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kevinfischer

Williams&Harricks — Real, physical demand letters to get your invoice paid.

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Client didn’t pay? This service will send them a letter. Williams & Harricks sends a real, physical demand letter to your client reminding them to pay your outstanding invoice.

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Leif Abraham
Maker
Hey everyone! 71% of freelancers say they have been stiffed before. We think that’s messed up, so we created a simple tool to help get people paid. Williams&Harricks, an app for freelancers (or anyone else running a business) to send real, physical demand letters to clients who haven’t paid them on time. Yes, we’re talking the kind of letter you would normally pay a lawyer for to send, but instead of having to pay $900 and hours of your time, you only pay $3 and send it in 5 minutes or less. Sounds legit right? It is. Freelancers can even choose from multiple templates with varying levels of severity ranging from stern to “Whoa, this person is not messing around!”. We even send alerts when the letter is sent and delivered. And if you're already an AND CO member, the flow is even simpler. Within AND CO you can simply select an unpaid invoice and send a demand letter right from the app. The letter will magically pre-populate with the invoice information, client address etc. Just click to send. Hope we can get some people paid. Let me know what you think!
Damjanski
@leifthunder love this! Know sb who needs it :) sending it over now 🙌
Gregory John
@leifthunder Great idea. I feel like this product will cannibalise itself over time as it grows and as people become aware of it. It's greatest potential is flying under the radar no?
Gregory John
@leifthunder What would be cool would be to have a range of trading names so people don't catch on.
Leif Abraham
Maker
@gregjohnkeegan super cool idea! And yes, if the brand stays the same that is indeed a potential issue. We were also thinking of giving people the option to send letters from their own company name as well.
Jp Valery
@leifthunder So glad to see this becoming a reality ! I was discussing with a friend the other day who was experiencing a client refusing to pay royalties. And we were both remarking that people tend to comply in a second when the request comes with a lawyer stamp - thus making this kind of service a real problem-solver and business opportunity. Good job guys !
Mario 🦊
Really excited by how this fits into the AND CO stack. Standard Freelance Contract to keep you protected, slick workflow to keep you on track of everything, and Williams&Harricks to give a meaningful nudge when needed.
Kunal Bhatia
@mdagabriele nicely done! This is fantastic. If we can send hand-written thank you notes, why not send physical reminders for outstanding invoices?! 🙌
Leif Abraham
Maker
Thanks @kevinfischer for hunting!
Binoy Xavier Joy
LaaS- Letter as a Service
Mario 🦊
"Advocacy for the self-employed." Watch this space!
Daveyon Mayne
I guess this is not for someone who already has their legal, right?
Leif Abraham
Maker
@mirmayne Depends I think. We don't see W&H to replace actual legal services but simply to serve as a more serious payment reminder. So the question might be if you think real legal action is needed after the letter or not. If the answer is yes, you might be better off starting with the lawyer to send it. But if you simple need a more serious reminder, W&H is the much cheaper option.
Adam Lieb
I've been looking for something like this for awhile! I hope you expand your "fake legal services" to other verticals. My wife & I are both technically lawyers (neither practicing) and we both get asked by random friends, family & randos to do things like this all the time. I'd love to just recommend them to you!
Mario 🦊
@adamslieb Thanks so much, Adam! We'd definitely be very happy to have them sent our way ;) As a note, we also created "The Standard Freelance Contract" in association with the Freelancers Union, designed to start work off as securely as possible. Might be a good fit for your friends as well!
Dre Durr💡
Is this real? The only time I need a threatening letter or phone call is when my service provider 😡(AT&T) Sneaks in pseudo charges for no reason. Will W&H handle my angry phone calls as well?
Martin Strutz
Maker
@dredurr haha! good one. yes, that will be the next one we are working on for sure :)
Mario 🦊
@dredurr - we wish ;)! As a former AT&T sufferer, I feel for you. Apart from that, this is very much for real. 70% of freelancers getting stiffed by clients during their careers. Physical reminders are a palpable, powerful way to make sure you get paid for your work -- W&H just makes that suuuuper easy :)
Product Pearson
It's funny how sending a "Real, physical letter" is a unique feature nowadays, whereas a few years ago this was entirely the norm. I like this concept, but I have some concerns with the auto generated letters. Here in the UK we have debt collection agencies who take control of payments that haven't been received, ie bank charges or an overdue bill. These agencies send letter after letter after letter. And they annoy people greatly because a lot of the time the person should not have received the letter at all. So I guess as long as the right people are going to receive these letters, then all good!
Leif Abraham
Maker
@theashtube totally! In any non-payment case there always also the other side that might have a good reason why they did not pay yet. Our "friendly reminder" letter, which is less harsh in writing, is something that could just spark a conversation without harming the relationship.
Frank Schwarz
Not sure how close this would come to impersonating a laweyer issue with the FDCPA. Does it have all the disclaimers and such? http://www.nolo.com/legal-encycl...
Mario 🦊
@thefrankschwarz Hey Frank - good question! We are very upfront with the fact that we are neither a law firm nor a debt collector. In fact, we have disclaimers on the site and the letters itself as well. We don’t collect any portion of recovered funds, like a debt collector would, and never will. We’re simply a quick and easy way to send a formal letter. This is something anyone could do themselves as well, but we believe W&H is an easier way to get that reminder out, without a trip to the postal office :)
Jasonwilk
Congrats on the product. The issue is if I were to get a legal letter from someone, I would immediately google the name of the firm to see what I'm up against. When I search for your company, I can see that the person only spent $3 on the letter. I don't have a great workaround for this but it's definitely something to think about.
Mario 🦊
@jasonwilk Definitely a fair point! Our hope is that the reminder is a strong nudge to act. For a lot of clients, that's all that's needed to get the payment process restarted -- this is a super easy way to make that happen.
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Yes
Shashwat Pradhan
Damn! This is a really useful product
Aaron Payne
This is great!
Axel Norvell
To what level has this method been tested for effectiveness? Are clients more likely to respond to physical letters, rather than a direct email with a similar tone? Just curious :)