Pixelfish, who hires subcontractors for yellowbook.com video shoots has owed me for 2 shoots
I have done for them following all instructions and meeting all requirements. They are now
six months behind on paying me and do not care. The last message, below mine I received
from the CEO was April 15, 2009. I beg of all of you to not accept jobs from them and
spread the word quickly so that none of you get into this or a similar situation.
Below is the last two correspondences I had with the company, beginning with mine.
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Sent April 10, 2009:
John, although I appreciate a response from your company regarding the $400 you initially
owed me, I do not find your answers acceptable.
Let me explain. The first job I ever shot for your company was November 6, 2008. I did
everything according to the directions sent to me. I waited patiently for over a month
without any communication. Soon I saw the client's finished ad on their yellowbook page,
here:
http://www.yellowbook.com/profile/loan-finder_1821294083.html?addressId=1
After waiting a bit longer, on January 22, 2009 I sent my first inquiry about payment.Â
Along with all the information about the client and shoot I wrote "Please advise why this
has taken so long. I have another shoot for your company tomorrow and I am not very
confident that I will be paid for either job at this point.
Thanks!"
The response was:
"I apologize for the delay in payment ~ but for some reason I do not have the invoice copy.Â
I have copied Lilly so she may provide a copy or if it is easier for you, please re-send it
so I can get you in the system for payment. I will contact you once I have received the
invoice to provide a payment date. Thank you for your patience
Happy New Year!
Claudia Thatcher
Operations Manager"
On January 28, 2009 I still had heard nothing so I resent the invoice and got this reply:
"Thanks Matthew I will get it processed and let you know when I will be releasing payment to
you.Â
 Happy New Year!
Claudia Thatcher
Operations Manager"
I patiently waited until February 25th, 2009 when I sent my first copy of the following
message:
 "Hi Claudia. I have still not been paid or even heard any updates from you concerning this
shoot which was November 6, 2008, 4 months ago. Again, the clip has been done almost 2
months now and can be seen here:
http://www.yellowbook.com/profile/loan-finder_1821294083.html?addressId=1
Then, on good faith alone, I went out and did a second job for your company. When Lilly
asked me to step up and get it to you right away, I did. Your company had my second shoot
edited and on the advertisers page within a week. I however have heard nothing.
http://www.yellowbook.com/profile/cowan-wesley-cosmetic-and-family-dentistry_1820189360.html?addressId=1
Your company owes me for 2 separate shoots. It is unacceptable that 1 of them is over 4
months past and I have heard nothing from you.
Please let me know that I am actually going to get paid for these jobs. The treatment and
communication so far has been very poor.
Looking forward to your reply."
Nothing. No response. I resent the same message March 9, 2009 and got a response:
"Matthew â??
I am hoping to release payment today and am reviewing payables this morning. I will provide
an update before the end of today
Thanks
Claudia Thatcher
Operations Manager"
April 3, 2009 I sent the message a third time. Then I received this reply:
'Matthew â??
I apologize for the delay~ our CEO will be contacting you regarding the payment status as my
role has shifted and I will no longer be handling the payables.
I will be sure to send him a message to contact you ASAP.
Thank you for your patience.
Claudia"
On April 7, 2009 I still had no reply from anyone so I finally threatened to write about
your company and it's horrible service and lack of payment and communication on a very
popular message board with videographers. Suddenly, I get a reply from you, the CEO.
Now, on to your message I received 5 months after my first job for your company, and 3
months after I first inquired about payment.
You write "We have finally begun to recover from an unexpected number of customers and
partners failing to pay for work we delivered. Our new Accounting Manager, Cheryl Aken,
starts next week and will be working diligently to get everyone paid as quickly as we
receive payments from our customers and partners."
This information should not have any effect on the work I have done for you. Both shoots I
did, the final videos are up on the yellowbook site. I have to make the assumption you
wouldn't release a final video to a client without payment in full. If you would, I see the
first major flaw in your business model.
Assuming you must have been paid for specifically the jobs I shot for you, I see no reason
as to why I have to worry about your other clients not paying you.
Next, you write: "Regarding your account specifically, a payment of $200 is scheduled to be
sent by the end of this month. If we receive funds enabling us to send payment sooner, we
will notify you immediately."
This is a problem. This is 100% unacceptable, and as a CEO of a business, you know it. If
this situation were reversed, not only would your company be after me for payment, you would
have tacked on late fees and interest. I am going to attach a new invoice to this email
with a $100 late payment fee attached to it. That is a fair way to conduct business and you
know you would have done the same, probably only after a month after the promised and
contracted payment date.
After some fluff about how Lilly thinks I'm great, you continue: "Again, I sincerely
apologize for any negative impact the delay in payment has caused you. We are committed to
righting the situation as soon as possible and greatly appreciate your continued patience."
If you are committed to "righting the situation as soon as possible" you would not be
offering my half of what you owe me 5 months late, " by the end of this month".
The next message I receive from you, or anyone in your company needs to include that you
have already sent my payment in full, without a post-dated check, within one week from right
now, or I am posting this entire exchange on several videographer message boards.Â
You know that I am in the right in this situation and it is now up to you to correct it.
I look forward to your reply.
-------------------------------------------------
Reply April 15, 2009:
Matt,
Thank you for your message. I empathize with your frustration as we are in a similar spot
with our own customers and I apologize for any unfulfilled â??promisesâ?? by our accounting team
that you highlighted in your message. We mistakenly made payment commitments based on our
own customersâ?? promises to pay us for work completed. I hope you understand that we never
intentionally misled you but simply made commitments we should not have.
I hope you also understand that if we were in the position to pay you in full, we would have
already done so. Whether a project you shot paid us or not has no bearing on our ability to
pay you. Iâ??m sure you are aware that businesses donâ??t keep separate cash accounts for every
customer, but rather manage the incoming and outgoing payments as a whole.  As to your
assumption that we receive payment before delivering video, that is usually the case. But
major partners like Yellowbook have negotiated different terms and currently are paying us
about 40 days after the video is delivered (well after it is already â??liveâ??). However, many
other customers and partners have simply halted projects or failed to pay altogether which
has unfortunately put us behind on payments to vendors.Â
 I know none of this information helps you pay your own bills, but please understand we have
been burned by customers promising to pay us but donâ??t, which leads us to break promises
made to you and others. It is my goal to have you paid in full by the end of April as Lilly
has identified you as a high priority, but I am hesitant to make a firm commitment due to
the desire to avoid the same issue of making a commitment we are unable to fulfill. I
appreciate your request for full payment immediately, but unfortunately I am unable to
increase the amount we can pay you as we simply donâ??t have the funds to do so.
You are of course free to post this exchange on any message board you like, but I hope you
see that we are doing our best to fulfill our commitment to you.
Â
Regards,
John McIntyre
CEO
