I have been dealing with this woman off and on since before Christmas. I did some articles for her - some long, well researched, and excellent articles, and sent them off on the 17th of December, 2006. I received one reply from her, about the 18th of December, telling me that payment was on the way. And after that, nothing. I wrote her, about once every two days, asking for payment. After awhile, I wrote her to tell her that her actions were completely shameful in the world of freelancing - taking someone's work (and obviously either reselling it to make profit or getting paid as if you had written it) and not paying the person you hired to do your work is completely unacceptable to me. It is the same as walking out of a store without paying, or taking snapshots of another person's paintings and then passing off the prints as creations of your own. I did not receive a reply from her, until I notified her on February 1st that the articles I had written and not been paid for were currently under contract to be sold to another buyer, who would open a lawsuit against her if the articles were found elsewhere. Apparently, the word "lawsuit" caught her attention, because the very next day, February 2nd, there was an email from me, explaining that she had been ill with personal problems of some sort, and had (what a coincidence!) not checked any of her email until the night of February 1st. instead of quickly forwarding the money to me to ward off any other reselling, she promptly began to lecture me about how I dared to suggest tarnishing her name, and how she had a reputable business and demanded to know who I had talked to her about (yes, I converse with other freelancers, and sometimes warn them about deadbeats), and who the articles were to be sold to. Unfortunately I wasted a good two days of my work week emailing back and forth with her, still demanding money. She wanted to have my bank account info to transfer me money - sure, like I would fall for THAT! - and swore up and down that she could no longer use Paypal even though the email with the origional assignment had stated payment would be made THROUGH PAYPAL in less than 10 days. It was a ridiculous conversation, and I am sad with myself for having wasted my time on her. On February 2nd I was told she was transferring money to her paypal account and that as soon as it got into her account she'd pay me. Big surprise, I haven't seen a thing. My emails requesting payment for the past month have been met with long, whiny emails about how paypal just isn't working and how she initiated a transfer and it just hasn't gone through. Can you believe this? And the payment itself is a measly 52$. Pathetic and ridiculous.

Get a contract. Or be paid in advance. And spread the word. When you get screwed over, tell other freelancers. People are completely shameless and will do whatever they can to get out of payment.