Client has said they won't pay...

[SlightlyCC]

I have carried-out 26 hours of work for a client and we both came to the conclusion that they would take what I had done for them (all files and designs) pay me £400 as an agreed figure (should have been £715 as I charge £27.50 per hour) and look for another agency to complete the work as I couldn't have it finished in time due to other client work we have on.

It was all a very amicable agreement yesterday - but today they have said they will not pay a penny. The thing is, they have all the PDF files that are 90% finished. These can be opened in Illustrator, tweaked and the job is done (as all the images were vector).

I have all my time sheets and emails stating they wanted the work, they were happy to pay the £400 and I would deliver all the other files I held on our server.

What can I do?

[Global Assistant]

Why has the client changed their mind about paying you today? What reason did they give you?

You say you can not finish the project in time - did you agree on a specified length of time at the start of the project?

[openmind]

Was there any kind of written agreement in place?

[RedEvo]

You could take them to the small claims court. They will then counter sue you for non delivery. The best plan? Swallow it and move on.....

d

[Paul Norman]

In the current climate, people are working harder not to pay.

In this case, you can't win. If a phone call has produced a refusal, move one, sadly. You will get a thousand bits of advice about terms and conditions, late payment stuff, but in reality, unless the sums are big, just move on.

Even the courts cant make someone pay, if they are determined not to.

[AboveParr]

If they have stated they are not going to pay then really your only option for collecting the money is the small claims court. Before going ahead though you need to decide on a few things...

Are you going to win the case? Based on what you've written, probably.

Is it going to cost you more in time and effort to chase it through than the debt is worth? It's fairly straightforward to do and doesn't cost a lot - but it is quite time consuming.

Is it a matter of principle for you? Only you can answer this!

Have they got the money? If they have no funds then it's pointless.

At the end of the day you have to decide whether to chase them through the courts but IMO I'd be tempted, as it appears that they never intended to pay you - the agreement was simply a way of getting the files from you.

BTW they aren't based near Swadlincote are they??? If they are we need to talk!

[LOS Design UK]

If they have stated they are not going to pay then really your only option for collecting the money is the small claims court. Before going ahead though you need to decide on a few things...

Are you going to win the case? Based on what you've written, probably.

Hi Sara

I agree with almost all of what you write apart from the quoted text.

As stated above, they will come back with a counter action for non-delivery and I am afraid that they will win on that one as the OP has stated he failed to deliver.

I would, as suggested, chalk it up and move on.

Regards
Daren

[GeorgeM]

You are not in a strong position, as others have stated, in that you did not complete the work. I would suggest this is a good experience you can learn from and avoid this situation in the future.

One question - if you were overloaded with work, why did you not engage a subcontractor to complete it and then the non-delivery would have been avoided ?

[AboveParr]

They might well do - most likely as a delaying tactic. But as they have agreed to pay a part for the work carried out then they wouldn't have much of a case (and I did say "based on what you've written", which wasn't a lot). An ex-customer of mine tried exactly this and lost!

These people clearly never intended to pay and used the "agreement" to get hold of the files and personally that annoys me to the core. It really depends on your view of debt I guess - as a credit controller my instinct is to collect if at all possible, without throwing good money after bad.

[AccountingBasics]

The first thing that I would recommend is to send out a 7 day letter, stating that if the money is not received you will take legal action. Even if you decide not to follow it through, you have at least tried to get paid. Some companies will pay on a 7 day letter as they do not want the hassle of going through the small claims.

If it does go through small claims there is no guarantee that you will get paid and it will cost you money.

It is possible to do all this yourself, you do not need to get a debt collection company involved, but sometimes companies do take more notice.