Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

news.ycombinator.com

11–20 of 40 posts

Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

#11
post #7

Tell the local autorities that they are using your copyright material without permission, therefore they're breaking copyright law. It's an offence in most countries and will involve confiscation of evidences (servers or computers). It's easier if the foreign country has an embassy in your country.

If it's China that advice is worthless.

Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

#14
What country are you in and what country are they in? If it's something like US -> UK you have legal recourse most likely. If it's something like US -> Somalia then you're out of luck, stop working and demand payment. Also take away their access to everything you have done.

Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

#15
post #8

This worked for me once a long time (10+ years) ago. Collect emails as evident and stop working. Send them a email and tell them I send all the emails correspondent to a collection agency. The last email got me the full $4k invoice paid in full in one week after weeks of delay. In the future, setup project in milestone phases, next phases won't start until payment received. AND written in the statement of Works/Contr…

I second this approach. Had a similar problem with a client in the UK two years ago. They dragged their feet for a few months, then gradually stopped answering emails and taking my phone calls altogether.

I wrote a very angry email saying I intended to sell the debt to a collection agency, to ensure they paid in full, even if I never saw any of the money myself. They replied on the very same day, we negotiated, and I recovered about half the money I was owed by the end of the week.

On the other hand, forget shaming them publicly - you open yourself up to accusations of libel - or empty threats of legal action - you simply don't have the resources. The same goes for sabotaging or erasing your code. But debt collection is a very real option.

Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

#16
First, stop all work, close repos, etc etc etc.

This doesn't help you now, but next time get a deposit of two-months estimated work up front. If they don't want to pay the deposit, don't work with them. Now, if you do two months of work and they happen to not pay you, you stop all work, take the deposit, and you lost nothing. If they want to start work again, charge another 2 month deposit up front and scold them for wasting your time.

Time to scold you (sorry)...why the hell did you do 9 months of work without getting paid? What are you thinking?! You have inadvertently taught this company to never pay you, ever. You are now (and most likely always will be) the guys they get free work from.

You might have to cut your losses and move on.

Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

#18
Slightly off topic, but I think such transactions should always be done via some kind of escrow service. If a buyer refuses to agree to escrow, don't take up the contract. Justice systems of all countries involve huge costs but in the end offer very little hope to the little guy.

Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client

#20
A long time ago I did some work for a startup in China (I'm in the US). They paid my first invoice, but stalled and promised and didn't pay the second. After 3 months of listening to their lines ("the check was mailed yesterday", "the check will go out today!", "the person who signs the checks was in an car accident") I saw in the news that they had gotten another round of funding, and who the backers were. So I sent an email to the CEO and said that I'd let their backers know that they weren't paying their bills if they didn't pay today. Guess what? They paid.

I guess you could call it a threat of 'focused shaming'.

The amount due was a relatively small amount. A collection agency might work better for larger amounts.

Post reply on HN