invoice not been paid as per terms of trade, client not responding

[Robert Li]

Hey guys,

I'm not the greatest with all this business stuff, so I thought I would ask you guys for advice.

The situation is this I am pursuing payment of an invoice for a new client (this was the first job I did for them). I checked late payment of commercial debts legislation in Australia and there doesn't seem to be any sort of legislation regarding how much to charge, or when it is appropriate to charge late fees. My terms of trade on the invoice state payment within 14 days and recurring interest thereafter to 28 days, after which I issue a letter of final payment.

Is this unreasonable?

Anyway, basically, I got this job from this production company/ad firm after being recommended by a fellow soundie, who they initially contacted.

They made a big hullabaloo that I charged too much and that they could typically get a soundie for less that 250 a day, but I stuck my ground and ended up with 325 per half day basic kit included (this forum teaches you well although half day rates aren't ideal). All well and good. Or so I thought.

On the day of the shoot (and it was a pretty simple one at that, but, hey including unloading gear, shooting and bumping out, it was still like 4 hours) it was pretty cruisy, but they made it well aware to me that they were paying me more than they would normally pay, nothing seemed awry and I issued the invoice that night.

10 days later I sent a polite email telling them that the due date for payment was about to elapse, and a production assistant got back to me about talking to accounts dept pretty quickly. due date elapses and I send another email telling them that late fees were about to be incurred. no response. call to the office and I get a "the right person will call you back" fob off, but the call was not forthcoming. It is now 28 days and I have never been in this situation before, as most of my clients are pretty good about paying me (I make it pretty clear upfront about the situation).

They are a decent sized production company/ad firm, so I expected some delay, but they have less than 100 employees, so they can't be that massive, right? Am I being unreasonable/too harsh? Is the course of action I have taken too quick and severe? What should I do? I hate burning bridges.

PS I still have that letter of final payment standing by, which is being checked over by the solicitor as of now

[ProSound]

Net 30 is the standard in the US I don't start to worry at all until Net 45. Usually I will send a polite email requesting status of payment. I email most of my invoices to my clients and request that they knowledge receipt when they get them so I usually reply to that email which reminds them that they got the invoice and told me it was in process. Most of the time someone just forgot to pay it and I get it within a week of asking

[Robert Li]

I rang through again this morning and guess what... the admin person who told me she would find the right person to call me back apparently never did... argh!!!! miscommunications! but here's the thing, should that be my fault?

if the situation was reversed and the ad firm were billing my company as a client for work they had done, would they accept the excuse of "oh sorry, the person you sent the invoice to forgot to forward it onto accounts"? I am not so sure about that one.

Either way, I will keep talking to them, no point breaking out the baseball bat just this moment.

[stevegrider]

If too much time goes by, drop in to their place of business. Be all smiles and polite, and tell them you were in the area and thought you'd save them postage and pick up your check in person. Surely it would be ready by now. If they try to brush you off, tell them you'll be happy to wait. It's easy to give the brush off on the phone, not so much in person.

[studiomprd]

" It is now 28 days and I have never been in this situation before, "

you have been very lucky...

and 28 days is not very "overdue", unless you had specified COD..