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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Getting absolute confirmation of a booking | |
In 25+ years of trading I've never met with this issue before, but in the last 3 months I've had it happen twice.
The latest time was with a multi-billion ££ ship building company, where I was called by the assistant of the Vice President to take some headshots of him.
Their UK office is quite close to my studio, so he popped around for a short session and we talked about his company picking up the tab for retouching as well.
But after 2 months of being overdue (so + 1 month of credit I allow), I then find the oil company are disputing they are responsible for the (small) payment.
It seems an email request and confirmation from his assistant on his behalf, made from his office on the company email account and him being the Vice President also confirming payment from the company, and various senior members of the team apologising for late payment is not enough.
Now yes there are some that say I should have monies up front - but there enough of us who work in commercial sectors to know this is rarely possible. With corporate jobs I always need to invoice after the job is done.
But the issue here is that a company who seemingly booked me, (because it always comes down to a person making the booking), says they didn't and their staff member was acting without authority, (even though he's a Vice President - daft I know).
So the question goes to how to ensure a booking is really a booking on behalf of the company.
Getting an email or letter doesn't seem to make a difference, even getting a signature might be construed as an individual acting without authority.
How do others ensure that a booking is indeed "authorised" without making an undue fuss or sounding like you don't trust them?
I'm guessing that had this gone to court, it would have gone my way, (and in the UK, court for this would be an easy action). But it does make a person think again about trusting a booking when it is made.
(I got paid in the end - I forced their hand and got the Vice President to pay personally. They can fight it out amongst themselves... ha).
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