Substantial Unpaid Invoice

M

mbpccdmi

Guest
Hi, I run my own company which does some IT work. Most of my work comes in the form of sub contracted work for a multinational I used to work for but who upped sticks to India some years back. Anyway I still do (or at least used to up until now) quite a bit of work for them.

One of my recent projects which took a year to complete was some work they sub contracted me for a state body here. The work was worth almost 30,000 to me.

Anyway I invoiced for the work in January and I know for a fact that the state body have stumped up their end but 6 months later I'm still waiting for mine. They've been ignoring calls and emails and what little feedback I can get from them refers to an internal politics squabble at the company which maintains that the work should not have been subbed out to me in the first place.

Anyway I'm still almost 30,000 down and if I don't get it my company is probably down the tubes. Any ideas as to the best way of getting this?

I've exhausted all diplomatic means at this stage so any suggestions for an approriate next move. I certainly don't think it's a cash flow issue on their behlaf as they are a major multinational and probably the clear market leader in their field.
 
Did you receive a contract / purchase order for the work ?? This is important as these are classed as binding contracts.

Secondly, have you taken the mater to a solicitor. If you haven't I would suggest that tomorrow you go and visit with a view to issuing proceedings.
 

Thanks for your feedback, it's appreciated.

With regard to contracts or po I'm afraid there aren't any. We had ben working on an ongoing basis over the last few years with the minimum of red tape (one very vague signed agreement signed by both parties at the beginning). Stupid of me I know but I had a really good relationship with the company.

There would certainly be plenty of email traffic between myself, the company and the state body which would back up that the work was completed to satisfaction and I actually dealt directly with the state body so I'm sure they would be more than happy to back up any claims I made to the work.

Up until now I've been keeping things on a very polite footing as being a multinational and a bit of a monster it often took 2 - 3 months to get paid up anyway but this is clearly a different story.

I hadn't taken it to a solicitor yet, I was basically waiting to see what people would recommend here first. Before going down that route I would like to sent them one last offical form of commincation which gives them a final chance to pay up within a set timeframe.
 
Who ownes the copyright?
Who has the source code?
Does the multinational have any offices here?

Depending on your situation and before taking legal routes, we have or I know people who have:

Threatened to go in to offices to remove software. Licence agreement covers this option. Never had to actually do it yet. This works well with very large companies. In over 15 years only one legal department spotted the clause in licence before they bought software. In the end they still accepted it.

Sit in companies office / reception for a week and tell all visitors in a nice way why you are there. This is done to a very well known business man after he did not pay for new computers for months.

Finally the basic option.
Write to the head of the company informing them they are using pirated software/ owe you money etc. Currently doing this, after catching them red handed and now being ignored by lower management...
 
Call to the premises and sit in reception. Tell them your waiting for a cheque. Nice and polite - just sit there. Dont accept coffee. It makes you pee! and then they wont let you use the toilet.

Keep smiling. Take mobile calls, particularly when there are other visitors in reception. Cassualy mention while your on the phone that your in a clients permises waiting for payment of a substantial sum since christmas.

The only reason you have not got paid is because someone else was more of a nusience (have i spelt that right) than you are.

Ive sat on both sides of that fence! I know what works. REMEMBER BE POLITE>>>>>>
 
Note that once things 'go legal', you can expect communications from the state body to clamp down. You will no longer be dealing with your contacts with whom you have a great relationship. You will be dealing with the company secretary or legal dept, who will do no more than they are absolutely obliged to do, and will NOT want to take sides in a dispute.
 
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