I think it’s fairly common practice now when you’re thinking about doing business with a company to type their name and the word sucks into google to see what results come up.
Here’s a blog someone setup to let people know about a photographer who appears to have been screwed over by an interactive agency:
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Bravo!
Mindblossom? More like “Turdblossom.”
I think this says a lot from the blog:
Why?
This WordPress Weblog was created to help bring attention to the awful and all-too-common situation of a contractor not being paid by large companies who push their weight around to withhold legitimate payment for services rendered.
I hope this helps to bring attention to this issue, helps to pressure the company to pay what is owed and demonstrate that although one can hide behind lawyers and silence one cannot hide from the powers of the Internet
Looks like a lot of work went into that job. I know I certainly couldn’t afford to devote that much time to a project, only to get shafted. I hope it all works out, eventually.
Shouldn’t this blogger be concerned about having the photographer friend labeled as a difficult contractor? Her name is all over the place here, and she’s been pretty quiet.
I don’t quite get why the photographer isn’t doing this herself. There’s no question the situation sucks, but based on a pretty limited understanding of contracts, seems like there’s been a breach of confidentiality, which isn’t helping her case.
If this guy gets get nailed on a bad fact, I could see there being a case for defamation. He’s never worked for Mindblossom, and he’s griping about secondhand information.
I think one has to remember that when you try to “attack” or “defame” a company name by means of social networks and go hard in this small toronto industry, you also open up for third parties to provide their opinion. I happened upon this story as another freelancer I work with mentioned it (and not a positive towards the photographer). I have been a contract freelancer to Mindblossom off and on and had nothing but good experiences with them and I would hate their name dragged through without anyone seeking ‘the other side’. I decided to do some investigating of my own and here is what I found from internet and some insiders.
1. Agencies work with brands and some brands have crazy guidelines. When working with 3rd parties, you will include these specifications in contracts to protect yourself. If the 3rd party does not adhere to the guidelines, the work is unusable. My assumption (not confirmed) is that while the work may have been ‘good’ it may have not met the strict specifications and that is why they could not pay out the remaining amount.
2. I also heard through the grapevine that this photographer had a melt down in the office when an art director may have questioned her work. Her melt down was so unproffesional at actually scared one of the employees
3. The photographer claims she is not trying to defame the company however I had the opportunity to view her facebook & twitter page and she has been working with the owner of the original blog through pretty tactical SEO means to try to get their blog ranked at the top of the search engines. They have tagged everything and anything and have joined communities and groups asking them to spread the link. Pretty vicious if you ask me.
It’s a small community people – everyone has a right to their opinion but if you are going to try to strategically defame someone’s character your bound to get other opinions and insights. My two cents and I hope everyone out there learns there are always two sides.
I think mindblossom tried to get something shot cheap by hiring a photographer with no commercial experience. It doesn’t even matter what the contract terms were or if the photographer behaved unprofessionally because the power is now in the hands of the people. Companies need to treat consumers, contractors and employees well or they will read about it online.
Hi Eric.
Good reply indeed but all three of your points don’t hold up. The first two simply due to a lack of communication on Mindblossoms part and the last is just incorrect. Let me explain.
Point #1. (What should have happened) “Hi Photographer. Thanks so much for all the work you’ve put into the project. Unfortunately the finals you sent don’t match the guidelines defined in your contract. Please revise the files in time for the deadline otherwise we will be unable to pay you for the work you’ve done. Thanks!”
Point #2. “Hi Photographer. Thanks so much for all the work you’ve put into the project. We are happy with the work but unfortunately your behaviour in my office yesterday was very unprofessional. We have dropped your cheque in the mail but unfortunately we won’t be using your services again. Thanks!”
(And on a side note…if companies didn’t pay photographers for acting erratically in some way, half the photographers out there would be starting up the same blogs. Some of the greatest photogs in the history of the medium had notoriously difficult personalities. Could you imagine a company saying “Sorry Herb Ritts. We’re not paying you because you yelled in my office”. When you’re dealing with the arts community, you have to expect a little craziness.)
3. If the blog had said “Mindblossom steals farm animals in the night. I have proof!”, then they would absolutely have an excellent case for defamation and libel. Unfortunately the blog simply states the facts of the case. Sure it would be great to hear the other side of the story but that ball is in Mindblossom’s court now. Getting your message to the top of the search engine lists has nothing at all to do with defamation. That just has to do with getting your message out effectively. And frankly, in comparison to a company stiffing a photographer on a 10G job with no explanation, effectively getting her message out on a blog is hardly “vicious”.
Regardless thanks a bunch for your post Eric. And yes I totally agree with you that it’s important to try and see this case from both perspectives.
mindblossom.org is available, make a site, copy all their meta tags, keywords etc. So it comes up in a google search before their own site, Add google analytics to get it listed quick and email it to the head of finance.
I just did this with a design consultancy in the UK, I got 7 phone calls from them in 1 and a half minutes after being blanked for the entire previous month…..and a cheque the next day.
I did a contract work with MindBlossom in July 09, sent the invoice early August 09 and until now still has not been paid. The last update I got from the finance guy was that my payment will be processed on the next cheque run, when just a couple days ago, the PM said the cheque was on the VP finance’s desk and was ready for his signature.
Ask and you shall recieve. I did work for them to and I just went over and met the cheif of finance. He explained the cheque was run and showed it to me. It just needed a signature from the COO or something. I came back teh next day and picked up my cheque. You just need to be nice about it. Do exactly what they ask for according to guidelines and everything is fine. I do work for several agencies downtown and they all work the same. They are not being malicious. They just have alot of cheques and work in priority. Just ask that’s it!
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