One of the ten had a muraling theme, naturally.
I've self-published my books with a few different companies since I started my writing career. Up until recently, I've been extremely happy with the company that now prints my hardcover books. For now, they remain nameless. And, there is a reason for that. They messed up my last order, printing several covers way too dark.
Now, customer service is no longer what it used to be in this world. It is impossible to call up the company and speak to a human. Impossible! Impossible -- and maddening as well! I have to rely on email messages. And, I have written to the company four times so far. I have not received one reply on the matter. Okay, the last letter was dripping with sarcasm, but they should have replied to the first three. Now, I think I'm left to writing to them every day. I don't know what else to do at this point.
Anyway, it occurred to me that perhaps the customer service replies went to my spam mail or trash folder. That was being too generous for this company. No, there was no accident with email delivery. And, no, there was no message from customer service lurking in my spam folder.
I did, however, find an interesting email. Someone was seeking me out to do some custom illustrations for a project. The fact that I stumbled across this under these circumstances seems like it was meant to be. It was a little bit of unexpected blessing out of the blue. And, things like that do happen in my life.
I contacted the person who wrote to me to see if they were still interested. YES! And, this person gave a very specific list of illustrations needed for the project. It was like it was tailor made for me. I gave my prices for use of my existing clipart (which many people want to use) as well as my fees for original art. I can tell you that teachers rarely ever want to pay for original art. However, this person wanted ten illustrations, a little more complex than what I usually do, and the sponsor was willing to pay for it. Instead of earning what few teachers are ever willing to pay, this was a project with a rate similar to what I would expect in the professional business world. And, I've never really worked for someone with that kind of budget.
I explained a lot of things that I tell every potential client. I need the name of the project, the name of the company, the phone number, and contact person in order to create the contract. I didn't receive that information right away.
A small red flag went up.
Usually, I want multiple payments. I want one third up front, one third upon completion of the sketches, and one third after finishing the project. Much to my surprise, I was told that they knew the kind of work I produce. They were happy to send payment in full right from the start. Okay, as I said, I've never worked with clients like this before. They didn't even need to approve the sketches. Whatever I created would be fine. Nobody ever says that.
It should have been another red flag.
On Friday, the full amount for the check came to my doorstep with a DHL shipment. I rushed it to the bank. Then, I used the address information on the DHL envelope to complete the contract and send it back to my contact. Very silly me. I should know this lesson by now. Do not ever put pencil to paper until you have a signed, valid contract in hand. But silly me, I spent the week working on the ten sketches. When I sent the contract, I also sent the ten sketches for approval.
On Saturday, I received a message saying that the sponsor noted the funds were out of their account. Were they successfully in mine? Nobody ever asked me questions like this before. And then, low and behold, the sponsor's partner suddenly died. Phase 2 of the project, five of the drawings, was cancelled. They would only do Phase 1.
All kinds of flags were waving now.
I knew what was next. They would want half of the funds sent back to them.
At five minutes before Saturday closing, I called my local bank. Before I could even finish my story, my banker said that it was a scam. Under no circumstances, do not send them any money! He told me that the scammers wait for the victim to send them the requested refund and then their check bounces. Although I was tempted to empty my account and move on to a new bank, I was advised to let the money sit in the account until their check bounces. It could take up to 120 days! Do not touch it.
After that phone call, I had time to do a little more online research. The address on the DHL package is non-existent. The sender on the envelope could not be located. The name of the business was not to be found with the Better Business Bureau in the city of origin.
And, no surprise here, in the meantime, I got a message from the scammer asking if I could send them money by PayPal or Venmo. Which method did I prefer? I said that I would do nothing until I had time to contact my banker and attorney on Monday. Surprise, surprise, surprise! The text messages stopped.
So, lesson learned, again. Do not ever put pencil to paper before a legal, contract is in hand. And, if you don't know the client, do your homework. Get the business address, client name, sponsor name, company website, and Better Business Bureau confirmation before wasting any time on the project.
Fortunately, I'm not out any money and no contract was signed with some unscrupulous scammers. I did, however, spend a week working on artwork that will never be used. I could have spent the week working on children's book number 21 to publish with the same company that poorly printed my last books at the start of all this confusion.
