I had the misfortune of encountering Doug Field of FieldMedia, Inc. During May and June. During that time, Mr. Field asked me to become his Director of Business Development for BizSitesData.com, promising me commission for sales and a $15,000 bonus, and the title of General Manager at the end of the summer. After learning a little about his company, it became clear that Mr. Field had unintentionally gutted his website when he sold an essential domain name, and that his current IT expert could not make it function any longer without some $20,000 worth of programming. Mr. Field insisted that it worked "well enough" and that the services should still be sold with the 'intention' of correcting that problem, and obsolete data in the near future.
Concurrently, Mr. Field interviewed a new sales person and decided to develop an advertisement to be delivered to Site Selection professionals under the banner of BizSitesData Solutions. He asked me not to sell in order to develop a 4 Page Brochure, and promised to give me any proceeds of the website the following month in lieu of delaying my sales efforts. I spent some 40 hours or more on the brochure, and never received the proceeds as promised.
Later, Mr. Field deprioritized that project realizing he was competing with his strategic partners and that they would frown upon his betrayal. However, Mr. Field didn't share his change in plans with me. I feel he did that in order to continue to extract work for promises from me.
At the same time Mr. Field did me the "favor" of asking me to do some "minor changes" on his Media Kit. Minor changes amounted to a revamp of 25% of the document. He told me he had asked me to do it in a different program than it was originally done in because he knew I needed income. Later it turned out that the original graphic designer had told him that she would no longer work for free for him, and that she would only provide services for payment.
Other sales people complained about Mr. Field making unfulfilled promises in order to get free sales labor. That he strung them along and delayed payment in order to keep them from quitting.
Mr. Field seemed very slippery about committing to paying me for the projects he had assigned. I had worked many hours converting documents from PDF format to Word for a trade show for him. He used those documents in several trade shows, and then tried to bundle projects, insist that I continue putting more time in on the Media Kit than I had for the "minor changes" and then refused to pay me for anything I had done "on the fly" for his assistant.
Ultimately, I put in 200 hours towards my promised bonus and position, and only received $500. Mr. Field owes me $5275 for the balance of my time, and should be investigated for his unethical business practices.
Over time it became apparent to me that Mr. Field, while touting his religiosity as proof of his integrity, he was anything but an ethical and moral man. He deliberately misrepresents the quality and functionality of his product group. He deliberately misrepresents his intentions. He makes many promises to his contractors who by all rights should be employees, and to his vendors. He will refuse to communicate once he has "used you up" and you've served your purpose.
I warn anyone and everyone about his business practices.
0 comments