Creatures Boutique, Hovercraft, Millipede, Laura Maxwell
Illegal Business Practices And Failure To Pay For Goods Failure to take taxes out or claim me as an employee resulting in a long battle fighting for unemployment

I worked for Creatures Boutique for about a year and a half. I never did anything wrong, in fact I went above and beyond their expectations. I worked overtime, I came in on days off, I even came in early and stayed late. My employment began July and I was officially fired on October 2nd.

I was a favored, trustworthy employee, they were even talking about making me a manager of all the stores. On September 26th I was working from 10am to 4pm. While I was working I started to feel the symptoms of my endometriosis kicking in, a condition that was newly acquired in the past 3 months. I was having trouble standing, and I was in a lot of pain, so I would briefly talk to another employee about it to try to get my mind off of it, and I didn't know what else to do. 4pm rolled around and it was time for me to leave. When I got home that night my condition worsened, and by the next morning I knew I could not go to work. I texted and called both owners several times, not once ever hearing back from them. Later in the day I spoke to the employee I had been working with the day before and she told me that they started talking shit about me and my medical condition after I left. They were saying I self diagnose and that nothing is wrong with me, that I was being too chatty, and me and her were not allowed to work together anymore. After I heard that they were talking shit about me I texted both of them and said "If you have a problem with me, or feel I have done something wrong, I would appreciate if you would talk to me and not all the other employees about it." They still had not called me back from that morning. Finally Monday rolled around and I was able to work, I went in and worked and did exactly what I was supposed to for 3 days, on the third day both of the owners, Laura Maxwell and Cory White, came in and told me we had to talk. I agreed that we had to talk. We sat down in the store and Laura proceeded to say "We know you are looking for another job" and I said "Yes, I'm seeing what is out there, but I am not quitting yet and I will give you notice because I'm not looking to screw you over, but I'm not happy about things that have been going on here." Laura proceeded to talk to me like she was firing me, so eventually I asked her if she was and she responded with "No, you quit." I told her I did not quit, I never said that. She then threatened me telling me if I wasn't going to quit then she was going to drastically cut my hours. They then sent me home early.

They proceeded to schedule me 3 days out of the entire month, these 3 days were days that I had requested off in writing. I kept calling to try to get them to fix the schedule, I was trying to work.in this time period I had also filed for unemployment for loss of hours. I went from 40 to 4.

On October 2nd Laura Maxwell called me and officially fired me. I then called unemployment to change my status to unemployed. I got the papers in the mail a few days later saying I had made $0 in each quarter, this wasn't correct, I had worked there for a year and a half! I called them back and was crying on the phone about it, so he got the tax department involved to do an investigation. Two weeks later that paper came back with $0 again, because they could not get ahold of Laura Maxwell. Finally I had to appeal in writing, and a phone hearing was set.

We had the phone hearing on November 13th, and I found out the next day that I had won. During the hearing Laura lied saying I was a contract worker, which is obviously not true at all.

While this was all going on I had texted Laura about 10 times asking for copies of my itemized time sheets from the past year. I needed them as evidence for the phone hearing, and she also owes me about 7 months of overtime pay that is owed to me. Each time I texted her she never responded.

She started calling former employees, that are friends of mine, and telling lies about me, such as that I was harassing her so much that she had to get a restraining order against me, and that she was suing me for harassment. She's been telling these people all this bad stuff about me that isn't true, to try to make me look bad, and her look good. Luckily these people know that she is crazy, and that I am doing nothing wrong. But now I have to worry about her suing me for some frivilous case that is bullshit.

I still haven't gotten my unemployment, it has been 6 weeks and I am still waiting. I have no money, cannot find a job, and to top it all off I am pregnant, and they won't stop trying to make my life a living hell.
I filed a complaint with the IRS for tax fraud because they refused to put me, and every other employee on the books. They are no paying taxes on anyone, and they are not paying unemployment tax, or anything at all! I heard from an inside source that to this day they still are not claiming any employees at all.

This whole thing is bullshit, and they are trying to keep me from the money I deserve, and they are trying to take away my sanity, and somehow still are able to run a business illegally. I just don't get it. I'm going to keep fighting until I get the money that is mine.

Also, from working there for a year and a half, I know from lots of companies, mostly small independent designers, that they do not pay their bills. They have owed people thousands of dollars for several years and they totally ignore them. It's total bullshit. They are greedy people and all they care about it money for themselves.

Company: Creatures Boutique, Hovercraft, Millipede, Laura Maxwell
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Austin
Address: 1206 South Congress
Phone: 5127072500

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