Sometimes you just have to fire a business associate!

Linkworth used to be a fairly reliable advertising partner on InvestorBlogger… but then they forgot to pay up for their share. I’m pretty sure they kept the money from the client, but just ‘forgot’ to pay their partner. …

In past years, I would just send them a ticket… but nearly 75 days have passed since the last ticket… no answer. Ticket #2 was posted with everything. 48 hours passed… no answer. While you might think I was hasty, this is in fact money outstanding fromĀ  2017 and even 2016. So really tardy!

But I’m not the only person having trouble getting paid from them, too.

“Thank you for taking the time to read this update. Unfortunately, I have decided to withdraw my site(s) from LinkWorth’s market because the invoices are overdue by 180+ days. There is no point so I have canceled the advert, and removed the site from your directory.

I have double-checked the monies received columns @ Paypal and can now confirm that 70+ days have passed since my initial query regarding outstanding payments from 08/10/2017 for

****-31 120961 $ 33.19 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 08/10/2017 View Invoice

“Posted on: 05 April 2018 04:59 PM Account ID: 6**6 Account Username: ***—————————— I’m chasing up missing payment of $33.10 from last year. ****-31 120961 $ 33.19 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 08/10/2017 View Invoice Todate this amount has not been forwarded to my paypal account for this account. Please advise when this can be done… etc.etc.”

In other words, the payment is now 10 months overdue. To you perhaps, $33.10 is a small amount of money; but to me, it represents an unwillingness to honor the terms of your agreement with me.

On further research, I discovered that there is an additional payment of $45.00 also outstanding from either of the following (NOT BOTH)

****-30 119044 $ 47.50 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 11/10/2016 View Invoice
****-29 118751 $ 47.50 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 10/10/2016 View Invoice

A payment was made on 11/11 to my paypal account, I don’t know which of these invoices it is in respect of. It doesn’t matter because there is a further invoice outstanding as well.

So for the total of $80.69 outstanding, I now demand immediate and full payment. I would like to resume our business relationship, but your choice to defer payments without adequate explanation or excuse suggests that you’re not in a position to.

Do me the courtesy of advising me whether payment is possible or not.

Yours Kenneth @ InvestorBlogger”

There is little leverage I have right now except to share it on my site. I don’t have the legal means to chase $80, so I have to let it go. But it is a reminder that in business, whoever takes the money late takes the biggest risk.