Man Bites Dog

[Jim Frame]

This was a new one for me: a federal agency (that shall not be named) contacted me about preparing some easement documents for a project I worked on as a subconsultant a few years ago. Easy-peasy, I drew up my standard 1-page letter proposal/contract and sent it off. Thereupon ensued a bunch of emails regarding payment.

Do I accept credit cards? (Nope -- cash, check or ACH.)

PM to site manager: Do you have any way to pay him other than a credit card? Site manager: Nope.

Me: Well, I do have a PayPal account, would that work?

Site manager: I think we can do PayPal with the credit card. Send me an invoice so I can look into it.

I send an invoice through PayPal for the amount shown in my proposal, which has not yet been signed and returned. I figure they're going to get just far enough into the payment process to ensure that the credit card will work, then execute the contract.

Shortly thereafter I receive a notice from PayPal that the invoice has been paid in full (minus PayPal's la mordida of 3%). (I also receive an email from the site manager telling me that I have to fill out a form certifying that my work product doesn't involve the sale of any telecommunications equipment from Huawei or any other companies on the banned list.)

I've now been paid for work I haven't yet been contracted to perform, something I've never encountered before. On the one hand it's kind of nice, on the other hand it left me feeling distinctly uneasy. Fortunately, my follow up to the PM asking him to take care of the contract thing was met with cooperation, and the requisite paperwork is now in place.

[pls5528]

I have had that kind of thing happen selling an item on Marketplace, but never on a survey proposal. Sounds pretty sketchy?

[Jim Frame]

Sounds pretty sketchy?

It's a legit agency and project, just a weird contracting process. My past experience with Federal agencies -- which isn't extensive -- is that I spend almost as much time developing the contract as I do performing the work, with a similarly byzantine invoicing/payment process. With this one I got paid before I even had a contract.