unpaid invoice on tenders website

[laurag]

I wrote a business plan for someone, as a contract awarded to me via a freelance jobs website. (Don't want to state the name yet but it's a popular site for bidding for freelance work).

It was a very tight turnaround project and I offered a discount to the client if he paid immediately. He told me he was happy with the delivered work but then fobbed me off about payment over Christmas and then when I logged in to the site again I saw he had closed his account.

I contacted the site's customer services dept to ask them to release the £60 deposit to me from Escrow at least, and also to ask if they had any details about the client as I wished to pursue a county court claim. They obviously have some details as I can see he has paid invoices in the past. They have responded by telling me they can't help due to their privacy policy, and cancelling my invoice, although they have released the deposit.

I'm just wondering if there is anything I can do about this - I'm particularly annoyed that he has been able to close his account with quite a large invoice outstanding - so I can no longer access any info about him.

 

[HorseLatitudes]

I'm unfamiliar with these freelancing sites but is there any reference to the business name up there? Maybe as a username or something?

Have you tried googling their username? (if the site requires one?) It's a long shot I was on a forum where a new member was basically taking the mick. A quick google of the username found he'd been posting onm several other sites with the same name. Sites that he'd given personal details on like name, address. phone number...

 

[laurag]

Thanks for the reply. I've just tried that but it's not yielding much unfortunately. I do have the client's full name (I think anyway!) but it's a fairly common name and I'm not managing to glean much from it. Thanks anyway though

 

[Big G]

Do you only have the Clients full name? What information if any do you hold for him? What type of business is he? We offer a 'Track and Trace' service to trace private individuals.

 

[laurag]

How much do you charge and what information do you need? I don't think I've got much of use apart from his name because now the tenders website have closed his account I can't access anything else.

 

[Big G]

Well if you has his full name then a Directors search could be carried out first, which doesn't cost anything. Do you know what type of business he is?

For tracing we require full name and previous address, i have just sent you a PM with cost.

 

[laurag]

Thanks, I've replied to your PM

 

[Vectis]

I don't know the set up obviously, but how/why do you do work for someone where you don't know anything about who they are and have no contact details? The first thing I'd want to know is who I'm dealing with. Seems very odd. Is this normal on this freelancer site?

 

[laurag]

I know what you're saying, I could kick myself to be honest. I've done a lot of work through this particular site and everyone I've worked for has been great and paid up promptly until now. I think it's lulled me into a false sense of security plus it was the week before Christmas, so I wasn't as careful as I normally would have been about checking details. Stupid I know! I did hope that the site would be more helpful though - I'm still waiting for them to release the paltry deposit from Escrow!

 

[Billmccallum]

didn't the content of the business plan reveal anything useful????