Company owed money by another company
Discussion
Guys,
I work for a small IT company. We invoiced a client for a fairly large sum for some work we did for the customer. They have refused to pay, their reasons for which seem spurious - even ridiculous (in my view)
1. The work was done. There was an incident that involved a lot of recovery work on workstations and servers. With the exception of a couple of users who seemed to dislike storing stuff on servers they lost very little (if any) data.
2. The work was definitely outside any existing arrangement
3. The sum involved is 30-40K without adding any additional charges
4. The customer brought this on himself by refusing to listen to advice (which we can prove)
I am assuming that the next step is to take this to court. Get the court to agree that the debt is reasonable (hopefully - I guess its always a crapshoot) then we will be in a position to demand the money and if necessary get the Bailiffs involved (which would be incredibly embarrassing for the customer)
Have I got the basic concept correct?
Regards
Sean
I work for a small IT company. We invoiced a client for a fairly large sum for some work we did for the customer. They have refused to pay, their reasons for which seem spurious - even ridiculous (in my view)
1. The work was done. There was an incident that involved a lot of recovery work on workstations and servers. With the exception of a couple of users who seemed to dislike storing stuff on servers they lost very little (if any) data.
2. The work was definitely outside any existing arrangement
3. The sum involved is 30-40K without adding any additional charges
4. The customer brought this on himself by refusing to listen to advice (which we can prove)
I am assuming that the next step is to take this to court. Get the court to agree that the debt is reasonable (hopefully - I guess its always a crapshoot) then we will be in a position to demand the money and if necessary get the Bailiffs involved (which would be incredibly embarrassing for the customer)
Have I got the basic concept correct?
Regards
Sean
NugentS said:
3. The sum involved is 30-40K without adding any additional charges
Outside of small claim territory.NugentS said:
4. The customer brought this on himself by refusing to listen to advice (which we can prove)
Even though they "refused to listen to advice", you clearly agreed to work with their preference, else you wouldn't have carried on with the work. Did you take all reasonable precautions to protect their data, in line with that? Sounds like they may be heading down the line that the work - and data loss - were caused by your negligence in taking precautions.A lot of this is going to be down to what the papertrail shows. It's a large enough amount that they might be prepared to put time and money into fighting it. You need to get some pro legal advice.
I hope as mentioned above you quoted for the work or worked under a well written agreement that covers this situation, and that the work was authorised properly by a director of the client.
Was it a cryptolocker style infection by any chance? That is a massive bill - why so large, out of interest?
I would advise your client to check every insurance policy they have got. A long shot but there may be some business continuity or 'cyber' threat cover that they can call upon. It may be too late for that of course if they instructed you without consulting the insurance company first.
Was it a cryptolocker style infection by any chance? That is a massive bill - why so large, out of interest?
I would advise your client to check every insurance policy they have got. A long shot but there may be some business continuity or 'cyber' threat cover that they can call upon. It may be too late for that of course if they instructed you without consulting the insurance company first.
king hell.For something to affect multiple workstations and servers I guess it was a virus and security was lax on the network, but even so 30k to 40k is a hell of a lot of labour.
Possibly fire or flood damage which may be covered by some sort of insurance.
Maybe a software vendor had to rebuild some data or a specialist data recovery firm had to take the hard drives apart, which would have surely been quoted to the client beforehand..
Possibly fire or flood damage which may be covered by some sort of insurance.
Maybe a software vendor had to rebuild some data or a specialist data recovery firm had to take the hard drives apart, which would have surely been quoted to the client beforehand..
NugentS said:
1. The work was done....
2. The work was definitely outside any existing arrangement
3. The sum involved is 30-40K without adding any additional charges
Here's the key bit.2. The work was definitely outside any existing arrangement
3. The sum involved is 30-40K without adding any additional charges
Just to clarify, you did £30-£40k of work without having a written agreement what it was and what would be paid for it?
The crux of any claim you make will hinge on the evidence that the client agreed for work to proceed at price X and has not paid for it.
That really isn't a big sum for IT work, especially if a small team of people were involved.
IT Contractor rates go from anything as low as £200 a day up to £1000+. If you get consultants in from any large consulting outfit then their top tier of consultants/developers/engineers will be charged out at anything from £700 a day up to £2000+. Source: Have been principal consultant for a number of solution integrators and consultancies.
IT Contractor rates go from anything as low as £200 a day up to £1000+. If you get consultants in from any large consulting outfit then their top tier of consultants/developers/engineers will be charged out at anything from £700 a day up to £2000+. Source: Have been principal consultant for a number of solution integrators and consultancies.
Assuming its an invoice.
Get Thomas Higgins involved. For about less than a tenner they send legal 7 day claim letter.
The only kicker is if they don't pay you may have issue proceedings.
That will require legal fees and 4% of the claim to be paid upfront so resolving it outside of court is worth a try.
Get Thomas Higgins involved. For about less than a tenner they send legal 7 day claim letter.
The only kicker is if they don't pay you may have issue proceedings.
That will require legal fees and 4% of the claim to be paid upfront so resolving it outside of court is worth a try.
I have been reading the various answers here.
What I do not want to go into is what happened
All I was asking about was the process - I think I know - but am just checking if I am correct
Neither are my company - I just work for one of them and have no decision making power - I am just curious
Regards
Sean
What I do not want to go into is what happened
All I was asking about was the process - I think I know - but am just checking if I am correct
Neither are my company - I just work for one of them and have no decision making power - I am just curious
Regards
Sean
DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.
That's just a couple of guys for a month. A decent chunk of money but not the biggest project going. I'm a one man band and it would be the smallest project I'd ever taken on.I guess the next step would be to get advice from a lawyer that does this sort of thing for a living.
NugentS said:
I have been reading the various answers here.
What I do not want to go into is what happened
All I was asking about was the process - I think I know - but am just checking if I am correct
Neither are my company - I just work for one of them and have no decision making power - I am just curious
Regards
Sean
Company involved thinks you are taking the piss, you need to prove you're not....basically.What I do not want to go into is what happened
All I was asking about was the process - I think I know - but am just checking if I am correct
Neither are my company - I just work for one of them and have no decision making power - I am just curious
Regards
Sean
NugentS said:
What I do not want to go into is what happened
It's kinda relevant to informing answers.NugentS said:
All I was asking about was the process - I think I know - but am just checking if I am correct
Supplier takes customer to court. Not small claim due to size.Customer and supplier argue it in court. This bit costs both money.
One of them wins. The loser may have to pay the winner's costs.
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