Reply to: Send wrong amount in invoices for a few months.

[rvarela]

[Solved!]

Hi guys,

First of all, thank to all of you that helped me on this, as my first year contracting I still have plenty of stuff to learn and be aware of, and thanks to this post, I now visit the forum in regular basis to keep me updated.

Anyway, the company finally paid me off.

After the 1st reminder letter, they told me they will pay me at the end of the month, and it happened! (apparently the COO and the lawyer were still arguing about it!)

The thing is in this last month while I was waiting for this company to pay me, another agency just overpaid me about £1300! I also managed to solve that very quickly, I just contacted them about the issue, and send them a transfer for the exceeding amount. No hassle, quick and painless.

So in less than 3 months I've been in both sides, being overpaid and underpaid xD I must say I've been way more efficient that the other company in solving this out.

Again, thanks!

[d000hg]

You totally forgot to check your invoices for 7 months? That is just totally irresponsible and beggars belief to be honest. Unfortunately a word with your client and an invoice to cover the missing amount will probably cover it so you should be ok.

... or is the quality of sockie troll going down hill? 4 today and counting.

This can happen incredibly easily. I've had clients who look at my invoice and sent the net amount rather than the total including VAT and if you use a standard invoice template it's hardly THAT surprising someone could be in a routine to just fire off an invoice each month unless they updated the template the moment the rate was agreed.

It IS daft, but people do daft things all the time. I work with two clients and always have to triple check I'm sending the right invoice to the right client!

[Boo]

is the quality of sockie troll going down hill?

You would be the man to ask about that.

Boo

[speling bee]

Hi all,

Today I sent the 1st reminder letter, as it was 30 days ago since I gave them the invoice. I had two other letters in case they were necessary, but this is the answer I got this morning.

"Hi Raul,

Thank you for your reminder. **** said we can settle this invoice in this month’s bacs payment run, which will be around end of May. Is this date OK with you?

Kind regards"

It seems I wont have any problem with this, but I will update you once everything it's final.

We like outcomes, so thanks.

[rvarela]

Hi all,

Today I sent the 1st reminder letter, as it was 30 days ago since I gave them the invoice. I had two other letters in case they were necessary, but this is the answer I got this morning.

"Hi,

Thank you for your reminder. **** said we can settle this invoice in this month’s bacs payment run, which will be around end of May. Is this date OK with you?

Kind regards"

It seems I wont have any problem with this, but I will update you once everything it's final.

[NickNick]

Aye, i realise that now and it should be removed. Thanks

[Brian Potter]

In that case I stand corrected and you may wish to delete that from your earlier posts to avoid anything popping up when someone does some research in advance of anything legal happening?

You too have quoted the company name...LOL

[rvarela]

In that case I stand corrected and you may wish to delete that from your earlier posts to avoid anything popping up when someone does some research in advance of anything legal happening?

Sure, thanks for that. I've changed my original post, but I guess every user should amend the quotes on their answers? Shoudln´t this be dynamic? lol

[NickNick]

In that case I stand corrected and you may wish to delete that from your earlier posts to avoid anything popping up when someone does some research in advance of anything legal happening?

[rvarela]

I'm guessing that there was some currency conversion going on here with that reference to "bill xxxx correctly" Is that the case? Or is "XXXX" the company in question?

Yes, XXXX is the company name.

[NickNick]

Thanks for sending us the copies. I’ve spoken to Michael about this, unfortunately, as it was your responsibility to bill xxxx correctly,

I'm guessing that there was some currency conversion going on here with that reference to "bill xxxxxx correctly" Is that the case? Or is "xxxx" the company in question?

[speling bee]

My contract gives them 30 days to make the payment, I'll do that then. Thanks.

Please let us know how it pans out. We live for these stories.

[rvarela]

Give them 14 days to pay and then inform them in no uncertain terms that you will take legal action via your soliciter for which you will charge.

My contract gives them 30 days to make the payment, I'll do that then. Thanks.

[rvarela]

It absolutely was your responsibility to invoice correctly, but your failure to do so correctly does not cancel out their debt to you.

Personally, as it's a bit of a mess of your own making, I would send them the invoice with a friendly note explaining this, with perhaps an apology for the inconvenience (as you have created this mess).. and then follow it up with a legal route, proceeding to small claims court ASAP after appropriate intermediate steps.

Actually, I was in conversations with the financial assistant, who asked me for the invoice, and the letter where they raised my day rate, so I sent it to her and later on the day I received the email once she talked with this Michael (COO).

My conversations with the financial assistant were polite and I apologised for any inconvenience created. So from now I will follow the legal procedure, they already have the invoice, and by contract they have 30 days to make the payment, so I will follow with a solicitor's letter for a debt recovery. Is that alright? Or should I send them a more formal letter explaining that if they don´t make the payment within our contract terms, I will follow the legal way?

Thanks.

[speling bee]

Well,

After I spoken with the finance assistant, she asked me to provide the letter where they raised my day rate, and the invoice for the under charged amount. But she was pendant of the COO approval on this.

Today I recieved this email.

"Hi Raul,

Thanks for sending us the copies. I’ve spoken to Michael about this, unfortunately, as it was your responsibility to bill Cr@pCo correctly, I am afraid we cannot accept the back dated amendment to these paid invoices. If you have further questions, please let us know."

I honestly thought they were to respond in a positive way, I´m really surprised about this cold answer. So I think I will take some legal advice on this, as I don´t think there´s any specific clause on the contract that support this decision.

What do you guys think? By the way, any legal service that you would recommend for this issue? what company do you use?

Thanks.

It absolutely was your responsibility to invoice correctly, but your failure to do so correctly does not cancel out their debt to you.

Personally, as it's a bit of a mess of your own making, I would send them the invoice with a friendly note explaining this, with perhaps an apology for the inconvenience (as you have created this mess).. and then follow it up with a legal route, proceeding to small claims court ASAP after appropriate intermediate steps.