Good news; one of my copywriting invoice-dodgers has broken her alleged 2-month vow of silence, claiming that “the check is in the mail.”
Although the real proof is in the pudding, I tend to believe this client because this is the third time I’ve done work for her and she did pay for the other two jobs. (Although I will say that it took a fair amount of hounding before she finally coughed it up for the second assignment.)
I don’t know if people are total train wrecks or what. Maybe they think that if they don’t respond to your invoices, you’ll eventually go away?
What’s your experience with bad payers? I was thisclose to handing my two problem children from February’s billing cycle over to a collections agency. (I have another guy that I may still do this with.)
Let me just review the series of events that took place here:
1. Client is in a hurry for copywriting job. The assignment is a page-long tagline brainstorm and some editing of a page-long sales letter.
2. Within less than a week of receiving assignment, I turn around copy and ask for client’s feedback. She does not reply to my emails, or my 2 phone calls politely following up.
3. At end of month, after still hearing no word from her, I invoice for the work.
4. After about 20 days passes, I send client a polite note via email asking if she received the electronic invoice, and if not I will resend.
5. After several more days of silence, I follow up the email with a phone message asking the same and encouraging her to “reach out” in case there was anything she’d like to edit on the job.
6. Another month passes; I temporarily forget about her and bill all of my other clients for this new month. After about the 15th day, I email this message:
Dear NAME,
Your bill for copywriting services from Wordfeeder.com is more than 30 days past due. Your prompt attention to this matter is appreciated. If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email dina@wordfeeder.com.
Best regards,
Dina Giolitto
Wordfeeder.com
After six more days, she replies that the check is in the mail.
I should start tacking on billable hours for the time I spend chasing after people like this. What say you? Late fees? Interest? I’m open to any and all suggestions.
Dina at Wordfeeder.com
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Email Dina@Wordfeeder.com for a copywriting or website marketing quote today.
Tags: 2 Comments
2 responses so far ↓
I charge a late fee of 2% each month that the amount due isn’t paid before the last day of the month. This generally works pretty well. If a client is late, it is painful enough that they are more careful next time, but it isn’t too absurd. They have to decide if it is better to pay you or pay another bill.
This doesn’t fix the problem when they simply don’t pay at all. In that case I would probably have my assistant contact them because if it is coming from someone else, it makes my company look bigger and they may be less likely to brush me off. After that I would probably consider having a lawyer send them a letter. Fortunately that hasn’t been an issue for me yet.
Hi Mark,
I like your 2% late fee. It’s enough to catch their attention, but yet it’s reasonable, I think.
Thankfully, the vast majority of my clients are good payers. Maybe that’s why I feel so inept now that this has become a problem with these two.
The good news is - as of Saturday, BOTH the negligent payers coughed it up. Hooray!
Thanks for your input here, Mark.