Mother told her friend she doesnt have to pay me?

[Imacelebritygotit]

I do translating/admin e.g appointments, filling out forms. Work stuff on the side

My mums friend heard i do this and hired me. We agreed on sum etc

I did 3.5 hours work

She then tells me she will give the money when she sees my mum the next day, i agree

My mother then goes "omg guess how much she paid you!!!" "I said no, no, no, no! You are a friend!!!! Absolutely no need to pay that much!!! Wtf!!! 10 pound is fine!!! But she insisted she pays you the agreed amount!!!!! Said treat it as a gift then. But then i insisted and said 10 pound is fine!!!! Trust me!

Explaining to her is useless she just keeps going She is a friend!!! You cant charge her like other people!!!/anyone else!! How can you be so money hungry and greedy!!!

Am i right to be angry about this! I mean this woman is not my friend, i barely know her. And it was like 4 hours work!!!

Edit: oh and now im getting texts from this woman saying she was very happy with such a good price, what a nice person i am and how others she hired "take advantage and over charge". And she wants to hire me again for same price!

I would send a message tomorrow morning saying you need paying by 5pm on Wednesday as you need to pay for X on Thursday (ideally something for a child, make them feel guilty) or they'll miss out (like a school trip).
If no payment is made I'd send an overdue invoice notice by registered mail with a due date and an note that says legal action will be taken if payment isn't made.

If I had been on the customer's place, I might want to speak to my friend to clarify, but still would apologise and send the remaining account asap.

Reply that unfortunately there has been a misunderstanding, that your mother was not in any way authorised to reduce your fee, that as that job is now complete you will consider it settled, but going forward for any future work your hourly rate will be as agreed and discussed with her previously, and you will deal with any payments yourself. Never let your mother be involved in any aspect of your business again. Personally I'd tell your mother that SHE owes you the money she refused to accept, but I guess that won't materialise 🤣

Your mum is being really crap here.

I presume you have spoken to your mum and said you aren’t happy with how she has interfered here, you had agreed a price with the friend and she has completely messed it all up? Have you told her not to do this again and to contact the friend and apologise?

What exactly did you text to the friend that she is ignoring?

Sounds like this woman knew she would screw you over.

Go over there and demand your money.

The first issue is your mother, she is very out of line, she’s basically taken your money off you. Had her hand in your pocket, so she can impress her friend. The second issue is the friend, who looked to capitalise on it, and Get you to do more for very little. The pair of them together owe you an apology.

pressed enter by mistake. Edit to add, your mum needs to give you the difference, if she doesn’t want her friend to pay it’s fine, but she needs to take the hit, not you

I’d guess it’s unlikely to be worthwhile going to small claims for 4 hours admin work.

What has your Mum said about paying the difference?! She is outrageous to do what she did

I would tell her the invoice has already been issued electronically and has to be paid in full to balance your books or the accountant will query it

Also tell her you cannot pay yourself £3 an hour as it would be illegal (I know not if your SE but she may not know!)
Quote legal minimum wage at her and infer her interference has now made you break the law! 😉

This

Mum either apologises to her friend and retrieves the correct amount of makes up the shortfall if she doesn't want to feel embarrassed in front of her friend. But she has to make this right. Completely out of line to do that to you. It's your livelihood!

"Ah, but you clearly really enjoy doing it; and you're so good at it, I bet you'll have it done in next to no time; and you probably have loads of old scraps of spare wool lying around that you'll be glad to use up........"

Some people are just out and out users.

Your mistake was agreeing she could pay your mum. No idea why you agreed to that tbh.

We already know the lady won’t use a bank transfer.

Your mother is completely unreasonable it's your business and your income.
Can you reply to the woman and tell her that your mother made a mistake and any more work will have to be at your normal rate which is x

Either you say it was a favour to your mother and a one off price or you will be charging your rate or you are v.busy. your mother should be told to keep her nose out since you are now out of pocket.

I think if she is a much older person, who clearly had good intentions as she was willing to pay the proper amount, I would let this go, as she has been put in this position by your mother.
It is going to be very awkward, but next time she asks for this kind of work explain that it is your business and the previously agreed hourly rate will need to be the fee for it. If you feel crappy saying this, you could always add that your side business has 'tax obligations', which is most likely true but woolly enough to be a gentle sort of reason why you can't just do things for ad hoc fees.

Good luck OP!

