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How much bad debt do you have?
Thread poster: Lincoln Hui
Wolfgang Schoene
Wolfgang Schoene  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 03:32
Member
English to German
+ ...
How much bad debt do you have? Aug 4, 2020

Lincoln Hui wrote:

I recently cleaned up my invoices folder, and being a lazy ne'er-do-well, this was the first time that I put the invoices that I'm not likely to ever collect into a new folder so that they won't get in the way of my monthly bookkeeping.
...

How much bad debt have you accumulated over the years?


When I left the country where I lived for 43 years and worked for about 30 years, my bad debt amounted to the equivalent of about 30,000 € of unpaid jobs over the years.
Never happened in the country where I have been living now for 17 years.

[Edited at 2020-08-04 10:06 GMT]


 
writeaway
writeaway  Identity Verified
French to English
+ ...
€1600 Aug 4, 2020

in 2008. Belgian agency, long-time client. If you would like know who he is, just ask.

 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:32
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
€812.50 in 23 years Aug 4, 2020

I've been freelancing for 23 years, in various roles -- as an EFL trainer, job coach, editor, and proofreader as well as translator.

I was acting as a sub-contractor in France to lead a workshop for the French Job Centre. All went well for a few years, then their contractor went bankrupt and took my €400 fee for one workshop with them. Then their replacement did exactly the same thing just a few months later, after the boss had literally run off with all the funds! I registered m
... See more
I've been freelancing for 23 years, in various roles -- as an EFL trainer, job coach, editor, and proofreader as well as translator.

I was acting as a sub-contractor in France to lead a workshop for the French Job Centre. All went well for a few years, then their contractor went bankrupt and took my €400 fee for one workshop with them. Then their replacement did exactly the same thing just a few months later, after the boss had literally run off with all the funds! I registered my claims but didn't see a cent, although things did thankfully get back on track with the job. Then, a few years back I did some on-and-off editing jobs for someone who was increasingly having mental health issues. In the end, I just wanted to be shot of that client so I wrote off the last €12.50 voluntarily.

I've had my share of the "don't want to pay" clients, including one very recently, but I've always managed to drag my money out of them. I sued one, very successfully; I contacted one end client, which was an awful experience hopefully never to be repeated; and twice I've prepared a European Payment Order and sent it to the client as a PDF prior to submitting it to the court -- with a prompt result each time.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:32
Member (2008)
Italian to English
How much bad debt do you have? Aug 4, 2020

Q: How much bad debt do you have?
A: None.

Over the years a few people have tried not to pay me but when I apply my credit recovery procedure, they have always paid in the end. Nevertheless it's always a slightly unpleasant thing to have to do: to get paid, sometime you have to get heavy with people and I don't like doing it.

[Edited at 2020-08-04 12:49 GMT]


 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 04:32
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Its only time spent Aug 4, 2020

If I work and don't get paid I only loose if I have turned down another job. So I don't think there is any really debt. Last time a British agency did not pay because I was not able to use there invoicing system. They still offer me jobs but I send the mail to the junk folder. 19 years ago a German well known crook did not pay me 1000 Euro, she was one of my first clients. That hurt because I had little work then. A few years ago one agency declined to pay because I had not followed their glossa... See more
If I work and don't get paid I only loose if I have turned down another job. So I don't think there is any really debt. Last time a British agency did not pay because I was not able to use there invoicing system. They still offer me jobs but I send the mail to the junk folder. 19 years ago a German well known crook did not pay me 1000 Euro, she was one of my first clients. That hurt because I had little work then. A few years ago one agency declined to pay because I had not followed their glossar. My mistake. At the moment all my invoices are paid, even the one I sent last week.Collapse


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:32
Member (2008)
Italian to English
? Aug 4, 2020

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

If I work and don't get paid I only loose .....


Why would you (be) loose? Do you mean free of work?


