Help! UK company not paying me for my freelance work, went MIA
Basically this content head person of this UK-based company reached out to me on LinkedIn back in May this year, and agreed to the rate I quoted. Timeline looks a bit like this:
31 May 2022: Wrote lots of articles for them, and sent first invoice on 31 May 2022. Sent a chaser a month later, no replies from the content head.
30 Jun 2022: Sent my Jun invoice, as I had outstanding articles that were not billed in May
20 Jul 2022: An accounting person from this company finally reached out, to ask for my bank details after so long. I did give my basic bank account number, but they needed more details like branch code etc (which could have been asked long ago?). I assumed both May and Jun invoices would be paid, but I only got paid for my Jun invoice on 21 Jul. The May invoice (higher amount) was still unpaid, despite my request to the accountant to get them both processed together.
25 Jul 2022: Sent my Jul invoice – i stupidly wrote a few more articles for them, since they paid my Jun invoice so I thought it should be ok. Got a shock when the content head replied to my email saying that he can’t pay the rate I invoiced, which was agreed upon way back in May. Sent him the screenshots of our past convos and he said alright he will pay the bill and we will not work together again (so rude? And why was my May and Jun invoices accepted, and this issue was only being flagged in Jul? felt damn sus at this point already)
12 Aug 2022: Replied the content head that i was fine with not working together again (so much anguish chasing invoices anyway), and to let me know once my payment has been processed
16 Aug 2022: Did not hear back from the content head, so I decided to send an email to cc the entire team of 6 people, including the founder. I had to install a mail tracker just to check if they’ve opened my mail, and it turns out that all of them have, but just didn’t have the courtesy to reply.
22 Aug 2022: Sent another chaser, still no reply.
Has anyone encountered similar situations? I tried googling, but I’m not too sure what I can do. Have written in to a mediation company in the UK, but they told me that both parties have to agree to the mediation. But at this point, it seems like they are not even gonna reply my emails – so how can I get them to agree to a mediation? Considered filing a small claim too, but I read that I will need an address in the UK. Any advice would be greatly appreciated – they’ve been owing me money for 3 months now and my patience is wearing thin.
Thanks in advance!