Invoice left unpaid from foreign branch of good national customer: what to do?
Update on this:
Quote from Bel on October 24, 2022, 1:47 amOne month has passed and no further sign of this person.
I think I was wrong here, and just came to be manipulated by a highly skilled manipulator, who probably now switched onto another younger lawyer who could be "not paid" just like I could be "not paid" when he switched onto me from my former law firm in the first place.
I thus think Lucio and John's suggestion was right, and my "intuition" was wrong here.
Chalking it up to learning and a bad decision on my side.
So I'm even more convinced I'll now always push for payment after doing work.
Or at the very least, in "in-doubt situations", leaving the invoice as it is, so that my "credit" is kept always on.
This very client, totally unexpectedly, sent me a bottle of sparkling wine for Christmas.
I am really puzzled by his behavior.
At the same time I feel the uncertainty in me has nonetheless reduced.
Kind of "doesn't matter what he's doing, I have learned now to keep my bar steady should we interact again".
Quote from Bel on January 3, 2023, 1:28 pmAt the same time I feel the uncertainty in me has nonetheless reduced.
Kind of "doesn't matter what he's doing, I have learned now to keep my bar steady should we interact again".
Nice, I liked that one a lot.
I think it shows that you're starting to become more and more mentally independent/empowered.
The game player can play his game, but he's not gonna command much real estate in your mind.
And it's not even a struggle in the sense of "no, I'm not gonna let you", but more like a natural, effortless consequence of your new way of being.
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Hi Guys,
wanted to update this thread as to the original first post here about the invoice left unpaid and the non-responsive manager.
I now see another crucial mistake I made with this manager, that contributed much to the relationship being terminated.
It was something I did not even write about in this thread, that totally escaped my consciousness:
In the course of me doing the work, the manager sent me an email where she asked if I was sure of something I had told her.
I replied by writing a detailed email where I "assembled" lots of information and documents that "proved" I was sure. And, I invoiced the time I employed in writing this email.
I don't even know why I did this at the time. I think it was a combination of:
- me not being "sure of my legal judgment", as if the client wouldn't believe my evaluation but instead I had to "prove it"; and
- me thinking the "big company" had no problem in paying for one hour of work on answering something like that.
I now realize it was a big, big mistake: the manager probably got a feeling I was trying to "exploit his honest quick question to gain money".
Instead, I should have basically said something like "Yes X, I confirm what I told you, the legal situation has not changed unfortunately". I could have then maybe added that I was available to study it more and provide proof if he wanted.
I want to share how I got this insight: I recently received a similar email from another client, and I thought: "Of course I cannot make him pay for this". Then I immediately remembered of this thread. Incredible.
The discussion here was invaluable: even though I was not even aware of my "mistake" at the time and so could not get feedback on it on this thread, I still got to see it later by learning more power dynamics and reflecting again on it. And I also learned lots of other invaluable things in the process.