Payment of invoices
While I don't expect bills to be settled the minute they are received, there are some incontrovertible facts of life that make it impossible for me to wait too long for payment. For those of you whose websites I host, I have to pay my own hosting bills even if I don't pass that cost directly on to you, and I also have to pay for your domain registration. So, if you don't pay me, I can't pay my own bills and your site will disappear off the Internet. Also bear in mind that some of the work on your bill was done long before the bill went out, meaning that several months can elapse between doing that work and getting paid for it.
I am running a business after all, so I have to impose the following conditions on payments:
1) Bills are sent out in electronic form by e-mail. The client is given a link to a page from where the bill can be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file and settled on-line using a debit/credit card. Account details for money transfer, either from a UK bank account or from a foreign bank account, are given on the bill itself.
2) Hard copies of bills may be sent out in addition to electronic form. This is charged £1.00 if the bill is sent to an address within the UK, £2.00 for postal addresses within the European Union, and £2.50 for addresses elsewhere.
3) If a bill is not settled within TWO WEEKS of being sent, a reminder will be sent by e-mail.
4) If payment is still not received within THREE WEEKS of the bill being sent out, the site or sites relative to the as yet unpaid bill will have their bandwidth throttled. This will have the effect of the site or sites appearing very slow to netizens browsing it or them. No updates to your site or sites will be possible once this stage is reached until settlement of the bill is received.
5) Finally, if payment is not received within ONE MONTH of the bill being sent out, the site or sites relative to the as yet unpaid bill will be disconnected until payment is received.
Updated: November 3rd 2008.