Agency won't pay full invoice value

[Mailman]

Just goes to show aye, DONT trust anyone...especially when the thing in question is a time sheet!

Mailman

[NewCon4]

I will seek legal advice (hopefully some free legal advice!) to see where I stand and what my chances of sucess are in recovering the money, and the expenses incurred in recovering it. It would clearly be more expensive if I had to take an unpaid day of leave if I couldn't recover it. I have myself been on the receiving end of a debt collection agency for one reason or another, and they are happy to stick charges on which I have then had to pay - they don't work for free in debt recovery matters, so hopefully I won't have to work for free either - I'm in business at the end of the day, and I value my time.

I thank those who agreed that we shouldn't just role over and accept whatever is thrown at us by the client or agent. I for one would not rather be down the pub. I enjoy being creative and earning money more than I do spending it to be honest.

I understand the comments that have been passed regarding the timesheet - I entered the days and signed it, and the client then put a mark through my entries and amended them before they signed it. It was usual practice for a contractor who was on holiday or whatever to leave their timesheet to be signed with everyone elses if they were not there at the end of the month. I did not agree to the change - my signature does not appear next to the clients changes to signify any agreement. I believe that the fact I invoiced and have then chased for 14 days would signify in court that I did not agree to 13.5 days, and that the other 1/2 day is an unsettled debt.

[malvolio]

Oi! Nobody said "Rollover and take it". I did say "You screwed up", buy which I meant leaving a key financial document open to abuse. If you're in that much of a hurry you can't wait to get the last timesheet signed, and so guarantee payment (or at least have the argument about half days face-to-face) then you lose my sympathy.

It's gone. It will cost you more than half a day's income to get it back, assuming you can which I doubt since there is no proof. tulip happens, learn to live with - and next time get your own Is dotted and Ts crossed, don't leave it to someone else.

[tim123]

I will seek legal advice (hopefully some free legal advice!) to see where I stand and what my chances of sucess are in recovering the money, and the expenses incurred in recovering it.

For 200 pounds, this is a small claim.

You have zero chance of getting the expenses of the claim back (except the court fee) as that is exactly why the small claim track was invented (to stop people being put off making small claims because they risked paying out large fees if they lost)

tim

[tim123]

I understand the comments that have been passed regarding the timesheet - I entered the days and signed it, and the client then put a mark through my entries and amended them before they signed it. It was usual practice for a contractor who was on holiday or whatever to leave their timesheet to be signed with everyone elses if they were not there at the end of the month. I did not agree to the change - my signature does not appear next to the clients changes to signify any agreement. I believe that the fact I invoiced and have then chased for 14 days would signify in court that I did not agree to 13.5 days, and that the other 1/2 day is an unsettled debt

Perhaps you didn't agree to the amendment.

But the fact that the client changed it and then signed it, shows that he didn't agree with the original claim.

As you weren't with him when he signed, the client will argue (probably sucessfully) that he took the course of action that was best for everyone. His alternative would have been to have crossed it out and sent it back to you for authorisition before he signed. This would have left you in the same position that you are now (with half a day's pay disputed ) but at extra effort to everyone.

You have no proof that the client agreed to the extra half day. You do have have an unsettled debt, you have a disuted debt.

tim

[Ardesco]

Try and take it further if you want, but you are wasting your time. When it goes to court the client will produce the timesheet, they will testify on oath that you left at 2:20 one day and they are not willing to pay you a full day and they will have some expensive lawyer runs rings round you.

The point here is that the client have been gits, but at the end of the day it is YOUR fault that this has happened. You are supposed to get your timesheet signed and then you are supposed to send it in. If you are going to leave a timesheet to get it signed, don't leave your signature on it and get the client to send it back to you so that you can sign it and then send it on to the agency.

Finally who are you going to take to court? You have a contract with the agency not the end client. As far as the agency is concerned they have been told by thier client that you worked 13.5 days and that is what they are paying you for, they have proof (in the form of a timesheet signed by you and the end client) that you worked 13.5 days, they will be able to get a witness statement from the end client that you wokd for 13.5 days, and not 14 and they will have money for 13.5 days going into thier holding account. The fact that you have invoiced for 14 days means nothing, they have already disputed your invoice and I can't see any court in this country giving you a win.

If you want to waste your time and money (lets face it a day in cout is going to cost you more than £200 in lost earning, without taking the rest into account) and burn your bridges in a big way, fine go ahead and fuss about it. The sensible option is chalk it up to experiance and make sure that YOU get your timesheets signed in the future so that this doesn't happen again.

At the end of the day YOU are at fault, and you are trying to blame somebody else for your own incompetance. Yes they have been naughty by not discussing the reduction with you, but you should have been the one getting the timesheet signed in the first place, and if you had you would have been able to argue it there and then. They may have backe down then, but I can't see them backing down now as thier finance department will have already payed the agency and it will now be seen as a financial loss by the company.

[XperTest]

I may be overlooking something, but in your original post you admit to leaving 40 minutes early, having agreed to make up for this time the week after. You don't mention whether you have indeed made up for this time. I know it's only 40 minutes and not 4 hours, but surely you would agree that if you haven't compensated for the hours, you are not entitled to 14 full days pay? Also, you mention in your first post that you initially agreed and claimed for 13,5 days as requested by the agency/client. If you plan to take this to court, how do you think this will look to a judge? The client can effectively prove you claimed for 13,5 days! Take it on the chin and consider you might get some business out of this client/agency when you really need it..

[NewCon4]

The reason that I submitted an invoice was becuase I was told quite explicitly that unless I did that, I wouldn't get paid. At the time I didn't have another contract to go to, and I needed to know I would get something, and I thought I would disupute the shortfall after, rather than receive no money, and have to dispute the full invoice value.
I learnt the day after that I was actually in an alright position, and 2 weeks before I received the partial payment, I informed the agency that I did indeed wish to claim for 14 days, and that I wanted to disupute the clients 13.5 days. I only heard from the agency 3 days before pay day, that the dispute had not been resolved and this was reflected in the pay I then received.

A few people have said now to "take it on the chin" or terms there of. By my calculations though - even if I lose a days pay in recovering the money - then I will be no worse off than if I just write the debt off - obviously I would have to win the claim, but in my opinion it is a fair claim. I've already stated that I wasn't the first contractor to leave early that day - 2 had left by 1pm. My mistake was perhaps having the decency to inform the client!

[malvolio]

OK, don't listen then. Not only are you wasting your time and effort, but I wonder if your attitude also explains the client's apparently petty behaviour.

[MarillionFan]

Trust me, youre wasting your time.

Firstly do you have any idea of the process to take them to court. Probably not. I did it a while back and it was a pain in the arse. Not worth it unless you're talking thousands.