Slow Paying Clients

[monkeypie]

What do you guys do when a client orders a boatload of articles, says that he likes them, but then takes forever to buy them?

I claimed a job that called for 30 articles several weeks ago. When I had ten of them completed, the client messaged me, said he liked my work but purchased only four of them. He said to write six more on the topic, then he wanted me to write for a different company, under the same order. Said he'd let me know when to start. It's been a week now, and I have heard nothing back. Client does not respond to my polite messages. The client added a few days to my deadline, because the original due date is long passed.

Shall I start Copyscaping my work to see if he simply bagged my articles without paying? Shall I be patient? I devoted a big chunk of my work week to this guy, and I was really counting on that income in my October first pay. I did the work before the LAST CC pay period. (grrrr)

CC is always too busy to help, so I figured I'd throw this on the forum and see what my fellow writers think about this f-f-frustrating situation.

--monkeypie

[Lysis]

It's happened to me but it's rare. I've had a couple outright reject them, and that was frustrating. There's some security in place where the client has to add money to their account, so it cuts out scamming. A week is not long enough to panic. I'd give it another week. This is a private request, right?

The part where he tells you to write more without paying for the others is troubling. I'd probably stop writing until he was paid up. Flip over to the open catalog where you know you'll get sales.

[monkeypie]

Thanks for the encouragement, Lysis.

To say this frustrating is putting it rather mildly. This joker owes me nearly $300, which would have been the lion's share of this week's pay. The work I did is so specific to him, I won't be able to recycle it to anyone else, ever.

I should have stated that it had been more than a week since I contacted the client. More than two weeks since he requested more work. The jobs were delivered in plenty of time for our September mid-month pay period. And still they sit in limbo, two paydays have passed, and the client ignores me.

Right. I am not doing another word of work for this client until they pay up.

Sigh,
--monkeypie

PS: This was a claimed request, not a private request.

[Lysis]

That's really frustrating.

I made it a personal rule to only do stuff that I can sell in the open catalog. The only exception is for private requests, and even the I've occasionally been screwed. I don't think the open jobs require credits like the private requests, so I'd do them cautiously.

If you find your content elsewhere, file a DMCA with Google. I've also been known to throw up content on a free blog if the buyer didn't pay just to dilute its importance.

[monkeypie]

It has now been a month since the job in question began.

I devoted a LOT of time and effort to this client's request and expected to be paid two pay periods ago. This was NOT an open order job; I accepted a request that was sent to me. I did the work, the client commended my writing, then.... nothing.

Client does not respond to my messages. CC doesn't answer, either. Do we have NO author support here? Starting to feel that way.

Now what?

Guess I wasted a week's work. That said, I can at least warn other writers away from the client. Writing for client "Wrightsonjohn" is a BIG RISK. I wish I had known this before I accepted their request.

Have a nice Tuesday anyway.

--monkeypie

[Constant]

I can't find an email from you about this to Support, but we are reaching out to this client to get him to purchase the rest what you wrote for him. He's been on the site for a long time and has purchased a fair bit so I expect we'll get this resolved.

[J. A. Young]

On occasion, I've written for requests where the client never came through, but this is rare. One thing I've gotten in the habit of doing is checking with one of the reps to see if they can step in to ask for credits or simply verify that the client already has credits posted. Typically, if I'm going to tackle a 10 to 20+ batch of articles, I need to know the credits are there. Even still, a few clients are slow to accept the content--sometimes a month will go by. Usually though, after two or three weeks I get in touch with a rep and they help expedite the process so these bigger projects have always worked out. Anyway, this might help you for the next go-round.

Hope it all works out!
--JA

[monkeypie]

I can't find an email from you about this to Support, but we are reaching out to this client to get him to purchase the rest what you wrote for him. He's been on the site for a long time and has purchased a fair bit so I expect we'll get this resolved.

Check Chris R's mailbox. I'm sure he has at least a half dozen emails from me about this.

It's now been a week since CC commented.... still waiting.

--kpc

[Word Gypsy]

Hang in there, monkeypie! It's been my experience that CC works hard to resolve this issue. You just might not get any emails about it until you get the one stating that the content has sold! WG~

[monkeypie]

Still waiting...

[Abbamay]

Oh no! It's such a horrible feeling! Are you still emailing the client about it now and then?

Abba

[monkeypie]

Oh no! It's such a horrible feeling! Are you still emailing the client about it now and then?

Abba

Yes. I have sent several polite messages, and the client ignores them

CC did contact me (nearly 2 weeks ago) and said the client had been ill, but was back to work and would review my submissions shortly.

Still waiting.....

[Word Gypsy]

So sorry this is still happening to you. I've been having an issue with a large client, and CC has yet to respond to me and it has been weeks. It just doesn't seem fair that we have to meet tight deadlines, and then the client can take weeks and weeks to pay. I hope you get your money soon, but my experience has been the longer they take, the less likely it is to ever see your money. Hopefully, it won't happen to you.

[monkeypie]

Still not paid. Good thing I was not holding my breath! Far as I'm concerned, this client ripped me off royally.

Happy new year anyway!

kpc

[Lysis]

Sorry that's happened to you. It's happened to me on some smaller projects, and you feel like you wasted your time. At least with the open market there is the expectation that it might not sell.

I've found that the open market is less stress and more money. Just write what you feel like, upload at a higher price than you'd get with a private client, and hope it sells. No revision requests or back and forth and talking about what's needed yadda yadda. Just sell articles that you feel like writing. The cost/benefit analysis is definitely better with the open market.

I recently had to let one go because for $.10/word he wanted me to interview people. lol