Agencies to avoid....

[northernladuk]

Ooh! Are we allowed to give him a bashing in here?

No but by god I know who I am voting for next year

[bikeman]

It was 12 working days, and my contract said that time was from the submission of the invoice. The only problem is that they entertain the invoice only after they get a sign copy of timesheet from client. So if you had a weekly invoicing, but monthly time sheets from the client, you are not having a fair deal. .

I see what you're saying but that was not the circumstance. I did weekly timesheets and so did the client, all done online so all done by friday lunchtime.

No the issue was Lorien / VerticalIT just wanted to delay payments for as long as possible.

Contract said 'last friday of month, 30 working days' and they stuck to it. Live and learn.

[Zippy]

Just goes to show that any idiot can win a CUK award

Ooh! Are we allowed to give him a bashing in here?

[TheFaQQer]

Funny this was posted on the main site today...



from CUK Reader Awards: IT contracting in 2011 :: Contractor UK

Funny old world hey

Just goes to show that any idiot can win a CUK award

[rd409]

And how is that good? 3 weeks? my current and previous agency pay the Friday following end of cycle. Morson were the best and paid so promptly - even when timesheets were late. Also a really friendly bunch of people and would be really happy working with them again.

I never said they are the best. But when most of the agencies are now opting for 4 weeks payment terms, I guess 3 weeks is acceptable. Ideally, I would always like the payment terms to be 7 days max, but then this is business, and you can't really have it your ways always. I just tried to put another view of Lorien (or any agency).

[northernladuk]

Funny this was posted on the main site today...

Elsewhere in the agency category, a diverse pool of IT contracts; being proactive with the new roles and negotiating successfully for the candidate were compliments awarded, respectively, to Hudson, Elan and Harvey Nash. Lorien also drew praise for being a ‘hassle-free’ recruiter that pays on time, as did Spring.

from CUK Reader Awards: IT contracting in 2011 :: Contractor UK

Funny old world hey

[craig1]

Most agencies will compromise once you get an offer if your negotiation skills are robust enough. Even the most hard-ball agencies will back down from idiot demands if you play just as hard-ball back and be truly willing to walk away if they don't back down.

An example was the last contract when the agency insisted that in order to accept me "opting in"* that I had to provide them with audited accounts, personal guarantees indemnifying them, lengthened payment terms and so on. They sent me a letter from their "legal manager" that if I refused to do all of that then they would not contract with me. I forwarded them the guideline document to the Regs, highlighted the things that were their duties under the Regs for those caught and explained why all bar one were absolutely none of their business for me as a representative of a limited company. The chasing to get me to opt-out stopped and I only got one call half way through the contract reminding me that they had no signed opt-out form "for their records", I chose to believe that was an admin error rather than anything more cynical.

* Yes, they insisted I was opting in rather than simply not opting out, their terminology.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

It was 12 working days, and my contract said that time was from the submission of the invoice. The only problem is that they entertain the invoice only after they get a sign copy of timesheet from client. So if you had a weekly invoicing, but monthly time sheets from the client, you are not having a fair deal. What I did was generate weekly time sheets on thursday, get it signed by the client on Friday morning, and invoice on Friday afternoon. Money in the bank account in 3 weeks. Sweet.

The only problem I had with payment schedule is for the first invoice, when they got it wrong. I just threatened, that I walk off unless my invoice is sorted in 3 days, and they did keep me happy from then since. It might have helped my case, because I was one of the first contractors placed by them at client site, where they just received a place on PSL. So losing me, was kind of losing the client as well.

And how is that good? 3 weeks? my current and previous agency pay the Friday following end of cycle. Morson were the best and paid so promptly - even when timesheets were late. Also a really friendly bunch of people and would be really happy working with them again.

[Wanderer]

That's interesting, my revised Lorien contract said 12 days but turns out that was 12 working days (not calendar days)

What did it say in the contract? Unless it explicitly says "12 working days" and defines what a working day is then it's 12 calendar days.

If they have paid you late then send them an invoice for interest and penalties. Works a treat on late payers....

[rd409]

That's interesting, my revised Lorien contract said 12 days but turns out that was 12 working days (not calendar days) from last friday of month, so submitting weekly invoices made no difference... they wiggled like worms every month, very reluctant payers.

Why did I accept the terms? A) wasn't clear and never got straight answers and B) once I've invested time and effort securing a position I'm less likely to turn down a contract even with a tulips and they know it.

It was 12 working days, and my contract said that time was from the submission of the invoice. The only problem is that they entertain the invoice only after they get a sign copy of timesheet from client. So if you had a weekly invoicing, but monthly time sheets from the client, you are not having a fair deal. What I did was generate weekly time sheets on thursday, get it signed by the client on Friday morning, and invoice on Friday afternoon. Money in the bank account in 3 weeks. Sweet.

The only problem I had with payment schedule is for the first invoice, when they got it wrong. I just threatened, that I walk off unless my invoice is sorted in 3 days, and they did keep me happy from then since. It might have helped my case, because I was one of the first contractors placed by them at client site, where they just received a place on PSL. So losing me, was kind of losing the client as well.