When a Good Client Goes Missing
Finding good clients is a goal of every freelance writer. These clients pay on time, are easy to get along with, and always have more work. But what happens when a good client goes missing? This is something that has happened to me in the past. While it was not a huge deal it still made me think about what was going on.
A good client can go missing just as easily as a bad one. In my situation, I had been working for the client for roughly one year providing blog posts. Every month, on time, they sent my money. To go along with this, we had a good working relationship and often times spoke about other topics as well. All in all, they seemed to be the perfect client even though the pay was not the highest.
But guess what? All of a sudden the client stopped answering my emails and phone calls. For many months I attempted to make contact with the people I knew within the company, but had no such luck. If they didn’t owe me money I probably would have walked away without much fuss. But with a few hundred dollars owed I felt that it was worth my time to try to collect.
Believe or not, I have yet to hear back from this client. It is amazing how somebody who was so easy to work with could disappear without paying what is owed.
Instead of letting this client sour my relationship with others I simply wrote them off as a “bad apple.†You never know when somebody is going to get what they want from you, and then decide that the relationship is over. I have no issue with a client telling me that things are not working out, paying what they owe, and parting ways. It is those that don’t communicate and don’t pay that can be frustrating to deal with.
This is not meant to scare you into thinking that all your good clients are going to take off on you. In fact, this has only happened to me a handful of times in all my years as a freelance writer. Nonetheless, you should always be careful about who you do business with.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I am currently in the same situation. Great client, easy to work with, always paid on time and had plenty of work. Then suddenly, radio silence and still owing me for my last project. Very frustrating.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I’ve had that happen a few times. The project is the client’s top priority for a while (or at least close to the top) and all of a sudden their interest in having it completed takes a rather dramatic nosedive. I’m working with a designer on a website project that has been going on for almost a year, in spite of the fact that they initially wanted the site up for September 1.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I just had a similar thing happen to me as well, only I haven’t been paid yet. I know now that I should have reconsidered without a written contract, but their name is all over the ‘net, so it’s not like they’re hiding out.
And, what is up with this ‘no communication’ thing? Do people think that just because they’re virtual means that they don’t have to talk, communicate and be accountable? Very frustrating.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Thanks for the comments. It seems that this is becoming more and more common. I guess since the primary mode of communication is email that some clients feel it is okay to hide. Hopefully everything works out in the end for all of us!
March 30th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Like others, I’ve had this happen too. With one client, I still haven’t made contact with them and at this point I probably won’t until they want to contact me. Although unpaid freelancers or contractors is nothing new in any form of business, I think that it may happen a bit more in the online world. When people don’t have three-dimensional “real world” relationships with who they work with, it is easier for them to cut off contact and simply walk away. This is similar to how some people just refuse to answer the phone when the caller ID shows that it is a bill collector. In the long run, the pluses to doing business online still outweigh the negatives. I wish I had the solution to this problem although there are still far more good apples than bad apples in my experience.