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RE: The saga ended (or is it continuing? (was Re: A sticky contractor situation: no pay yet?)
Subject:RE: The saga ended (or is it continuing? (was Re: A sticky contractor situation: no pay yet?) From:"Robert Plamondon" <robert -at- plamondon -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 22 Jul 2003 06:06:45 -0700
The old rule of thumb is "Never attribute to malice that which can be
adequately explained by stupidity."
I'm visualizing how your case would sound in People's Court. The client cut
you not one but two checks, apparently without stopping payment on the first
one, so he took the risk of paying you double if you weren't acting in good
faith. The first check was misaddressed, so delivery delays, far from being
suspicious, are to be expected. Trying to infer bad faith from a postmark
seems tenuous, especially when you have two perfectly tangible checks in
your hands.
Ordinary, day-to-day business sloppiness can be hard on contractors. "Boys
throw stones at frogs in jest, but the frogs die in earnest." Clients let
invoices sit on their desks for long periods for no apparent reason. Any
tiny irregularity causes A/P to put the invoice aside for an indefinite
period, along with their other "Look into this" work. Sometimes they let
invoices age to, say, 55 days on purpose. The Post Office is erratic.
Sometimes people who don't have the authority to engage contractors will do
so anyway, leading to an internal scuffle when your invoice appears before a
startled A/P department. A million things can go wrong.
Sometimes, too, there's bad faith. You can tell bad faith by a total
absence of payment, an offer to pay you no more than a fraction of what
you're owed, or a rubber check. Double payment in full doesn't qualify.
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