Nothing’s more frustrating than working your fingers off to meet a client deadline only to have to wait and wait…. and wait for payment. I’m sitting here right now with two nonpaying clients, both of which paid on time in the past, but haven’t quite met my deadline. One I’m not too concerned about – it’s an established publication and I’m sure it’s a matter of rerouting the invoice to the right person. The other – I’m concerned. It’s a newer company and the internal process has been askew since I started with them. They owe me – a lot. And I intend to get it.
This particular client promised 7-day feedback and bi-weekly payment. No feedback. And it’s been 6 weeks since I’ve finished the project. Maybe they had a specific bi-weekly period in mind … (snark)
Here’s how I intend to get my cash. First, I remind them one month out that they’re more than a little overdue. I attach the amended invoice with late fees, and I copy my attorney (all done). Next, which is today’s task, I resend the invoice with yet another late fee, copied to my attorney, and add the reminder that the material I wrote states specifically all over it (made it the header) that the copyright does not transfer to them until the bill is paid in full. That gives me a little more legal clout should things get ugly.
If none of that works, I send the last invoice with the third late fee attached, copied to my attorney, and where I have the line “Please pay within 15 days to avoid late fees”, I amend it to say “Please pay within 15 days to avoid litigation.” I also make prominent mention of wanting to avoid litigation in my email to them. There’s no doubt what the next step will be.
My writing friend said to me the other day that because they were a newer company, my payment “went into some black hole somewhere.” My response? “I’m going in after it.” See, their financial woes are not my issue. They owe me. Period. Oh, I do expect a bit of “You did this wrong” or “You gave us something we didn’t want”, but that’s too little too late. I’ve heard that song-and-dance before, and I know a stall tactic when I see one. They themselves wrote into the contract that feedback would occur within 7 days. They themselves set the payment parameters. They’ve breached the contract by not honoring either equation. What they try to argue with me now is moot.
Pay up.
Absolutely. If they felt something wasn’t delivered to their specifications, they should have notified you within 48 hours and made arrangements to fix it.
Great Advice Lori! I wish I would have had the forethought to do things this way eight months ago… but things are looking up! Go get em!
You have a very good blog here.
And by the way, thank you for the comment in my blog.