I was not paid for my work at the appropriate time. I contacted the client who assured me it was not a problem with her paying client. I was told it was a personal banking issue. After waiting, I tried to contact her and she would not respond. I found several other writers who had the same problems with her in the past. They had never come forward, because the amount of money owed was not great.

The client finally responded when she was tipped off that a group of writers were getting together. I should also tell you that she has used unfounded legal threats against some writers, when they seek to collect their compensation. The client claimed that she had no money, because she was in a desperate financial situation and in fear of losing personal property.

Now, I do understand. The problem was with the series of lies she was getting herself into. Not to mention, some of the writers had not been paid for months. It appears that there is a system to her non-payment of services. She paid one small payment for a small amount of work in the past and now thinks that is sufficient. She also pays some of the writers on a regular basis, in order to ward off any hint of shady business practices. She then expected that I wait three months for payment. With what I have learned from others, I have very little expectation of receiving compensation.

My problem is that she has done this to other writers in the past, who have never seen compensation. Additionally, she solicits writers for a very large company that pays upon acceptance. My work has been accepted and is now appearing on their websites. She did not keep her personal finances apart from the business and now, many writers are suffering. The fact that she was having these problems (if her excuses are legitimate) many months before, she should not have been soliciting new writers. She should have worked to resolve the problems with the previous writers.

I also feel as though I have been robbed of my intellectual property. If she even tried to come to some kind of payment plan, I would have accepted it. But, she did not. I was left with no alternative. I contacted the end client to let them know that material on their websites, although paid for by them, did not make it to the writers.

If some of these writers would have spoken up, I would not have engaged in business with this client. Some writers may think that it is not worth the effort to complain, if the payments are small. But, if you multiply the number of writers by the amount of uncompensated pay, the sum becomes very significant. I simply feel that predators like this need to be stopped.

Megacool Blog indeed!… if anyone else has anything it would be much appreciated. Great website Enjoy!…

I agree with speaking about clients in generalities, but in this case I was very tempted to publicize the experience or file a complaint with sites like ‘The Ripoff Report’. Fortunately, all of our communication was in writing, so everything I’m reporting would have evidence to support it.

In the end, thought, the fee wasn’t big enough to get upset about. The only thing that would prompt me to expose the client is the belief that I’m probably not the first freelancer they’ve treated like this, nor will I be the last.

Some people are just disgusting human beings. It’s a fact of life.

Personally, I would have LOVED it if this info about her was on the web somewhere BEFORE I agreed to work with her. I definitely wouldn’t have if I’d have known what a deadbeat she is. It would have saved an awful lot of grief and stress. So, I’m sorry but I will have to disagree about not exposing the slime that refuses to pay their freelancers after the work is submitted…and used.

I do not believe in burning bridges either, I know there are cases when the choice is not truly ours, but if given the choice, it is smarter not to and leave that avenue open, you never know where that bridge could be needed in the future.