Hi everyone, just wanted to share a little story and have a bit of a vent. I run a small engineering company that designs tools for making waterproof cables. Recently, an overseas customer (I’m in the UK; they’re in the UAE) approached me about creating a bespoke version of one of my standard products.

I worked with their engineer to finalise the specifications, and things were going smoothly until I got handed off to their procurement team to onboard my company. That’s when the headaches began. After completing endless forms on quality and compliance, we hit a sticking point: payment terms.

My policy is proforma on first orders and net 30 thereafter, but they insisted on net 60. While I could live with net 60 for a standard product, this was a custom design, meaning I’d be carrying all the upfront costs and risk, paying my suppliers long before seeing a penny.

After endless back-and-forth discussions, the best compromise they offered was net 30—but that was still a stretch for the custom work involved. They’re a massive subsea services multinational (ironically, I used to work for their UK division), and the £2,000 value of the order was insignificant to them. In the end, I decided this wasn’t a good fit and told them I wouldn’t be proceeding with the order.

I feel good about my decision—it would’ve been a stressful experience, and there was a real risk I might never get paid.

Does anyone else have stories about dealing with big companies trying to put the squeeze on the little guy?