Poll: Have you had to fire any clients this year? 论题张贴者: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you had to fire any clients this year?".
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The last and only time I fired a client was about 15 years ago. If things aren't working, we usually just drift apart.
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I had already weeded out most PITA clients in an earlier stage, but one client insisted on payment 60 days end of month (which is not even legal in the EU), so I got rid of them. I am not a bank issuing free loans.
[Edited at 2019-06-07 08:55 GMT]
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Over the years I stopped working with some clients (late payers), but not this year so far. Last year I had a few problems with a British agency (conflicting emails, late POs, etc.) but when I was about to “fire” them suddenly the account moved to another agency (same owner) and fortunately things changed for the better and are fine now…
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Samuel Murray 
荷兰
Local time: 12:36
正式会员 (自2006)
English英语译成Afrikaans南非语
+ ...
Have you had to fire any clients this year?
Yes, a very polite client of mine turned out to be a non-payer. Usually, when I get a "very good" feeling about a client, all is well, but in this case the client was a non-payer. Their BlueBoard record has very few entries (and only half of the entries mention non-payment).
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I no longer have that much leeway to fire below-optimal agency clients, but a recently acquired sporadic contender pays on the 20th of the following month after the month of invoicing (or 50-80 days from delivery) and I'm not happy. On the other hand, I like the field, no funny discounts, EUR0.11/word and serious PMs. One has to be understanding.
Rather, I expect them to fire me first, as I often complain about the situation. To start with, I had first understood they'd pay the regu... See more I no longer have that much leeway to fire below-optimal agency clients, but a recently acquired sporadic contender pays on the 20th of the following month after the month of invoicing (or 50-80 days from delivery) and I'm not happy. On the other hand, I like the field, no funny discounts, EUR0.11/word and serious PMs. One has to be understanding.
Rather, I expect them to fire me first, as I often complain about the situation. To start with, I had first understood they'd pay the regular 30day end of month (acc. to an outdated mother company written policy), and it's only after letting them know their first payment was late that I found out their payment terms.
With interest rates available at banks, it's likely cheap to be overdrawn when the cashflow is low, so I just wonder why money-lenders should be their suppliers. But I hear that paying suppliers late is good accounting practice, just like making as little net profit as poss.
It's not an actual financial issue until it is: a 60d-EOM policy leads to higher credit build-up, and when such a client goes bust, you lose twice as much in unpaid invoices. It happened to me beg. 2002 without the slightest warning sign (or I didn't know where to look back then), and 3700 euros had accumulated during those 60 days instead of 30. I also learn the hard way.
ALL other agencies I work with pay at 30 days end of month, including among the Global-100.
If they can, others can as well.
Philippe
[Edited at 2019-06-07 15:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Samuel Murray wrote:
Their BlueBoard record has very few entries (and only half of the entries mention non-payment).
Even one Blue Board entry about non-payment is a red flag to me.
| | | | | Yes / Mountains of Paperwork | Jun 7, 2019 |
The paperwork involved in collecting was so onerous, and annoying ... I told them it wasn't viable.
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From 2016 to 2018, a Canadian agency was my biggest client, but they always paid a little late, not enough to give a fuss. Then cheques started taking longer to arrive. so I offered to pick my cheques at their office, which wasn't too far away from my home. This became a recurring occurrence. I had started living off my credit card, repaying myself when they paid me, putting virtually no money aside to pay my taxes. They still sent me a ton of work. At some point, they owed me 5k$ and had all ki... See more From 2016 to 2018, a Canadian agency was my biggest client, but they always paid a little late, not enough to give a fuss. Then cheques started taking longer to arrive. so I offered to pick my cheques at their office, which wasn't too far away from my home. This became a recurring occurrence. I had started living off my credit card, repaying myself when they paid me, putting virtually no money aside to pay my taxes. They still sent me a ton of work. At some point, they owed me 5k$ and had all kinds of excuses to postpone the payment which was grossly overdue. I sent them a "mise en demeure" stating that they had to pay me, otherwise, I would sue them. Suddenly, the boss calls me in person: he was sick, he lost money to another client, he had to put some of his own money into the agency, yadiyadiyada.... I got paid in the end, but vowed never to work for agencies ever again, especially not that one. In July last year, I was recruited out of nowhere for a 12 month contract (35h/week paid hourly and I work from home all the time, and a laptop is provided; it was providential!). I stopped all contacts with the agency. A few weeks ago, the boss calls me. I let my voicemail deal with him. He was desperate to find a translator for a big project for the weekend. HA! Served him right to treat me like a rug. He was stuck with no one to help him. Karma! ▲ Collapse
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No. I have never fired a client.
| | | | Paulinho Fonseca
巴西
Local time: 07:36
正式会员 (自2011)
English英语译成Portuguese葡萄牙语
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I had one client that began delaying payments and, at first, I requested a meeting and asked if I help them by changing payment dates or if they would have a suggestion to solve the issue. I ended up changing form a 45 to a 60-day payment status. Delays continued, so then, I fired them.
| | | | Thayenga
德国
Local time: 12:36
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成German德语
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Due to a "spontaneous", of course unilateral, rate cut of about two thirds.
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Nadja Balogh
德国
Local time: 12:36
正式会员 (自2007)
Japanese日语译成German德语
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A client with offices in various locations both in the US and Europe who always sent lots of rather low-volume jobs and had a totally chaotic payment system in place which made it nearly impossible to keep track of when what type of job was paid and in what currency. I was patient for a few years, but things kept getting only worse, so this year I decided I had enough and told them I wouldn't be working for them any longer.
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