Reasons they have for not paying you

[Phil Rhodes]

- You're not on "the system"

- You didn't give your account number (which you didn't know you had)

- You didn't send the invoice to the right address

- The person responsible for this job didn't pass the invoice on

- You just missed the last cheque run, there's another in a month

- Payment hasn't "been authorised"

- The person who can authorise your payment is out of the office

- You need to invoice parent company A, who you haven't heard of

- We use administrative company B to handle invoices (who you haven't heard of)

- Oh, you're self-employed?

- We only accept invoices by email/fax/surface mail

- We haven't been paid by our client

 

And this is without the standard quibbles regarding meals, overtime, mileage, consumables, and any other of the standard corporate excuses for nonpayment.

 

Are there any I missed?

 

P

[Bob Hayes]

- They want to have their kneecaps broken.

[Michele Peterson]

We sent your check out last week. We can send you another one, but you'll have to wait until the next pay period.

[Serge Teulon]

It's not the job that is difficult, it's the people!

[Adrian Sierkowski]

- We're filing for bankruptcy and you should contact our attorney....

[K Borowski]

- We're filing for bankruptcy and you should contact our attorney....

 

(obscenity removed) that! (Admin says: I'm getting tired of people fooling the obscenity filters in the forum. Next time you'll find your account removed.)

 

Yeah, one advantage of being a part of the Union. You can have "Biscuits and Books" show up and break their legs. Then the check will appear almost instantly!

[Brad Grimmett]

We're waiting on payment from our client.

 

We couldn't open your invoice attachment...it's in a strange format. (pdf)

[Daniel Wallens]

I recently got this one:

"Hmmm, I don't know why you haven't received your check yet... you're in our system. Wait... can you hold for a minute? Wait... can I call you back...? I think you need to talk to Mr. XYZ in our ABC Department... I'm not sure, hold on just a sec, let me call you in a few..."

 

 

And from a major network no less.

[Saul Rodgar]

The best one would be:

 

"We saw you really enjoying using all the lights and equipment we rented for the shoot, and no one who enjoys it so much would do it for money, right?"

[Adrian Sierkowski]

"We already gave you Copy, Credit, and Food."

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

- We're douchebags.

[David Auner aac]

- We were not happy with your work. [but for sure they never complained and used the material you shot to great effect!]

[Mark Williams]

The accounts department is being redecorated

The Girl who deals with your account is on holiday

Worse she's pregnant.

Don't be rude otherwise they have an excuse not to pay at all then you have to get a summons which will usually get paid but more hassle.

The cheques not dated.

She's in a meeting and will call you back and never does. When you call back she's still not there. Oh she's gone home now. etc etc. All the time your doing the running and being made to feel a nuisance.

You go to collect your money but are stopped from seeing the boss and asked to leave or the police will be called. Someone pulls out a mobile to reinforce this.

 

Some firms will pay only if it's neccesary. IE good will or out of fear. Often you have to be careful what you say or do because of lefty courts. Swearing can get you sued let alone a major tantrum.

[Alfeo Dixon]

Rebuttal for any of them: "That's all in good, but you do realize that you don't have copy rights until our agreement is paid in full... including late fees."

[Delorme Jean-Marie]

"We always pay salarys at 8 weeks delay".... one of the biggest comercial production company in France. no kidding

[A. Whitehouse]

- Haven't been paid by the client yet

 

This is the most common and frustrating response. I'm still waiting on three jobs from before Christmas which are in various states of completion even though I shot and cut them months ago now. Quoted on a job today which I would shoot in two weeks but which wouldn't get delivered until June. You can bet I'm going to try and get my end up front ( I'm largely producing the acquisition side of it before it gets passed to the editor for a long edit ). Ive had people try 3 month billing periods out on me. Most people take as long as they can to pay an invoice. The larger the institution the worse it gets.

The most frustrating aspect of the work.

[Brad Grimmett]

I've seen plenty of commercials and music videos on the air before I got a paycheck. That's really annoying.

[Walter Graff]

If you work for ad agencies it can take 8 months to get paid. They use an extraordinary number of excuses as you call month after month. My favorite was from one of the largest agency in the world, "The printer that makes the checks is broken".

[Alfeo Dixon]

If you work for ad agencies it can take 8 months to get paid. They use an extraordinary number of excuses as you call month after month. My favorite was from one of the largest agency in the world, "The printer that makes the checks is broken".

That's how the ad agencies rate the copy writers... the person that has the next best excuse gets the next job.

[Will Earl]

- the reason you haven't been paid is because you've changed us for 8 hours work, could you resubmit the invoice for 7.5 hours work and we'll process it straight away?

[Hal Smith]

"The General Manager who approved the job wasn't authorized to hire outside help". I got that from Clear Channel, AKA Cheap Channel.

 

I guess they don't know the legal meaning of General Manager

[Phil Connolly]

- We have no record of you working those days.

- The Cheque needs 3 signatures and will get lost before it gets signed.

- We can authorise payment with out a valid purchase order number, but we will never get a purchase order to you untill a least a month after compleating the work.

- you have missed this months payment window.

- The work you did was last tax year, not sure we can carry payments over.

[Jonny Brady]

This is what really baffles me about the industry. Why is there no standard contract that is signed by the employer before the work is even done that says fee will be turned around in X number of days? I mean understandably every shoot is different, and every client is different - but there has to be a system in place, surely?

 

EDIT: This is probably the wrong thread for this, thinking about it..

Edited March 23, 2009 by Jonny Brady

[Tim Tyler]

Why is there no standard contract that is signed by the employer before the work is even done...

 

There's always the deal memo.

[Keith Walters]

- You're not on "the system"

- You didn't give your account number (which you didn't know you had)

- You didn't send the invoice to the right address

- The person responsible for this job didn't pass the invoice on

- You just missed the last cheque run, there's another in a month

- Payment hasn't "been authorised"

- The person who can authorise your payment is out of the office

- You need to invoice parent company A, who you haven't heard of

- We use administrative company B to handle invoices (who you haven't heard of)

- Oh, you're self-employed?

- We only accept invoices by email/fax/surface mail

- We haven't been paid by our client

 

And this is without the standard quibbles regarding meals, overtime, mileage, consumables, and any other of the standard corporate excuses for nonpayment.

 

Are there any I missed?

 

P

"I've got to pay my GST/VAT etc".

 

Not too long ago I found an old invoice book of mine from the early 1980s. There are still accounts rendered to deadbeats in there that I was never able to collect. Maybe I should send out a few reminders. :lol:

 

One thing I very quickly learned is to be aware that some companies do actually have rigid payment cycles and they always pay, eventually.

 

On the other hand, the strangest experience I ever had was when I did some acting work in a series of TV commercials. I don't know how it works in other countries, but in Australia if they "recycle" used or unused footage from an earlier commercial shoot to make a new ad, they have to pay you the same as if you were appearing on a new shoot, (unfortunately without all the little allowances that in themselves add up to a tidy sum though).

 

Every six months or so my casting agent sends me an envelope of what is basically Junk Mail , with information about film-related financial services, coaching services and so on, and in one of them was a cheque for $2,000! I almost threw the whole lot out!

 

If I hadn't spotted it, I would never have known that I was entitled to an extra "payday". I don't know whether my agent would have noticed the uncleared cheque and said something. I eventually had to phone her up to ask her what it was for.

 

Over a period of a couple of years I kept getting other cheques for a few hundred dollars here and there, with no explanation other than some incomprehensible abbreviations.

Edited March 24, 2009 by Keith Walters