Chasing unpaid fees for professional services remains an all-too-common challenge in the corporate world. Krupa Kotecha recently highlighted this issue, claiming that an Indian founder walked away without clearing her dues.
“I helped an Indian founder to build her LinkedIn profile and now she said she won’t pay my fees i.e 50K. It was a 3-month contract,” Krupa Kotecha wrote on X. Her LinkedIn profile says she is a media manager and entrepreneur.
She claimed , “I usually take advance payment, but I trusted her, and after the second month, she terminated the contract abruptly and blocked me everywhere.” She added that she has proof of the work she has done, claiming that she has delivered “more than expected.”
What did social media say?
An individual posted, “This can happen, that's the sad side of freelancing, owning a business. Don't expose her or put your client's details or work publicly without their permission. It will destroy your reputation. Just ask her in an anonymous account, or just forget it and move on to other projects. Your time will come for sure, at that time you can ask her.”
{{/usCountry}}An individual posted, “This can happen, that's the sad side of freelancing, owning a business. Don't expose her or put your client's details or work publicly without their permission. It will destroy your reputation. Just ask her in an anonymous account, or just forget it and move on to other projects. Your time will come for sure, at that time you can ask her.”
{{/usCountry}}Another commented, “Send a legal notice with a lawyer friend if you have WhatsApp/ Email confirmation. If no response, name-and-shame everywhere. Legal action for that cost won't make sense.”
A third expressed, “Are you registered under MSME? If yes, send them a notice; they will have to pay.” A fourth wrote, “Not much you can do now. Going forward, always charge in advance; the only way to ‘trust’ people is by receiving the payment.”
Will she name the client?
Kotecha told Hindustantimes.com, “I want to mention that I don’t want to reveal the name of the founder because of my kindness towards her. I could do that easily but I don’t want to. “
She said, “Multiple emails have been sent, multiple messages on WhatsApp but she blocked me without any reply. She says that I did not work at all whereas I have all the proofs, screenshot and attachments.”
Later, in a follow-up X post, she stated, “Still no update but will keep you guys updated. Taking some legal help so let’s see how this unfolds. The founder probably not scared even if I expose them on social media.