Public Mediation

Deb Pressley/Just4Families Digest/Pressley Publications-Dispute-#2432542

C. M. vs. Deb Pressley/Just4families Digest/Pressley Publications
312 Crosstown Road Suite 162, Peachtree City, Georgia, 30269, United States
Amount Involved: $3,075.00
    • Claimant Seeks: View.
    • Claim #: 2432542
    • Amount Involved: 3,075.00
    • Filed On: Jan 30, 2013
    • Posted On: Feb 28, 2013
    • Complaint(s):
      • failure to pay for work done
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Statement of Claim
"I have worked for Deb for 6 years as the designer for Just4Families Digest. Over the last 6 years I have lowered my rates twice to help her out during difficult times for the magazine and have done lots of extra work to make her advertisers happy and coming back at no extra costs to her. In the last year she has been very late in paying me my monthly fee and almost always I have had to ask for payment - Now there are 4 months of payments due (from the September, October, November and January issues - coming to $3,000) and after several attempts to resolve this with Deb Pressley I am having to go to the next step to try to get the money that is owed to me. I have sent her copies of the invoices and also itemized what is owed - and further more I have emails from each month asking for payment. I am going to PeopleClaim in hopes that I will not have to go any further and take legal action"
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Additional Communication Between Claimant and Deb Pressley/Just4families Digest/Pressley Publications Hide
  • Feb 06, 2013, Claiming party added:
  • Please send me the copy of the email that you referenced above about payment - I will be happy to give you the working files when you agree to pay me the $3000 that you owe me - you just sent me a 1099 that confirmed that you owe me the $3000. One of the payments made in 2012 was for the November issue of 2011 and that clearly shows that you still owe me for 4 issues. When you originally asked me for the working files I uploaded them on the me.com site and sent you a link to download them - I do not know if you ever did or not - since then me.com no longer exists and you never requested other copies until this December when I was in the hospital - I told you that when you caught up on the payments I would work something out with you on this - I also had been asking for you to pay me for my work for months - you have been months behind and I should not have to beg you to pay me. You also stated that you would sell some silver you had to make payments and I said no - I will work with you on this - I also lowered my rates 3 times to help you out and did extra work for you for no charge (ie the car dealership) and created ads for your clients for free so they would advertise. You also sent several emails saying that you would catch up by the end of the year - I was there to help you out when you were have financial issues with the book but when I really need help financially you did not do the same for me.

    That being said - I will be happy to give you the native indesign files if you will pay me the $3000 that you owe me.

  • Feb 06, 2013, Claiming party added:
  • Also - please send me proof of the additional design expenses that you had to pay due me - and any missed deadlines were due to you giving me information for the book 2 or 3 days before it had to be uploaded - no one does a monthly magazine like this - I also have emails stating this and that you were really late in sending ad information to me

  • Feb 06, 2013, Deb Pressley/Just4Families Digest/Pressley Publications (responding party) added:
  • I can provide whatever is needed, but not in this public forum. Obviously, the agreed upon condition of payment was not met.

  • Feb 06, 2013, Claiming party added:
  • then you can forward the emails that you are referring to to my personal email - then we can discuss them in privite - otherwise all of this will unfortunately go public and if we can not come to an amicable resolution I will be happy to go in front of a judge to decide

  • Feb 06, 2013, Deb Pressley/Just4Families Digest/Pressley Publications (responding party) added:
  • There is a lot of incorrect information on the internet. Unfortunately, It has become a part of our society. I won't be bullied by threats on the internet or have my business held hostage by someone any longer.

  • Feb 06, 2013, Claiming party added:
  • well - this actually is correct information (and i can prove it) and people will see that you have not held up your end of the of this agreement and that you did not pay your designer. I have emails proving what you have said and done over the years and that will also go public. Believe me, this is not what I wanted to do but you left me no choice in not responding to my emails, calls and invoices that were sent to you over the last year. Everyone will also see that you were not willing to try to resolve this - I agreed to give you the files that you requested for payment for the work that I obviously did for you. (you even sent the 1099 proving that you didn't pay me for the work done.) This will also be a public warning to others that may consider working for you.

    If you would like a little more time to think about this I will extend the date that it goes public or even close this complaint (they can always be reopened at a later date). Also I will be happy to take payments over time as I realize that you are very short of money right now.

