I was hired to write freelance articles and blog for California Psychics in October. I wrote and submitted many articles and blogs in the next two months following. Although it took some time, the first two paychecks came approximately a month after invoice submission. I was asked by Suzanne Baran, editor, to write three specific articles. I had and submitted them along with one pitched article. No paycheck arrived.
I contacted Suzanne and she said it was sent. A few weeks later I contacted Suzanne to find out my services were no longer needed and they were changing direction in using in house writers. I was told I would be issued a kill fee for the articles that I had already written. The kill fee was for articles pitched, not for the ones that were specifically asked by her to write. Suzanne agreed to pay the money owed. When the check finally arrived, it was for the kill fees and not the amount agreed on.
When I emailed Suzanne about this she was rude and told me she made a mistake in agreeing and refuses to pay up. She criticized my work, which while working for her she had nothing but praise in all her emails regarding my work. She then sent an email where she said I agreed to the kill fee. An email she actually cut and pasted a reply out from other emails! I had all the correspondance saved and sent her the original email with her agreeing, pointing out how unprofessional she was for doing such a thing. I can't believe she actually manufactured an email to prove her lie?
When I pointed out the lie she told me our correspondance is over and my emails would go to junk mail. California Psychics only owes me $75.00 now. It may not be a windfall, but it gets us through hard times. I can't turn my back on this for two reasons. I deserve to be paid for my work, especially when I was asked to do it and to make sure this does not happen to someone else when there is more money involved.
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