As many others have reported, Joe Nerd does not pay its bills. We were contacted by someone who used to dispatch for a company that we did work for. Since we had always been paid, we performed over $2000 worth of work for them in about 2 weeks. This was primarily Rite Aid stores. Joe Nerd says it is out of Florida. The company that we were calling to get our approval codes was called Velocity and said they were in Ohio. We were installing DSL modems, routers, and sometimes kiosks for the Photo Department in RITE-AID stores.
Joe Nerd was all over us e-mailing and calling at all hours and requiring a lot of work on Sundays. They bugged us multiple times for the same approval codes.
The last few stores we found that Rite Aid store techs were doing the installs before we got there. Joe Nerd said it was just because the ISP was behind getting the circuits in so Rite Aid techs were installing wireless and turning them up. Also, that they were getting so many, that if joe Nerd couldn't get out right away, they were being redispatched with Joe Nerd behing notified.
Seemed plausible.
We sent them our invoices and one of my accounting staff worked with someone there back and forth to make sure all the invoices were accurate and that everyone's records matched.
Then silence.
Then I get this letter 10 days ago:
From: Clarence Williams - President [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, July 18 1:10 AM
To:
Subject: Your Payments from JOE NERD
You are receiving this email because you recently performed work for Joe Nerd on the Velocity / Rite Aid project. As you may already be aware, there has been a significant delay in processing payments to technicians who performed work on this project and we at Joe Nerd have been working diligently to resolve the problem.
Like many start-up companies, Joe Nerd, in recent months has experienced tremendous growing pains. While some would presume this kind of growth to be a positive and welcomed trend; rapid growth can in fact cripple a new company by way of disproportionate increases in operating costs and lack of adequate infrastructure and management.
We want to re-assure our technicians that we are aware of the financial strain caused by this delay in payment and we welcome the opportunity to work together with you to make you whole again.
It is worth noting that, as of July 5th, Joe Nerd is under new management and we have implemented new business practices to ensure that a delay in payment to technicians never happens again.
Next week, we will begin distributing Nerdy Work MasterCard debit cards, at no cost to our technicians, to facilitate next business day payment on completed service requests. All Joe Nerd dispatched service requests are now backed by funds held in escrow to be released upon verified completion of service. Additionally, any technicians who are owed a past due payment will be paid an extra 10% on top of the agreed service rate for future tickets until paid in full.
If you performed work for Joe Nerd prior to July 5th and have not yet received payment I ask that you please respond to this email indicating the amount you are owed to date, your name, phone number and accounts receivable address and how and when I can reach you to discuss this matter with you personally.
I wish to thank you for your hard work. I realize that our success depends on good techs like yourself and I hope you will bear with us as we close this chapter and join the hundreds of technicians who are already enjoying the NEW Joe Nerd experience!
Sincerely,
Clarence Williams
JOE NERD LLC
So I respond to accounting and to his e-mail with the information.
Silence.
Silence.
I have received no communication at all from them. Not from dispatch staff or accounting or this President. You'd think if this was on the up and up that they would still try and get us to do work.
I hunted around the Internet and found MANY complaints from individual techs and small shops.
My tech who did all this work spent a lot of time away from his pregnant wife to do this and he needs that $2,000 to pay medical expenses. Since the pay was so low and my tech really needed it, I took about $2 per call on these jobs. My overhead with billing and accounting has been huge. Even if I get paid in full, I still lose money.
I have notified my lawyer and am going to try and get my money through collections or any legal means I can.
I strongly urge techs to stay away from these guys. At least until techs are reporting that Joe Nerd has their house cleaned up and is a respectable organization.
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