by Kathy Kehrli
Over at my blog, I dole out “Screw yous!” pretty regularly, and those two words are cathartic when I’m dealing with clueless buyers I’ll never actually work for or with problematic clients who give me a lot of grief but ultimately keep up their end of the bargain. When the situation spirals into non-payment, however, a “Screw you!” provides little consolation.
I’m often approached by people I’ve gotten to know through my blog asking me for advice on what to do about a non-paying client. Such requests are usually qualified with a “Why aren’t more freelancers as open about talking about this as you are?” In my opinion, it’s a topic that should be more openly discussed. So, here are some of the strategies I employ—and advise others to employ—to collect my overdue dough.
1. The most important lesson I’ve learned as a freelancer is to keep a record of all correspondence with every client. That means maintaining a paper trail of all received and sent messages until such time as payment has been received and cleared. And if there’s any doubt in your mind, hang on to such correspondence even longer than that. It’s not unusual for an extremely problematic client to rock the boat weeks, even months, down the road. To borrow a cliché, the proof is always in the pudding, so keep your pudding handy.
2. If you’re dealing with a business as opposed to a single entity, gather all of their contact information together and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. By law, a business must respond to all such complaints or a permanent mark goes on their record.
3. If any portion of the transaction occurred online, report the matter to the FBI Internet Fraud Department. This action is not for the faint of heart and it’s one I undertake only as a last resort. That’s because it will result in police involvement. If you know you’re in the right and you can prove your case, however, you should not feel intimidated about employing this measure.
The best part about the aforementioned collection tactics is that each and every one them is absolutely free for the taking … and they’re much more likely to result in payment being secured than a “Screw you!”
Kathy, I agree with you about Angela Hoy. She’s fantastic. I get her weekly newsletter and find something useful in it every Wednesday when it lands in my inbox. My husband also recently self-published his first novel (www.werewolfforhire.com) with her and found her wonderful to work with.
Hmmm… as a Canadian working in an international virtual world, this was one of those posts where I was left thinking, “Ah. Most of these agencies don’t apply to me.”
Also, I think people should try to determine the cost factor in time of seeking vengeance. While I agree it’s great to stand up for ourselves and fight for our rights, I also think that looping into police reports, chasing down scammers and whatnot may not be worth the while if it’s just a question of principle.
It might be a better idea to walk away, learn the lesson and move on, depending on the dollar amount involved.
But that’s just me and my Canadian two cents
Angela Hoy can really help if you have a contract or emails from the person covering payment issues. But you have to have clear intent to pay from the person and then not have received payment.
Police will not do much. My friend’s hubby is an Arkansas detective and he’s said there is too much Internet fraud for them to deal with cases involving unpaid freelancers. Look at that issue last year with–I can’t remember his name anymore, oh Laray Carr. Did anything ever happen with him? I checked boards periodically just for curiosity’s sake, but never saw anything come of it.
Newbie here – who’s Larry Carr?
Part of the problem lies in the variations among states as to how conflicts over non-payment are resolved. I have found that contacting the State Attorney General in the state in which your client resides can give you information as to how to proceeed if you need to collect from an out-of-your-state client.
Another option is Small Claims Court. There is a filing fee, and a cap on the amount you can file for. Again, state law applies. However, in most instances you can file in the state of residence if you are trying to collect from an out-of-your-state client.
That makes sense. Thank you so much for sharing that, Kathy. I’m sure that most of us have had problems with one or more clients who… need reminding.
By the way, documentation like signed contracts, emails (snail mail) attempts to collect, cancelled checks of partial payments are all imperative if you want legal help to collect.
Proof of partial payment is the clincher in a case like this because it shows that you did, in fact. have an oral/written contract in effect. Remember, a contraact is legally defined as an agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to perform a service for the other party in return for consideration (this usually being money). There is nothing about whether it is written or oral, or contained in an email or written up as a formal legal document.
Good post and interesting discussion from the comments. Thanks for the website link.
@Erika K – Laray Carr happened about a year ago I think. He posted a job ad looking for tons of magazine articles for a number of magazines he planned to publish that fall. I remember applying and they immediately approved my application without my giving samples or anything and then asking for some personal information that I wasn’t willing to hand out. Plus, the deadline for the articles was over a weekend – no week – month or anything – just two or three days.
Lots of people did submit articles though and never saw payment. As time went on, Laray Carr became linked to a number of other aliases and he owed thousands of dollars to writers, designers and the like.