So, no great illustration project is continuing this week. No new murals will be funded by this adventure. I'll continue to work on a folktale from Fiji and write multiple letters of complaint to a certain unresponsive lack of customer service department.
And, I will NOT check my spam folder!
P.S. On Monday morning I headed to my bank. The "infamous" check was still in their location. Very interestingly, the address on the check was from a business on the west coast and it was sent to me from a location on the east coast. My banker believes that possibly the check was "scrubbed" (however that is done) and then sent to me. By the time the west coast business discovered this error in their accounts, the scammers were supposed to merrily skip away with my money. My banker said that he would call the business on the west coast and have them check their records. I suggested he also ask if there was any kind of hefty reward for helping them.
And, I learned something on this trip to the bank that I will never forget. The banker said that it is very risky to send checks in the mail these days. Too often they will be stolen, which opens things up for fraud. He said to always hand-deliver your checks or find an alternative method of payment. Now, you know too.
P.S.S. It hasn't even been a month since I posted this blog. Nope, not one month. When what in my email box should there land, but another email with a hint of a scam? I received another email interested in hiring me for my cartooning. But, fool me once, shame on you. You know who to blame if I'm fooled a second time. When I received the request, I said I wanted to know more about the organization I was going to support. Could they send me the URL? Plans were in the next email to suggest business address and name of CEO for the contract. FYI, I would use that information to contact their local Better Business Bureau. Yep, I've learned from experience!
The URL never came in the reply email, but I got a full description of the art that was wanted. In the last go around, it was an "educational" project to inform students about Covid and Social Distancing. It was all set up in two phases with a really great salary. Well, scam number two had the same set up. Two phases, great pay, but this time the "educational" project was focused on Monkeypox! Now, if you don't know how that is passed, be thankful, and preserve your innocence. If you do know that information, can you possibly imagine my cartooning being used for that project?
I was tempted to write something crass to the scammer. So tempted! Instead, I ended our communication with a note just dripping with the right amount of snark, sarcasm, and truth. "Take my name off of your list. I know all about your scam. I've even blogged about it in the past. I have no need to blog about it again."
I was right. It ended our communication.
Now, customer service is no longer what it used to be in this world. It is impossible to call up the company and speak to a human. Impossible! Impossible -- and maddening as well! I have to rely on email messages. And, I have written to the company four times so far. I have not received one reply on the matter. Okay, the last letter was dripping with sarcasm, but they should have replied to the first three. Now, I think I'm left to writing to them every day. I don't know what else to do at this point.
Anyway, it occurred to me that perhaps the customer service replies went to my spam mail or trash folder. That was being too generous for this company. No, there was no accident with email delivery. And, no, there was no message from customer service lurking in my spam folder.
I did, however, find an interesting email. Someone was seeking me out to do some custom illustrations for a project. The fact that I stumbled across this under these circumstances seems like it was meant to be. It was a little bit of unexpected blessing out of the blue. And, things like that do happen in my life.
I contacted the person who wrote to me to see if they were still interested. YES! And, this person gave a very specific list of illustrations needed for the project. It was like it was tailor made for me. I gave my prices for use of my existing clipart (which many people want to use) as well as my fees for original art. I can tell you that teachers rarely ever want to pay for original art. However, this person wanted ten illustrations, a little more complex than what I usually do, and the sponsor was willing to pay for it. Instead of earning what few teachers are ever willing to pay, this was a project with a rate similar to what I would expect in the professional business world. And, I've never really worked for someone with that kind of budget.
I explained a lot of things that I tell every potential client. I need the name of the project, the name of the company, the phone number, and contact person in order to create the contract. I didn't receive that information right away.
A small red flag went up.
Usually, I want multiple payments. I want one third up front, one third upon completion of the sketches, and one third after finishing the project. Much to my surprise, I was told that they knew the kind of work I produce. They were happy to send payment in full right from the start. Okay, as I said, I've never worked with clients like this before. They didn't even need to approve the sketches. Whatever I created would be fine. Nobody ever says that.
It should have been another red flag.
