In February METROMODE Magazine, owned by Bill Cameron / Cameron Ink, Inc., hired me as a freelance editor. I was assigned several tasks in April and May that were to come out in the June issue, paying $1000. I was also assigned the same Editor In Chief tasks for the August issue, also paying $1000. After several weeks of consistent follow up and unreasonable effort extended, I received payment for the June issue, but do date have not been compensated for the August issue.
Citing a PO box mix-up that had delayed receipt of advertising revenue, Mr. Cameron said he wasn't able to pay yet but would pay me as soon as he could. He also has been unable to pay my three writers for June or August a total balance of $2,225.
This was when payment was about three weeks late, and the excuses continued for the next month or so. Mr. Cameron did mention the possibility of a payment plan, but evaded any efforts to pin him down to even an initial payment, so the end result was still the same: I wasn't getting paid for the work I'd done, and I didn't have any idea of when I would be, either!
The other writers and I started collaborating, and when payment was two months late we emailed Mr. Cameron with a two-week time frame in which he needed to pay us, or we would begin filing complaints against him. At first Mr. Cameron threatened to not pay us at all if we reported him. Then he offered a payment plan, to which we responded with certain terms that would have to be met if we were to agree to a payment plan:
1. The first payment to each of us needed to be made by the deadline,
2. He needed to give us a payment schedule with firm dates and payment amounts, and
3. If he was more than two weeks late on any payment, to any one of us, we would report him as originally planned.
Initially Mr. Cameron agreed to this, but once we accepted the arrangement he quickly began backpedaling. Suddenly he couldn't possibly make the first payment by the deadline, and he flatly refused to give us any dates or amounts of future payments.
I believe that Mr. Cameron has been making up or exaggerating excuses in order to buy time and sympathy, and I suspect that if we hadn't reported him, he would have kept it up indefinitely.in fact, I am still skeptical as to whether I will ever get paid!
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