If you google his name, you’ll find a ton of information about him.
Wow – I just got done reading some blogs and message boards about that. That’s amazing. And who’s that Hope character? She sounded odd. Anyway, now I’m wondering what’s happened, or if we’ll see this guy (and Hope) pop up in some other way in the near future.
Good information, Kathy. However, I also agree with James that sometimes it’s best to just cut your losses.
As a preventative measure, I bill out large projects incrementally (usually splitting the total project fee into 2 or 3 invoices.)
Another Angela Hoy subscriber here
The most important thing to me is your first tip–and then deciding for yourself whether it’s worth all the pursuit or not. I agree with James that sometimes it’s probably not worth it, especially since you still own the copyright on whatever you’ve written; you can at least try to resell (or sell it for the first time as it were).
I wrote an article for Writer’s Digest about this very topic waaaaay back in 1997! The advice writers at the time gave me – contact the Attorney General’s office (for they get really upset with any hint of fraudulent activity in their state), be consistent with billing/late fees, take ‘em to small claims court (cheap to file), or get an attorney (some were using Writer’s Union attorneys) and sue.
Kathy, I love this. You’ve definitely given us some more avenues through which we can secure payment. Excellent advice, per usual.
)
@Erika- Hope appeared in the end to be scammed by Laray as well. At the very end when people were urged to contact the detective in Texas I think it was – Hope came forward and admitted she’d never been paid either.
But who knows… After it was proven it was a scam, everything about it seemed to fizzle out. I saw one woman blog about it in early 2008 saying she sent a letter to the FBI and never heard another word, so I’m guessing nothing ever did become of it leaving Carr to open up shop all over again at some point.
Re: The Better Business Bureau
While filing a complaint with the BBB can’t hurt, it won’t amount to much if the subject of the complaint isn’t a BBB member. It’s a common misconception–and one the BBB does little if anything to rectify because it works for them–that the BBB is some kind of official government agency. It’s not. It’s a membership organiation. There may be BBB rules that require member businesses to address complaints, but no law (as far as I know). If a business doesn’t belong to the BBB, the threat of a black mark will mean little, if anything, to them.
To make a complaint that might have more teeth, contact the consumer fraud protection agency or attorney general for the state or county in which the offending business is located.
@Lori – There have been so many articles written about this subject becuase it has been a persistant problem for many, many years.
Cutting your losses is usually the way most of us proceed in instances where the contract is small. However, I’d be very careful about assuming you have copyright rights if you signed a “work-for-hire” agreement. Under this type of contract ownership of all rights is automatically transferred to the person for whom you are doing the writing upon signing the contract. That’s usually when most people look for legal redress, because you can get anything for your work except from the person who commissioned it.
I should also add the only way to get back your copyright rights in a “work-for-hire” situation is to legally prove breach of contract, which renders the contract null and void.
@ Maria E, excellent point–and this is exactly why writers should always read contracts carefully and be sure that rights stay with the writer until and unless they are paid for.
What has worked for me the three times I’ve dealt with non-payers. Find out who owns and hosts the Web site – do a WHOIS search and find the domain info. You’ll see this information listed at some point. Once, the woman I wrote for took off without paying, so I emailed the Web site owner where the material had been posted and complained. He was clearly upset and blacklisted using her writing firm again and paid me for the articles.
The other two times, the host company took the sites down. I was out the money still, but the person who didn’t pay was out a Web site, so I figure it was a bigger lesson for them. When you contract with a host site, it often says in the fine print that you agree not to post any plagiarized material. If they don’t pay you and use that content, they’ve broken their contract.
@bleeding expresso – Amen!! That’s the one thing every writer should take away from this discussion, READ YOUR CONTRACT. If you don’t understand what it is saying, consult an attorney. An initial consultation could cost you a couple hundred bucks, but it can save several thousand on the back end if the work arrangement goes south.
I think it’s always a good idea not to sh*t on the people below you as you crawl up the greasy pole, as they will be only to happy to reciprocate when you’re on your way down. A “screw you” here, a flippant profanity there…it all mounts up and when you open that interview door to find a putative client covered in your sh*t, then you’ll regret it…
db
David makes a good point. Poisoning the well — even if justified — may haunt one later.
James makes a similar point — is it worth the time? Especially if correction of the issue is unlikely. Though sometimes it may be good to spend hte time for one’s own sanity.
