Hired by John to subcontract work out for this company (which he likes to position as his own employees through his clever naming conventions) I was paid to manage a large paid advertising campaign for a mobile app marketing company they do work for under the premise I would be paid $20 / hr for such services. How stupid was myself for agreeing to this as you will learn despite it being a good learning experience overall.
Upon initially engaging with John, John had strongly pushed for myself to agree to do net 30 billing terms with his very shady organization which I initially declined for due to no apparent billing history I could find. I had renegotiated with John to work on the oDesk contracting site to ensure I would get paid for such work (or so I thought).
My nightmare started recently when I was awarded a contract through another client and needed to cut back my work schedule with the company. Upon notifying John and what seems like his only real employee and general point of contact/project manager Dana Scherzi about my desire to transition out of the part time role due to general rate hikes, I had quite the backlash from their company.
I originally did offer to continue our contract through the oDesk platform at my new higher rate of $75 / hr by which the owner of this company John, felt was grossly not worth any account managers time that he hires. After being with this company for a couple months, I then agreed to disagree and attempted to end our contract civially by offering to train my replacement free of chage, take on any phone conferences until a switch was being made in management, and to answer any pending questions on what I have done for the company for the end of time. John and Dana however were jelous and greedy about the situation and mandated I could not increase my rates and would not end our contract on good terms unless I agreed to work at our original agreed upon rate for an undisclosed amount of time without further rebuttal. ***This is a warning for offering a low starting rate on any contract for any of you contractors that are trying to build a reputation online doing so, vulture companies like this one will not let go of you.
Even depite this terrible closure with the company, working with the organization had been demoralizing as John was totally incompetent in managing marketing for this well respected and primary client obfuscating the truth on mutiple occasions and implicating me in such activity which I am glad to be completely done with now.
No where in our contract was there anything stated regarding the contact lasting any finte amount of time, nor that rates could be adjusted. There were however clauses in the contract which stated I had no recourse preventing such ridiculous action against myself so this type of activity could thrive. Check your contracts with this company, and please do not sign them whatever you do.
So in summary of this notification of closure with the company, the return thanks John has provided myself in terms of hands free PPC account management service was in the form of a official clawback on funds paid (thankfully just 1 week time or roughly $400, the maximum amount he could successful get away with) and an official publication on his part warning others not to hire me (feedback extortion) despite admiting that I had met all contractual obligations thus far in private. According to John, all I must have done to prevent this was to contact him direct which in fact is almost impossible to do direct due to is general absense in nature and terrible management style but did indeed happen as well despite his allegations otherwise. Even worse than this, there was fradulent claims made to the contracting site oDesk itself stating work submitted was unverfiable thereby creating libel acts agains myself which enabled the payment clawback. If a rebuttal from John refutes this, I will be providing screenshots that proves this fact.
Do not do business as a contractor with this company, and do not accept his net 30 terms offering (funny I know bitcoins! as that is an option to do business with this company).
Marketing Operatives, LLC Reviews
Hired by John to subcontract work out for this company (which he likes to position as his own employees through his clever naming conventions) I was paid to manage a large paid advertising campaign for a mobile app marketing company they do work for under the premise I would be paid $20 / hr for such services. How stupid was myself for agreeing to this as you will learn despite it being a good learning experience overall.
Upon initially engaging with John, John had strongly pushed for myself to agree to do net 30 billing terms with his very shady organization which I initially declined for due to no apparent billing history I could find. I had renegotiated with John to work on the oDesk contracting site to ensure I would get paid for such work (or so I thought).
My nightmare started recently when I was awarded a contract through another client and needed to cut back my work schedule with the company. Upon notifying John and what seems like his only real employee and general point of contact/project manager Dana Scherzi about my desire to transition out of the part time role due to general rate hikes, I had quite the backlash from their company.
I originally did offer to continue our contract through the oDesk platform at my new higher rate of $75 / hr by which the owner of this company John, felt was grossly not worth any account managers time that he hires. After being with this company for a couple months, I then agreed to disagree and attempted to end our contract civially by offering to train my replacement free of chage, take on any phone conferences until a switch was being made in management, and to answer any pending questions on what I have done for the company for the end of time. John and Dana however were jelous and greedy about the situation and mandated I could not increase my rates and would not end our contract on good terms unless I agreed to work at our original agreed upon rate for an undisclosed amount of time without further rebuttal. ***This is a warning for offering a low starting rate on any contract for any of you contractors that are trying to build a reputation online doing so, vulture companies like this one will not let go of you.
Even depite this terrible closure with the company, working with the organization had been demoralizing as John was totally incompetent in managing marketing for this well respected and primary client obfuscating the truth on mutiple occasions and implicating me in such activity which I am glad to be completely done with now.
No where in our contract was there anything stated regarding the contact lasting any finte amount of time, nor that rates could be adjusted. There were however clauses in the contract which stated I had no recourse preventing such ridiculous action against myself so this type of activity could thrive. Check your contracts with this company, and please do not sign them whatever you do.
So in summary of this notification of closure with the company, the return thanks John has provided myself in terms of hands free PPC account management service was in the form of a official clawback on funds paid (thankfully just 1 week time or roughly $400, the maximum amount he could successful get away with) and an official publication on his part warning others not to hire me (feedback extortion) despite admiting that I had met all contractual obligations thus far in private. According to John, all I must have done to prevent this was to contact him direct which in fact is almost impossible to do direct due to is general absense in nature and terrible management style but did indeed happen as well despite his allegations otherwise. Even worse than this, there was fradulent claims made to the contracting site oDesk itself stating work submitted was unverfiable thereby creating libel acts agains myself which enabled the payment clawback. If a rebuttal from John refutes this, I will be providing screenshots that proves this fact.
Do not do business as a contractor with this company, and do not accept his net 30 terms offering (funny I know bitcoins! as that is an option to do business with this company).