A company owes me money, how should I collect?

Yikes, that's a tough one. The guy won't even return your calls? How well has he done for you in the past? Do you have some version of a Better Business Bureau in Hawaii?
Could be something simple like the place in Hawaii never sent your paperwork to GA. Is there anyone local you can contact to find out? Sometimes, when there are too many go-betweens, things get lost in the shuffle. I have used consultants and have to submit the bills to the financial office, who then issues checks only on certain days of the month, and sometimes checks have not been issued and I have to nag on behalf of the consultant and it's a big mess. I wish I could just cut the checks myself.
Your contact in AZ might be in a similar situation, or he might be trying to pull one over on you. There's no excuse not to return your calls. I'd make one last call threatening legal action, and see what that gets you. Or write a letter to the head of the company in GA and request an immediate response. That person should be willing to look into the situation rather than face legal action.

First, how long is a couple of months? Most invoices are submitted on a net 30 basis. We do, and more or less expect payment in 45 days. A few pay upon receipt, most around 45 days. Sixty days is worth a phone call. I do get concerned when my calls are not returned. Possibly a lien against whatever you did the work on would be in order. You will probably need an agent in Georgia to do this. It's the next to last resort, but when it hits the company's legal department (if they have one) someone within the company is going to ask why that invoice has not been paid.

Actually, once they receive a letter from whatever attorney you retain, they will probable pay right up. You will probably need a firm in Georgia, but I couldn't say for sure. Is the money involved worth the process?

Don't start with a lawsuit. Let that be in reserve if you need it, but don't start with one. That's like offering 100% of what you'll pay on the first negotiation with a car dealer. You need to keep something in reserve.

Try your contact again. Use phone, email, snail mail, etc. Use every single means you have to contact that person. If you have a snail mail address, send the letter via registered mail so that the contact must sign for the letter. In that way, you have proof that it was received.

Demand payment. Send a copy of your time slips, invoices, receipts, whatever is involved with being paid. It doesn't matter if you already sent them. Send them again.

While you are pursuing this line, check out the Hawaii BBB. See: http://www.hawaii.bbb.org/ and also get contact information for whoever you can in Georgia. Also, see if you can get any information on any supervisor the Arizona person has. If the first route does not work at all (e. g. working directly with your contact), you will need to go the route of either contacting Georgia or the Hawaiian BBB, or the Arizona person's supervisor. But try your recruiter (I suspect that is who your Arizona contact is) first, and give him or her the opportunity to fix the problem.

If all of these methods fail, the next step is to make a stink about suing. But try the "friendly"/first line approach first. It's possible that paperwork was lost or the Arizona person may be waiting for payment from Georgia. This can happen with contracts, but keep in mind also that recruiters can also sometimes skip town with payments that were intended for contractors. Protect your interests.

Best of luck to you.

Much mahalos to all of you who have offered your input. I talked with a lawyer-in-training friend of mine who gave me similar advice. He expressed that legal action should be a last resort because it would just drag things out and would most likely be costly. He said the key was persistence so that's what I'm going to keep in mind the next 20 times I call/e-mail my contact in AZ. Thanks again everyone.

Collect US legal tender. All good advise. Use legal last.

Someone owes you money...
This may be a tad late since the original post was in June or July but here's the two cents from a collections agency owner...

Letters don't collect, people do! If this person/company hasn't paid you for your services by now then yet another letter probably won't do the trick. I see this time and time again in my business where people hang on for dear life trying to collect and wait until its too late.

After 90 days the collectablility(sp) of an account goes down .5% EVERY DAY!! By 1 year its down to 10% or less. The reason is that the probability of a BK or a skip goes up with the passing of time.

Lasty, collecting a past due bill is an art form few people can master. The best are employed by agencies and you should consider using one. We have a client that tried everything to collect on three bad debts for 6 months. We got all three paid in three days. Agencies have resources and intimate knowlege of debtors "buttons" and they find the right button to push. For instance, we had a debtor that refused to take our calls. We found out he had a large bid with the city of El Paso. One key phone call to the project manager and the guy called us begging to pay.

The best agencies work on contingency basis so you have nothing to lose having them work a file for you. You can always refuse the offer.

Call me if you need more advice.

David
Managing Director
Solberg & Kennedy
Edit: Moderator: Don't Post your links here

Just keep it in the back of your mind for now; mail fraud is a felony.