 
Christel Zipfel
Christel Zipfel  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:32
Member (2004)
Italian to German
+ ...
Small amounts Aug 4, 2020

(approximately 100-200 Euro). The first one many many years ago (don't remember the circumstances), and the second one was and is still owed by a fellow translator that I "knew" through ProZ and that soon afterwards disappeared from ProZ. It is not to be believed, is it? This was the second job I got from him, the first one had already been paid late, but with many kind explanations and excuses from his side... In such a case (freelance translator, not an agency), I am always inclined to be indu... See more
(approximately 100-200 Euro). The first one many many years ago (don't remember the circumstances), and the second one was and is still owed by a fellow translator that I "knew" through ProZ and that soon afterwards disappeared from ProZ. It is not to be believed, is it? This was the second job I got from him, the first one had already been paid late, but with many kind explanations and excuses from his side... In such a case (freelance translator, not an agency), I am always inclined to be indulgent, although I strictly pay on time whenever I am in the same situation (which happens very occasionally).

Apart from these two cases, I have always been paid, mostly absolutely on time or even long ahead and without any reminder. Once an agency told me, after I sent my first reminder, that their customer still did not pay, which is the most stupid excuse in my opinion. My mail must have brought them to the conclusion that this trick wouldn't work with me, and indeed they paid immediately.
I don't wait too long with my reminder, normally two or three days after the invoice was due.
I must say however that I make sure that possibly the potential customer is recommended by someone I know and/or I check carefully the Blueboard (if they are rated there), "reading between the lines" which is very important in my opinion. So I have not only been lucky but also did my due diligence! Sometimes I read that Prozians are hesitant to work for customers without any BB record. But how many customers in the world never have heard of Proz? There is no reason to consider someone unreliable for the only fact that they are not listed in the BB! I happened to work for direct customers (and some agencies) without any record in the BB and never had the slightest problem. On the contrary, those were the ones that paid almost immediately! From unknown direct customers however I require a partial advance payment and instalment payments in case of big volumes.

[Bearbeitet am 2020-08-04 19:33 GMT]
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:32
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Lay off, for heaven's sake, Tom Aug 4, 2020

Tom in London wrote:

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

If I work and don't get paid I only loose .....


Why would you (be) loose? Do you mean free of work?

Heinrich doesn't even show English as a target language and he certainly doesn't claim to be a native speaker. So that comment is just plain mean, IMHO.


Philippe Etienne
expressisverbis
Michele Fauble
Josephine Cassar
Kevin Fulton
Jan Truper
Sarah Lewis-Morgan
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
And... Aug 4, 2020

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

If I work and don't get paid I only loose .....


Why would you (be) loose? Do you mean free of work?

Heinrich doesn't even show English as a target language and he certainly doesn't claim to be a native speaker. So that comment is just plain mean, IMHO.


... while you’re at it, for once why don’t you actually share your miraculous guaranteed debt recovery technique with the massive?

On topic: Have I been canny or just lucky? £35 in 27 years. Dwarfed by overpayments during the same period👌

Off topic again: Loose/lose is a frequent error among native English speakers anyway. Almost as common as it’s/its. Don’t worry about it. Tomme, how’s your Finnish grammar coming along?


expressisverbis
Jenny Duthie
 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 20:32
Dutch to English
+ ...
Strange way of looking at it Aug 4, 2020

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

If I work and don't get paid I only loose if I have turned down another job. So I don't think there is any really debt. Last time a British agency did not pay because I was not able to use there invoicing system. They still offer me jobs but I send the mail to the junk folder. 19 years ago a German well known crook did not pay me 1000 Euro, she was one of my first clients. That hurt because I had little work then. A few years ago one agency declined to pay because I had not followed their glossary. My mistake. At the moment all my invoices are paid, even the one I sent last week.


Maybe it makes you feel better to look at it this way but I don't agree. You worked for X days without getting paid, so you end up with less money than you would have had if you had been paid, plus you lost X days of your time, which you could have spent on something more useful.


Sheila Wilson
expressisverbis
Kevin Fulton
Oriana W.
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:32
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Actually Aug 5, 2020

Chris S wrote:

Don’t worry about it


Unless you're translating into English.

What the hell: "unless your translating into English". Why should I care if that's correct or not?



[Edited at 2020-08-05 08:29 GMT]


 
Merab Dekano
Merab Dekano  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
None Aug 5, 2020

None, and that in more than 10 years of freelancing.

Some payments were delayed. Most of them due to some “administrative” errors on the part of the LSP, but when reminded, all was settled.

I know my comment may sound a bit harsh here, but even though my target language is Spanish (for Spain), I hardly collaborate with Spanish LSPs.


 
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