Due to deadlines that are sometimes so tight your work goes on the air hours after you deliver it, and turnaround times that are sometimes a week from the project being awarded to when it has to deliver, then factor in a giant lumbering corporate bureaucracy that takes months to move on anything, and you have a recipe for vendor abuse.

You see, while the contract may say it's 50/50 deal (50% upfront, 50% on delivery), I've never worked a project with these media conglomerates where they've honored that end of the agreement. Not once.

The standard chronology is: start the job while the contract inches its way through their legal department, a process that can take weeks. Receive a signed contract from the aforementioned conglomerate sometime well into production. Receive the 50% "upfront" payment a week or two after delivery, then receive the 50% "on delivery" payment sometime a month or two, or three, or six after that.

Just try seeking redress in a situation like that, or try making a stink about it. If you squawk, guaranteed you'll see that invoice paid in time for you to give the balance to your grandkids as a college graduation gift.

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Except IBM. IBM is the fascist Italian empire of corporate accounts. They pay like a Swiss watch.

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