Trouble getting paid by PHD Media / Omnicom Media Group -bmibaby affiliates?

[paulo]

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Is anyone on here dealing with PHD Media or has dealt with them in the past? I'd appreciate some feedback as i've been struggling to get paid by them now for approaching 3 months.

I've been a bmibaby affiliate for about 2 years and first got in contact with them to find out how to get paid on 6th May. Contrary to every other network i've used they don't do BACS payments or anything simple -you have to manually make up an invoice and email it in to (hopefully) receive a cheque in the post.

OK, so I sent the invoice in as requested and a month later had heard nothing back. After I emailed them I was told that the invoice 'cannot be paid as there isn't enough money on our system' -which obviously concerned me greatly. After further enquiries as to what this meant apparently my invoice was not good enough and that sales/commissions had to be broken down month by month. This was despite me asking them to check through the invoice when I originally sent it to check that it met their standards.
I resubmitted the invoice and was told that it was acceptable.

Despite this I have still yet to receive payment. In total I've sent 14 emails, submitted 2 invoices and contacted 4 different people at PHD. I've had excuses about offices being moved and things being hectic but is this really a professional way to treat an affiliate?

Cheers,

Paul.

[energizing]

Send them one final letter, send it signed for and title it 'Letter Before Action'.

Inform them they have X days to pay before action will be taken against them, if no responce http://wwww.moneyclaim.gov.uk

[Sime100]

Hi Paul,

The reason for the slight delay in your payment being released is that we are not set up as a traditional affiliate network in terms of how we pay our affiliates. As ylu are aware, we require affiliates to invoice us for their monthly activity which we then match up to the amounts we bill our clients before sending out cheques in our monthly payment run. The problem in this instance is that you have billed us for activity relating to March 2008 BMI sales (alongside your bmibaby activity) and this is a client we no longer run activity for. As such, when we looked to match up the invoice amount with the amount booked into the system in March 2008, there was a small discrepancy. Due to the fact we no longer manage the affiliate business for BMI, we are required to write off the invoice amount. In order to do this, we need to get internal clearance which has caused a delay on your payment.

I apologise for the inconvenience, as I discussed with you earlier I am confident this will be signed off shortly allowing the payment to be released. Please rest assured this is not a financial issue, it is simply that we have to go through various internal processes to sign off discrepancies on closed accounts.

I hope this clears up any confusion, please call me directly with any further questions.

Thanks,

Simon

t: 0203 023 8445

[paulo]

I am confident this will be signed off shortly allowing the payment to be released.

Unfortunately i'm not as i still have no timeframe, let alone a guarantee of when i'll receive the payment -and that's where the problem lies. Why is it taking so long to process an invoice? All it requires is the desire and the will for somebody in the office to spend a couple of hours, (not a couple of months), processing it / getting it cleared / signing it off. Trust me, -i've worked in back offices, -it could be done today and put in tonight's post if the impetus is there...

it is simply that we have to go through various internal processes

i appreciate this but when those internal processes are causing complaints and delay they surely need to be looked at and changed.

it also seems that i'm not the first to have problems with PHDs 'internal processes'...

PHD Media Ltd - anyone dealt with them?

[Sime100]

Hi Paul,

Can you please call me directly on this and I'd be glad to clarify. Alternatively, feel free to leave me your number and I will get in touch.

Thanks,
Simon