Bad Pay Client

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ty,

Contact me off forum (mads [at] macmillion.com), I’m a 5 min walk away from British Museum – if I can, I’m happy to help.

However, do note that UK museums, charities, government, consultancy companies, PR companies and so forth are notoriously bad payers first time. In all likelihood your invoice is sitting on a desk with someone on holiday, or they got it into accounts on the 16th, when the payment run is only done on the 15th of every month and so forth… A system that is always difficult to get through, but after the first payments those big NGO’s are normally very good.

All the Best
Mads
London, UK

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Mac Million Ltd. – Digital Media Production
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[Ty Ford]

Ah! The smell of money (minus the $20 wiring fee)

Using Mike’s excellent “How to get your money under British Law” primer and suggesting Mad’s proximity to the museum itself might result in some face time, I sent a note to their “Communications Dept.” instead of the folks I had been dealing with.

In their defense, they had a wrong number series in the three long numbers required in the wiring process, but they should have known that if they had bothered to pay me promptly.

Job done and thanks to everyone who rallied.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Brendan Coots]

I agree with Mark’s comments, except that I wouldn’t worry about legal costs. This is strictly small claims court material so there shouldn’t be ANY costs outside of your time and energy serving the defendant their notice.

Brendan Coots
Creative Director
Brandflow Video Studio

[Aaron Cadieux]

Good for you for calling the museum out by name in a public forum. I’m surprised though that you haven’t gotten a lecture by one of the many holier-than-thous that reply to posts on the cow. I had the stones to call out a deadbeat client by name on this forun in the past. By the way I was lectured on the Cow about it, you might have thought that I kicked a puppy or something.

Anyway, it’s good to see another professional out there who doesn’t let a client walk all over them. In my book, 250 is a lot of money.

Best,

Aaron

[Bob Cole]

[Aaron Cadieux] “one of the many holier-than-thous that reply to posts on the cow.”

Is someone calling my name? No, Aaron, I’m totally in favor of other people calling out bad pay clients. I wouldn’t do it myself, but I appreciate the warning from others. Mainly, when I advise people not to air their dirty laundry here, it is in employee-employer situations, when they think they have anonymity which they don’t actually have (i.e. they do not name their employer, but sign their real name, apparently unaware that their “discretion” is totally undermined by Google).

St. Bob
(holier-than-thou?)

[Ty Ford]

Aaron, Bob,

Yeah, well, I told them I would do exactly that and they still didn’t get it. They deserve it. If I acted like that with the local utility company, I wouldn’t have the juice to send this email.

I don’t do it in anger. I follow a very specific set of steps and at each point make it clear to them that if they don’t do this by a specific time, then something bad will happen. I tell them exactly what that will be.

Will I work for them again? Probably not and who would want to?

Will others whom they may approach be more careful? I hope so.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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