On Friday, the full amount for the check came to my doorstep with a DHL shipment. I rushed it to the bank. Then, I used the address information on the DHL envelope to complete the contract and send it back to my contact. Very silly me. I should know this lesson by now. Do not ever put pencil to paper until you have a signed, valid contract in hand. But silly me, I spent the week working on the ten sketches. When I sent the contract, I also sent the ten sketches for approval.
On Saturday, I received a message saying that the sponsor noted the funds were out of their account. Were they successfully in mine? Nobody ever asked me questions like this before. And then, low and behold, the sponsor's partner suddenly died. Phase 2 of the project, five of the drawings, was cancelled. They would only do Phase 1.
All kinds of flags were waving now.
I knew what was next. They would want half of the funds sent back to them.
At five minutes before Saturday closing, I called my local bank. Before I could even finish my story, my banker said that it was a scam. Under no circumstances, do not send them any money! He told me that the scammers wait for the victim to send them the requested refund and then their check bounces. Although I was tempted to empty my account and move on to a new bank, I was advised to let the money sit in the account until their check bounces. It could take up to 120 days! Do not touch it.
After that phone call, I had time to do a little more online research. The address on the DHL package is non-existent. The sender on the envelope could not be located. The name of the business was not to be found with the Better Business Bureau in the city of origin.
And, no surprise here, in the meantime, I got a message from the scammer asking if I could send them money by PayPal or Venmo. Which method did I prefer? I said that I would do nothing until I had time to contact my banker and attorney on Monday. Surprise, surprise, surprise! The text messages stopped.
So, lesson learned, again. Do not ever put pencil to paper before a legal, contract is in hand. And, if you don't know the client, do your homework. Get the business address, client name, sponsor name, company website, and Better Business Bureau confirmation before wasting any time on the project.
Fortunately, I'm not out any money and no contract was signed with some unscrupulous scammers. I did, however, spend a week working on artwork that will never be used. I could have spent the week working on children's book number 21 to publish with the same company that poorly printed my last books at the start of all this confusion.
So, no great illustration project is continuing this week. No new murals will be funded by this adventure. I'll continue to work on a folktale from Fiji and write multiple letters of complaint to a certain unresponsive lack of customer service department.
And, I will NOT check my spam folder!
P.S. On Monday morning I headed to my bank. The "infamous" check was still in their location. Very interestingly, the address on the check was from a business on the west coast and it was sent to me from a location on the east coast. My banker believes that possibly the check was "scrubbed" (however that is done) and then sent to me. By the time the west coast business discovered this error in their accounts, the scammers were supposed to merrily skip away with my money. My banker said that he would call the business on the west coast and have them check their records. I suggested he also ask if there was any kind of hefty reward for helping them.
And, I learned something on this trip to the bank that I will never forget. The banker said that it is very risky to send checks in the mail these days. Too often they will be stolen, which opens things up for fraud. He said to always hand-deliver your checks or find an alternative method of payment. Now, you know too.
P.S.S. It hasn't even been a month since I posted this blog. Nope, not one month. When what in my email box should there land, but another email with a hint of a scam? I received another email interested in hiring me for my cartooning. But, fool me once, shame on you. You know who to blame if I'm fooled a second time. When I received the request, I said I wanted to know more about the organization I was going to support. Could they send me the URL? Plans were in the next email to suggest business address and name of CEO for the contract. FYI, I would use that information to contact their local Better Business Bureau. Yep, I've learned from experience!
The URL never came in the reply email, but I got a full description of the art that was wanted. In the last go around, it was an "educational" project to inform students about Covid and Social Distancing. It was all set up in two phases with a really great salary. Well, scam number two had the same set up. Two phases, great pay, but this time the "educational" project was focused on Monkeypox! Now, if you don't know how that is passed, be thankful, and preserve your innocence. If you do know that information, can you possibly imagine my cartooning being used for that project?
I was tempted to write something crass to the scammer. So tempted! Instead, I ended our communication with a note just dripping with the right amount of snark, sarcasm, and truth. "Take my name off of your list. I know all about your scam. I've even blogged about it in the past. I have no need to blog about it again."
I was right. It ended our communication.
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