Well, I've officially stumbled upon my first "client who hasn't paid by the deadline".
The editor has given me several excuses, but he at least has been prompt in reply to my queries over the last week. He said a new CFO took over, there were issues setting up their corporate account with PayPal, and otherwise. He also gave me the e-mail of the CFO, who I e-mailed last Friday morning regarding the issue. Deadline for payment was August 31st, which was yesterday.
As of this morning, I still have no payment for the articles, nor did their CFO ever reply to me. I got to write my first "pay up or face legal action" e-mail this morning, out of 19 months of Freelancing. Not bad, I suppose, for a year and a half of work. Still, there's a first time for everything.
I've given them until midnight of September 4th to make payment.
Fun times, right before vacation.
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The editor in question got back to me within about 15 minutes of my e-mail.
Apparently no one has received a paycheck since July. One individual in question is owed back-pay of several thousand dollars from coverage of E3. None of the executive staff or the writers have been paid since June, and there is apparently a meeting with the CEO tomorrow, and another meeting with the European branch later this week.
Makes me wonder where the 1.5 million Euro that the company was founded with last fall went.
Maybe towards some socialized medicine?
/flees
Seriously, though, that is horrible. The wonder of a written contract, however - a friend to lawyers everywhere.
What's funny is the CEO of the company e-mailed me last night/this morning and his letter said that I need to "bear with them" through this "difficult" time, and that unfortunately the "tone of your letter" doesn't inspire them to want a long-term relationship with me.
First of all, All SIX of my e-mails regarding queries for articles have gone ignored in the past 8 weeks. Not a single response. The *only* communication I've had is with the editor, and the *only* time he's replied to my e-mails is when I throw something in the title regarding "payment".
Believe me, I'm not inspired either. A company who never returns e-mails and is 30 days late on their payment, and then only returns e-mails after you threaten them with legal action, doesn't really strike me as a company with whom I want to work. There are hundreds of other companies out there who pay on time, and actually check their in-box.
I'm sorry to hear about your problems with this client. I had an opportunity to work with them too but gave up on them when the editor stopped emailing me back. I'm glad that I didn't end up doing business with them; I'd hate to go through what's happening to you now. Good luck and keep us posted.
No dice on the payment. Looks like I'm moving into Cease and Desist mode this afternoon, once I've wrapped up my work and post-vacation business.
Unfortunate. Thankfully it was only a small amount of work, but it's still unfortunate, because I had hoped this would turn into a long-term relationship, but I have zero tolerance for slow payment, or in this case, an absolute lack of. Not to mention I don't deal with people who can't be bothered to return e-mails unless there happens to be a threatening legal issue within them.
Very unprofessional.
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