Freelancer, you suck.
January 5, 2010 5:23 PM   Subscribe

My freelance job is negotiating the hours I turned in, and refusing to pay me. What do I do?

I was hired in early December and told I would get my first two-week paycheck on the 18th. $15/hr. 25-35 hours per week. Checks every two weeks. I was told to turn in my hours on the morning of the 18th and get my check the same day.

I turned in my hours and I was told she needed to talk to the doctor (owner of the business.. the person I am talking to is the office manager). I went to the office to pick up the check and it wasn't ready... she said she would need to talk to the doctor and have my check on Monday.

On Monday she started negotiating down my total hours from 59 to half.. saying I had nothing to show for my work there.. which is false (I designed a brochure and that has gone through 3 never-complete revisions).

On Tuesday she revealed she had spoken to the doctor/owner on Friday, and they disagreed with my hours. I was told my check would be ready on Wednesday... but we couldn't reach a compromise.

We had the same conversation again on Wednesday. I walked her through the hours I turned in, asking her what the problem was specifically. The problem seemed to be rectified if I compromised and accepted to strike one 8-hour day from the first week.. this sounds like they are not valuing my time... but she still wasn't satisfied.. so I removed 4 more hours... one half of one 8-hour day... leaving 44 hours. She sounded pleased, but then wanted 40. At this point I'm getting tired... fine.. take four more hours off. We agreed. She felt bad and claimed she was a fair person to boot... but still kept those 4 hours off.

That was the last day before Christmas holiday, and I couldn't make it to the office anymore that day, as the negotiations had gone into the final hour, and I had an evening appointment (which would have cost me $80 to miss). So I told her to mail it.

It's now January 5 and I have not received a paycheck, and no further contact.

Please advise.
posted by beingresourceful to Work & Money (26 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
These people are scum.

That said, people do forget to mail things, especially around the holidays. Call and ask nicely if they mailed it yet. If they say they didn't, say you'll come pick it up.

After that, if they give you more trouble, it's time for threatening letters and small-claims court. Start documenting everything.
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:25 PM on January 5, 2010


send them a letter demanding payment for the full invoice submitted. ignore the conversations you had with the office manager. oh, and drop the client.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 5:26 PM on January 5, 2010 [4 favorites]


Please tell me that you drew up a contract, which they signed. Please tell me that "turn in my hours" means "submitted my invoice". Please tell me that your invoice has a sentence on it, probably toward the bottom, which mirrors what your contract says about payment due within X days.

Sometimes you have to know when to fire a client. This is one of those times. My advice is to do no more work, submit an invoice for payment due within 30 days (at this point, by registered mail where you get a signature), and if they don't pay you take them to small claims court.

Negotiating down the hours is not a way to win this race to the bottom. Either you get paid hourly, or you get paid for the project regardless of hours (in which case, you want 1/2 up front, and 1/2 in escrow for this client). Negotiations and final agreement happen before you start working, and the final agreement is itemized in your signed contract.
posted by Houstonian at 5:33 PM on January 5, 2010 [8 favorites]


Oh yeah, I thought "do no more work for them" was a given, unless you are literally starving and have no other work. They do not know how to maintain a professional business relationship.

I am all in favor of going nuclear on people like this- but it is entirely possible the person who mails the checks went away for the holidays and just got back.

Oh and if they don't respond to your next phone call, go there in person, bring a magazine, and make it clear you aren't leaving without a check. That has worked for me in the past- people who "needed a few days" to cut a check were magically able to go in the back and print one in five minutes!
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:38 PM on January 5, 2010


Document your time and conversations with them. Then send another invoice with a late payment fee. Make sure you add the late payment fee fr each week past due. In this case, it'd be 3, maybe three weeks of late payment fees.

Tell the owner that you will be filing a small claims court lawsuit if they do not pay you immediately, along with the late payment fees.

Do not accept anything except a check, in-full, from them.

Then, drop the client. It's not worth the headaches.
posted by camworld at 5:39 PM on January 5, 2010


(And I still think you should go after the full amount later. But if you need money, get this check first and cash it, so you have something. Then send an invoice for the rest of the hours she "haggled.")
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:39 PM on January 5, 2010


Unfortunately, I think you made a mistake by negotiating your hours down. It should be a non-negotiable fact or else you look like the flaky one, which is not the case here. Sorry about the crappy situation. I'd not work with these people in the future.
posted by threeants at 5:49 PM on January 5, 2010


At $15 an hour, those 19 hours you worked and then let them haggle away are worth $285. Why, exactly, did she 'haggle' down your hours? You worked what you worked. Ignore the conversation, invoice them again with a deadline, document everything, and take them to small claims if they continue their behavior.
posted by R a c h e l at 5:50 PM on January 5, 2010


i'm sure there were warning signs about this client from the beginning. chalk this up to experience and just walk away. he's never going to pay you.
posted by elle.jeezy at 5:56 PM on January 5, 2010


Call them and tell them you will show up in person to collect your 59 hour check. Then, show up. They won't want to make a scene and will probably pay you what you are owed.
posted by parmanparman at 6:11 PM on January 5, 2010


No, no, no. You do not negotiate hours you already worked. You worked them. They have to pay you for it.

