Need help to collect payment from a bad payer
Thread poster: Blanca Amoroso
Blanca Amoroso
Blanca Amoroso  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:09
Member (2004)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Jul 8, 2020

Hello,

I am having problems to collect payment from a translation agency. They have become late payers during the last months and now they owe me over 1000 Euro. I have sent them several reminders but they do not provide me with a payment date. I have just read in the BB some other colleagues had problems with this agency and got paid thanks to Proz.com intervention. They owe me an invoice for a job delivered in April this year, they have unreasonable long payment terms, and the old
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Hello,

I am having problems to collect payment from a translation agency. They have become late payers during the last months and now they owe me over 1000 Euro. I have sent them several reminders but they do not provide me with a payment date. I have just read in the BB some other colleagues had problems with this agency and got paid thanks to Proz.com intervention. They owe me an invoice for a job delivered in April this year, they have unreasonable long payment terms, and the oldest invoice has been overdue for 3 weeks now. The last time they paid after 3 weeks of reminders, but they are not replying to my messages in the last couple of days. The problem is I have several invoices in queue now.

What should I do?

Thanks for helping.

[Edited at 2020-07-09 06:42 GMT]




[Edited at 2020-07-09 15:48 GMT]
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Barbara Carrara
Barbara Carrara  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 12:09
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
Bad payer for quite some time Jul 9, 2020

Hi, Blanca

Sorry about your payment issues.

First off, you ought to remove the company name from your post, as this is against the site rules. Unless you do, your post will be squashed by the mods.

Secondly, from the BB (still accessible at time of writing), I can see that the latest 5 rating dates back to 1 Oct. 2018, with the negative ones starting as early as 8 Oct. 2018, followed by 21 (!) bad ratings (four 3s, the rest all 1s and 2s rating) collected t
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Hi, Blanca

Sorry about your payment issues.

First off, you ought to remove the company name from your post, as this is against the site rules. Unless you do, your post will be squashed by the mods.

Secondly, from the BB (still accessible at time of writing), I can see that the latest 5 rating dates back to 1 Oct. 2018, with the negative ones starting as early as 8 Oct. 2018, followed by 21 (!) bad ratings (four 3s, the rest all 1s and 2s rating) collected throughout 2019.
Several colleagues claim to have had payment issues with them for quite some time.
So, why did you agree to working with this outsourcer, given their bad reputation?
Were you not familiar with their BB standing before you started working for them?

Have you tried approaching ProZ.com about your situation, considering that they have helped other colleagues to recover their dues from the same company?
I would suggest you to do that and see if it works out for you too, before you consider other steps.

Good luck!
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Yolanda Broad
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Blanca Amoroso
Blanca Amoroso  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:09
Member (2004)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Not aware Jul 9, 2020

Barbara Carrara wrote:

Hi, Blanca

Sorry about your payment issues.

First off, you ought to remove the company name from your post, as this is against the site rules. Unless you do, your post will be squashed by the mods.

Secondly, from the BB (still accessible at time of writing), I can see that the latest 5 rating dates back to 1 Oct. 2018, with the negative ones starting as early as 8 Oct. 2018, followed by 21 (!) bad ratings (four 3s, the rest all 1s and 2s rating) collected throughout 2019.
Several colleagues claim to have had payment issues with them for quite some time.
So, why did you agree to working with this outsourcer, given their bad reputation?
Were you not familiar with their BB standing before you started working for them?

Have you tried approaching ProZ.com about your situation, considering that they have helped other colleagues to recover their dues from the same company?
I would suggest you to do that and see if it works out for you too, before you consider other steps.

Good luck!


Thank you, Barbara. I was not aware of their reputation. I look for an agency's reputation when I am starting to work with a company, but when you have some time working with a company, these things can happen. The fact is I don't know how I can approach Proz.com for this, I don't know what channels I should do to ask for help.


 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:09
Member
English to French
Use the "Track outsourcer" button Jul 9, 2020

Blanca Amoroso wrote:
..I look for an agency's reputation when I am starting to work with a company, but when you have some time working with a company, these things can happen.

This feature sends notifications when new entries are published, so that you can monitor the agency's current standing and take appropriate steps in due course if an adverse trend emerges.

You can track as many outsourcers as you wish, from prospects to incumbent clients.

Philippe


 
Robin LEPLUMEY
Robin LEPLUMEY
France
Local time: 12:09
English to French
+ ...
BlueBoard Jul 9, 2020

Hello Blanca,

I had the same issue with a French agency. They have owed me €200 for more than one year and did not reply to my emails. I left a negative rating on the Blueboard yesterday with a negative comment, and guess what: I received the payment this morning!

