Gather round, I want to tell you a story.
Once upon a time there was a freelancer who was looking for work. He had just finished a major project and was looking for something small that would keep some money coming in while he looked for something bigger.
He went to a job search site and lo and behold there was a job there that he thought he could do pretty easily. It involved writing a short e-book on a subject he’d already written about. This was good news because it meant he could re-use the research he’d done for the previous project. The timeline was short but that was okay because he only wanted a short term job.
The buyer did want to pay through PayPal, but that wasn’t a major issue, the freelancer had a PayPal account and a paid membership at the site so he wouldn’t have to pay an upfront fee for the job.
So the freelancer bid on the job and won it.
Now this freelancer had other things going on, he was in the middle of a move, but the job would provide a little extra income which he thought would prove very useful. So he took time off his other projects and focused on this one. It was a bit of a stretch to get it done in time, but he managed it.
The original deal had said that he’d receive half payment two or three days after the buyer got the first half of the book, and the remainder about the same amount of time after he turned in the final pages. As it turned out, the agreed-upon deadline for the final delivery was about two days after the first lot of pages had been turned in, so he sent them in even though he had not received any payment.
Oops.
In case you haven’t guessed, I was that freelancer. I finished the ebook and waited for my payment. My original delivery date was supposed to be February 1st, which would have meant full payment would be due me no later than the third or fourth. I received a partial payment of 55% of the agreed upon amount on February 11th, and was told that I would receive the remainder on the 15th. It is now February 22nd and I have not received the remaining balance due or any response to my emails from that buyer.
I’ve been told there are problems with her client paying her, but that’s not my problem, and while that may excuse the further delay in payment it most emphatically does not excuse her from not answering my emails.
Normally I’d leave bad feedback and move on, especially given the lack of communication, which is more of an issue than the money. Unfortunately, there’s a catch. Going through Paypal rather than the site’s regular payment process meant no feedback could be left. So even that recourse is denied me.
Now this person had a very good reputation, nothing but stellar reviews on the site. That’s one reason I took the job even with payment through PayPal.
Now I’m forced to wonder if the choice of Paypal for payment was a deliberate choice to allow the person to not pay me without receiving bad feedback. It may just be circumstances, I don’t know. Still, it does make me wonder. I know I won’t be accepting PayPal payments from that site again.
The Lesson:
Whenever someone wants to pay you through any means other than a site’s own payment processor (some sites do allow this as they don’t collect their own cut that way) you should consider it an immediate danger sign. Take advantage of any protection such as oDesk’s guaranteed payment for hourly jobs and Getafreelancer’s escrow system.
Don’t work for free.
- Make Sure They Know What They Want
- The Freelancer’s Toolbox, Part 4, Your Network
- Production Amount: Wowing Them
- Fixed-Price Money Matters
- Money Flows Towards the Writer
We need a sort of Better Business Bureau that lists buyers and sellers.
As far as the ‘waiting for her client to pay’ part, my motto is: Don’t make your problems into my problems. I already have problems.
Seriously, I’ve done other sorts of independent contractor work and the “gettin’ yo money” is always there in the wings. It is certainly a risk we live with.