Mike, since you did not respond to my emails, I think you might've missed them with your spam filter, I'd like to address you with this open letter. This is regarding a payment that is due for almost 3 weeks now for a small project we did in April. Because of the rush delivery I had to put some work aside, 2 people to work on this, and had to make them work overtime. I did not charge you anything extra. And I delivered this project on time. Maybe it would be polite if your representatives told about the "60 days payment" rule to everyone they hire, just so its understood from the beginning, and not after 3 weeks of waiting, and a few unanswered emails. And yes, I tried calling you too. Thank you for your cooperation. I hope this message will get through.
Best regards,
Alyx Mansfield
Sales director
www.cardinalvices.com
www.trashstars.com
Our Story:
On 29th of April, Wednesday evening I am contacted by a representative of dollarmachine.com, a company is needing a few flash banners made urgent. Job needs to be done fast, like in 24 hours. There are 2 flash banners and 1 flash peel ad. Its easily deliverable if you don't have any other work, but since we are design studio we always work on a few things at time. Also there is a time difference, so in order to deliver we must finish everything in 12 hours, that means working overtime.
Jobs like that are a typically subject to extra fees, but in this case I think like most of you would think: "Dollarmachine has been around for ages, they cannot screw people". And I provide them with a regular price. A prepayment? No, they say they cannot do that, because they are so big and shiny, that accounting is done by somebody else, and I figure I'll make an exception. On the other hand a company representative promises to organize payment right after we finish. Sounds acceptable. Next day we deliver everything that was ordered. Company representative is accepting the job, all is fine. Invoice is submitted to accounting. Now the fun part starts.
One and a half week later I check if the payment was made. It was not.
I contact that company representative asking if there was a problem. I am told that invoice was sent to a responsible person and we should wait for a payment. Question is how long. Its not a $25000 project, more like $300. So how long does it take for a company to pay a $300 bill? I tried to contact a guy who is in charge of payments. After 4 emails I received 0 response to my questions.
Now look at todays date. Its almost 3 weeks have passed since the project was delivered. I find out that my invoice is in queue for payment, and we are going to be *probably* paid in 60 days! How long does it take to process one Epassporte payment? Because of practices like this we require a full prepayment for all work under $500 in value. This is why guys, not because we are all so greedy. When we make exceptions - it hurts..