For those who don’t know: I am a freelance videographer, I operate under my company, Up+Atom Inc, creating all kinds of videos for businesses. The following post recounts the events that happened between September 2009 and March 2010, hopefully serving as a warning to anyone who does business with Silver Lining Ltd as well as any of their customers.
The Background
In September 2009, Silver Lining Ltd asked for my video services; filming and editing their weekly podcast, filming and editing an instructional video for a board game for ZOE Alliance, and creating an informational video for a support services brokerage called InclusionINC. I agreed, sent off my estimates, and Silver Lining agreed to my estimates, and so I commenced the work.
I filmed all of their podcasts, edited them together, and posted them every week. I was given a script for the instructional video, which I filmed and edited together, and delivered. I was given a script for the informational video as well, and I just edited together a string of text and stock images, as per what the script called for. Neither of these scripts were written by me, whatsoever.
I sent my first invoice shortly after posting the first podcast, on October 1, 2009, which was paid rather quickly, all was well in the world.
I completed the ZOE Alliance video and the InclusionINC video mid-October 2009, delivered it to Silver Lining, and sent off my invoices (October 7, 2009 for ZOE Alliance and October 19 for InclusionINC). I was told that I would be paid soon, Silver Lining was just sorting out their accounts – fair enough, I should be paid before November ends.
The Problem Begins To Show
I kept doing their podcast for them, recording another run and continuing to post them weekly. I would send an invoice at the end of every month for all of the work that I would do for their podcast in that month, except at this point, I wasn’t being paid quickly.
I have a rather lengthy string of e-mails between myself and representatives of Silver Lining Ltd where they continue to tell me that I will be paid soon, and that I have nothing to worry about. These e-mails started in November, telling me that I would be paid by mid-November, and they continued all the way through to mid-January, telling me that I would be paid “soon.” Of course, soon never came and by the end of January, they were about three months late on a payment of $2,726.04, which is no small amount for a fledgling small business.
Relief?
In early February, I received an e-mail from the President and Founder of Silver Lining Ltd, informing me that they were finally going to pay me the amount that they owed me. Well, almost. They were going to pay me for all the podcast work I had done up to this point, as well as the ZOE Alliance video. But… what about InclusionINC?
Apparently, InclusionINC was not happy with my video, and was not paying them, and therefore Silver Lining Ltd wasn’t paying me.
Hold on, I said, that isn’t my concern. My contract was with Silver Lining Ltd, and not with InclusionINC, and I had completed my work 100% to spec. I had gone back and forth during the creation of the video to make sure it was up to the standards of the people I was doing correspondence with at Silver Lining Ltd. They gave me the green light after several revisions, and I had completed it. So why wasn’t I being paid?
When It Got Ugly
At this point, I was pretty steamed, so I was firing off plenty of e-mails to everyone whom I had come into contact with at Silver Lining, as well as Carissa to ensure she got the message. I explained to them what I had written above, that they still owed me money regardless of non-payment from InclusionINC. We never agreed to me being paid only if they got paid, I simply provided a service for them that I had completed successfully.
Carissa sent back another e-mail, which made me quite a bit more mad. In short, she essentially said that they made a mistake in acting as the middle man between InclusionINC and Up+Atom Inc, and it wasn’t their fault that I wasn’t being paid. To make it up to me, she offered me half of the invoice “out of Silver Lining Ltd’s own pockets.”
I agreed; I said sure, give me half of the amount due on the invoice immediately, followed by the rest of the amount plus interest accumulated by the end of the following week.
[EDIT: Just to clarify, I was offered half of the amount, and I agreed as long as I got the other half the very next week. I never received anything, not even a reply.]
Understandably, I received no response.
Around mid-February, I talked to a lawyer, who sent off a demand letter to Silver Lining giving them an ultimatum: pay Up+Atom Inc the full amount due by February 26, 2010, or face litigation.
Guess who didn’t receive a paycheque on February 26, 2010?