The best bet, I think, is to check out potential clients in advance. That doesn’t mean they won’t go under, but it limits the risk. Also, don’t take on too much work from any one client, particularly at the beginning of a relationship.
I have a client now who “desperately” needs some more work, but they’ve fallen too far behind in payments. Though I fully expect them to come through — there were personnel and administrative issues and it’s a client who could be hurt by a negative rap — I won’t be doing anything more until they come current, even though I could use the extra income.
@Phil – Lessening one’s risk exposure is what it’s all about. However, I think that means more than just checking out the client. You need to mitigate risk on every level, including having a valid contract, documenting exchanges regarding the progress of the project, as well as collections, and documenting actions taken to relieve any problems that the client may have found with the work that could be construed as breach of contract on your part.
Maria E.,
All good points
I think it is worth it to attempt to get your $ from non-paying clients as I do not want other writers to go through the same thing with these clients.
Scribette,
That’s exactly right, especially newer folks who might not catch some of the red flags more experienced folks would see.
As long as your screw you involves a trip to small claims court, I can’t see how that could come back to haunt you. That’s a legitimate form of protest in most western societies.
You aren’t going to work for that person again anyways, and I doubt most editors would be afraid to hire someone who has a reputation for wanting to be paid.
Not sure if the post I just wrote went through … but you can email non-payer and tell them that you are going to report them as a non-payer – within a week – to the BBB and websites with high search engine ranking if they do not pay.
I then follow up this letter with a short email every day until I get paid.
It works and does not take up too much of your time!!
I’ve been lucky – I’ve actually never had a client give me trouble. However, I know that there are some really shady people out there – and even the ones who seem nice may skip out on payment. It’s unfortunate. It’s also nice to know that people like Angela Hoy are willing to help!
Here is what Angela Hoy from Writers Weekly recommends (minus the links):
Let’s face it. Email goes awry. People get sick. Building burn down. Things do happen. Before you take drastic collection efforts, send a certified letter to the editor. Five days later, email that letter to as many email addresses at the company as you can find. To get a firm’s mailing address and even an alternative email address, look at their website or search for their domain at:
dns411 dot com
Include a note telling the editor that if you don’t hear from them about this matter within 10 business days, you’re going to do the following:
STEP 2:
Report them to the Attorney General’s office in their state. It is best to name the attorney general in the letter. You can find a listing of all the attorney generals at:
STEP 3:
Report them to the Better Business Bureau. Reports can be filed online. You can find a list of BBB sites at:
STEP 4:
Report them to the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center (only if they owe you $5K or more). See:
STEP 5:
Report them to the National Writer’s Union (you must be a member). See:
STEP 6:
Report them to the Absolute Write Bewares Board at:
STEP 7:
CONTACT THE PUBLICATION’S ADVERTISERS: A publication’s advertisers are their main source of financial survival. When a media giant (television show, magazine, etc.) does something to harm their reputation, advertisers start pulling the plug to distance themselves from the offender. This works with small publication, too! If a publisher owes you money, their advertisers deserve to know what type of publication they’re attaching their product’s name to.
STEP 8:
USING EMAIL BOMBS AS COLLECTION TOOLS: Awhile back (several months ago), we ran a letter here about email bombs that was quite a hit. What’s an email bomb? If a publication owes you money and refuses to pay, have everyone you know on every writing list send that editor an email that says,
“Please pay [insert your name here].”
And, have them sign their name with “Freelance Writer” after it. This way, the editor knows that word about their unethical, non-payment practices has gotten around online to thousands of freelance writers. And, they will usually pay you quickly in an attempt to save their already quite tarnished reputation. This drastic yet very effective method usually works.
STEP 9:
Join some of the largest freelance writing discussion lists and post messages about the firm to warn other writers about that firm!
One of the largest usenet groups is:
More lists can be found at:
Yahoo, Topica
STEP 10:
Report them to WritersWeekly Warnings.
SAMPLE LETTER:
For illustrative purposes, I’m going to pretend the publication is in New York City.
Date
Publisher name
Address
New York, NY 99999
(You can usually find this info. on their website, in their publication, or at:
This letter serves as written notice that your firm owes me $________ and is ignoring my emails. If I do not hear from you within 10 business days concerning this matter, I will be forced to notify the following:
1. New York State Attorney General
2. BBB of Metropolitan New York
3. FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center
4. WritersWeekly.com Warnings
WritersWeekly is the largest freelance writing ezine in the world serving 67,000 freelancers every Wednesday. Their warnings page has successfully put deadbeat publishers out of business.
