Left contract for a new one based on false promises. Help needed!

[ChangePM]

This is all new to me to be fair, I've always submitted a timesheet and been paid. I looked online and it suggested that I had to go through ACAS before claiming through the Ombudsman.

I'll submit an invoice to them tomorrow.

ACAS? Really?


Send an invoice with evidence that you did the work. Wait till it doesn’t get paid. Google dunning.

[northernladuk]

Dumped a client for more money and it's gone Pete Tong? Unfortunate.

[tarbera]

60 miles - wow that's almost 1000 I was doing commuting to Edinburgh from London each day. Did you need a passport and did you get nose bleeds for this hours commute ?

How many broken bottles did you crawl over ?

Ask them to move their offer closer to you ?

[MrButton]

The other things is that if I had just got on with it for a few weeks whilst looking for something else, I would have had to put it on my CV (which would look bad) and get a reference for future clients (which might not have been a positive reference).

Firstly, please put your reply after the quote. It really makes it easier to read.

And onto the CV thing. Why would you have had to put it on? Do a couple of weeks work while your looking. Invoice away and you wouldn’t have to put it on your CV if you didn’t want to just have a gap.

Now you’ll have a gap and not have been invoicing.

[Spikeh]

Firstly, please put your reply after the quote. It really makes it easier to read.

And onto the CV thing. Why would you have had to put it on? Do a couple of weeks work while your looking. Invoice away and you wouldn’t have to put it on your CV if you didn’t want to just have a gap.

Now you’ll have a gap and not have been invoicing.

Or rewrite your CV in a STAR, skills or otherwise non-chronological format. Or just embellish the dates if you're not confident about your abilities. I am not a piece of paper, I'm a professional that offers technical services on a contract basis - of course I'm not going to be working 100% of my time (sometimes out of choice).

I don't consider gaps between my contracts to be even remotely relevant to being able to do the job... I've been out of regular contracting for 2 years, but I've spent that time doing smaller freelance and personal projects that have taught me more than any 12 month period I've spent with clients via the agency route.

[ChangePM]

Dumped a client for more money and it's gone Pete Tong? Unfortunate.

It's nothing really to do with fortune, either good or bad. I got an offer of more money and a long-term contract so took them up on that offer. I'd do the same again, as I'm sure the mass majority of people would.
I left the current client with a lot of goodwill, certainly not a case of them being "dumped"; I just got stitched up with the client moving the goalposts on the third day.

[ChangePM]

60 miles - wow that's almost 1000 I was doing commuting to Edinburgh from London each day. Did you need a passport and did you get nose bleeds for this hours commute ?

How many broken bottles did you crawl over ?

Ask them to move their offer closer to you ?

Everyone's different tarbera, you were prepared to travel from LDN to EDI every day. Fair play, I take my hat off to you! I wasn't prepared or able to travel at this stage in my life with the commitments I have at home. For me, being the best Father I can be is much more important than being the best Project Manager I can be.

I didn't crawl over any broken bottles.

There was no need to ask them to move the office closer to me. It was already in Manchester, they decided to move the role to another office. (They must have known that this was the case before I started, there's no way that they just moved it on a whim. They got me in there and then moved the goalposts - is that really the sort of client I want to work for?)

[ChangePM]

Firstly, please put your reply after the quote. It really makes it easier to read.

And onto the CV thing. Why would you have had to put it on? Do a couple of weeks work while your looking. Invoice away and you wouldn’t have to put it on your CV if you didn’t want to just have a gap.

Now you’ll have a gap and not have been invoicing.

It's a fair point and something that I have thought about and agonised over. Hindsight says that you're probably right, but I made the decision and have to stand by it. If a similar situation arises in the future, I might and probably will think differently. That said, I won't have a baby at home in the future, things my be easier when she's at school.

[MrButton]

It's a fair point and something that I have thought about and agonised over. Hindsight says that you're probably right, but I made the decision and have to stand by it. If a similar situation arises in the future, I might and probably will think differently. That said, I won't have a baby at home in the future, things my be easier when she's at school.

Fair play.

[ChangePM]

*****UPDATE*****

I've submitted an invoice to them, they have rebuffed it and stated that they won't pay.
I've gone back with proof of the days worked and stated that I'll take the case through legal channels if it's not paid.

They have responded that they will defend their position and if they win will seek damages against me.

I can't work out if they would do that or they are just trying to scare me?

Any tips?
Should I seek some employment law advice? Keep chipping away until they get sick of me? Try and negotiate some sort of reasonable settlement? Just drop it and move on?