I am contacting you as my last resort with regard to obtaining money owed to me by Stylus Canada for work completed well over 6 months ago.
Brief history of how I became involved with Stylus: I ended up working with them when they scouted me from my profile on OneModelPlace.com on April 18th, 2007. I went for an interview, discussed the fact that I work a full-time 9-5 job with no intentions of quitting at that time and I was hoping to have this extra work on the side etc. which they agreed to and took me on their roster. I worked for them until September 2007 when I informed them that I could no longer continue due to the fact that the auditions etc. were beginning to interfere with my day job.
On July 18-19-20, 2007, I worked on an Industrial Commercial for OMVIC as a French Youth lead role. The wage was $500 per day for 3 days. I have yet to be paid, despite several attempts over the last 4 months.
I first attempted to retrieve payment from Stylus on October 3rd, 2007 and have continued to contact them almost weekly until last week when I finally realized that I wasn't going to get anywhere with Stylus by the current route, so on January 28th, I decided to send a written letter by courier, to let them know that I will no longer be contacting them directly with regard to this money owed. I stated that I would from this point on, pursue other means including media and/or legal proceedings (small claims etc.). I also mentioned my disappointment in the unprofessional way they were conducting themselves and that is in unfortunate that they have basically forced me to chase the money that I rightfully earned.
I am appalled at the utter unprofessionalism being displayed by this supposedly reputable agency.
It has now been 10 days since sending that letter and I have gotten no response from them whatsoever. I feel I have been left with no choice here. I have spoken to the other actor that was doing the English version of my role and he got paid months ago (He is from another agency). I am the only one who has not been paid.
They owe me $1, 500. They are supposed to get a 15% commission off of that but I don't feel that is right because I fulfilled my obligations and completed the work - they HAVE NOT done their job. The fact that I am having to go through all of this just to get paid shows how undeserving they are of a commission, but whether I can get my pay without them getting a cut or not, is another story. For now, all I want is what is owed to me. Period.
Please, please, please help..I'm at my wits end.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Below is a description of the timeline of events since I first began contacting Stylus Canada for payment:
1.October 3rd - First attempt at receiving payment :
Answer from the agent: I will speak to Ted (Ouellette) about it
Result: No further response from them until I sent another email on October 25th
2.October 30th - I finally received a reply from the Director, Thomas Tharakan, stating that he would ake care of me and that I am in good hands. He then referred me to Karen Pierce whom I called and left numerous voicemails for over the following week and a half and got no response. I then sent an email to her, and it bounced back - the account did not exist.
3.November 11th - Still no reply from anybody, so I sent another email to Thomas. Nothing
4.November 20th - Sent yet another email, this one's tone was a little more firm. I mentioned that this is getting out of hand. The same day, I get an apology about the incident from Thomas and told that Karen will call me the day after to settle this.
5.December 11th - Still nothing! No call from Karen no calls from ANYONE at Stylus, no emails, no cheque - nothing.By this point I was so fed up that I sent Thomas an email stating that I was feeling I had no choice but to go BBB.com or some other alternative means (Small Claims etc.) in order to have this settled since they were so blatantly unwilling to resolve this. I stated I would give him 14 business days to send a cheque before I would proceed.
6.December 24th - I receive another apology from Thomas Tharakan telling me that the cheque is ready!! FANTASTIC! I thought. I was working that day and therefore unable to go get the cheque however I wanted to arrange for a courier, at my cost. I stated that in my email back to him and got. NO REPLY!
7.January 9th - Received a phone call from Ted who apparently is in charge of Accounts Payable, telling me that he will be taking care of my situation and he would touch base with me the next day.
8.January 17th - Still no response from Ted in accounting, so I decided to sent another email to Ted to find out what the delay was. I then called Ted directly to discuss this because as per Thomas Tharakan, my cheque has been ready for pick up since December 24th. He told me that my cheque was never ready, in fact, he couldn't even trace any of my paperwork and that he needed to retrieve them in order for me to get paid! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I sent him another email the same day, and then he told me that my cheque would finally be ready by the day after. Finally, I was getting paid
9.January 18th - I received an email from Ted telling me that my cheque was ready to be picked up, not today as promised, but the next Wednesday (January 23/08).
10. January 22nd - I sent an email to Ted, to let him know I would be by to pick up my cheque and I was told it WAS NOT READY!!! He then told me that he would get back to me to give me another firm date to pick up the cheque.
11.January 28th - I sent a letter, via courier, stating that if they were not willing to resolve this asap that I would be pursuing other methods at retrieving the money owed to me.
Simon
North York, Ontario
Canada
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