getting paid for unused work

Scenario:

I freelance for a number of copmpanies, one of them (which shall remain nameless) I have been doing work for over a period of two years. They pay well but they take their time with their cheques (as do a lot of companies).

Up till now, everything has been fine, the 2 month wait for the cheques got mildly annoying but it always arrived.

I recently completed a piece of databse work for them, it was a very minor content management system, quite simple, Flash / PHP and MYSQL. Overall, didn't take me too long but I invoiced for the work the agreed amount.

Now the problem:

The company uses a very old computer system, their web server is steam powered and basically, their caching is awful. So at their end, when they make changes in the admin forms, they are not able to view them, even by clearing their cache etc.

I explained the problem, spent an hour on the phone to their 'technical guru' (guru term used very loosely) and explained what he would need to do. I spent more time advising them even though this was clearly nothing to do with me, its their hardware thats at fault. I checked my work on roughly 20 different machines / platforms / browsers / networks and it worked fine with no caching.

Currently, I am still waiting for the money. They have not neccesarily told me they are not going to pay but I have been waiting nearly 4 months now for the money and they keep promising its on the way.

Now the question:
I have used a security loadmovie on all my work and I am going to give them a deadline of when they have to pay me by before I take the work down.

Question is, how long do I give them.

I'd appreciate your thoughts boardroom people!

well love, first off 4 months with no payment is reason enough to pull down the work, if the application works on your end show them using your equipment then explain again how stupid they aere and that they need to upgrade their systems.. if that dosen't work i would use they're bandwidth for my own evil doings..but thats me mate..4 months is long enough

I would suggest open and honest communicacion with the client. Tell them you are worried that they will not pay. See how they react to that. I not in no way suggest threats, because thats the end of your clietn relastionship. But if you feel they are not being upfront, indicate that you feel they are not completing on there side.

I would think that using the security feature in your swf movie will kill the relationship. Whats worth more?? this work or the relationship??

I don't see how this is getting paid for unused work - you're work is ready to go and it's only their system that's not accepting the update.

After two years, you'd hope that they'd trust you enough to believe that they were having the problem, but it seems that they're still playing the 'holier than thou' game. To which, I would recommend going OddDog's way (just once), then if that has no results (maybe after 10 days or so) pull it.

the client has so far been a good client. Work comes in in dribs and drabs but is pretty consistent and ongoing. Up to date, I've probably had roughly 10k off them so I'd rather not ruin the relationship.

I have 2 client relations there, ones a decent bloke, the other is an arse and I believe it may be him who is dragging his heels. I have rung the decent bloke tonight and he has told me I will receive the cheque by Friday or Monday at the latest.

On another note, they have also told me they need some urgent work doing by the end of the week.

Think the 2 things are connected?

Cheers people.

funny razor, i swear you're talking about my situation a while back. persistent politeness is what rewarded me in the long run. best of luck, sounds like you're doing the same.

yep all sorted, cheers pheck

That's why on my invoices which I send out to the client at the end of the project I always include a line at the bottom that indicates the project must be paid in full after 30 days of receiving the invoice. Failure to pay warrants a monthly interest charge that will just keep adding up until they do. When the client starts costing themself more and more money they often times don't drag their heels as much. Whether you're on great terms with them or not, I consider a professional business practice and all of my clients have understood.

In Brazil they have a big black book that holds all the names of the companies which fail to pay up. As we're a registered company, upon receipt of an invoice, the company has 10 business days to cough up the cash, or else we can send their name to the big black book (and likewise, we can end up there too for non-payment).

Very effective. Big or small, companies pay like clockwork here, 'cause if you go in the book, you may as well not show up for business until you get your name removed.

My wife sends out invoices to all of our hosting clients and web clients with outstanding balances. if it's 30 days past due she'll mark it up all nice with a yellow highlighter - it keeps it prefessional and it's a way to demand payment every month without seeming like your demanding payment... rarely does anyone go over 60 days.

happy to here a happy ending razor,

and pheck thank you !!

that is a new thing learnt here (and it has been a while)

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persistent politeness is what rewarded me in the long run

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that is a great way to define it.

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Originally posted by RazoRmedia

I have used a security loadmovie on all my work and I am going to give them a deadline of when they have to pay me by before I take the work down.
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can you tell us more about this little thing here?

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Originally posted by erova
can you tell us more about this little thing here?

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oh come on, everyone knows this, its the oldest trick in the book to protect your flash work on anothers servers.

oddDog--gracias!

razor--ah come on now let's be nice ;). erova, the way you do it is in the first frame, for example, put a loadMovieNum("http://yourserver.protect.swf", 1); line in there. the "protect.swf" doesn't actually exist on your server but it *can* if they client falls through in some way.

i use this method too, but have never used it and never plan to. it is a last resort as it will likely end in destruction of the business relationship. i upload a new .swf free of the loadMovie command as soon as i receive payment too.