Payment from client

[Michael Fletcher]

I have a client that I submitted an invoice to back in February and they are dragging their feet. I sent it to an "accounting..." email account they have as directed by the PM that I worked with. When I asked about the invoice, I was told it was not in their system; apparently they use bill.com to process payments.

I have an email indicating a rate they proposed and then I agreed to. I submitted my invoice based on this rate. I received an email today with a invoice they revised with the rate one cent below the original agreed upon rate.

I will send the original email that I have with the agreed upon rate but I am expecting it is more of a delay tactic than anything else.

The amount is high enough that I am considering moving on to litigation or something similar.

Is there a step before litigation similar to an ombudsman in Europe that I can submit a complaint to? Does submitting a complaint to the BBB do any good?

Thanks,

Michael Fletcher

[John Stroman]

Hello Michael,

To receive more accurate advice, it will help if you  provide more specific information such as the country that you are located in, the country that the client is located in, whether the payment involves international exchange, etc., whether you have a contract with the client that specifies the details of payment (method, timing, and route of payment, etc.), and whether the client is an agency or a direct client. For example, sometimes agencies experience a delay in payment from their clients, and if they are just starting up, they may be operating on a shoestring budget. Moreover, most new companies are not members of BBB.

Is the PM still working for the client? Is the name of a supervisor listed on their website? Possibly it is an honest mistake rather than something more sinister. Legitimate clients, especially agencies, need translators as much as translators need them. There are also scammers out there, but at least this client is offering payment rather than attempting to disappear.

I hope you can resolve this matter, and you can consider this a good learning experience as you continue your career as a translator. Please let us know how you resolve this.

John Stroman

----------------

[Dan Lucas]

I agree with John. I would also add that if the client is based in Europe, the ProZ.com forums seem to be significantly more Eurocentric and experienced in the matter of chasing money on the Continent than this list, which tilts heavily to Japan and the US.

Regards,

Dan Lucas

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Honyaku E<>J translation list" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to honyaku+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/honyaku/CAJVTx97BSW61y%2BLahaC8rA0yujkgTtNgG2gjuEOTu0NSCNSRvA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Michael Fletcher]

My translation language pair is Japanese to English. I used to post quite a bit more frequently in the 2005 to 2010 time frame.

I am in the US (West) and the client is an agency also in the US (East Coast). I am not 100% sure how long they have been around except that I know they have been around for at least 5 years. This is the first time that I have worked for them directly. I have worked for another agency that got work from this agency and then passed it to me (I didn't know the second agency was not the originally sourced agency at the time). I was informed by this agency that the original agency that I worked for went out of business.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/honyaku/b95d714a-e85e-43a7-9e13-1a2de990e53e%40app.fastmail.com.

[Dan Lucas]

Ah, I see. I know you are JP-EN, but I was led astray by your original mention of "ombudsman in Europe".

Regards,

Dan Lucas

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/honyaku/CAGBaR87LM%2B6FO7n5E4NYwZVmtadaCXAJxxDuJtePE1kvE2o0Mg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Joe Jones]

Probably the best leverage you have is to threaten to out the agency in online forums if they don't honor their agreement. I had one agency try to stiff me, but they promptly paid up after I left a bad review on ProZ.