My own Madoff moment.

I have funny story to tell, it somewhat reminded me of the whole Bernie Madoff thing in a way. Bernie Madoff for those of you who have been in a cave is the financier who bilked people out of millions. He’s really just the latest in a long line of swindlers this nation produces, people who manage to get amazingly rich, display this veneer of respectability while at the same time being one small step removed from the guy who holds someone up in an alleyway with a gun, crooks to put it simply. Well-dressed crooks but crooks nonetheless who operate behind the facade of being respectable businessmen.

There are a lot of guys out there like that, guys who run businesses who seem very successful because they operate in margin, taking money in and not paying it out. Using it for all kinds of luxuries they shower upon themselves but simply not paying their bills.

I’ve been lucky for the most part, I GET PAID. One way or the other, I’m sure to get paid. Without going into detail, it’s something I take very, very seriously and when dealing with people who don’t pay their bills, I find since they operate in a world where rules don’t apply to them, well... rules shouldn’t apply to me when it comes to exacting the monies due me out of these people or at the very least the equivalent in trouble.

I’ve had a few clients through the years who have given me problems but I can count on the fingers of one hand the ones I didn’t get my due out of and it was only because of my own reasons that was the case.

This is one such instance...

I had a person who I had worked with for awhile and through our association at work we became friends. Even after neither of us were at the company we worked for we still managed to get together socially and stay in contact.

Over the years there were several times when I was approached by this person to lend my assistance to them in the form of working up a design or a page layout for some kind of project they were launching. Always with the promise of either more work in the offing or some kind of payback down the road. I didn’t mind helping the guy out as long as he showed his appreciation somehow.

Thing was, I kept getting approached but nothing ever materialized. What seemed to be happening was that whenever this ‘friend’ needed help of my specific expertise I would be the first person to get the call but there never seemed to be any kind of paying work and even further it was apparent no acknowledgment even in the form of the occasional lunch or something occurred.

Well, after a couple of times of doing the favor it just became clear it was a one way kind of thing and as much as I don’t mind charity, this was not a person deserving of such consideration.

So, there came a day when I was approached yet again to ‘help out’ on another project. After some discussion, I made it very clear to the party involved my work on the project would be billed at my normal rate and at the end of whatever work was performed they should well and full expect to be invoiced for it.

Now, I’ve heard this phrase before... see if you are familiar with it, it runs along the lines of something like this: ‘If you ever want to get rid of a friend (friend emphasized because of the sarcastic inference), lend them money.’

Likewise, if you want to rid yourself of someone who continues to try and take advantage of you, give them a bill. I did the work and billed the guy and what happened? Exactly what I expected... phwesh! GONE!

So, years pass.

A few months ago, out of the blue, who should get in touch with me again? Yep, you’ve got it, the very same friend. Of course, we caught up with one and other about our respective lives (bearing in mind, we had been friends and enjoyed the other’s company socially, the guy is very much a mensch). Round about the tail end of the conversation, my friend mentions in passing he’s launching a new magazine geared specifically for the Manhattan market and maybe I’d like to do some ‘work’ for him in the form of mocking up some cover designs.

You’ve got to love some people’s temerity.

I mention I’m really kind of busy and I put it as delicately as I can in saying I’ve never been paid for any kind of work I’ve done for him in the past. I simply can’t afford to devote my time to non-paying work at the moment. He assures me payment won’t be a problem, as he put it, “I always pay my bills!”

Well, in vernacular I am familiar with, ‘Momma didn’t raise no stupid children.’

I beg off and shortly afterward he starts sending me emails with comps of the cover asking me for my opinion on them. I give him my input and when the second batch arrives, I make it quite clear I’m not going to art direct the project without billing him and that pretty much ends me getting the comps (thankfully).

We shot a few more emails back and forth and in one of them I raise the specter of this project that I never did get paid for and he sends me back an email assuring me he paid all his bills on the specific project and if I find an invoice to send it along and he’ll ‘give it to the girl’ to check out.

Bad move.

I keep all my bills, I mean I have records on invoicing going way back so in relatively short order I’m able to find the bill and I send it along with a note.

Later that day I got the angry phone call, What was this about!? The bill was from fourteen years ago!! Blah, blah, blah, blah. I listened calmly but I was about to go off somewhere and couldn’t have an extended conversation so I had a very response, “You didn’t pay the bill, do you think I’m lying?”

Nevermind, I didn’t charge interest for the fourteen f*@#&ng years the guy didn’t pay me, I didn’t know there was a statute of limitations on these things. Again, I just calmly said the above and then begged off the phone explaining I couldn’t really talk at the time but that the caller should read the email and then decide for himself how he wanted to handle it.

Obviously I won’t be holding my breath waiting but it history is any indication? I should be getting another call about a project sometime round about 2023.