How would you handle this?

[ottor]

I have some work in a gallery.... The gallery calls and asks me to come down and meet with a manager from a newly opened business in town - this is a company that has a home office out of state. They want a fairly large order to decorate their new office space, and picked out about a dozen photos from a notebook I keep at the gallery.. They want them on large canvas and my "Cost" from the lab would be about $900 - $1000 to me.. They need asap, and tells the gallery .... "Invoice Us." Now, that puts me in the position to put out the cost for production. I do, and deliver the canvas prints to the business. They love them and are hung immediately. That was June. Check is to come from "Home Office" out of State, and - no payment to date.

The gallery is a form of a Co-Op, so requiring them to pay me is not on the table. I have no choice other than to let the gallery collect a bill as they would any other receivable they have, or ... sue or repo the prints. The gallery is doing what they can by making phone calls to the out of state business, (They're due a percentage of the sale so they also have an interest in getting this paid) .. but still no payment.. it appears the next step is to have a letter sent to them by an attorney.

I think my question is ... how would you have handled this? - You understand that there are businesses that can't just cut a check for a purchase, and need to run the invoice thru their payable departments ... Would you even enter into a sale under these conditions? - This was a large sale for me, and I had no reason to believe that I wouldn't be paid in a timely manner. Now I'm out (for the time being) a grand...

Thoughts?

 

[KmH]

Commercial payouts are often 90 to 120 days.

What date in June?

It's best to find out those details when the order is placed.
I would have had them sign my contract that requires commercial payments in 45 days.

 

[imagemaker46]

I request full payment for any work within two weeks, they know this up front, and most stick by it. Some ask for a little more time, and if it's a regular client I don't worry about it. I have also had invoices out for 6-8 months, in only a couple of cases did I get stiffed for the work ( this is what prompted the two weeks)

I would try and find out who the accounts person is for the company and contact them directly, ask about when they will be paying out the invoice and take it from there, sometimes this stuff just gets bumped to the bottom of the pile, or gets shifted from person to person, and every time that happens, the process starts all over again.

Good luck with this.

 

[tirediron]

I would start by trying to talk to someone in the company who can (a) tell you how long they generally take to pay, and (b) where your cheque is in the "mill". As Keith mentioned big companies often take their time, and even when they sign an agreement which specifies "Net 30" on all accounts, seem to feel that "when they get around to it" is okay.

 

[Designer]

... how would you have handled this?

I would have gotten screwed just as you did.

I'm far too trusting and naive to be out on the street by myself.

 

[runnah]

I would start by trying to talk to someone in the company who can (a) tell you how long they generally take to pay, and (b) where your cheque is in the "mill". As Keith mentioned big companies often take their time, and even when they sign an agreement which specifies "Net 30" on all accounts, seem to feel that "when they get around to it" is okay.

Net 30 seem to be more of a guideline than a rule.

Trust me I want to throw a brick through the window of some clients who think Net 30 mean 30 months.

 

[Tiller]

Net 30 seem to be more of a guideline than a rule.

Trust me I want to throw a brick through the window of some clients who think Net 30 mean 30 months.

Ha!

 

[nycphotography]

Call and speak with payables and get guidance on the payment schedule.

Then give them a chance to follow through. After which, you have no choice to go to collections and bla bla bla. Which is to say all you can really do is keep bugging them until they pay you because hiring a lawyer for this is probably waste of time and money. You could give them 120 days to pay and then file a claim for nonpayment in small claims court.

I've had success in the past by actually getting the small claims court forms and filling them all out (or typing up a pleading (initial lawsuit filing) for civil court), and then faxing them to the legal department.

First I call (HQ in this case) and ask for Legal, and then for the head counsel's name, mailing address for service, and a fax number. The secretary always asks "service? for what?" Where I say "service for a subpeona because you are about to be sued" That always seems to get their attention. lol

Then, when I have his name, "address for service of summons", and a fax number, I fax the pleading (or small claims court forms) filled out naming him as company counsel, then call and ask him to get his hot little hands on the fax, and then ask if he'd like 24 hours to look into this and get back to me, or if I should just go down and file them right now?

Often I get the log jam broken right away.

Now in this case... is there any possibility the HQ will want more of your work? Are you willing to front money if you know you will get paid 'eventually'? If so, you may not want to burn this bridge.

Otherwise, this is how I have been able to get people/companies to respond to their issues in the past.