Now, they can negotiate about how many hours they want you to work next week, maybe cut back to part time. You should then only work part time. They get the output they pay for.

If they are not satisfied with the amount of tangible product they have gotten for your hours, they need to address that with you, not dick around with your pay that you have already earned as per the agreement.

Sounds like you may need to wonder aloud if an employment attorney might be required, since "this all seems so confusing to you."
posted by ctmf at 6:24 PM on January 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


On second thought, just send them a paper bill in the mail. Your bill is just as much a bill as any other. Do they "negotiate" with the electric company about how many KWh they used? Of course not. Tell them that's what they owe you and you'd rather not have to send it to a collection agency.
posted by ctmf at 6:36 PM on January 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm a freelancer, too. I would:

-- Accept the lower payment, because (sadly) you said you would.
-- Do not accept any future lowerings for hours you have already worked.
-- Invoice them immediately via fax/email/FedEx for the currently agreed-upon amount, with a notation of a late fee to apply after 72 hours.
-- At 72 hours if you have not been paid, inform them via fax/email/FedEx that you are initiating the small claims process.
-- Drop this client, yesterday.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:44 PM on January 5, 2010


Ask them if THEIR clients are allowed to haggle down a bill once the service has been rendered.
posted by Jubey at 6:49 PM on January 5, 2010


While many people here suggest dropping them like a rock, I know from experience that this isn't always that easy (especially in this economy) and that depending on how badly you need the money/job that may not be an option.

So first off, if it is an option, collect your money and drop them. Be professional but explain that you only work with clients who understand the value of what you do for them and be professional.

If its not an option, here are a couple you can do to improve the situation in your favor:

1. Be aggressive about collecting your payment and if you have any contract that covers the payment terms (and you should not be doing business unless you do!) then hold them to it. Explain that while you wish to continue working for them, you will not spend any more time working until payment is made.

2. Sit down with the people involved in this decision (sounds like the office manager and the doctor) and explain that you were very surprised by their request to discount this first bit of work and explain that this was exactly that, a one-time discount.

3. Tell them you are happy to provide estimates for how much work a project will take but be clear that ultimately the time spent is the time spent and that is what they will be billed for without further concessions on your part. If that is not something they can handle budget-wise, explain that you are happy to inform them when they are nearing the amount of time they have budgeted for and once you reach the limit you can pause things until they can afford to finish it.

4. Have a candid discussion with them about how the time was spent and explain in detail about how things like "3 never-complete revisions" can add a significant amount of time to any project which is why it is important to set limits and consolidate all feedback before revisions are made.

If you do not have any contract with them that has clear payment terms stating that you are to be paid hourly for ALL time billed within X days (or else interest kicks in) then you should not continue freelance work until you have such a contract--you are only putting yourself at a major disadvantage and taking on unnecessary risk.
posted by Elminster24 at 7:57 PM on January 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


You need to get out from under them as soon as you can, because you can believe that because you negotiated this time, they will continue to try to haggle down every invoice you send them.

And PLEASE do not turn over any working files to them or send anything to the printer for them until you have been paid.
posted by MegoSteve at 8:59 PM on January 5, 2010


nthing that knocking off hours is a terrible thing to do. Your record of hours worked is a simple history of what happened. You don't get to change the past. "Negotiating" the number of hours is simply record-tampering, and undermines the legitimacy of any claim you make in the future.

When you're done muddling through this particular mess, I suggest you read Winning Through Intimidation. Parts of it will probably be repellent to you, not least because Ringer writes like an overconfident eighth grader, but it's a sober, clear-eyed look at what you need to do to avoid getting screwed.
posted by jon1270 at 5:37 AM on January 6, 2010


I agree with all the advice posted here, but would also add: there's a chance that you might have to chalk this one up as a loss. Sometimes you work with bum clients that won't pay at all, it generally happens to each freelancer at least once.

