Keeping My Word
Well, it’s been coming for a long time and today was finally the day in which I admit that enough is enough.
I am still reluctant to come out and name her by name but I don’t see the problem with telling you where you can find her.
The problem is that believe it or not I am actually struggling with writing this post. I’m not as good at this as Kathy over at Irreverent Freelancer who puts it all out there for people to see when a client tries to screw her over. (This isn’t a dig on Kathy, for I deeply admire her tact and no nonsense business attitude when it comes to clients… maybe that is what I need more of 
).
It could be that until this all started I believed everything she told me about why payment couldn’t be sent and I am completely understanding of some of the problems that she had that could have prevented me getting paid. But here we are… Eight months after I should have been paid. Payments were sporadic. Always. The amounts varied from $5 to $20. In the beginning I was asked for everything from my PayPal to my address to my bank information (for wire transfers) and nothing came. Like I said, I understand that people have problems, shit happens but after eight months there comes a point where a person needs to stop using personal problems for reasons and pay what they owe. The credit card company and the gas company wouldn’t be so sympathetic and understanding, so why should I have been?
In the beginning when I asked when I could expect payment she would ask for another form of information and I gave it to her. Eventually I didn’t ask anymore because nothing ever came until October when I first let all of you know my struggle.
I quoted her a low price (which is true) and she assumed that to be because of my inexperience (though by that time I had copywriter experience). My reasoning for quoting a low price was to not cut into her profits and to help her out when she needed (and I said as much in an email to her). She had seen a sample of my work, read my blogs, seen my articles from the newspaper which are viewable online and even asked me to do some editing (for a project of hers), and provide her with a press release for use in her own endeavors but now, eight months later my work was not usable, and my writing was bad.
I am not trying to ruin her. I don’t want to ruin her. She does a lot for moms who want to work at home and I think she does a great service. However, I believe that as a person who runs her own business and is a mom, she should also know that having a client that pays on time is key to being able to continue your business and provide for your family. I know that she had personal struggles as well but these struggles occurred after she was paid from her client and after I should have received my payment, so I see this as a separate issue and not having much to do with the original agreement. I received a lot of advice on this situation and took a step back to analyze things.
After much thought and pondering, at the end of February when I hadn’t heard from her, I confirmed that things would be settled in March as she had indicated. This was indeed her plan but at the end of March I again was informed that things had changed and she needed my personal address yet again. That’s when things got unpleasant… again.
I was called pretentious, audacious, and even ridiculous for wanting to have answers to her claims that my articles weren’t usable. They weren’t good quality… the client wanted revisions and eventually she had to rewrite nearly everything. Instead of her asking me to not help her any longer she asked me to write more and admitted to not checking them over in an email to me. She also sent me confirmations when they were approved by the client and when some needed revising she told me which ones and I obliged. I did some research and found many of my articles virtually intact. As we all know though, not all copywriting is for the Internet so I believe that many of them are live somewhere. Then the story changed when I told her what I had found. After that it was that some of them were usable but memory couldn’t serve her as to what or how many and she had lost the files.
What I want here is a resolution. I can’t get it on my own so I enlisted the help of Angela Hoy of Writers Weekly and Whispers and Warnings. She is a well known figure in the writing community. I didn’t enlist her help as a scare tactic to the nonpaying writer. I did it because I finally realized that this was far out of my hands, especially when one of the last things the other writer said was that I would get my money, in her time.
I’m not telling you who she is because I believe that those of you want to know can click on the links and find out. Those of you who don’t want to know, don’t have to. I leave the choice to my readers because I like I said, I don’t necessarily want to do her harm but I don’t believe that I should just let this go as some of my friends in my online community believe. The choice isn’t mine to tell you who is right or wrong in this. That’s up for you to decide. It isn’t for me to tell what is right or wrong. I know that might conflict with my other posts on this subject but I’ve had much time to reflect as well. I think you can all decide for yourselves what to believe or what not to believe. But in my mind, the messages sent conflict, the words don’t make sense and as we writers know, in order to for the story to flow and be believable, the words must make sense to the reader. It’s called Verisimilitude.
Whether by accident or on purpose this has happened and I think that other writers should know it can easily happen to them by anyone they work for.
Hi Nikki,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with this person, and over such a small amount of money! Luckily, I never had much trouble getting paid, but it is a bummer to deal with when it happens.
BTW, I haven’t been to this site in quite a while, and I really like the design you’re using!
Diane
Diane! It is so nice to see you! If you still have my email, drop me a line! You know I would love to talk to you sometime! Thanks for the thoughts on the blog too. I’ve missed you around the writing and blogging world!
Oh Nikki, I think you’ve been worlds more than patient. You gave her numerous opportunities to pay you. It’s the same old story with most nonpaying clients – first they can’t afford to and finally when pressed hard, they find fault with what you did.
She owes you money. Period. Beyond that, her excuses for not paying you in all this time is something best left to a judge in small claims court.
That is to say … she’s going to have a tough time explaining why your work was acceptable in October but suddenly unacceptable months later when you push for payment.
Thank you Lori, I tried to handle this as well as I could but it was obvious that I was getting nowhere on my own so that’s when I knew I needed help. Since then she has taken to taking me apart on her blog – which I expected, and not allowing anyone to leave a comment. I’m hoping that this won’t need to come to a court issue. It would be much easier if the debt could be paid quickly and we could all move on.
I read her post, Nikki. Even her own post clearly states you two had an arrangement and she owes you money.
Print that post out, stop messing with her, and take her to small claims court. This is nonsense, and you’re not required to put up with it. She hired you. She admits she owes you. She’s dragging it out (really unprofessional behavior) just to make you squirm.
Sue her.
Nikki, send me an email….
While there may be two sides to the story, Lori is correct; she admitted owing you the money, take her to court and be done with.
Just wishing you GOOD LUCK!
If it is any consolation, the intelligent, albeit slightly anal retentive, accountant in me says this — money orders range from $0.29 to $3.00 each, postage is $0.41 now, but is increasing in May, so $1.00 a week for 50 weeks via money orders could result in upwards of $170.50 in additional expenses on her part, not including the cost of her time, cost of 50 envelopes, and the cost of gas to purchase said money orders. Hmmmm, not a very cheap point to make on her part, and oddly, I think she may feel as if she has won. Isn’t there an expression to describe needlessly self-destructive overreaction to a problem, oh yes, cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. Hmmm, it doesn’t take an accountant to know that expensing $54.00 give or take (the amount you are owed, cost of 1 money order, 1 stamp, 1 envelope, all estimated of course) is far more cost effective than incurring expenses upwards of $220+. I wonder … can you charge interest?
@Theresa – I have a great accountant already, you probably know her! But can I put you on retainer as well? You never know when 2 mathematical brains will be better than one!
I’m so sorry this happened to you. I’m always one to give the benefit of the doubt but after reading the “don’t spend it all in one place” blog post, I’m thinking you did a good job warning others against working for this woman.
It’s a shame so many are looking to take advantage of writers.
I wonder though, if she can afford an attorney, why can’t she pay you?
@ Deb – according to her, the attorney is free because of her dealings with the women on death row. It doesn’t matter – I never got a money order from her and she does have my home address.
Well we all know her name now…