We’ve all had our share of flaky clients. By flaky, I mean clients who:
- Disappear at payment time
- Reappear three months later to complain about quality (oddly about the same time you’ve threatened litigation/collection)
- Change the project parameters after you’ve done the work
- Revise more than twice (my record is 12 revisions) and get farther from the original point each time
What you may not have had is what a friend of mine has right now —
A client who ignores the contract terms and does what they want.
The writer negotiated the terms — 30 days from delivery of final draft to payment. At this writing, the invoice is at least 15 days over that negotiated date. The notice the writer received revealed that they didn’t really mean 30 days.
They meant 90 days.
They didn’t tell her that directly, either. She found out through their payment processing vendor. And notes to the client have gone unanswered.
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Unfortunately, it does happen. Clients sign agreements and then don’t honor them. Maybe they’re new to working with a contractor, maybe they forget that the contract also requires something of them and not just the freelancer. Or maybe they feel as one former client of mine did — the terms no longer appealed.
That’s when I got this note: “We don’t feel there’s any difference between a press release and an article, so we’re going to pay you the same for each.”
No. No you’re not. We agreed on a lower rate for the press releases in exchange for my regular rate for articles. It’s what we’d negotiated.
My note back: “Please refer to the third paragraph of the contract we signed jointly that describes compensation. I will expect the agreed-upon amount due upon your receipt of the invoice.”
When that payment came, I fired them.
It does beg the question: What do you do when the client owes you and they have breached that contract?
Here are some possible solutions:
- Send a reminder of the contract terms. If need be, send it by registered letter. It’s amazing how many clients “lose” your emails when it’s convenient for them. Get them on the phone, follow up with a summary email. Leave a trail, but make sure to make direct contact.
- Ask the client for help. Sometimes the best solution is to bring the client to your side. It’s amazing how well “I need your help” can work in some of these cases. Not all. Which is why this list doesn’t end here.
- Explain your collection process. My contracts have a clause that makes the total contracted amount due immediately upon any breach by the client. Give your client a few days (not many) to rectify the situation before demanding immediate payment but do remind them of what they signed. I tend to let them know that my usual process is to add two late fees of 20% each before sending it to litigation/collection.
- Talk with the accounting department. There’s a damn good chance that your payment isn’t forthcoming because of something the accounting team needs from you that isn’t being communicated. In a few cases I’ve been involved in, the wrong purchase order was on my invoice, thus delaying payment for months. A quick email or call can determine if it’s simply an accounting error.
- Send a demand letter. If it’s been a week and your client hasn’t responded to your attempts to get the conversation going, chances are they’re ghosting you. It’s time to demand payment. Again, better to do this both in snail mail and in email. The demand letter expresses interest in settling the claim you have. It’s an overview of the situation, the amount owed, and the result you expect. It also gives the client a chance to settle without an attorney or other court-related costs.
- Reclaim copyrighted material. Oh yes you can. Remember, you own any work you’ve done for a client who hasn’t paid. The agreement is that payment nets them all rights to the work in question. Without payment, they own nothing you’ve produced. A reminder that the work remains yours until the invoice clears should be sufficient to move the otherwise immovable object.
- Lawyer up/get a collection agency. Sometimes you just need someone with more legal teeth on your side. Some clients (very few, thankfully) rely on freelancers to weigh the options of whether the invoice total is worth the effort to chase it. Chase it when you can. Collection agencies offer a cheaper alternative to court action, though in small claims cases, the fee for filing is not that great.
Dealing with clients who change the project scope, refuse payment, or ignore the contracts can be frustrating. But there are things you can do to right the ship and get them back on track. If you manage to get them to pay, do you keep that client?
That depends. And that’s another blog post. For now, focus on your process for dealing with clients who change the contract terms arbitrarily. Remember, you are running a business and it’s up to you to make sure that business is protected.
Writers, what was the worst situation you’ve had with a client who changed things up without warning/ghosted you?