I think this is a perfect, tactful way of doing it - not that you should have to be tactful in the first place. Both pretending that your Mum must have assumed that it was just a 10-minute job AND making it perfectly clear to the woman, just in case she's 'forgotten', how long you spent doing the work for her.

Your mother is not businesslike or any sort of useful employee of yours.

Seems you’ve lost out this time. Don’t involve mother again.

I wonder if the client was unaware or whether she colluded with your Mum from the start.

Did she hand over the sealed envelope and say "Here's the money I owe Emma, if you could pass it on to her, please"; or might she have 'arranged' it with your Mum: "I think she was after charging me £££ - but surely she knows that we're good friends who go back years and that I'm a poor old pensioner......" ?

Your mother is clearly utterly unreasonable about this.

However, I think you need to write this off as a businsss loss and put in place a plan to protect yourself next time.

You need a written quote for the work: £x per hour. A deposit equivalent to 1 hour at your hourly rate, terms of business on completion, An invoice issued immediately after the work with bank details and or cash on delivery.

Cut your mum out of it and never ever accept anything other than immediate payment on the day.

Your client knew the work was being done and an approx amount, she should have cash at the ready. I think your client is as much to blame as your mother.

There are no friends when it comes to business. I've seen that too many times over the years. Too many CFs around, wanting something for nothing, or people offering your services for nothing just because someone is a friend of theirs.

I think that not only has your mum caused you problems with this customer this time, but it will also impact any future potential work with her.

She was initially happy with the agreed price but as a result of your mum’s input, now probably feels put out and hard done by paying the price instead of £10. She will potentially feel the same regarding any future work so won’t use you and this also won’t exactly lead to any future word-of-mouth recommendations.

You also want to be careful (assuming your work is done locally?) that others don’t think you’re doing work cheaply for others - or your mum goes round continuing to cheapen your services! Not good for business!

I’m sorry the lady hasn’t replied to your message. To be honest, the fact that she was happy to leave the £10 without speaking directly to you, doesn’t say a lot about her.

You're running a business. You've invoiced the client for the amount originally agreed upon; treat this as a debt and pursue it as you would any client in arrears. She knows what she owes you and was prepared to pay it, no reason she can't now. Your mother's interference, while all kinds of wrong, doesn't negate the contract. In future, be clear up front how you accept payment and that there are no exceptions.

If you want to let the difference go this time for whatever reason, that's up to you but be prepared for word to get around and possibly more issues in the future. Don't bother arguing with your mother as if she has no respect for your work she isn't going to develop it at this late stage - just keep her 100% out of it from now on.

You've had some good response suggestions here. It's definitely a "there appears to be a misunderstanding, the amount we agreed upon is still the amount owed, minus the £10 I've received." or whatever, there's better suggestions in the thread.

Does your mother speak this language as well? Maybe she should offer her services.

Everyone thinks translating and admin is easy until they have to do either of those things. If it's so easy, do it yourself. Get AI to figure out your paperwork. And we know online translations are always perfect.

Take her to the small claims court if she's not hard up. In fact warn that as a business you'll need to recover your losses.

Translation work is laborious - your mum has no idea.

I trained as an interpreter/translator at university, though I finished up teaching instead. I'd rather do interpreting than translating - much less stressful.

I've done both as favours for work and for friends, but I pick and choose. Nothing high level - I interpreted for parents at my work in a secondary school: the parents used to request that I be there. I've helped friends with style checking translations and I once spent hours translating research on 'Female Urinary Incontinence' for a colleague's sister - the sister was a researcher at a Scottish university.

I once had a charity trying to take advantage of me. I'd approached them, hoping to find bereavement counselling. Then I was asked to help interpreting...

Okay, I agreed to that. I was a bit vulnerable at the time and felt guilted into it. Next thing, I got a phone call from their head office in another town wanting me to translate "a short leaflet" from English into another language. I explained that they really needed a native language style checker, in that case. Oh, no need...They'd use A.I. I explained why that was a bad idea.

Anyway, they emailed me the leaflet. Short it was not.

I made a start on it. Then I was contacted by yet another person who wanted to check 'for legal and ethical reasons' whether I was a registered independent translator or registered with a translating firm.

I very happily told her that I was not and - regretfully - would have to withdraw my help.

In your case, I don't know whether I'd have the backbone to demand the money, @OP , but I'd sure as heck refuse to do any more work for your mum's friends.