Getting paid (after delivering the work)

Getting paid can be a little tricky when you are doing freelance work. The fact is, some clients tend to take their freelancing contractors a little bit less seriously when the time comes to make the payment. They will engage you very enthusiastically while the project is in progress and during delivery. But once everything is completed they tend to forget what you had done for them.

Sometime back a friend of mine and I did a project for a large Telco here. They wanted a helpdesk management system and when they looked around and got quotations from established companies they were quoted thumping amounts. So they came to us and we agreed to do the project for a fraction of the cost. No we were not under quoting, but with no overheads and based on their requirements, we quoted a price which was fair and square.

While the project was in progress, the key person who wanted the project, their head of IT changed jobs and moved to a different company. And his replacement had other priorities and this project was no longer a key project in their portfolio. We delivered the product and for a while they kept putting it off without even attempting to use it.

Then after sometime, the interest on the project got renewed. We were called in and were asked to take them through the system. Then they used it for a while and asked for a few changes. We quoted for the changes they requested and they agreed and we delivered the chagnes as well. Then we sent in our invoices, to get paid for the time and effort we had put in.

They were in complete silence and after numerous followups they asked asked for specs and what not, all of which we submitted. Then again total silence. Then after another lot of numerous followups they said the invoice is being processed by their finance division. They wanted another 101 clarifications as well. Again, they are now in utter silence. Our emails and calls go unanswered. And payment is nowhere in sight.

One of the conditions they laid down at the start of the project was as we were freelancers that they cannot make an advance payment to us, as we are not a registered company. We agreed as we were not interested in incorporating at that point.

But now, after delivering the initial software and after delivering their requested changes as well, we are being ignored and not being paid.

Our queries through other means tells us that they are holding to our payment because the system is not being used by their users. Now that is one thing that we cannot help them to do unless they tell us any specific areas that need to be enhanced in the system. If it is a matter of usability we can look into that and improve it. But seems the issue there is there is no proper champion to drive the adoption throughout their enterprise.

In any case, is it fair for them to not to pay us because they cannot get their users to use the system? Can they do the same if we were not freelancers? My conclusion is they are as unethical as they can be! Trying to milk the small guys!