4 ms·

Ask HN: Recruiter took my money, what to do?

• codegeek 11y ago
  Not sure about the legal aspect, but the bottomline is that your client messed up. I am not going to do the whole recruiter bashing thing because we all know most recruiters are useless. But the thing is that if your client had an agreement with the recruiter, then they should have thought about it. Yes you are the one who suffers but you should blame the client and if it doesn't work, then move on. You really cannot get in the middle of this fight. Not worth your time.
• MCRed 11y ago
  Client owes you the money, if they are evading you then you need to get a barrister involved. Recruiter might be liable- I think they would be if they were in the USA- but that depends on UK laws. I'm not a lawyer and don't know the law, but I would be surprised if you aren't owed the money for the work you did.
• brudgers 11y ago
  When a client doesn't pay, you have two options: 1. Take legal action. 2. Take the loss. Both have hard and soft costs. Good luck.
• celticninja 11y ago
  AFAIK you should be able to get your money from the recruitment agency. If they have charged the client a higher rate this includes their cut and your wages. As you said you did not sign anything with the recruitment agency as such you did not breach your contract. Contact the recruitment agency, explain the situation and ask how you obtain payment for the services you have rendered. If they have received their cut it should be an administration process to pay you. The more reputable the organisation the easier it will be. A small boutique agency will find it easier to lose the money on their accounts whereas a larger legitimate agency will need to account for that most eye at some point. Call the agency first nd plan from there.
• jacquesm 11y ago
  Whether or not the client and the recruiter have an issue with each other is not your problem. You were contracted by the client so the client should pay you. Talk to a local sollicitor on how to proceed if the amount is worth it (> 1000 pounds or so), otherwise charge it to your educational fund.
• saluki 11y ago
  How did you lose two months of earnings? Just curious if you worked two months before invoicing the client. (I am not a lawyer but just some thoughts/ideas) If you didn't work for your client and it was a long time ago I would expect your client might have an out with the recruiter that the time limit had expired or they should have been released from the contract since you weren't even employed by them through the recruiter. If the client paid the recruiter for your time you need to take up the issue with them. 1. Determine if your client paid the recruiter. 2. Sounds like your client paid your recruiter your rate + their fee so they owe you your rate portion. I would approach the client's HR or Finance department and present hey I worked for you X hours at X rate, this amount of money is important to me(and my family's) well being. Can you verify that my fees were paid to this recruiter? Then approach the recruiter and explain that you weren't aware an agreement was in place, sorry about that, however my client indicated that they paid you for my work and I want to provide any information you need to process my payment for that work. Kill them both with kindness initially, explain you weren't aware of the contract between the employer/recruiter. See how that goes. Good luck getting this worked out. In the future invoice more often . . . in the states the max I would go with a new client is a week or two weeks (with possible retainer/portion up front), maybe a month for on going work with proven clients.
  • s73v3r 11y ago
    I would go after the client for those fees. You did work for the client directly, they should pay you. The contract is not your concern. Let the client and recruiter hash it out over what's left.
• JSeymourATL 11y ago
  > From what I hear they are planning to/have inflated my agreed rate with the client and charged them for my work. Now I understand that the client has breached the contract they had with the recruiter. Question: Did the client actually pay the recruiter for the additional engagement or not? Did you invoice the client directly? In either case, you have no contract to back up your claim. The relationship between client & recruiter has been damaged. It seems unlikely you will get paid, especially if the recruiter is threatening the client with legal action. > What to do? Be persistent-- call/email the client daily until they reply. If possible, show up in person at the office. Find out who his top boss is, does the company have a CEO? Do they have investors? Call them, ask for help sorting this out. Moving foward, always have a formal agreement or contract in place covering the scope of your work and how you will be paid.
• understanding 11y ago
  I got in touch with the recruiter following celticninja's comment, the situation is not as bad as first appears: The recruiter will seek to recoup their fees (as in excluding my daily rate) as agreed between them and the client way back when. I guess this is part of their contract. They have not done so yet. I am to invoice the client directly as agreed with them when they approached me, the recruiter is not involved. The client has replied, although with nothing of much interest, but I feel much happier knowing they haven't gone off the radar. Lesson learned on not invoicing often enough, many lessons learned in fact. Thank you all very much for the advice, HN crew #1! <3 <3
  • digitalzombie 11y ago
    > Lesson learned on not invoicing often enough, many lessons learned in fact. You should write down summary of what you did for that day. I had a client HR lady that handle the check that saw my invoice and she was like it seems like I'm getting pay too much for such little work. Nice lady, but she was dragging her feet making sure it wasn't a mistake or if I'm pulling a fast one. I sent her my daily summary of each and every day I've worked, bullet points of what I did for that day. She stopped sending those silly email and the next email was my check.
• cweagans 11y ago
  IANAL. Short answer: lawyer up or don't get paid. Longer answer: You don't have any relationship with the recruiter. The client, however, does - they likely agreed to hire you through the recruiter for some period of time. If they wanted to hire you, they should have reached out to the POC at the recruiter's office. They didn't, though, and opted to work directly with you. It's extremely likely that they'll have to pay a percentage to the recruiter, but that shouldn't affect you at all (in terms of what you're owed): they engaged you for work and they owe you compensation for it. Take it to court and see what happens (or don't and probably don't get paid).
  • S4M 11y ago
    IANAL either, but I suspect there is a certain period of time (like 6 months) after which the client is allowed to contact the OP directly, even if he got his details originally through the recruiter.
• Peroni 11y ago
  Hey. Hopefully you're still reading these responses. I'm London based and have extensive experience with literally everything you have described, on both sides of the fence. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not looking to sell you anything or charge you for any assistance. I am an employment law expert with extensive experience both as an agency recruiter and in-house recruiter. I will gladly assist in any way I can because your situation is the epitome of why I detest the agency recruitment industry. My email is in my profile. Feel free to reach out.
  • understanding 11y ago
    Thank you for the kind offer, I will see how things progress next week.