It had to happen, I guess. Six years as a freelance copy-editor and copywriter; sooner or later, I suppose, I was bound to get burnt by a customer.

Because, in this game, we freelancers have no power.

Look at the job ads. For ‘Freelancer’, read ‘Expect to be paid the lowest rates possible’.

Look at the freelance platforms. Most clients expect to pay subsistence-level hourly rates, and the platforms monetise a kind of Hunger Games for freelancers. Bid against your competitors to catch the attention of prospective clients. Many of whom are only interested in how low your hourly rate is, anyway.

Look at the trend towards using AI to write copy. Now that AI has become ‘good enough’ for many clients, what’s left are often projects involved in training AI to become better. So that it can take away even more writing jobs.

And then, for those of us lucky enough to get a gig with a company who still wants to work with human writers, there is NES Fircroft.

“80+ Global Offices. 2,200 Employees. 5 Decades of Success.”

“NES Fircroft prides itself on delivering quality, award-winning services. Our success is based upon establishing a culture of excellence throughout the organisation and putting customer satisfaction at the centre of everything we do.”

Fantastic! The prospect of ongoing work with a large, reputable international company. Ongoing work, the freelancer’s dream.

“We do the right things in the right way every time.”

 Except, perhaps, as it turns out, when we’re looking for a new freelance copywriter.

 “Personal integrity and responsibility are the foundations of our business, and we own our responsibility to our customers, colleagues and shareholders. We differentiate our workforce solutions on the basis of compliance and hold ourselves and our suppliers to the highest standards to protect our people and those in our supply chains.”

Personal integrity. Responsibility. We … hold ourselves … to the highest standards to protect our people and those in our supply chains.

 That is, unless we’re dealing with a freelancer.

How NES Fircroft set me up

A person from NES Fircroft’s comms department contacted me. Would I be interested in writing articles for their website? Yes! I described my skills, gave them some examples of my work. They asked me for my price per article.

Then they sent me a couple of briefs and asked me to select one to work on:

We’re really excited about the possibility of working together on some content for our website. Do you still have some availability? If you do, I've attached a couple of blog briefs for you to look at. Feel free to pick the one that you fancy the most. Please let me know which topic you would like to go ahead with and if you have any questions. (6 January 2025)

I selected a brief and was keen to get going: I pick the Nuclear Power brief. No other questions at the moment; shall I just get into it, and we'll see how it goes? (8 January)

The NES Fircroft representative gave me the go-ahead:

That would be great, thank you. Before you proceed with the blog, I just have a couple of questions: Do you have any terms and conditions? If so, could you please send them across? Are we able to pay for the work by credit card? (8 January)

Those questions were a little unusual. A new client had never asked me for my terms and conditions. And no client had ever asked me if they could pay by credit card.

In hindsight, that was a flag. But not a red flag. After all, I was dealing with a reputable client. (Remember? “The right things in the right way.” “Personal integrity and responsibility.” “Highest standards.”)

I told them I did not have Ts and Cs to send them, and I gave them the account details that I provided all my clients for payment.

Then I began researching and writing. And, as one does for a first job for a client, I put extra effort into the article.

I sent them my initial draft on 16 January and received the following response: Thank you for sending this! I’ll read it through, send it to my manager for her thoughts, and get back to you shortly.

Almost a week later, I heard back from NES Fircroft: We have reviewed your blog and have a few comments:…

NES Fircroft wanted a more formal, corporate tone; some of the sentences to be simplified; all references to politics removed; and a consistent third-person voice. No problem.

And then they finished with this:

“Overall, it’s a solid first draft and the research is well done, it just needs some tweaks.”

So far, so good.

It felt to me as if the article was about ninety percent there. It would take one or two more iterations to get to a hundred.

The rejection

I made the requested changes, pushed back a little on one of their comments, and then submitted Version 2.

And then, a week later, out of the blue:

After careful consideration, we’ve decided that this arrangement isn’t quite the right fit for us at the moment. Unfortunately, the tone of the blog still doesn’t align with our brand or voice. Rather than continuing to make revisions, we believe it would be best to pause here. We truly value your understanding in this matter. We sincerely appreciate your efforts on the blog and wish you all the best moving forward.

Okay.

I can deal with a client deciding that an arrangement is not going to work. But this was unusual. Had they been sensitive to my pushing back on that one comment?

It felt to me as if they were giving up too easily.

As if they weren’t really trying.

It was odd. “Rather than continuing to make revisions…” just didn’t match up with “just needs a few tweaks”.

I have no problem with a client deciding not to work with me. But just tell me.

But the rejection letter wasn’t the rug-pull. That was yet to come.

I responded with a breezy email that hid my disappointment:

Okay, thanks [Name], no problem. That was quite a leap from 'it just needs some tweaks'! But I respect NES's decision. Feel free to use my research. Whether or not you do, though, please pay the attached invoice. (30 January)

Crickets.

The rug-pull

Then, 11 days later, [Name]’s manager sent me this (niceties omitted for brevity):

…As the blog didn’t meet our requirements (per our feedback), we won’t be paying the invoice. Standard practice and expectation is for invoices to be payable upon work completion to satisfaction (i.e., ready for publishing), and this work never reached that stage. We won’t be using this blog or publishing it. Nothing was agreed upon otherwise. We asked for your T&Cs, and none were provided. 

What!

This is what I read:

The article wasn't completed to our satisfaction; therefore, we won't pay your invoice. We stopped the process just short of accepting the article so that we wouldn't have to pay you. In any case, there was no agreement. But if you think that sort of behaviour is unethical and unprofessional on our part, there's more. Here's another reason we're not going to pay you: you didn't provide T&Cs.

Rug. Pulled.

It had to happen

I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Six years of freelancing.

But to suffer non-payment at the hands of a large UK company: I just didn’t expect that.

How disappointing.

A colleague of mine in the UK described NES Fircroft's actions aptly, I think:

“Despicable.”

I suppose I had kind of expected that I would one day be cheated by a small company or, perhaps, an individual.

But no. That dishonour goes to NES “Personal integrity and responsibility” Fircroft.

TO BE CONTINUED.( ‘The Freelancer Fights Back’)