How did you handle it?
6 responses to “When a Client Breaches a Freelance Contract”
Where do I begin? I’ve shared the two stories before.
First, was the long-time client that paid (very little) on publication (technically, they started processing invoices after publication, and their process took 60-90 days). Knowing their slow process made it possible to budget around it. But then they started pushing back the publication of one article. As I recall, they pushed it back at least six months. But 13 months after I’d submitted the article, I still hadn’t been paid. I tried calling the accountant. He was always at lunch. The publisher’s wife manned the phones, and she always said she’d have the accountant call me back when he’s back from lunch. After a couple weeks I said, “That’s got to be the longest lunch in history!” She didn’t know he hadn’t returned any of my calls. He returned that one. Made some excuses, but said he’d cut the check as soon as possible. Then the editor called and lambasted me for going behind his back (“I thought we were partners, and you went behind my back!”)—I’d asked him multiple times about the payment, and refused to take on new assignments until it was paid. I’d sent a couple past-due notices. The editor hand-delivered my check on his way home from work that night, and apologized for the “oversight.” I already knew by then that I’d never write for them again.
The other was the guy who claimed he couldn’t pay because he had the flu. After a couple weeks of that excuse, I said, “If kids who are out of school with the flu can do their homework, you can sign a few checks.” Or maybe empower one of his employees to issue payments? That was the last time I dealt with his publication. Which is a shame, since the assignments were usually interesting.
These ex-clients share one red-flag trait: They valued their ad sales over the quality of their editorial. Which also means they didn’t respect writers.
I remember these stories, Paula! That first one still has me shaking my head. He lambasted YOU because HE didn’t pay you and didn’t bother to follow up. That he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed or apologetic makes that even more shameful.
“I’m too sick to write the check” but damn if he couldn’t write the email to tell you that, right? Or answer the phone. It’s a novel excuse, but it only works one time before you realize you’re being snowed.
You’re so right on that red flag. When ad sales trump editorial, it’s no longer about delivering good content. It’s about hauling in money. Writers do lose every time.
Oh, guy number 2 didn’t answer the phone or email me. The excuses came courtesy of the receptionist….because the guy with the “flu” was out on the golf course, according to social media posts of him on the greens. Grr.
Seriously? How many times can someone have the “flu” in that short amount of time? Sounds like you guessed correctly. 😉
Shame on the receptionist for lying for him, too.
Several years ago, a long-time family friend recommended me to one of his friends, who was writing a book and needed a ghostwriter. It was quick, we came to an agreed amount. She basically wanted to talk the book and have me make it coherent. Which, again, it was a quick project. I let her ramble, I shaped it into something cohesive, we went back and forth on the two agreed upon edits. She wanted more, I quoted the rate, she decided to go forward with what she had. She sent me a check for the balance (she’d paid a depost). The check bounced. It took 3 months to get the payment from her, and she never paid the fees that it caused.
Five years later, she wanted me to work with her on a “series”. Um, no. Never working with her again. I told her I rarely did any ghost writing anymore on book length material. If I did, I was contracted through the publisher negotiating with my then agent, and gave her the five figure amount where it started.
She got angry and whined to my “friend” who said I should be grateful for the work. Nope.
The same friend recommended another friend of his who wanted to write a book. We talked back and forth about process and payments and timelines and research and the rest. When it looked like we were close to terms, I gave her the final quote (which we’d discussed over a matter of weeks) and sent the contract (this was in between the instances with the client mentioned above). She came back with a counter offer that was 1/11th of what I quoted, saying that was her budget. I pointed out that she should have stated her budget up front, and saved us weeks of pointless negotiation.
I do not accept referrals from this “friend” anymore.
Whoa. Doesn’t sound like much of a friend. Good grief, two of them like that?
The fact that she whined that you should be “grateful” for the work tells me she didn’t value your skills anyway, so good riddance to her.
And 1/11th the amount? Again, our skills are worth something. Not that little!