Non-payment of invoice and no reason given.

Edward Potter wrote:

You need to act immediately. Some possible things you can do are:
- Visit them, if you are local to them.

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

I would contact an Irish debt collection agency now, simultaneously informing the client that this will be done and that they will be taken to court if the debt is not settled in full within eight days.

You could also add a low score to www.paymentpractices.net to warn your colleagues.

I would also check in the Irish company register if the company actually exists.

Edward Potter wrote:



I started out thinking that you need to give them more time. Now alarm bells are going off.

The main thing is that they have a bad Blue Board rating and are banned from Proz. Another worrying thing is that they are up to 9k euros in debt to you.

You need to act immediately. Some possible things you can do are:
- Call them on the phone. Keep trying.
- Visit them, if you are local to them.
- Find a local debt collector.
- Give them a "1" on the Blue Board.
- Consider hiring a lawyer.

Good luck!

Thomas T. Frost wrote:



A tad awkward since the agency is (or claims to be) in Ireland and the translator in the US.

Mind you, the Irish company, if any actually exists, could simply be a shell company without any significant assets, with all work/scamming being carried out in Farawayistan, in which case it could be extremely difficult or impossible to enforce any debt payment.

Also try to get them added to http://www.translator-scammers.com/translator-scammers-directory.htm if they aren't already, as many colleagues use it for reference.

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

There is something else you can do, which has occasionally been discussed in the forums. Since the translations haven't been paid, you still own the copyright to the translations (unless a signed agreement specifically gives the agency or end client the copyright before they have paid you).

Hence, you can legitimately put the end clients on notice that they cannot use these translations because they are unpaid.

There can be certain arguments against doing this, but your relationship with this client already looks pretty ruined, and they are not being honest, so I wouldn't hesitate to fire the whole arsenal.

Just be sure you are not violating any signed agreement that could result in penalties if you do this.

CillianH wrote:

Interesting. I do not have "proprietary interest" in the Confidential Information supplied to me by the Agency, per the Confidentiality Agreement I signed. So I am not sure that I am able to claim copyright ownership of the translations (as the translations are derived from Confidential Information, i.e documents for translation). I am no legal expert so I could be way off on this.

Thomas T. Frost wrote:



The agreement presumes they pay for it, but they have already breached the agreement themselves by not paying.

It has been debated before:

https://www.proz.com/forum/business_issues/279535-does_non_payment_void_nda.html
https://www.proz.com/forum/business_issues/330181-does_the_translator_own_the_copyright.html

Sheila Wilson once wrote: 'I did once contact an end client to alert them to my impending copyright abuse action against them. I did get paid by my own client the very next day, so it had the desired effect.'

Given how your client is behaving, I wouldn't hesitate if I were in your place. Agencies like that take advantage of translators who hesitate instead of act. Being nice to them has shown not to work, so you need to take your gloves off.

William Bowley wrote:

Your relationship with this agency isn't clear in the OP. Have a) they been paying your past invoices appropriately (in full, on time), or b) is this your first ever work for them with no previous payment?

Even assuming a), completing 9,000 Euros of work without any payment along the way is questionable at best. If b), then why are you still working with them?

As others mention, many companies have Irish "offices" but are not remotely "Irish". Stop working with them until they pay you for your work. That's not burning any bridges; it's acting in best practice.

Michael Newton wrote:

"Given their size, don't burn your bridges". Since when has "size" ever been an indicator of a reliable agency? There are a number of "banned" agencies on the Blue Board which are humongous.