Client won't Pay

egproductions

egproductions

Veteran
I wanted to get some opinions of the best approach. I'm not usually so careless but I filmed and edited an event highlights for a client (relativity small project) without asking for payment upfront. The client is a marketing agency and the event was a block party. It was a last minute gig and I've never worked with this client before (although he has gotten an in person quote from me in the past and seemed like a nice guy). Long story short, I sent him the finished highlights and he has yet to pay me (it's been 4 months already). I called and emailed a few times and only occasionally does he pick up. I talked to him a week ago and he gave me an excuse that he's been sick for the past 3 weeks and that he will send out the check at the end of the week. I told him I expect to see it by mid week. The time has come and nothing.

At this point I plan on getting a lawyer draft a letter to receive payment. If that doesn't work I'm going to have youtube pull the video until he pays me but don't know what I can do beyond that point.

I'm a reasonable guy and don't want to flip out on my client but I also want to get paid. If he is having money issues I would even be willing to accept half the payment and he can pay me the other half in a couple of months.

What do you think is the best approach?
 
Four months is about par for some of my clients. It seems the richer and bigger they are the more liberties they take. My advice, stay cool, maintain dialog with the guy and be patient.
 
I have clients that get me great work but pay me when they get paid. 4 months is usual and sometimes longer but they will pay me a bit while they wait. I should freak out but I always get paid and they are my biggest gigs always and great guys to work for. If I had gotten a lawyer to send a letter they would have paid right away.......but it would have been my last job. It is tough to know who is good for the money. I'm pretty good at reading people, I think, and have always been paid, but I've also let lots of jobs slide by if I feel its not right.
 
Just wanted to provide an update on the story. I've decided to reach to my client's client (the people who sponsored the block party.) Even though they are not technically my client I wrote them a friendly email explaining the situation that the marketing agency has not paid me. I let them know that not only is the video not paid for, but that the youtube video that they are linking to on their facebook page will be taken down due to copyright infringement. Now I made it clear that I am not invoicing them or accusing them of copyright infringement but that the reality is that if I don't get paid they are not going to wind up having a video which they indirectly paid me for. This should get them interested to fighting it out with the marketing agency so that they can have their video.

I also offered them the option to pay for a license to the video at the price I was hired to film/edit it. If they decided to pay me for a license, this would not dissolve the marketing agency's responsibility to pay me for the project. So in the end I could potentially get paid double what I was originally asking and making the marketing agency look bad in the eyes of their client.

Further I have requested youtube to take down the video and I have notified the marketing agency of the copyright infringement and that there is a retroactive license penalty (since technically they put up a video they do not have a license) Even if they didn't put it up on youtube, they would still be required to pay me but this is just another level they decided to take it.

All of this might not wind up getting me paid but I think its my best chance and the potential of actually making more than originally planned from the situation. If this fails I could resort to suing my client but even that has it's drawbacks and isn't a certain thing if the company is bankrupt.
 
hope it works out for you. I think its is also fair that you should post the name of the person who ripped you and their company here and elsewhere. There are lots of members from your area and that could prevent another person from being ripped off. This is fraud and should be dealt with like any other crime.
 
So my course of action seems to be paying off. Last night, the client emailed me with a whole long explanation and apologee. I have a feeling more than anything what scared him was that his client probably reached out to him and are upset that they payed him a lot of money (more than I charged him) and their video is not going to be available. He asked me if I could do a payment plan which I was happy to agree too, however, then he realized I had the video taken down from youtube until I got paid in full. This really made him start grasping at straws for that not to happen and is begging for me not to do that and said he is going to transfer the money into my account.

Unfortunately if he started the payment plan before I took this a step further I would have left the video up but at this point I'm not giving him the video until it's paid in full.

So far haven't seen anything come through but as soon as I get the pyament and it clears, I can put this saga to rest.
 
Happy to hear it seems like it will work out. I think it's best to let someone else, be it the "office manager" or whoever, handle collections. Keeps your hands clean.
 
Im in a similar situation. But I got 50% upfront, and the balance is what he is giving me the run around for.
The client has gotten me other good paying clients, and he is very connected and influential in the industry, and that makes me apprehensive to get heavy with him. Its very frustrating.

I think the key lesson here is that we should not hand over final work before being paid in full, and hold the final as leverage.
 
I have never had good luck with payment plans. For some reason I never get the last payment and it is usually such a small amount it is too much trouble to pursue. That is why I no longer do it. My policy is the client gets the footage once payment is made in full.
 
My only payment plan is: one third up front upon agreement on the price and work involved. One third at the beginning of principal photography. One third upon delivery of final product or footage.
Mind you this is for people I have never worked for previously.
As for regulars payment is usually slow and usually after they get paid. The worst however are usually the big players like agencies and networks. They seem to like the interest they make with your money.
 
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