    We both end up losing on this as I don't get paid and you don't have the files for you magazine so it would seem that it would be best to try to come to a resolution that would be good for both of us.

    If nothing can be done here I will have no choice but to go to court and have a judge decide but I was trying to spare both of us from having to do this.

  • Feb 11, 2013, Deb Pressley/Just4Families Digest/Pressley Publications (responding party) added:
  • I'm glad you mentioned the 1099. It proves I paid you even though you didn't follow through on your end to meet the condition of payment of providing working files to me for each issue. You had agreed to this condition.

  • Feb 11, 2013, Claiming party added:
  • You paid me to create a monthly magazine to be printed by a printer and distributed each month. I agreed to upload the Indesign file for you to have in case of emergency and I did so to my me.com account. I sent you the link to download if you wanted to. I really don't know if you ever did or not. I did this in good faith that this would be a backup in case of emergencies. There never was one and I produced a book for you every month through Jan 2013 and we never missed an issue. In fact I went to a great effort and expense on my own helping you get free articles, images and ads to make the book better. I used my own photography, fonts etc. to help you get this book off the ground at no charge to you. I also created ads for your clients at no charge (even though our original agreement was that I would get paid extra for each ad).

    However even if you have the files for emergencies you, by law do not own them. I gave you the rights to use them for the months that I was working for you and I did that in exchange for being paid $750 an issue. You clearly did not pay me for the last 4 issues but clearly agreed to this by continuing to pay me for 6 years.

    I did not work for you as an employee only as a freelancer and as such I a retain the rights to my creations. Without an agreement to further usage you are not allowed to take my designs and use them. Here is what the law says.

    Just to be clear about the law - By law, the graphic designer retains the right to his or her work. Owning the rights to your work gives you the right to get paid for additional use of a design and protect it from unwanted changes.

    Unless otherwise specified in a contract, the graphic designer retains the right to his or her creations. When designing a work for a client, you are also selling specific rights to use it. Copyright laws protect against additional use without proper compensation or agreement.

    If you want to pay me for the work done I will be happy to come up with an agreement that will allow you to have all rights to the designs of your logo and book.

  • Feb 11, 2013, Deb Pressley/Just4Families Digest/Pressley Publications (responding party) added:
  • This amount is clearly incorrect and much of the information, as well. I believe you have adequately demonstrated here the difficulty in working with you.

  • Feb 11, 2013, Claiming party added:
  • How can you possibly say that in amount is wrong. the 1099 you sent is for 6750.00
    That divided by 750 = 9 one of the issues that is included in this was the holdiay issue from 2011 - that means that you paid me for 8 issues in 2012. - we did 11 issues in 2012 - that means that you owe me for 3 - that is $2250 adn then I did the January issue of 2013 - that is another 750 - which comes to $3000.

    It is ridiculous to call someone "difficult to work with" with all the free things that I gave you and did for you (see below) and just because they want to be fairly paid!

What Claimant Wants Hide
1. Payment due: for Sept, Oct, Nov and Jan issues Feb 08, 2013 $3,000.00
2. Pay me for my time: 2 hours of trying to collect, resending invoices, emails Feb 08, 2013 $50.00
3. payment for collections on PeopleClaim Feb 08, 2013 $25.00
Cash total : $3,075.00
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Respondent's Counteroffer Hide
The claimant's settlement terms were rejected with the following explanation:
  • "First of all, the amount owed is absolutely incorrect. Additionally, I have an email dated 11/16/2010 that clearly states my condition of paying you. " I will pay within 30 days of invoice as long as I have the cd/dvd backup of the issue." You agreed to this. Here is your reply, "I now have a me.com that I can upload the issue every month for you to download and I will email an invoice when we finish the issue each month."
    In fact, you agreed many times to send the working files to me, but did not send them. I have never received working files on a cd/dvd backup or any other way. In our last conversation, you said you downloaded them one time early in 2011. I do not believe they were the working files and I don't believe I ever had access to them. Because you would not provide working files to me, it caused me additional expense in design charges. In addition, because I could not have access to them and have other graphic designs design for me in times when you could not, I have missed deadlines. I have already incurred the expense of rebuilding the magazine to continue my publication, so the working files are now of no value to me. Trying to hold a business hostage with the working design files is no way to do business. It is especially wrong, when you have no one to do the work when you can't due to "emergencies". "

This claim will remain posted until resolved.

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