On April 11, I sent an invoice to one of my client companies. On May 5, I got a text message promising payment the following week. Since then, I’ve heard nothing from anyone in that company. They are not returning emails or phone calls. They have a history of not paying their employees: last year, at least two of their past employees sued them for non-payment.
I think I will give them another week, then publish all details here. They will be in great company with the other deadbeat mentioned earlier. When I get paid by a client, I try to provide their money’s worth. If the amount is negative, then the worth of my work should be negative as well. I also wouldn’t want others to invest time and resources into working with them in the future.
I am quite puzzled at the willingness of serious businesses to risk their reputation and employee relations in this manner. Neither denies that they owe me, but they aren’t paying. I am only holding off on the details because there may be an innocent explanation for the delay in payment and the cessation of communications in the case of the second client. The first one is in a tailspin, and I suspect the brand isn’t going to be around for long. By a strange coincidence, both companies have the same specialization.
“By a strange coincidence, both companies have the same specialization.”
Could that be part of it? That you did work for this companies competition?
Same field, no actual overlap in the market.
a lot of this going on in today’s “economy”. More and more will it be the case, as debt loads continue to increase
Oleg, I work in a completely unrelated field as a business owner and have seen a sea change in the last 1-2 years where an increasing number of people don’t care about paying their contractors, even if the work was completed to their satisfaction, and even more are becoming extremely slow and lackadaisical about getting around to sending payment. My professional service industry has historically provided work first and then billed for payment, as you apparently do, but I am being forced to look at requiring down payments or security deposits from new clients. I’m not in any way defending the actions of your slow pay or deadbeat customers, instead I’m saying that there seems to be a negative shift in moral attitudes and business ethics.