up for gay porn SPAM each day for one year.
- Or put his mobil on one of those fetish dating websites. I did this to a bastard ex boss great laughweave
- Biggreenapples0
I had an experience where a client wouldn't pay, did the work blah blah blah and it all went banana-shaped. Went through all the hassles of contacting a solicitor and doing the "pay or else" letter. Was on the brink of going to court, when I realised this was going to be more hassle than it was worth the client wouldn't budge.
Basically my advice is write-it off and learn from the experience. It sucks and is a thoroughly depressing episode.
I should have listened to my girlfriend when I took the job on, never work for a client who wears tracksuit bottoms and high heels!!!
- jamble0
If you have a contract, then enforce it.
I've had two clients in the last year who have been very very slow to pay me although they've never said they wouldn't/couldn't pay, they did take months.
In the end, one client who was in Canada (I'm in UK) I had to threaten with taking them to court and I also emailed her to say that I would be taking the site down and replacing it with a clear notice that it was down because they had not paid their bills. I was going to get the money back through small claims court (£1200 or so) and that any legal expense would also be added as per my contract.
The other client was local and I ended up turning up on the doorstep one day and asking for a cheque.
I thought seriously about posting on my blog about their non payment too but I was going to do it in the form of an article I'd make up about "freelancers not getting paid like normal suppliers" or something like that and then naming specific examples but I think that would lead to more trouble than it's worth.
Even if it's only $300, it's your money, you've done the work and met your part of the agreement.
I'd suggest sending them a final demand for payment by email and perhaps also a letter delivered by recorded delivery (it looks more formal) to the company saying if you're paid within 5 working days of receipt, you'll be taking them to court to retrieve your money.
Just because it's a smaller amount of money I see no reason to write it off to experience.
Good luck!
- DaveO0
I worked on a record sleeve for ages and they went bust owing me £1500, that's 3000 of your american dollars. Nothing I can do, pretty far down the list of their priorities when the liquidators move in.
Fuck it, NEXT!
- Who was that for DaveO?
Music Industry is a difficult place to work in my experience.********
- Who was that for DaveO?
- ********0
Meeklo, you keep referring to your 'mistake'... but I think you need to decide definitively if your mistake actually cost them anything in terms of cost, of missed opportunity (due to timing delays) or an error in the final delivered product. If not, then I suggest you separate the mistake from their non-payment as they are two unrelated matters and a client will always try and link two things to justify not paying.
I don't believe any of us should ever encourage this kind of behaviour by writing off even the tiniest amounts. If there is a a discussion that needs to be had to resolve the issue it needs to be resolved. Its not always the case that the client is just been a caniving shyster, soemtimes they feel they have a valid reason for with-holding based on a sense of injustice of their own, but they may not have expressed that very clearly.
Talk to them, calmly, and explain how you see the situation, and listen... REALLY LISTEN.... to how they see the explanation without jumping in to argue against them mid-sentence.
You might come out of the meeting understanding why they refuse to pay, and that might be justifiable or it might not, but you are on the moral backfoot if you start a knee jerk slur camapign against them.
Most of the time, a client has handeld a situation so badly that if you walk them, like children, through the situation, and explain some basic principles of the working relationship, and their responsibilities (such as notifying you within 24hours of receiving your invoice if they have a problem with your work) it can generally be resolved.
- ********0
either you call and insult that bastard or you just stick a fork in his eye and turn it 90º counter-clockwise squeezing his neck at the same time and making him open the safe box. I'd take the first option.
- sea_sea0
good god, i guess this "no paying shit" is like a virus! same shit over here. wtf?!
i really wanna hurt them bitches... grrr...
*sorry, venting right about now.
- ********0
This 'no paying shit' is always there. I do work from time to time with one of the most highly regarded creative companies... I wont say which one... and they, as a matter of unwritten policy, will not pay unless they are absolutely backed into a corner and forced to. I have had a head-on clash with their head of finance in the past and been forced to hold other ongoing work to ransom just to get paid for completed projects... 4 months later than due date. There were no quibbles with my work or my timing. Everyone was happy, they just didn't want to pay.
I have worked at a few design companies in my time and know for a fact that the people in finance consider it part of their service to the company to obtain incoming payments as quickly as possible and to with-hold all outgoing payments as long as possible.
They're a specialist breed, as we all are in our own ways.
Was that 10 words maximum? I think it was. yeah, I'm SURE it was.
- Their name doesn't begin with a B does it...? sounds exactly like a prob I had last year.jamble
- No, not B. I'd rather not say as you never know who's on here reading up.********
- Neither would I .. just had exactly the same prob with a big agencyjamble
- If you are working as a contractor, doesn't that law say that you have to be paid in 90 days or less?ETM
- Raniator0
put bits of rolled up tissue paper between their toes, light them (the tissue paper, not the toes) and THEN watch them not pay...
- trooper0
send em a winding up notice.
mark
- Meeklo0
I am more calm now, (and its really hard to get me angry)..
I'm calling!
- ********0
Get a van load of Chaps wearing balaclava's. Drive to the scum's home - ask him to step into the van and get the chaps to bum him until he pays up.
Works every time.
- i_monk0
Collections agency.