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Updated: 01/15/2009 – This situation was resolved. My payment was on file with TCEA via email but the automated system sent out the note anyways.

Anyone who works with a school district as a vendor knows this simple truth–it takes a long time to get paid. It’s unfortunate, really. As an education consultant and speaker, I’ll go off and work with folks, head back home, and then wait…and wait…and wait some more.

Now, not all school districts are slow to pay. Some move quickly but others can take months. I’ve made an effort to customize my contracts to reflect a prompt payment timeline but it can still take nigh on forever. Once an organization said they had mailed the check only to find upon investigation, a week and a half after the check was too have arrived and that they just knew had been mailed, that the payment request was sitting on the purchasing director’s desk! Even though apologies were offered, it was frustrating (this was at the height of the high gas prices that cut into everyone’s budget).

I was a bit disappointed when this automagically generated email arrived from TCEA:

Dear Mr. Miguel Guhlin,

Our records show you registered for the TCEA 2009 Convention – Accelerate Technology. As you have been informed, we only hold registrations for 30 days. After 30 days, if payments or purchase orders are not received, registrations are automatically cancelled.
Unfortunately, we have not received a purchase order or payment within the 30 day period so your registration has been cancelled.

If you still plan to attend TCEA 2009, please contact our office by e-mailing tceaoffice@tcea.org. We will re-register you only after receiving an e-mail request from you as well as a valid purchase order or payment. Please note that if you choose to re-register, you may have lost your seat in any workshops or events for which you may have registered.

Thank you,

TCEA

You know, school districts are moving as fast as they can to take care of these matters, but this is a bit of a problem, especially when you have lots of folks that you’re mass registering. While I’m sure we can send an email with a list of folks, there had to have been a better way to handle it.

Anyone else in this situation?

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