flickr: Unhindered by Talent

She began working for the company in August 2009. When she got the mysterious e-mail on Oct. 4, saying the site was being temporarily suspended, "I...was also expecting my first paycheck."

So this student (and many others) put in more than a month of work that never got paid for, and probably won't:

"Another student editor emailed our former employer and asked questions about compensation. We've been left with vague answers and no promise that they'll actually follow through.

"We've gotten few hopeful responses that we'll ever be paid for our time. We never signed contracts; we communicated only through email and passed along personal information that way."

Yow.

Well, it happens. Every freelancer gets stiffed at some point in their lives--not to make light of it, but it is gonna happen. May as well get it over with sooner than later.

Here's our guide to getting paid on time as a freelancer—Juana may want to take action on Step 1 because if UWIRE does come back, she'll want to have paperwork proving that she's a creditor.