PHoto Syndication Company not paying

Last October I was contact by a photo/news syndication company here in the UK about a couple of my pictures, they said they could get them in the papers and I’d get paid my fair share. I thought great! I did a quick google, found one or two bad bits but the rest was good. So I agreed uploaded my photos to my account with them and within hours my photo was on a big newspaper site in the UK, and a couple of days later it had reached China where it appeared on 11 sites. The photo had some blurb with with it, and that was submitted along with my photo so I know the source was this company…

Anyway, a few weeks passed, no sign of payment on my account, so I email them…6months passed still nothing, then finally, 7 months after my photo first appeared online, I got sent a pdf payslip, saying that a certain amount will be sent to my bank account…that was 3 months ago… and no payment has ever been made to my account and all details are correct.

I’ve emailed them twice in the last two weeks asking for my photos to be removed and my account closed, surely non payment by them is a breach of contract! There is also a clause in the T&C where my account can be closed by agreement of both parties in writing. Thats what i’m trying to do but they wont respond.

What else can I do? It’s not a lot of money by any means, but in this day and age, I need any money that is owed to me, and if they arent going to pay me then I need my photo off of their system!

It’s easy to ignore an email. Send a well structured, unemotional letter with an invoice for the amount owed. Include a payment due date and an explanation of what will happen if it is not paid. Include another request for your photos to be removed from their system. Send it by recorded delivery. Be polite but firm, let them know you mean business.

Eventually, small claims court is probably an option, it wont guarantee you get paid though.