sentrodil (X)
Türkiye
Local time: 09:32
Hi friends,
One of my customers (a translation agency in Greece) has stopped payments (I have all the mails, POs, invoices with term of "payment to be done in so and so many days after invoice date" proving my claims, of course). We have been working for many years now, and payment would come somewhat accumulated after 1-2 or even 3-4 months. I didn't make this a problem, as my customer always paid, and was honest to explain, or even make earlier payments when I was tight financiall... See more Hi friends,
One of my customers (a translation agency in Greece) has stopped payments (I have all the mails, POs, invoices with term of "payment to be done in so and so many days after invoice date" proving my claims, of course). We have been working for many years now, and payment would come somewhat accumulated after 1-2 or even 3-4 months. I didn't make this a problem, as my customer always paid, and was honest to explain, or even make earlier payments when I was tight financially.
However, since the end of 2010, the balance increased, and he paid less and less of the balance over longer and loner time, and now both jobs coming to me through him (from a larger US agency) and the payments have stopped altogether. I have found out that the US agency has started using a different provider so my customer doesn't receive those jobs anymore himself.
And about the payments, he says that he'll pay as soon as he can, that he is tight financially himself, that Greece goes through a crisis etc etc.
Because of our good cooperation through the years, I have continued to trust him, but in the past 3-4 months with no change at all, I'm prepared now that it "ends dirty", meaning using court or debt collection.
I have contacted a collection agency in Greece, but what they did offer was just something like a go-between, with a "fee" of 20% of the whole sum, when it is paid, and the payment maybe taking months, if at all.
Now I wonder, if you could recommend me good/better debt collection agencies.
Should I prefer debt collection agencies in Greece, because my customer is registered there? Or would any be ok? I'm living in Turkey, which is not part of the EU, so the "EU country-non-EU country" issue has also to be considered - does this change anything (what?) in the procedure I should follow?
Is the "fee" of 20% normal? What experience do you have in this regard? What are the standard/normal rates/percentages giving the best results?
After talking with the debt collection agency in Greece I got the impression that working through a debt collection agency wouldn't change much - waiting for the customer to pay would give more or less the same results, as long as the customer is going to pay some time in the future.
Is this normal? How long does it normally take to get paid when you work through a debt collection agency??
What are my options (and costs, procedures, steps) to do this through court (or any other means.. I'm not sure - is there something like arbitrary courts for this??)??
Working through a debt collection agency I mentioned means, they get some of the total sum. Could an option related with court give results where the debtor pays all the costs, and maybe some interest as well??
Many thanks in advance for all your help. ▲ Collapse
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