I knew it was bound to happen. I got stiffed by a private client. It's ironic because I recently posted about private clients and that having a contract with specific terms and agreements meant the client would actually follow them. Oh, how wrong I was.
I have been writing beauty articles for a private client since September. We had a written agreement and as far as contracts go, it was pretty lenient. I could right about what I wanted, submit a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 20 articles per week and be paid every Friday.
For 6 weeks, payments came on time. Slowly they moved to Monday...then Tuesday...then every two weeks. Until one day, they stopped coming at all. It took me a minute to catch on as I assumed this was another two week gap between communication and payment so I continued to submit articles. I finally got an email, telling me nine of my articles wouldn't be paid because he didn't like them to refer the reader to a physician if the problem persisted. How else did he expect one to deal with pattern baldness (a topic he suggested)? Hmmm....contract violation #1. Because it clearly stated I would have total control over the topics and articles....if he chose not to use them I would receive a promissory email stating he would not alter, change, publish or in any way steal or use my articles or ideas in my article and the article would be attached. It took 11 days for him to decline the articles. I find it funny but there isn't a way to get out of this one as it was a specific term in our agreement. I always include something about rejections and revisions because if I put in my time to produce something specifically for a private client then there should be clause covering a proper way to handle the situation if he/she does not like it.
I sent an email (very nicely worded) reminding him of this clause as well as the agreement to pay every Friday. It remains unanswered. I have now sent a copy of the agreement and conditions as well as a formal letter requesting payment. We shall see when he enters his office on Monday how he responds to that. Probably the same unanswered way...thinking I am naive enough to believe he can disappear without payment and there is nothing that can be done. Oh, how wrong is he!
How do you expect to get the money if you can't reach him?
ReplyDeleteI may never see a dime of the money without some legal action but I cannot at least try. For one, I just discovered that when he broke a specific term within our contract; it also broke his own agreement with the company that publishes the articles. My main problem is that he is now advertising for the private writing job again...is he going to continue to treat other writers this way and get away with it?
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