Anna Haxen wrote:
One of my oldest clients (based in Belgium) was taken over recently by another European agency and all was well for a while. Then came covid-19, and this new agency informed their vendors that they could see no other option than to cut 10% off all future invoices until September 2020. I politely told them to count me out. In late August, they started sending out amateurish videos in which the CEO, I think it was, droned on about how covid has affected the economies around the world and how hard things still were for them, pulling up figures and graphs as proof, and ending, of course, with how they were still, sadly, unable to pay their vendors in full. At that point I politely wrote and offered my sympathies and told them they were welcome to strike me off their list for good. Is it me or is it outrageous to use this situation as an excuse to underpay their freelancers, given all the various relief funds that have been established for businesses such as theirs? And can anyone explain how chasing away their vendors like this can benefit them in the long run?
That's the agency I was talking about. I had the same experience: I had been working with the Belgian agency for quite a long time, and when they were taken over things started going downhill. What Dan says might well be true, but this agency is a big one... sorry, but I have a really hard time believing they are suffering that much. As I said before, I had to accept for the moment, but to be honest I'm looking forward to having a chance to move on...