Lesson on Contracts Learned the Hard Way

The first Friday of the month came and no check! I waited until Monday, and then I followed up with an e-mail. No reply for two days, so I followed up with a call. No response. In the meantime, I was reassured by my client that I would be paid.

Before taking on this role, another guy had filled the same position. His complaint was that he wasn't paid on time and that is why he didn't produce any results. Yet he did manage to stick around for five months and collected all of his money. I was assured that wouldn't happen to me.

I continued to work and called the controller. I finally got through. He apologized for not getting back to me, but he was busy with a year-end audit. I would receive half of my fee the day after Christmas. If you are keeping track, that is almost a month after we agreed when I would be paid. The controller said the other half would come in two weeks.

As I write this column, I am still waiting to be paid, and so I have become the bank, providing an interest-free loan and hoping people I trusted will make good on their promise to pay me. The controller has written to me and again promised payment, so I do have two e-mails in the event I need to go to small-claims court to collect.

Mistake No. 3: This may be an unavoidable mistake if you work with people throughout the country, but the financial partner is based in New York. Therefore, I would have to file in small-claims court there if it came to that. Hiring an attorney is out of the question because of the cost. So what do you do when you have a collection problem?