Now it's up to you to make sure that it never happens again. In the future, get everything in writing, have a tight contract that specifies payment times/dates, provide estimates for hours worked before you work them when appropriate (so that no one can say they weren't budgeted for the amount of hours you actually worked), and get any negotiations (which should happen BEFORE you work, not after) in writing.
posted by designmartini at 6:46 AM on January 6, 2010


Oh, in the event you don't get paid, I would leave negative feedback about their practice (assuming it's a doctor's office) in online forums (Yelp, wherever they appear) stating that they don't pay their contractors.
posted by designmartini at 6:48 AM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]


I don't think it was a good idea to let them negotiate you down after the fact, but you did, and that puts you in a position of weakness.

Go to the office. Demand a check for the amount you agreed to on the spot. If they cannot produce it in 5 minutes, sue them in small-claims court for the original amount.

It sounds like this is an ongoing gig. Do no further work for this client. If you feel you need them as a client, do no work until they pay you. Explain that they've seen an invoice from you now, so they shouldn't be surprised at the number of hours you bill them next time, and you will not negotiate it.
posted by adamrice at 6:49 AM on January 6, 2010


Welcome to freelancing. For some reason, I've found that doctors are especially difficult to deal with. I think it's just part of that particular mind-set.

First, neither the office manager or the doctor have any credible basis for judging whether your billed hours are legitimate or not. Most business owners have no bloody concept of what labor is involved in a design job. Their closest experience to designing is probably slapping-together something in Word, and they extrapolate from there. There is also a strain of thought in business that says "no matter what the contractor bills, talk them down." I suspect you are in the clutches of one of these.

It's a tough spot. You could possibly drag them into small-claims, but that could easily end up with you cutting your bill, too. Courts tend to love professionals like doctors.

You may very well have to walk-away from this one. One caveat...Leave them with nothing. They sound like the sort of client who will demand that you hand-over all of your base files...the raw Photoshop, In-design, Illustrator, etc. files. If, all you've managed to accomplish for them (due to their inability to decide on the revisions) are whatever you've given them for review (PDFs?), that is all they are entitled to. DO NOT let them bully you into handing over your raw art files. Typically, a client is paying you for your time and delivery of whatever file format is required for final reproduction...for a brochure, a press-ready PDF. Payment does not entitle them to your work files.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:15 AM on January 6, 2010


I have to say that the behavior of your "client" makes me very angry (speaking as a freelancer myself).

Please say that your contract did not include the words "copyright to be transfered when the work is handed over" or something like that (I'd bet from their behavior, there isn't a contract).

If I were in your shoes, I would
1) File a electronic copyright for that brochure in its entirety (~$35)

2) Wait for it to be processed

3) Get copies of emails agreeing to pay you and the client requesting revisions, etc

4) Wait for your "client" to start distributing that document if you gave them an electronic copy/collect "samples" from them

5) Take them to court.

You may not have that patience or need the money now, but it seems they didn't pay you much per hour and they are trying to cheat you/not pay you... It bugs me that they are behaving like this
posted by Wolfster at 9:09 AM on January 6, 2010


Response by poster: Thank you for replying.

I am going to:

1) I have given a friendly text to office manager, will see if there was a silly reason. If she doesn't respond, she's screwing me over... which means:
2) Call her and threaten small claims court, and I'll make sure both her and the doctor need to be there and miss a day of work. I'll also start leaving reviews for the office everywhere online, stating they do not pay their contractors.
3) See how they react.. follow through..

Sigh.. I guess I already knew I needed to do that anyway. I was just hoping to avoid conflict.

The contract lesson has been learned.
posted by beingresourceful at 9:40 AM on January 6, 2010


I had a friend who had a client who dicked him around like this, eventually to the tune of $10k. Definitely don't get suckered into doing any more work for them!
posted by Jacqueline at 8:07 PM on January 6, 2010


Best answer: Scum are scum. This will not end. For some reason, some people choose to believe that they don't owe contractors the same they would a "real company". Hurt them as badly as you can, via small-claims online forums, etc. I have no patience for deadbeats.

Funny thing is, the phrase "I never hire people if I don't have the money to pay them" has become a trigger phrase for me. Guy still owes me $1K after 2 years!
posted by Invoke at 11:50 AM on January 7, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks Invoke.

Here's an update for everybody...

-This kind of devastated me for a while. I didn't do anything for a while, besides text office manager asking why I had not been paid yet.

-Talked to the doctor/owner on the phone. She started yelling. I said I would make sure she and her office manager would miss a day of work in small claims court, and I would go on the internet and let everyone know she does not pay her contractors. She called me bluff and said go ahead, then started appeasing. She claims the office manager is out of the country and on Friday will discuss with her what was agreed, and that I will be paid what was agreed.

I personally think she was lying, but I am hopeful to get the check. I am not going away.
posted by beingresourceful at 9:24 AM on January 21, 2010


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