5. National Writer’s Union
6. Absolute Write Bewares Board
7. Your advertisers
[Insert a brief list of the biggest advertisers/partners you find on their website or in their print publication.]
8. My peers
There are hundreds of thousands of writers online that can easily be accessed within one hour by the click of my mouse.
[your signature]
Your name
Address
City/State/Zip
Phone
Fax
Email
Remember…when an editor owes you money and ignores your letters and emails, they are WRONG. They are unprofessional deadbeats and the freelance community deserves to know about their actions!
Angela Hoy is the co-owner of WritersWeekly.com, a FREE emag for writers featuring freelance jobs and new paying markets, and Booklocker.com, an epublisher that helps self-published authors turn their books into a business.
How come I never generate this much discussion at my own blog?! Before I respond to some individual comments, I just want to say that this is take it or leave it advice. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me or to use it.
@James, yeah, I admit that as an American my suggestions are skewed toward us USians. I haven’t had a need to explore my collection options in Canada or elsewhere, but I know if anyone can dig up some solid advice it’s you. And I live and (hopefully) die by principle, so these efforts are definitely worth it to me. If we’re talking purely economic benefit here, then yes, your point is well taken.
@Ann, I don’t like to get the police involved unless it’s a substantial amount of money, but from personal experience, I can tell you that an FBI Internet Fraud complaint will result in a call from your local sheriff. How much effort s/he then puts forth on your behalf is questionable. As for Laray Carr, I believe he was using a false identity. Most clients reveal their real names and are therefore much easier to track down.
@Laurel, YES, an upfront deposit is the smartest move you can make as a freelancer.
@Matt, The BBB advice is more a scratching-the-back-of-future-dupees strategy. Some BBBs will take action on collection issues; others will not. They will, however, put all complaints into the company’s file (assuming, as you point out, they have one). Then when someone else investigates that company, s/he at least knows another person experienced trouble. I love your alternative suggestions though and will be taking note of them.
@Ann G., Excellent advice for instances where you can track down your work online!
@David, I haven’t regretted a single “Screw You!” yet, but to each his own. What I will concede to is that it’s not smart to badmouth people until you’ve run the full course of common courtesy tactics.
Thank you, Scribette, Erika and David, for seeing that my motivation with my hardnosing isn’t purely self-centered.
@Scribette, I had no idea Angela advocated many of the same techniques I do. It’s good to know I’m on the right track because I consider Angela an expert in this field.
@Scribette: I think maybe your extensive post should be turned into a link, since it’s not your words. I’m sure Ms. Hoy would appreciate the traffic to her own site, rather than have it taken and posted here without her knowledge or authorization.
Since we’re all writers, maybe we should practice what we preach and not steal it.
Angela Hoy does indeed run an excellent site. I go there as well as here on a regular basis, though I don’t tend to get involved in the discussions there, only have time to do that at one place.
Adam – I tried that originally – it appears that anything with links could not be posted here.
Please visit her website and do a search for the article on the website for further info.
James and Kathy – I am Canadian but I write for mostly US publications … therefore, this approach can be used. You can adapt this approach to Canadians as well – by just using the organizations that are applicable to Canadians.
Deb – Is it possible to put a link to Angela Hoy’s article at WritersWeekly.com?
@ Scribette – I know that. And I know which organizations to approach. (The cops would not be one of them lol)
It’s the lack of universality in a virtual world that irks me most of all. Every time I see a “U.S. readers only” post, it’s exclusionary. I mean, I’d love to turn my blog 100% Canadian, but how many readers would love me then?
James – ok! I disagree though
… I think the post could be applied to Canadians as well. (minus the FBI suggestion perhaps)
As a Canadian though, I understand what you are saying though in general!
LOL … how many times did I say the word ‘though’ in that post??
Great post, Kathy.
I’m dealing with a deadbeat client at the moment who is hurting my business and am still trying the honey for flies tactics before I turn to vinegar. I’m real close to my limit though and this client is acting like the metallic green fly! They did this once to me in the past but redeemed themselves so I let my guard down. Shame on me for letting it happen again.
I’ve sent a few writers to Angela Hoy and they’ve all seen results from it. She does offer a great service.
Dana … I hope everything turns out well for you!