Clients that don't pay

Randy Thomas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 1

I am a union talent and I believe you must be paid within 30 days or penalties may be added to the invoice. My daughter does numerous jobs on voice123 and we have not experienced a problem with payment.

Heads up when you see any job posted from buyers that are not in the USA!! I would be VERY WARY of anyone from another country as their payment is generally 60 to 90 days (at best!) and that is unacceptable. There is a paypal option available and anyone who needs payment immediately should use paypal.

I would love to see a tiered level of performers. Voice123 must know who books the $50, $75 and $100 jobs. That pool of beginner talent should be kept on the sidelines until the higher paid talents that are working at their craft and cannot provide an immediate audition, can submit. This works for the premium talent as well as the buyers. If a potentially great buyer is deluged by newbies they may be soured on the quality of talents that are avaiable on this site.

The good folks at Voice123 must also see who is a professional talent and those folks should be guarranteed that their auditions go through first. Then when the deadline is close they can release the lower paid talents auditions to the buyers that are offering jobs that pay more than $300 (just as an example).

Sorry for the longwinded response. I would like to share with you that Peter Rofe and myself are excited about our new book VOICE FOR HIRE and we will give the Voice123 talent a chance to buy it first. Keep watching for an official announcement!

vocally yours,
Randy

Freddie Molina · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006, 15:01 (GMT) Post subject:

Hello again everyone,

I just wanted to try clearing Voice123´s involvement in the payments. As you all know Voice123 acts as a marketing tool providing exposure though the Internet for voice over talents, also the possibility of contacting clients and auditioning for posted jobs on the site are among the benefits of the service.

Unfortunately one of the aspects it’s forbidden, due to not being a representation agency, is for Voice123 to get involved in the negotiations or payments, this need to be done directly by the talent and the client.

If any non payment issue arises, Voice123 will gladly try contacting the client and help solving the issue.

Please remember, if you experience any non payment problem with a lead that came from Voice123, you should contact customer service and let them know of the situation, they will gladly give you a hand.

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

I appreciate Louis' confidence but I'm not a legal expert. I thought Janet's comments were really helpful. For my part, I haven't asked for deposits yet, but it doesn't mean I never will. On audiobooks and high budget jobs, I'd ask a percentage up front and/or partial payments on partial delivery. I did one high-volume job "pay-as-you-go," meaning I delivered 10 files for partial payment and then the next group of files. This made both sides comfortable.

One thing in particular: I never deliver any product without an invoice and all my invoices include language that says I own the copyright to the product I'm delivering (described in the invoice) until I receive payment in full. Receipt of payment in full (funds collected) constitutes the client's buyout. I add that to the body of the delivery email too.

I haven't had that reviewed by an attorney and I'm not saying it'll protect you against deadbeat clients, but the language at least gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and the illusion of control. I'm also not sure you all do complete buyouts, so obviously don't say that in your invoice if you don't mean it.

30 days really is a reasonable amount of time. I've been lucky though. I haven't had to wait very long for payments. I get a lot on delivery, but I have Paypal buttons on everything, even on my email signature now.

In fact, I just added a flash button to Saco-voice-over.Com. If any of you are trying to learn flash I highly recommend Justin Dike's flash tutorials at CartoonSmart.Com. He's adorable and talented and I don't get a percentage of anything. His tutorials are under $40, usually $10 if you sign up for his newsletter. I love his cartoon illustrations. Some of you may want to develop your own narrated flash products. This is a great way to do that.

Sorry I got off topic. Really, watermarking the final product never occurred to me. That's an interesting idea.

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

Randy, I couldn't agree with you less. This is a marketplace. Not an agency. I can see no reason why anyone who pays $200 to subscribe to this marketplace should be made to wait to audition. If you're busy and working and can't audition right away, super. Then, you've got a job. I also think that the process of auditioning offers an immeasurable benefit to beginners and no one should be prevented from the opportunity to learn.

What I would suggest is some sort of system to tag professional voices (non-union too), either through this peer forum or some other means. Then those voices can be categorized and posted on a featured voice talent list or something of that nature. Then, any clients who don't want to have a bidding game and are too overwhelmed to sift through the demos a talent takes the time to provide, can go to the featured artist page and search for that professional voice manually. But if clients don't pay, I say accommodate the talent that does -- and exclude no one.

Paxton Greene · **Voice Talent** Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 91

I too would have to disagree with Randy. Seperating people by their experience would not be very marketable for V123, and it's just not right to ask someone to pay $200 if they are a beginner. Equal shot for everybody is what I think.

Pax