TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Maybe the other contractors can tell me something.
Why is it that the smaller the invoice, the harder the time collecting?
I just got off the phone with a client for whom I did a small piece of
work in November. He hadn't paid, so I recently sent a second notice.
Suddenly, he's finding fault with the work, and offering to pay me for
meeting time, but not for the work performed. He rants on that I'm
incompetent, and that he can find another writer to say so. He becomes
abusive. In the end, I had to tell him that I'd see him in small claims
court before he agreed to pay. Even then, he had a Parthian shot or two.
All this for a matter of about $200 difference on his invoice. I would
have let it go, but I've seen this game once too often to back down. The
last time it happened about 16 months ago, I promised myself that I
wouldn't be taken advantage of this way ever again, so I stuck to my
point, even though, from another perspective, $200 might have been a
cheap price to avoid the aggravation.
By contrast, I've submitted bills for $20-30k that were settled on time,
and without discussion.
Why do clients act this way? It's usually not a cash-flow problem, given
the small amounts.
But, I tell you, there's times when I think I won't work for anyone
smaller than IBM ever again.
(There. Rant over. My medication is kicking in, and I feel much better).
"There is no science without fancy, and no art without facts."
- Vladmir Nabokov, interview, 1966
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
