Supplier dispute - Commision payments

[Casa1862]

Part of our business is reselling landline phone services, we get a commission and the procedure has always been, we ask for a commission statement, they'll send it listing how much we earned each month and we send them an invoice, they pay it. We normally let the commissions build up (18 months or so) as it provides a nice bonus, however last year I forgot to claim and apparently they changed their partner agreements and will only pay the last 24 months, we are owed 27 months. I appreciate I should have claimed earlier, but it is our money earned from our client, we hold money for our customers if for example they have overpaid us or not used a credit note, we hold it indefinitely for them.

We never signed the new agreement, they say that they sent an email advising that all previous agreements would be moved to the new ones and just made a reference to view the agreements on the dealer website, no specific reference was made to the major changes including this new 24 month limit. I've asked for a copy of the agreement we signed as it did not have this 24 months rule, however they have no record of us ever signing any agreement with them, could anyone help regarding the following:

Can they just send an email to supersede all other agreements, even though they ask you to sign the document and send it back?
the General Terms clause states,

“Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement, the Company may change the terms of this Agreement at any time by giving notice in writing to the Channel Partner. Any changes will take effect on the date set out in the notice.”

Is not signing any agreement in our favour or going to cause us a problem, they have been already paying commissions and it is part of their business model.

Does anyone know if the regulator could help, it’s a telecoms company but not sure if Offcom will cover this type of dispute. I’m asking for the figure and plan to just send them an invoice for the missing months and if they don’t pay, take it to the small claims court. Is there a limited time we have to claim?

[KevinCamaroSS]

Non-communication cannot be taken as acceptance. Ask them where the signed copy of your agreement to the changes is. I would take the view the previous contract is still in force.

[Casa1862]

Thanks for the quick response. I certainly never agreed to the new terms and thought I had signed a channel partner agreement back in 2010 which never mentioned a 24 month claim time limit, however It looks like no agreement was ever signed. They seem to suggest that the email they sent allows them to migrate me to the new agreement, but no initial agreement was signed to migrate from. Not sure if this will be in my favour or not, Sales did mention that as no agreement was signed are any commissions due to us, she seemed to back down once I questioned her and mentioned it was part of their business model and already being paying for several years.

[Dr Interceptor]

So you have no signed formal contract that covers the arrangement, now or initially?

Have they agreed to pay the 24 months, and if so, what is the monetary value of the 3 missing months?

Have to say, not bothering to claim them for 27 months doesn't look good on your part, like as a business you don't care about it, and suddenly need some cash so put a claim in.

I think I'd suck up the 3 months, claim 24, get an agreement in place and going forward file your claim quarterly.

[Thurbs]

Dr Interceptor said:

So you have no signed formal contract that covers the arrangement, now or initially?

Have they agreed to pay the 24 months, and if so, what is the monetary value of the 3 missing months?

Have to say, not bothering to claim them for 27 months doesn't look good on your part, like as a business you don't care about it, and suddenly need some cash so put a claim in.

I think I'd suck up the 3 months, claim 24, get an agreement in place and going forward file your claim quarterly.

Depending on the value, I would say this.

Are we talking £5k or £50k here? It would dictate how much effort I put in to this.

[Casa1862]

Dr Interceptor said:

So you have no signed formal contract that covers the arrangement, now or initially?

Have they agreed to pay the 24 months, and if so, what is the monetary value of the 3 missing months?

Have to say, not bothering to claim them for 27 months doesn't look good on your part, like as a business you don't care about it, and suddenly need some cash so put a claim in.

I think I'd suck up the 3 months, claim 24, get an agreement in place and going forward file your claim quarterly.

Yes, they've agreed to pay the 24 months, the monetary value for the 3 months is about £400.00, however these three months were that most commission generating months as after this our main customer moved, still have other small customers with them. They moved because the service was rubbish. It's not a massive amount but really not liking the attitude of the CS department.

We don't have a signed partner agreement, but our customers do sign direct with them as the company bills them direct.

They did used to send annual statements as a reminder, now you have to ask for a statement. I do agree that I should have claimed earlier, but this is not new money that comes off their bottom line, it's money they should have allocated to us and have earned from our customer. We've had customers overpay us and not responded to requests of what to do with the money, we just hang onto it just in case it will be asked for, I've no idea what is considered a reasonable amount of time to claim it back.

Edited by Casa1862 on Friday 2nd December 13:09

[Dr Interceptor]

Sorry OP, but for £400 I'd not waste a minute more on it.

Get an agreement in place, and allocate the job of requesting a quarterly statement to a member of your team so it's always up to date going forward.

[Piersman2]

Casa1862 said:

Yes, they've agreed to pay the 24 months, the monetary value for the 3 months is about £400.00, however these three months were that most commission generating months as after this our main customer moved, still have other small customers with them. They moved because the service was rubbish. It's not a massive amount but really not liking the attitude of the CS department.

We don't have a signed partner agreement, but our customers do sign direct with them as the company bills them direct.

They did used to send annual statements as a reminder, now you have to ask for a statement. I do agree that I should have claimed earlier, but this is not new money that comes off their bottom line, it's money they should have allocated to us and have earned from our customer. We've had customers overpay us and not responded to requests of what to do with the money, we just hang onto it just in case it will be asked for, I've no idea what is considered a reasonable amount of time to claim it back.

Edited by Casa1862 on Friday 2nd December 13:09

Seems to me:
1. You're obviously not desperate for the payments or you'd be billing them more regularly.
2. They are honouring the 24 months, leaving 3months/£400 in dispute.
3. Based on 1., £400 can't be a great issue to your company surviving.
4. Just how long do YOU think you'd like your records to have to keep track of unclaimed invoices and you still be liable to pay them? 2 years seems a sensible length of time to me.
5. There may not be a signed agreement for what you think are the existing terms, and what they think are the 'new' existing terms either.

Based on this, and the amount being what seems relatively small, I'd be using this as a lesson to remember and get your invoices in in a timely fashion in future.

[Casa1862]

Thanks for the advice, I know it's costing more in time than it will be worth, certainly not a going to make a massive difference to us. The actual service they provide has been very poor which created lots of (unpaid) work for us, I'm loathed to let them off a penny.

I'm sure they must have lots of customers who don't claim, it's a bit like these insurance companies who say they will refund your entire premium after 5 years if you contact them, I assume most don't.

[Thurbs]

Christ, 400 quid? Move along... nothing to see here.