Catching Up
I've been one poor correspondent, as the song says. I'm usually more prolific than this. A lot has happened and I have not documented it as I should.
I bought a townhome. More precisely, I bought what is going to be a townhome. Right now it's a flattened lot covered with dirt. In 8 to 10 months a townhome should rise from atop it. It might not be a wise purchase since it's going to exhaust 75% of my life savings. But I'm tired of moving and I didn't want to pour more money into an apartment so here I am.
A company that I fear might go out of business owes me $2,475 for work I did for it. That's less than a comforting thought when you've just bought a home. But if the company doesn't fold, I'll collect eventually, if only because they get tired of me. I'll call, e-mail and send letters to them. If that fails, I'll start calling, e-mailing and sending letters to places like their state's attorney general, local media, the Better Business Bureau and even the FBI since they're headquartered in another state and ripping me off could constitute mail fraud among other things. I'll contact other organizations it deals with to let them know what kind of thieves with whom they're involved. I had to go through this process once before and the threatening letter to the company involved motivated it to pay me what it owed.
There is freedom in working as an independent contractor but the perils include people trying to avoid paying you for work you've done for them.
That leaves you feeling helpless at times. What if the company does go under? Mine might too, though I can recover from that amount -- this time. Lotta stress going on. It's no fun. From now on I insist that if I don't receive payment for services 30 days after I complete the job, there's a surcharge.
I bought a townhome. More precisely, I bought what is going to be a townhome. Right now it's a flattened lot covered with dirt. In 8 to 10 months a townhome should rise from atop it. It might not be a wise purchase since it's going to exhaust 75% of my life savings. But I'm tired of moving and I didn't want to pour more money into an apartment so here I am.
A company that I fear might go out of business owes me $2,475 for work I did for it. That's less than a comforting thought when you've just bought a home. But if the company doesn't fold, I'll collect eventually, if only because they get tired of me. I'll call, e-mail and send letters to them. If that fails, I'll start calling, e-mailing and sending letters to places like their state's attorney general, local media, the Better Business Bureau and even the FBI since they're headquartered in another state and ripping me off could constitute mail fraud among other things. I'll contact other organizations it deals with to let them know what kind of thieves with whom they're involved. I had to go through this process once before and the threatening letter to the company involved motivated it to pay me what it owed.
There is freedom in working as an independent contractor but the perils include people trying to avoid paying you for work you've done for them.
That leaves you feeling helpless at times. What if the company does go under? Mine might too, though I can recover from that amount -- this time. Lotta stress going on. It's no fun. From now on I insist that if I don't receive payment for services 30 days after I complete the job, there's a surcharge.
posted by jack at 8:29 PM
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