Customer in foreign country unwilling (?) to pay
Thread poster: Julia Juchmes
Julia Juchmes
Julia Juchmes
Germany
Local time: 09:17
English to German
Nov 6, 2008

Hi together,

this is the first time I'm asking a question here, so sorry if anything is unclear.

I am a German native translator, living in Germany and have done a translation for a Chinese customer around the end of 2007/beginning of 2008. I sent an invoice and - in the mean time - lot's of reminder e-mails and three "official" reminders as we use them in Germany. All I got was a message that they will "pay soon". To this day, this has not happened.

What s
... See more
Hi together,

this is the first time I'm asking a question here, so sorry if anything is unclear.

I am a German native translator, living in Germany and have done a translation for a Chinese customer around the end of 2007/beginning of 2008. I sent an invoice and - in the mean time - lot's of reminder e-mails and three "official" reminders as we use them in Germany. All I got was a message that they will "pay soon". To this day, this has not happened.

What should I do now? The next step in Germany would be a court order, but does that also apply for a Chinese customer?

Please help...

Thanks in advance for any answers.
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Elías Sauza
Elías Sauza  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 02:17
Member (2002)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Use the Blue Board Nov 6, 2008

Use the BB to provide a rating for that agency. That will be a good start. I'm positively sure.

Good luck,

Elías


 
The Misha
The Misha
Local time: 04:17
Russian to English
+ ...
Move on Nov 6, 2008

... and next time don't take any jobs from places where you have absolutely no legal recourse.

 
Roy Chaudhuri
Roy Chaudhuri  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 13:47
Member (2006)
English to Bengali
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
My 2 cents Nov 7, 2008

I would normally check the blue board for entries before I take up any new client. Any established client, good or bad, is normally there. If a client is not there or has a bad rating, I do not take up the work.

It may not be a very aggressive strategy for scouting for work, but it works. I had only 1 customer default in last two years.

However on the other hand I may have lost out on somr business.


 
Maartje Giebels
Maartje Giebels  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:17
English to Dutch
+ ...
That doesn't always help Nov 7, 2008

I would normally check the blue board for entries before I take up any new client. Any established client, good or bad, is normally there. If a client is not there or has a bad rating, I do not take up the work.


That's what I usually do as well, but I did this recently and when i took the job the rating was over 4.5, but when I checked again because I
... See more
I would normally check the blue board for entries before I take up any new client. Any established client, good or bad, is normally there. If a client is not there or has a bad rating, I do not take up the work.


That's what I usually do as well, but I did this recently and when i took the job the rating was over 4.5, but when I checked again because I didn't receive my payment, the rating was down to below 3 and the outsourcer had been banned from ProZ. It seems they hadn't paid anybody from this big project that I also worked on. So checking the BB doesn't always help.

What should I do now? The next step in Germany would be a court order, but does that also apply for a Chinese customer?


Have you tried calling them? I know it might be expensive, by I have always found that if you call somebody they pay much faster. Also, although you may not be able to do anything through the legal system, you can always threaten them that you will be taking legal actions. For me that always seems to do the trick.

Good luck and I hope you'll get your money, one way or the other.
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Customer in foreign country unwilling (?) to pay







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