I came across an ad for Natha Communications when they were searching for social media help. Upon meeting with Nicole Lonette Carter, I was given a test assignment, at an agreed upon $1,000. At the time Nicole asked me if I could get it done within 2 weeks, and asked me to sign a contract.
The contract stipulated that payment would be within 30 days after the project was approved.
After working with Nicole for over two months, constantly waiting for her to send additional information, graphics, to schedule phone calls, etc. On August 4th, she stated she still had a couple of questions, but would approve the project and send for payment.
I wrote her twice in August asking if I should be looking for the payment in the mail, because I was moving to another state and wanted to make sure I did not miss it. She did not respond until early September. She called and left a message available at (insert link) promising the payment was in queue with other freelancers and would be paid at some point in the next two weeks. At this point she also indicated that it had yet to be approved, and payment was to be paid once they payment was approved by the appropriate department, and due to the contract they had 30 business days to pay after this.
When I went back to the contract it did indeed say 30 business days, which she could have told me in the beginning when I asked her about payment because I was moving to another state 1,500 miles away.instead, she neglected to point this out, I am assuming because at some point, she thought she would pay the invoice.
With that said, by this point, 30 business days from August 4th, when she initially approved payment was only 3 days away. The contract never indicated there was an additional person that needed to approve the payment, just that when the project was finished they had 30 business days.
Once the 2 weeks was up, from when she promised the payment would be received, I sent her an email imploring her to send payment, that she had promised such, and since our work had ended over 6 weeks ago, it was time. I should also say that the only reason it took so long to close the project was because she constantly put it off, promising a phone call early next week, then waiting for the following Friday to call to make an appointment that she often did not keep. Our project could have closed at least 2 weeks earlier.
At this point, when I emailed her imploring her to pay, she wrote that she was busy for the week and would call next week about making a payment. This indicates to me her refusal to pay, especially after she told me I would get payment in August after she approved it, and then 3 weeks ago saying it would be here over a week ago, and now putting off a phone call, AGAIN.
Nicole has expressed to me that there are other departments she has to go through for a payment to be sent, but upon researching the company more, she is the owner and CEO, with no other people on file. I did look for someone else to contact within Natha Communications but have yet to find anyone else.
From my research I can see she is also partner or CEO of The Power of Diversity, The Success Empowerment Institute, and Project Diversity out of Florida. A total of 4 companies she is heading up. I just hope she isn't using these other companies to avoid making promised payments as well.
* After writing this, I made several other attempts to contact her with NO response at all.
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