Relax - The Cheque is in the Post

Two months ago I emailed a client (a music management company) with my invoice for a photograph of one of their artists performing live on stage. The shot was to be used in Newspapers and magazines in the USA, where the artist was performing a few days after the photograph was ordered.

I immediately got a warm and friendly response from the director of the company: "thanks for the shot, I will organize to get payment out to you today." That was on the 14th August. Time passed. No payment arrived. I waited a full month, and sent another invoice, this time by post. No payment arrived.

On 29th September, I emailed another invoice and got the reply: "Apologies for the delay, we have been away a lot in the last month. I will make sure a cheque goes out to you by the end of this week" (which would have been 3rd October at the latest). No cheque arrived.

On 7th October I emailed again, sending an "overdue" invoice and the following email message:

"My invoice for a photograph of **** ******* is, once again, attached. The payment of this invoice is now almost two months overdue, despite several assurances from you that payment was imminent (of which I have kept copies).Should the payment remain due for a further 7 days, I will have no option other than to, reluctantly, pursue a more formal course of action in order to secure payment."

I got this reply:

Relax. I’ll actually post it myself in the morning once back in office. Sorry it hasn’t gone out. Just manic here a lot of the time.You’ll have it on Thursday. Cheers. ******

Personally, I think it's a bit much being told to "relax" when a payment is not only 2 months late, but I have also been given the "cheque is in the post" routine 3 times! If it's OK with you, Mr Director, I'll relax when the cheque is in my bank.

Well, it's Thursday....and I'm waiting for the postman....