Team Double Click? Do it or not?

[gail2005]

Here's the email I received from Jim Buske from Team Double-Click. I suppose with the clarification on the Contractor Agreement, it would be okay to work for them. But, I think I'm still going to pass. The oddness with the Contractor Agreement--and the fact that they want ME to call THEM on a told number to interview... No, too much junk with this one. Let me know if you can't see his responses in blue.
TTYL,
Gail

<table ="messageer" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><t><tr><td ="label" nowrap="nowrap">From:</td><td>"Jim Buske" &lt;jimbuske@teamdoubleclick.com&gt;Add to Address BookAdd Mobile Alert </td></tr>
<tr><td ="label" nowrap="nowrap">To:</td><td>"'Gail Schultz'" &lt;inkonthemap@yahoo.com&gt;</td></tr>
<tr><td ="label" nowrap="nowrap">Subject:</td><td> RE: Call for: people to answer phones and take caller information</td></tr>
<tr><td ="label" nowrap="nowrap">Date:</td><td> Wed, 8 Feb 2006 13:00:30 -0600</td></tr>
</t></table>
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<x link="blue" vlink="blue" lang="EN-US">

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Gail,</span></font>

See below in blue</span></font></span></font>





Best Regards,</span></font>

<u1ersonname u2:st="on">Jim Buske</span></font></u1ersonname>

jimbuske@teamdoubleclick.com
</span></font>

www.teamdoubleclick.com </span></font>

P: 888-827-9129</span></font>

F: 262-364-3022</span></font>

We’re here for you…..virtually!</span></font>





<div ="Msonormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">

<hr ="-1" align="center" size="2" width="100%">

</span></font>

From:</span></font> Gail Schultz
[mailto:inkonthemap@yahoo.com]

Sent:</span> Wednesday, February 08, 2006
10:34 AM

To:</span> Jim Buske

Subject:</span> RE: Call for: people to
answer phones and take caller information</span></font>



</span></font>

Hi Jim,



I have been reviewing the duties and obligations involved in working for Team
Double-Click, including the Contractor Agreement. Before I can move forward, I
need clarification on item 2, Compensation, and in particular the last
paragraph:



</span></font>"Moreover, the parties agree that any bill to a
client of Team Double-Click that remains unpaid after sixty (60) days from the
invoice date will be turned over to collections and that contractor shall
forfeit his or her payment on said work."</span></font></span>



So, even if you are successful in collections, the contractor
isn't paid for his/her work? This means if we don’t get paid, then you don’t
get paid. </span></font></span>



"In the event Company is unable to collect a bill,
Company reserves the right to deduct the entire amount of the bill from
contractor’s future compensation. Contractor’s responsibility to
repay the amount of any uncollected bills shall survive the termination of this
Agreement." This
means if we had already paid you, then we could deduct the amount paid to you
from future amounts. You are not liable for the amount that should be paid by
the client. </span></font></span>



This sounds like the contractor would be liable for bills owed
to you, Team Double-Click, in the event that the client didn't want to pay? You are not liable. </span></font></span>



I can not agree to these statements as written without further
explanation. I
understand. We have had one client in the last 3 years that these terms were
applied to. It was only for one week’s worth of work and amounted to
$45.00 to the contractor. Please let me know what you decide.</span></font></span>



Sincerely,</span>

Gail Schultz</span></span></font>

[Mom in Nevada]

Gail,


Wow, I was able to read his responses in the email, you are right it does appear that he has explained what the meaning in the last paragraph of #2 Compensation means, but if I understood what I had read in that agreement, you don't get paid until the employer pays Team DoubleClick, so I am not sure how they think you might get over paid.


I completely understand your caution. Thanks for posting their response. It's interesting![img]smileys/smiley17.gif[/img]

[virtualstaffing]

Good morning,


My name is Gayle Buske and I'm the President and CEO of Team Double-Click, Inc. There seems to be some confusion about how our company works. It's really too bad though that none of you just came and asked! Anyway, I'm here to clear up your questions and guesses.


With regards to our contract and the one clause that someone pulled out of context. As a virtual staffing company we match clients with our contractors.When a client does not pay their bill with Team Double-Click we immediately notify the VA to stopperforming any tasks for that client because their pay is no good. The clause is in the contract as a safe guard for us in case that VA decides to ignore that stop order and continue working. It's happened before and wecan't be held liable when someone continues working for a clientwhose money is no good. We need to protect ourselves too!


Interviews - yes, anyone who wants to work with our company needs to call in at a mutually agreeable interview time. Where have you ever worked that you didn't have to get your own self to the interview? We interview 100's of VA's to see who has what it takes to work with our clients. We're not going to provide an 800# to call in on - it's your job to get to the interview and at your own expense. Anything else would be like going to a bricks and mortar office and expecting them to hand you 5 bucks when you walked in the door to pay you back for gas. Preposterous!


