How would you handle someone trying to shaft you like this?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s a lame dilemma, and I’m looking for confirmation that I’m not nuts in thinking this woman is trying to shaft me.

The situation:

I’m a freelance writer. As such, someone asked me to write a rather long piece for them - 30 pages approximately. I whipped up a contract and sent it to her. The contract stated that the project would cost a set amount up to 30 double-spaced pages. Any pages after that would be a certain amount per double spaced page. Great. It’s all set. The lady agreed to it. The trouble is, I don’t think she read it, or she’s trying to shaft me. Why would I think this? Because…

When I began to write the piece, I submitted the first chapter as soon as I had writted and edited it so that she could verify that she liked my style and that I was providing the information she wanted. She liked it, but said, “Yeah, why don’t you write that single-spaced, not double-spaced?” I said, “I’d be more than happy to; however, this will change necessitate a change in contract, as the work stipulated is to be double-spaced, not single. Shall I write it double-spaced for you or single?” She opted for double. That’s great. All settled. Well, the project, as most projects do, ended up being a lot longer than my client thought it would be. In fact, it was almost 60 pages, not 30. I continued to notify her along the way that the project was getting longer, and I would therefore have to charge her more, to which she merrily replied, “Oh, that’s okay as long as you can keep it under 60 pages,” which I did. So I finished it and submitted it. She has resubmitted it to me single-spaced. It’s now 25 pages. :eek:

This woman thinks she’s being generous paying me the price for 30 pages, but I think she should pay double that because that’s what our contract stipuated. I have sent her a polite email restating the terms of our contract, together with the original statement of work, to which she stubbornly keeps replying “Well, the work is under 25 pages, so I really shouldn’t have to pay the entire fixed project amount anyway, but I’m willing to let it slide.” But it’s double the information, dammit!!! :smack: :smack: :smack:

Freelancers, or anybody for that matter, how would you handle this?

2

She’s trying to shaft you. Politely take your work elsewhere.

3

I think she’s trying to shaft you as well.

Force the issue and don’t accept any more work from this bimbo.

4

Give it to her without the letters t, w, u, p, d, g, a, r, s and i. Then tell her those cost extra.

Actually, this reminds me of the “Merchant Banker” sketch from Monty Python.

“The problem is, you gave me the idea before I gave you the pound! Not good business!” She undoubtedly has made a copy of the work already. Get payment in advance from now on.

I plan on living forever. So far, so good!

5

Yes, she’s trying to shaft you. My reading is she did not expect to be held to the contract anyway. Her initial request for you to single space the article would have given me the first twinge.

All correspondence should now be by US Mail, certified or registered with return receipt. No more emails. Request payment as stipulated in the original contract and include a copy of such with the letter, as well as copies of all email correspondence.

6

That’d be priceless!

Thanks for the responses. I’m kind of new to freelancing (started about 6 months ago), so I’m still getting the feel for things (i.e., you absolutely must be very specific in your contracts - learned that one first project in, collect at least 50% before starting work, especially on small projects (which I did on this one, thank God)). Anyway, I appreciate the suggestions. I’ll try to force the issue, then never work with her again. I’m just ticked off because, other than the fact that I’m mad that this woman doesn’t want to pay me a fair rate, this was the first month my business was going to break even. Looks like I’ll have to wait until next month…

7

Send her a calm, professional letter (certified service may get her attention) recounting your agreement, with the evidence that she agreed to pay $X over 30 D.S. pages. (You have her consent in writing, right?) If it’s not in writing, describe the exact circumstances–date, time, location, phone or in person–under which she agreed to the changes. Ask for payment by a specific date ten to fourteen days after she receives the letter. Hint that if she refuses to pay you will take legal action. “If we have not received your check for $XXX by July 10, 2004, we will have no choice but to explore other options to protect our rights.”

If that doesn’t work, the next step is to contact a lawyer and ask him/her to write a threatening letter. This could cost 1/3 of what you’re owed, or a flat hourly fee of several hundred dollars. Depends on what you can work out with the lawyer. (Any lawyers among family or friends who would do it cheap or free?) Alternately, you could file a suit in small claims court.

Chances are the letter from the lawyer will scare her into paying. If it doesn’t she’s called your bluff, because she knows that going to court will almost certainly be more trouble than it’s worth, unless you’re getting paid a lot more than most beginning wriiers I know. (BTW, IANAL.)

In future, I’d suggest specifying payment by word, not page, or at an hourly rate. And get any changes to the terms in writing, even if it’s just an e-mail. Good luck.

8

*Never * count pages. Count words. Pages vary by so many things, including the size of the type, that they’re not a reasonable measure of actual length.

