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Topic: Late payments - pub going belly up? help!
| Author | Message |
| catfish | Posted – 7/26/2007 7:28:12 AM | show profile | email poster I've been string reporting for this pub since Oct. Things were going great but recently paychecks have been arriving later and later. They said accounting dept. had a lot of turnover. Last check, recieved just over a month ago, I had to chase down; I had three invoices pending and they just paid one of the three. I called the accounting department back then and somebody, whose name I didn't catch said "oh, they had a hold on your check but I think it was sent out today." Then she quickly transferred me to HR. Now the two invoices left over plus two more have accumulated. About three grand is all. But I'm hearing all the stringers now are having problems. The staff editor, who just quit, said another stringer just called him about the same issue - and staffer editor had passed that stringer's invoice to accounting a "loooong time ago." My calls to HR and accounting and even the EIC, are all going unreturned. My question: should I try to bargain with them? I've seen this before in my dot-com days, where they postpone paying what they can for as long as they can when bankruptcy looms. I need half of what they owe me now to cover certain living expenses. Any advice? Should I keep writing for them, but more sparsely, in order to reel them in somehow? If I bail completely they may postpone my payment into eternity. The other advantage I might have is I was their daily on call reporter. I want to get my $$ first before the other stringers. Clearly, there are stringers to take my place but...help! Finally - this is a subsidiary pub of a large national chain that is one of the few papers expanding. The other weird thing is they just expanded in number of pages and added more color. |
| nellie bly | Posted – 7/26/2007 9:49:19 AM | show profile when I was in a similar situation, I went right to the top: sent a registered letter to the media co. owner, publisher or CFO requesting payment by a certain date or I would turn the matter over to the NWU and Authors Guild. If you're not a member of a writers advocacy group, you could say you'll turn it over to a lawyer. I always got paid promptly after that. In one case I stressed to the new publisher how much I enjoyed writing for the paper and wanted to continue but couldn't swing it if I didnt get paid. So I got paid, but decided not to write for them again. I had to call on the NWU for help only once! Got paid, too, even though the mag had already been sold to another publisher and a letter had gone out that basically we would be paid a percentage after the bankruptcy proceedings. |
| bjoconnorfla | Posted – 7/26/2007 11:32:34 AM | show profile Contact accounts payable directly, tell them you want to get paid, these invoices are waaay overdue, and that you would like to stop by tomorrow after 10 (or noon, whatever) to pick up the check in person. If/when they can't agree, ask for the name of the person who can make it happen and insist, politely, on talking to that person. Tell him/her the same thing: I need to get paid, these are overdue, let's be professional, I will be coming tomorrow after 10 a.m. to pick up the check -- will it be ready? Then you say nothing. If the response isn't a specific, "Here's when you can get all your money," just keep politely asking, "When will I be paid?" If you can't get a reasonable promise, tell them you are heading to small claims court and do so. Now, I have been in situations at big papers where it really was just flat out bureaucratic incompetence that kept people from being paid in a timely fashion. One paper I know of had an insider scam the accts. payable dept. with phony freelance invoices, since no one really checked them. Now that paper has changed it's policy and only pays freelancers once a month, and the bills must be submitted by the editors by a certain date. If you're late, you don't get paid for another month. If your editor is late, YOU don't get paid for another month. So make sure there hasn't been some chance in policy or screw up. The accts. payable people are your best friends in this matter, since they're job is to pay the bills and they WANT to pay the bills. I have had AP clerks look up my bills and, lo and behold, they hadn't been submitted even though the editor was telling me so. In one case, the AP person called the editor and said, "We need So-and-So's bill, please approve it." In another case, at a national magazine, it was the AP clerk who sussed out that my editor's asst. had left, there was a temp, and when the temp turned the job over to the new asst., no one showed the new hire the procedure for getting freelance invoices paid. So, they were just piling up until the new gal figured it out. Finally, I had a big national news service take two months to pay me because they insisted on paying me electronically, and didn't have my acct #s. Another mag didn't pay for 10 weeks because they didn't have my tax ID number on file for 1099s. It was a new policy - no one gets paid without tax info on file, updated every year. Surprise! Which is all to say, be polite, insist on answers but always ask, "What needs to happen for me to get paid?" You may find that a new person/procedure/etc. is gumming things up. Document any promises and email the person responsible to confirm: "Thanks so much for helping me with my invoice for $3,000. As we agreed, I will pick up a check after 9 am Friday from your assistant. Thanks again, blah blah." If you don't want to work with these guys again, take on a few assignments and hold them hostage. It's not professional, but neither is stiffing the freelance help, and sometimes it works. Otherwise, take a new assignment, confirm all the details, length, deadline, etc., then tell the editor, I'll be glad to do it but I need a check first. Good luck. |
| catfish | Posted – 7/26/2007 3:29:48 PM | show profile Thanks You answered one question - I should keep writing, or at least keep the relationship going. I've tried and tried contacting SOMEBODY in accounts payable, but as I said before calls went unreturned and then was told there was lots of turnover. Lots of good suggestions, I'll mull these over. I've got some more time before things get bad. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/26/2007 4:06:16 PM | show profile --If you don't want to work with these guys again, take on a few assignments and hold them hostage. It's not professional, but neither is stiffing the freelance help, and sometimes it works. Otherwise, take a new assignment, confirm all the details, length, deadline, etc., then tell the editor, I'll be glad to do it but I need a check first.-- I doubt this will have the intended effect -- and is more likely to backfire. If you take the assignment and then tell the editor, "Oh, I'll need my cash upfront," odds are good the assignment will simply be cancelled. If you take the assignment and the day before it's due, you email and say, "Oh, I have the article, but you need to pay me before I turn it in," they may simply ignore you or cancel the assignment and you'll have done the work for nothing. My focus would be on getting the money I am owed. After that, I would determine what terms, if any, I would work with them in the future. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/26/2007 4:10:10 PM | show profile I would try to get all my money first and file a small-courts claim before I began negotiating to take a lesser amount. If you have a court action going, they are more likely to pay or negotiation than if you send emails saying "Pretty please." --My question: should I try to bargain with them? I've seen this before in my dot-com days, where they postpone paying what they can for as long as they can when bankruptcy looms. I need half of what they owe me now to cover certain living expenses. -- |
| catfish | Posted – 8/2/2007 11:22:49 PM | show profile Thanks bjoconnorfla - Accounts Payable was the answer Thanks to dribbledrive too for the suggestions. I had called Human Resources, and asked for "accounting" but this time I landed a temp in accounts payable and I was a little rough with her (verbally) but I got my check. The check was double what I billed for, meaning their accounting system is a mess and I think two editors were billing accounts payable for my stories. I hinted that I was overpaid (underpaid, but paid more than I billed for) and I'm not going to mention it again. And I was getting paranoid, the pub isn't going belly up. |
