AAARRRGGG!!!
Posted by Amber , Monday, September 8, 2008 Monday, September 08, 2008
This is the third or fourth time we have been PROMISED a payment from Ben's client and we haven't gotten it!
This is how it goes every time... Ben will invoice his hours and say that we need to be paid by a certain date. His client says "No problem." The week before the chosen date, Ben checks in and is told everything is on schedule. Then pay day comes and we have no money! Ben asks the client what happened? He responds "Sorry I had to make sure my checks cleared my account, you should have it in your account tomorrow." Then tomorrow comes and we still have no money! He responds again by saying "Sorry my wife didn't make it to the bank... she is going today. You should have your money tomorrow." OKAY...it better be here tomorrow or I am going to be really upset! Tomorrow comes and still no money! He responds "Oh let me look into what may have happened. Oh sorry my wife didn't have to correct information to wire the money to you." UGH... so we ask him to at least make sure it is in our account by Friday so that we don't go the whole weekend without money. He responds "I will make sure of it." So... we wait an entire business week for him to work out his issues and sure enough, there is no money in the account on Friday or Saturday. Just so you know, we have the money wired into our account because of previous check issues. Wired money is like cash, so it should go in immediately! So then Ben finally talks to him on Monday of the following week, and the client finally admits "I am waiting on clients to pay me and I don't have money to pay you." THANKS A LOT for telling us!
Geez, I would rather know he wasn't planning on paying us at all then lying and saying that it should be in our account soon. What kind of work ethic is that? He owns a business and won't even let us know the truth about our payments. We originally planned on bi-weekly payments and we only get one payment a month! It is frustrating because Ben has been extremely trustworthy with the hours he is billing. It would be so easy to just bill him 8 hours a day like a normal job, but if Ben takes breaks or checks email or something, he doesn't bill him for that. We can't get the same respect?
What should we do? If we quit then we won't have any money at all! If we stay then the client knows we are willing to accept his poor work ethic and he will continue to handle the situation poorly.
Any comments?
That's stinky. However, you teach people how to treat you so if you continue to accept this kind of treatment from him then he will never have any motivation to stop or change his behavior. It's never an easy thing to look for a new job, but if this is a regular issue then maybe that's the best option...