Even if you bill for words, you’ll still have the potential for a client to ask for multiple revisions and screw you that way. I suggest the following model for pricing:

  1. Base charge for a number of words
  2. Charge for revisions past the third (that is, give two revisions in the initial fee)
  3. Charge per word for going past the limit

Alternatively, you chould charge per hour. This is a little harder to explain at times, but is more fair – sometimes it can take days to come up with the right 10 words, but you can poop out 3000 words on snorkeling in a couple of hours.

Please be careful when forcing the issue. From my own experience with freelancing (quite a few years ago now, come to think of it), you may need to just take it. If she has contacts in the industry or area, you may not want to get on her bad side by fighting with her over the terms of the contract.

9

overlyverbose, I have a valuable freelance resource I’d like to recommend, but you’ve hidden your e-mail. Please e-mail me and I’ll send it along.

10

Be careful, you’ll scare them away if they find out you are overlyverbose.

11

I wonder how long until she realizes that if she shrinks the font, she can pay even less…

12

Have your lawyer explain the contract to her. Her signature is on it, right? She can’t win. What a bitch. What a really STUPID bitch.

13

Bitch yes. Stupid? Possibly not. She CAN win.
The amount involved is likely in the range that puts the OP in small claims court. After producing the contract with signatures, and recounting the continuing notices of escalating price, the OP will likely win in court. BUT small claims court has no enforcement powers. I know many contractor friends who won in small claims, and were still never paid. You have to sue them AGAIN to get payment. Most small losses like this are written off under the assumption you’ll make more money doing work for good clients than by trying to squeeze blood from a stone.

Rather than threaten a lawyer, why not write a nice little note along the lines of
“Our contract clearly states that this work was to be 30 pages double spaced. Perhaps you have trouble reading. I would gladly pay for an adult remedial education class if you need one to assist your reading comprehension. If reading comprehension is not the issue, are you just one of those people who like screwing others? It is very sad that your parents raised you this way. I know several good churches that can help you find your moral compass. If there is any way I can help you along the road to reading success or moral enlightnenment, please let me know. I am worried about you, and want to see you do well in life.”

Sure might not get you any money, but it would be fun to send.

14

By win I mean not have to pay any more money, since I stated that she would likely lose in small claims. Not that IANALawyer, and this is hearsay from others. As opposed to hearsay from myself.

15

The other option, to keep clients from changing the formatting of a document when you send it to them is to password protect it - I know you can do this in MS Word, but I don’t know about other word processing programs. That way, all your formatting remains the same. It does become problematic if the client wants to edit or make suggestions within the document.
Yes, she’s trying to put one over on you - the pay by the word concept is also good, I think, but IANA writer, freelance or otherwise.

16

Or, that if you enlarge the font to, say, 24 pt. Times, you’re back at 60 pages.

If the contract says 30 pages double-spaced (and I agree, that’s a poor way to determine the price for a job) then you’re right. But if it says “30 pages”, and you later agreed on double spacing so she could write in her edits, I think you’re screwed.

17

Actually, I’ve learned to be very specific in my contracts. A typical contract will state that one printed page (this does not include Web pages, of course, which are often priced quite differently), at $X per page, will be double-spaced, at 12-point, Times New Roman font (or another font should the client wish) containing 200 - 300 words, including headings and sub-headings. I learned early on that if you don’t specify exactly what constitutes a page, you will be extremely lucky NOT to get shafted. So, I don’t necessarily think that per page is a particularly bad way to price, provided you specifically define a page in your contract, and make sure not to undervalue your work. I think the most common ways to charge (from what I’ve learned in my research, anyway) is per project, per page, or per word, and it often depends on the project and who you’re selling to. For example, I’ve noticed that the corporations I work with anyway are accustomed to a per project charge, while the few magazines & newspapers I’ve been published in pay per word. But I guess it’s up to me to fix my prices - I’m just kind of experimenting so far to see what works best.

18

Assuming that this is original work, who has the copyrights to the work? Are the rights given to the client upon final payment? Do you retain the rights and allow her to use the work in prescribed ways? Certainly, even if she made a copy of your work she can’t use it if you still have the rights, correct?

19

I haven’t yet signed the copyright over to her. Also, I think she’s just as new to this as I am because she told me that I didn’t have to sign the non-compete agreement and non-disclosure until the work was done and she was satisfied. So, I could technically still sell the work to someone else.

20

Here in Australia, under similar circumstances, you can just trot along to the local court and take out a statement of claim against your debtor. It’s a cheap process that doesn’t require a lawyer and requires them to come to court to prove that they don’t owe you the money. Isn’t something like that what provides the fodder for Judge Judy and the like?