Fired? Ouch...

[christent04]

LOL @ AG1976. That's what I thought too. ;-) I would send her an email, telling her that since she has not paid for the articles that you are selling them and she doesn't have the right to use them. Period.

[shan90805]

LOL AG1976 :-) That was funny!

Since I had told her I needed to receive payment by 12noon Wednesday, yesterday a little after 12noon PST I emailed her to let her know I published the articles elsewhere, and she should not use them. They are actually posted to my Squidoo account, so they should be indexed fairly quickly, and I have a record of when they were first published :-D

I'm happy I'm not waiting to receive payment from this client. In fact, I'm happy I don't even have to think about this client anymore. What a weight off my shoulders, and it leaves more time for stress free, fast paying wiseGEEK writing. Of course DS is the second option, but is much more intense because of the format requirements; however, I did grab a couple of $20 lists, so I have some time to work on those, too.

Thank you all for the great advice. You guys (gals) made me smile when I felt like crap.

[shan90805]

I recently got a squidoo comment on this article which prompted me to Google it....low and behold it was posted on one other site. She actually did give the article to her client and did not pay me. I found an email for said client and advised him of the copyright infringement. I requested he either pay me for the article or remove it, and I gave him five days to respond. This is day four, and here is his response:


Thank you for your email. Sorry for the delay in replying.

I have to say that I am really disappointed. Not with you, don't worry. I recently paid to have some content produced for the site and that was one of 10 articles purchased from a specialised outsourcer. The outsourcer has actually only delivered 4 articles and now it turns out that 1 is a copy and paste job. So I'm rather disappointed. Obviously.

Looking at the articles, they do look to be strikingly similar, even though I deliberately altered the article before I posted it, just in case it wasn't unique. And if my memory is correct, I did not even hire the outsourcer until after the date you appear to have posted it on.

I am very sorry about this and I shall remove the content this evening when I have returned from work.

Yours,



I am sure this is not the usual response. Most website owners would probably have ignored my request, but I am happy this came out as it has. Said specialised outsourcer should be ashamed of herself. I hope she reads this thread. Hey, I think I will email it to her. If she hasn't already blocked my emails that is.

Cheers WAHMs

[shan90805]

Said outsourcer just sent me this email:

That's not going to work, trying to get my client to pay you separately. I have the proof that you accepted the job to write the stock exchange articles for this client. You can't pretend that they are yours, or were copyrighted. Everyone knows you were one of my writers. You will get nowhere with your threats. Nice try but it's not your article and you are the one in copyright infringement.


SOME PEOPLE...

I had not even gotten the chance to email her this thread, oh well. My response to said outsourcer:

It's not yours until you pay for it. I am a paralegal. Try me.

[shan90805]

So here is her last response with mine to follow. Any other emails from her will go straight to trash.

SHE:
I paid you for everything you did for me. And third parties are not responsible. You wrote that article for ME, not for my client. It was brokered and is NOT between you and my client. Look up your laws. And a paralegal is basically a secretary.

ME:
That just shows how little you know.

[bloggergirl]

Wow!! I would ask her to provide proof of payment, because she can't. But you know what they say, the more you stir an old terd the worse it smells. That's my grandma's favorite saying.

[AG1976]

If she didn't pay you for the article, then NO, it's not hers. She is so unprofessional and unethical!

Have you tried contacting Angela Hoy at Writer's Weekly? She is very effective in getting deadbeat clients to pay up. It sounds like the person who bought the articles from that woman isn't happy with her either, and he will probably back you up.

Good luck! I hope no one else here is unfortunate enough to land this woman for a client. She sounds horrid.

[shan90805]

@bloggergirl I love that saying! Thanks for sharing it. Now my dh gets to hear something new!

@AG1976 I haven't contacted Angela Hoy, I was just going to write this off. I am especially disappointed because I was hired from this board by said outsourcer. Blah.

She told her client it was a misunderstanding and that she paid for the articleS and now he wants me to take down my squidoo pageS. I explained to him that she did not pay for either article, and in fact fired me saying the second article was sub par and she WOULD NOT be paying me for it. I forwarded her emails to him to back up my story.

[shan90805]

As an aside, I am certain she is reading this thread even though I did not email it to her.

I did contact Angela Hoy, and she gave me some great advice. I also sent off a C & D letter to the website owner offering my attorney's info should they choose to handle this through the legal system.

I hate having to revisit this situation with this ex client again, but I can't just lay out there like a doormat and get stepped on either. Insulting emails aside, illegal is illegal. I do hope the website owner takes down copyrighted material, but if not, DMCA here we come.

[AG1976]

Oh good, I'm glad that Angela was able to help!