Robin


Yolanda Broad
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:09
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
The BB post will alert ProZ.com staff, I believe Jul 9, 2020

I've never had to do it so I can't be sure, but I believe that if you leave a "1" entry, you're asked whether the reason is non-payment. If it is, that can start a process -- but I don't know the details. Anyway, start by posting your BB entry, obeying the site rules, and see how it goes. If you have a problem, you should raise a Support Ticket. You can do that from many places around the site.

I hope you aren't accepting more work from this agency. It's clearly their business model
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I've never had to do it so I can't be sure, but I believe that if you leave a "1" entry, you're asked whether the reason is non-payment. If it is, that can start a process -- but I don't know the details. Anyway, start by posting your BB entry, obeying the site rules, and see how it goes. If you have a problem, you should raise a Support Ticket. You can do that from many places around the site.

I hope you aren't accepting more work from this agency. It's clearly their business model to pay every bill as late as possible and that probably means they're operating on a shoestring, robbing Peter to pay Paul, as we say. With the economy everywhere in a state of near-collapse, they could well file for bankruptcy. You're likely to get nothing from them in that case. So I'd advise you to get what you're paid before deciding whether to accept more work.
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Yolanda Broad
 
Fiona Grace Peterson
Fiona Grace Peterson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 12:09
Italian to English
Get a lawyer Jul 9, 2020

The few times I risked not being paid, I asked a lawyer to send a stern letter. This cost me 50 or 60 Euros. They paid immediately.

Tell them you will also put their name on every blacklist you know, starting with Payment Practices (www.paymentpractices.net), the go-to site for translators looking for independent information on agency payment practices (as the name suggests). I would highly r
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The few times I risked not being paid, I asked a lawyer to send a stern letter. This cost me 50 or 60 Euros. They paid immediately.

Tell them you will also put their name on every blacklist you know, starting with Payment Practices (www.paymentpractices.net), the go-to site for translators looking for independent information on agency payment practices (as the name suggests). I would highly recommend subscribing to this site - it only costs around twenty dollars per year, and is one of the best things you can do to safeguard yourself in future when dealing with agencies.

Often these agencies are simply "trying it on", and once they know you are serious, they may change their attitude.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:09
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lawyer maybe Jul 9, 2020

Fiona Grace Peterson wrote:

The few times I risked not being paid, I asked a lawyer to send a stern letter. This cost me 50 or 60 Euros. They paid immediately.



First of all you have to be decided in your own mind that you really are going to consult a lawyer, if that's what it comes to. You should consult with other Prozians in your language pair, to see if you can identify a lawyer who lives in the same place as the non-payer; if you're lucky, a lawyer whose address is in the same street or the local area.

Often it helps to simply create the impression that you MAY consult a lawyer. This can often be done by writing one carefully-worded, very polite email that doesn't threaten anyone or anything, but leaves the impression that without notice, something may happen that might not be pleasant.

In that eventuality non-payers know what could happen: an escalating series of actions that could culminate in large, overbearing men turning up at their premises and removing property.

That's why they always pay.

Also bear in mind that agencies secretly read these forums, especially when there are contributions from translators they know. Your particular non-payer may be reading this thread right now. It will show them how determined you are (or not) to get paid and if you're going about it in the correct way.




[Edited at 2020-07-09 10:27 GMT]


 
Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 12:09
German to Swedish
+ ...
No need for a lawyer Jul 9, 2020

European payment order should get their attention (if delinquent is in the EU):
https://e-justice.europa.eu/dynform_intro_form_action.do?idTaxonomy=156&plang=en&init=true&refresh=1


Yolanda Broad
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:09
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Very interesting Jul 9, 2020

Joakim Braun wrote:

European payment order should get their attention (if delinquent is in the EU):
https://e-justice.europa.eu/dynform_intro_form_action.do?idTaxonomy=156&plang=en&init=true&refresh=1



Thanks Joakim - that's very interesting. I've downloaded an example of the application form and taken a look at it.

Another reason why the UK should have stayed in the EU....


Hazel Underwood
 
Blanca Amoroso
Blanca Amoroso  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:09
Member (2004)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Pending invoice paid Jul 9, 2020

After the intervention of Proz.com, they have paid an overdue invoice. I still need to receive several payments in the next months as invoices become due.

Thank you all for your advice!!


 


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