Dear xxx
I am writing in reference to invoice no 0000 which was submitted to you on 12/04/2007 and is now well overdue for payment despite numerous reminders and promises to pay.
The fee for the shoot was agreed at £500 on March 27th 2007 with Guy2 of CompanyA. This was for 1 day's shoot and processing of the images. Unfortunately the shoot ran late, a problem not of my making and we had to visit the last location another day. I was happy to ignore this and get the job done to the agreed budget despite the extra time not considered in the original quote. I sent the CD's as soon as they were ready. There was an issue raised about licensing of the images due to a miscommunication. Guy1 was under the impression that they would be able to use the images for anything, essentially royalty free. I however was under the impression that they were only for use with the brochure. I opted to allow full licensing for the images as a gesture of goodwill and agreed to let them use the images as they needed.
I emailed the invoice and license to them on April 12th 2007. No response was forthcoming so the images were clearly acceptable to yourselves. This was further confirmed on April 26th when I received an email from Guy2 stating that the invoices would be paid “tomorrow”, April 27th. Unfortunately, they were not paid ‘tomorrow’. I visited the office a few days later and spoke to Guy2 who said that your accountant was in the process of doing them there and then. I sent Guy2 an email on May 3rd 2007 asking for an update to this but I did not receive a reply. On May 16th I sent Guy2 a message via MSN Messenger and again did not receive a reply. During the week of May 14th - 20th I rang CompanyA and spoke to Guy2 who assured me the invoices would be paid by Friday 18th May. Once again payment never arrived. I rang CompanyA and spoke to Guy3 about the invoices on Tuesday 29th May, who assured me he was working on the accounts and would ring me on Wednesday to discuss it. I rang on Wednesday and spoke to Guy1 who said he would email Guy3 to speed up the process.
Under clause 7 of my terms and conditions, supplied with the invoice, it states;
“Payment by the Agency will be expected for the commissioned work within 30 days of the issue of the relevant invoice.”
It has been over 6 weeks since the invoice was emailed.
On Friday 1st June I received a call from Guy1 stating that their client was unhappy with the photography of their apartments. Guy1 offered me 50% of the original fee for my time and a return of the CD. As you have now been in possession of the CD for some 6 weeks or more and already have been given full licence to use the images for publications other than the original brochure, return of it has no bearing on this matter.
However under clause 9 of my terms and conditions, which were supplied with invoice;
“Unless a rejection fee has been agreed in advance, there is no right to reject on the basis of style or composition.”
No such fee was negotiated, only the original £500 for the shoot. Given that no complaints were made about the images, there are no ground to reject them and you would be in breach contract under 2 clauses laid out in my terms and conditions, therefore, if this outstanding matter is not settled within 72 hours I will be contacting my solicitor and looking to take this matter further through legal channels.
I look forward to your prompt reply and full payment in the very near future.