Get the customers to pay invoices

mick.fr

Hi,

I have a customer that owe me a quiet substantial amount of money for documents I have written for one of their customer.
Before I delivered the docs I got a PO as I have asked.
So I deliver the document, they had a few comments and questions, I answered them all, asked them if they needed anything, no nothing fair enough.

So I sent my invoice, spoke to the accountant to get an ETA regarding the payment, no answer, sent emails to the director who ordered the docs from me, no answer. Seems they are ignoring me.

Do you guys know how can I enforce the payment of this PO?

Is there any company specialized in such thing in Dublin, or should I go to see a solicitor?

Thanks

Musha

PM you Mick
Company I have spoke to before regarding once off collections

Trojan

Sounds like you'll need to get a solicitor's letter sent to them. Check out below for more info:

http://www.kerry-solicitor.ie/Kerry_Solicitor/Debt_Collection.html
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/10/05/story685178391.asp
http://www.efc.ie/legal_updates/legal_updates/articles/corpbank/late_payment.html

Nuttzz

ring them and see what they say, its too easy to ignore emails if no joy then next do a daz doorstep challange if that doesnt work a 7 day letter (which warns them of impending legal action) then a solicitors letter and then legal action via the courts

mick.fr

Thanks for the hints guys I appreciate.

I called a few times already as well, spoke to the accountant, she told me she was waiting for the operations director to come back etc. Called the guy, sent emails, nada.
This is a big IT company with huge cash flow so I am not really worried about getting my money, but really that pisses me off to be treated like that, as they have themselve delivered all my documents to their own customer, changed the name of the author etc (Which is fair enough).

I will send them a formal letter as the 30 days is soon to be expired, but they were supposed to pay at reception.

Nuttzz

how old is the debt, other large businesses (one irish supermaket chain comes to mind) to even start to look at payment until its 90 days old

forbairt

mick.fr wrote: »

I will send them a formal letter as the 30 days is soon to be expired, but they were supposed to pay at reception.

You've not waited 30 days ?

I thought iwas normal to have to wait the 30 days .... what were the terms you included in the invoice ?

one of my customers takes ages to pay .. they always pay but its extremely annoying .... by ages I mean 3 months +

Trojan

Depends on your terms - I don't give Net 90 to anyone. Our biggest customer, a huge multinational organisation, paid a major percentage upfront. They are clamoring to pay the difference before delivery. It's all about setting expectations and terms upfront.

Offering a 5% discount for upfront payment can be a great way to get paid early. This can work for several reasons:

- the client wants to pay less
- the client's organisation is required by their policies to accept any discount for upfront payment
- the client wants to ensure that his project doesn't get canned by someone in Finance - paying upfront negates that.

You'll find some good info online, search for net 30, upfront payment, etc.

tech

GEtting a PO is legally binding ...

mrDuke

a daz doorstep challenge, going to remember that one

thefox84

start charging them interest. u can legally do this now if they breach the credit terms

padser

forbairt wrote: »

You've not waited 30 days ?

Take a chill pill - at least wait the 30 days

misterq

Did you actually agree payment terms beforehand or are you just making them up as you go along?

If you did not specifically agree payment terms in advance, then the standard is 30 days after receipt of invoice.

If you start hassling the company for payment then you will very quickly find:
- They will start ignoring you
- They may delay payment
- They are unlikely to ask you to do any more work for them!

going nuclear with solicitors letters and "doorstep challenges" is just plain stupid in my opinion.

Nuttzz

misterq wrote: »

going nuclear with solicitors letters and "doorstep challenges" is just plain stupid in my opinion.

it depends on the situation, for example a hardware engineer accidentally wiped a hard disk of a server belonging to client of mine on a thursday evening in cork, his employers asked me to come down from dublin as an emergency call out and reinstall the various bits of software the client required. I quoted them €1000 got the PO and arrived in cork the next morning and spent 2 days reinstalling and testing. The client was happy that he was operation on the monday morning. I sent the invoice, we chased it and chased and got nowhere they didnt give a monkey's as they were out of the bind with the client, i had no option but to go legal and i recouped the invoice and my solicitors fee's. I dont see how that is "plain stupid"

forbairt

I believe he was referring to the time frame involved which is / was ? less than 30 days after requesting payment ?

I've not followed the thread properly ... but I don't think the OP gave the terms of the work he carried out. He was however looking for payment before the 30 days were up .. ?

How long did you wait before going the legal route ? 60 or 90 days ... or when you didn't get paid the next week did you opt to go that way ?

Did you also bill them for the solicitors letter which I presume cost 100eur + ? (haven't gone the route before so I'm not aware of the cost)

Nuttzz

well he didnt mention anything like that, the op hasnt said how long the debt was outstanding either

anyway to answer your question we went legal at 90, once it goes legal the solicitor takes over and the debtor pays him directly so I got my €1k and the solicitor told them what his fee was, i think it was €350

forbairt

Nuttzz wrote: »

well he didnt mention anything like that, the op hasnt said how long the debt was outstanding either

looking at this ...

mick.fr wrote: »

I will send them a formal letter as the 30 days is soon to be expired, but they were supposed to pay at reception.

It would appear he hadn't waited 30 days ...

mick.fr wrote: »

So I sent my invoice, spoke to the accountant to get an ETA regarding the payment, no answer, sent emails to the director who ordered the docs from me, no answer. Seems they are ignoring me.

Though from reading this they gave an ETA on payment ... thats slightly different .. still ... it could be a cash flow situation for the company in question

mick.fr

I got paid at invoice reception with this customer the other times.
Took them 3 weeks this time.
They finally paid me, within the 30 days without solicitor and threats I gave them the benefice of the doubt. So story ends here.

But in way this is my fault. I will now do like some companies are doing (Even the big ones).
In essence, short term jobs, pay in advance, long term jobs, at 30 days.
I will update my contracts and SOW with this and that will be it is from now on.

Big companies don't give a rats ass about delays. Which are 30 days anyway.
Friday I had to call another customer who owes me too, invoice sent end of November, still no news. They still had not proceeded my invoice, so over the phone the lady told me she would process it immediately.

This is just annoying to chase for your money up, I have better things to do, especially when you strive to deliver a great service, you got a great customer's feedback, and at the end you struggling to get paid. It is very frustrating.

Anyway I got my lesson learned. Thank you guys for your feedbacks.