I worked as an independent contractor for the FXI Corporation in the Washington DC area for six months. They are a dispatcher for DSL installations on behalf of Qwest, AOL as well as other ISP's. My contract with them was for payment "net 30" and I billed them monthly.
At first they were slow to pay and then they got very far behind in a hurry. I ceased working for them because of their multiple invoices in arrears. They still owe me for December thru March. A whopping $5665.00 worth of work.
I tried the diplomatic approach and that yielded little. Lots of "the checks in the mail" and that sort of stuff. My calls to them increased but they were getting further behind rather than caught up. My "Request for Payment" letters changed to "Formal Demand for Payment of Arrears" letters.
They responded by offering to pay me in 20 days if I would settle for 70% of what they owed me and I likened this to extortion. I declined their offer since they had blatantly lied to me about payments in the past. I saw this as an opportunity to get me to agree to these new terms and still not pay in a timely manner.
Naturally they feel safe since they are in Houston and I'm way up in Maryland. I can't easily go camp on their doorstep till I get paid! They know that lawyers and debt collectors are expensive.
My latest "Demand for Payment" letter indicated that I would be forwarding the matter to an attorney if they didn't pay up and now they won't take my calls because they say it's a legal matter.
A quick Google search of "FXI Broadband" took me to a Rants and Raves forum of www.broadbandreports.com. Now I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Apparently there are many others who were victims of the FXI Corporation. I was not alone! I've talked to another guy from Indiana and they owe him about the same amount they owe me.
I noticed they have job postings on HotJobs.com as of 5-23-03. Anybody naive as I was is certainly setting himself or herself up for disaster! Caution, danger, peligro.
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