I hope this answers your questions and if you have any others feel free to ask. We are a legitimate company and we don't have anything to hide. And we're not all that scary or unapproachable either! If you take the time to work with us and get to know us you'll find that we treat our contractors very well. In fact, last week alone we paid out over 100 hours in core staff time JUST to work with, coach, and help our contractors. That's time that our core staff spent working with our VA's to help them in their work.


BUT, we do interview and test rigorously to find THE best virtual assistants for our clients. Offering second rate service to those clients would put us out of business so hopefully you can understand our caution. We turn down about 70% of the people who interview with us because they do not meet our standards or those of our clients. If we allow poor VA's to service our clients it gives the industry a black eye and would leave no clients willing to work with you good VA's.

[gail2005]

Hi Gayle,<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />


Someone did come and ask… me. I emailed Jim Buske and had my questions answered. The particular clause of the contract wasn’t pulled out of context. I had the same questions after reading the entire contract a number of times as I would’ve had reading just that paragraph.


This forum is a place where we exchange information, vent frustration, encourage each other and, yes, bat preposterous ideas back and forth. I don’t recall anyone saying anything about TDC being either unapproachable or anything other than a legitimate company.


Thanks for your input, no matter how defensively put.


Gail

[Mom in Nevada]

[img]smileys/smiley32.gif[/img]Well put Gail! I did read the contract, I didn't not contact the company to inquire because I thought that the contract was pretty straight forward, I just wasn't willing to accept the terms.


I read back over this thread and I don't think anyone called TDC a scam or accused them of anything. The contract protects them and that's understandable. I just saw that there were terms in the contract that I couldn't agree to.


You are right on about this forum and what we do here as well. Kudos to you for that too! These kind of forums as invaluable to VA's to inquire, vent, research and just talk. You fit in like a glove!![img]smileys/smiley20.gif[/img]

[alwayz2bize]

I work for Team Double Click and have been a VA with them since September of last year. They are a reputable company and very much team oriented.

The do have a rigorous screening process to accept what they feel is the best...their clients expect no less.

I currently have two clients with them andlove what I do! My pay is there when it is supposed to be, I can IM or email and get a response immediately if there is an issue and they are just plain, down to earth folks with some business sense they successfully applied to their VA staffing agency.

[michellch1]

FYI, I, too, work for TDC. They are great. I highly recommend them. There is not cost to apply, test or train with them. They pay weekly via Paypal with no issues. The people are friendly and helpful. It's a great company!

[elwardd]

http://www.grittyva.com/2009/03/06/t...g-wrong-wrong/

Please see this article. Note the information from Brandon - a former TDC "employee."

[lilymom]

Originally Posted by virtualstaffing

Good morning,

With regards to our contract and the one clause that someone pulled out of context. As a virtual staffing company we match clients with our contractors.When a client does not pay their bill with Team Double-Click we immediately notify the VA to stopperforming any tasks for that client because their pay is no good. The clause is in the contract as a safe guard for us in case that VA decides to ignore that stop order and continue working. It's happened before and wecan't be held liable when someone continues working for a clientwhose money is no good. We need to protect ourselves too!

Actually it was taken out of context in that it was incomplete. The entire text of the terms is available at https://secure.teamdoubleclick.com/Registration/ (scroll down), but the paragraph discussed above that was only partially posted is here:

"Moreover, the parties agree that any bill to a client of Team Double-Click® that remains unpaid after sixty (60) days from the invoice date will be turned over to collections and that the Independent Contractor shall forfeit his or her payment on said work. In the event Company is unable to collect the bill, Company reserves the right to deduct the entire amount of the bill from Independent Contractor’s future compensation. Independent Contractor’s responsibility to repay the amount of any uncollected bills shall survive the termination of this Agreement."

The above clearly states that the contractor will not receive payment at all on outstanding invoice after 60 days and that if the company is unable to collect on the bill, the Contractor will be billed for noncollectable amounts from their future compensation. There is no provision that contractor will be paid if monies are ever collected after the 60 days, so if they collect the contractor simply does not get paid?? This says absolutely nothing about stopping work because the client said to - it simply says that if the client doesn't pay, the contractor pays the bill for them.

Why on earth would ANYONE agree to such terms? Why would the contractor be responsible for payment of a bill incurred by a client that was supposedly VETTED by the Company?

When I subcontract for businesses or vice versa, which is what this essentially is, my subs (or myself) are paid directly whether or not the person contracting ever gets paid. Period. If TDC pays for the service to the contractor, the contractor is subbing and does not work directly for the client.

Very interesting discussion and surprising that people are willing to do it, but some will and that is their choice. If it works for them, then so be it, but I am a business person that wants to run my own business, not be at the mercy of another person dictating my time and the terms. That's why I own my own business. I set the time, the terms and the fees. Not negotiable and it works and has worked very successfully for many years now.

[S.Dz]

More former "contractor" stories

Former extra insight

It's amazing what you can find with a simple search on google.

Based on what I've read here and on the two sites I'm sharing, I've decided to pass and look elsewhere.