Conclusion
At this point, I’m in the process of filing a suit in small claims court for the amount I am owed, which is to the tune of $1,606.04 plus interest from February 2, 2010 onward. In addition, I have written this post to shed light on the type of business practices being committed by Silver Lining Ltd and Carissa Reiniger.
So please, I would love to hear any comments you may have on the situation. I am at my wit’s end, and there really isn’t much else I can do. I would like to thank every single person who has shown me support along the way; you know who you are, you’re all awesometastic. Even better, I would love for all of you to spread this story as much as you can, just to ensure other freelancers don’t run into the same type of problems that I did!
Cheers everyone.
Posted on March 12th, 2010 by Jon Lim
Filed under: Business
Always terrible to hear stories like this. Hope both sides can come to a fair agreement here.
Good luck Jon!
Sincerely,
Vinny Verma
Hey Vinny,
Unfortunately, it seems like there will be no fair agreement here, they refuse to pay me the full amount and I refuse to take anything less at this point.
Thanks for reading and spreading!
Jon
I told you months ago that Silver Lining wasn’t worth doing business with. Seemed like trouble. I never knew it would get this far but good for you for sticking your ground. At the end of the day, we have to do what we feel is right – that’s what you’re doing and what you should keep on doing. Always here to support you bro, let me know if you need any help
That’s a terrible story and tough to go through as a small biz. It’s issues like this that small businesses run into and sometimes can’t do nothing about and can’t succeed, why? Smaller pockets to fight than the bigger guy. I hope you can get this resolved favourably, good luck buddy!
Good for you Jon; taking a stand and hopefully getting what is deservedly yours! Even though you are understandably frustrated, you continue to keep your professionalism. It’s very admirable and in the end, you’ll get what you’re owed and karma will give them what they deserve. Good luck!
@Kenway: Thanks for the support bro, I know I can always count on you. But yeah, at that point, it was already too late unfortunately; the filming you did for me was way after all this was invoiced for!
@Roberto: Thanks Rob, I hope it gets resolved favourably as well. At this point, I know I don’t have the same resources, but the least I can do is get the word out.
@Phil: Thanks Phil! I really hope I get what I’m owed as well.
Hope the lawyer helped Jon. Going to court isn’t fun but it’s very clear who’s going to win at the end of the process. If I were you I’d look into filing complaints with the BBB, relevant Board of Commerce, and with Industry Canada.
just a warning, lots of people i know that have used small claims court and it’s never a guarantee that people will pay up but if you’re willing to go far enough, i know pretty good bill collectors that are also part-time assassins.
that was a joke by the way. but anyhoo, good luck jon. i hope you relish in every penny they return to you.
I’ve gone through a similar process , and Alice is right – even if the judge rules in your favour and you “win” the case, it is still up to you to collect the money.
They can still decide not to pay and then you’ll have to spend more money to try to garnish their wages, freeze their accounts and/or just tarnish their credit…..
Our system sucks – I know. I’ll tell you my stories next time I see you.
@Alice and Mo: Yeah I know I have to collect it myself, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!
Maybe it’s been said already, but I think its important you know how proud I am of you actually sticking to your guns and not backing down. Hard and honest work can’t be taken for granted, and when it starts to be, don’t just take it lying down, you know? And I think this is a really good way of making sure things like this don’t happen again and not being afraid of saying anything about it.
So good for you to get a lawyer and go all out. Seriously.
Kick ass and take names Jon. I have your back.
Jon!
wow man, that’s terrible! In a very small world turn of events, I know Carissa and the gang at Silver Lining fairly well. I just can’t fathom her deliberately short changing someone, ESPECIALLY an entrepreneur such as yourself! call it naivety, but I’ve got to believe there’s something else going on here….
Either way, best of luck with it dude!
CT
We also provided services to Silver Lining Ltd. and dealt primarily with the founder/president. A small, FAST growing company, we initially agreed to support them and they provide services to us as a fair trade.
Well, suffice to say, the ROI on services provided to them was very one-sided. They talk a heck of a game but when it comes to delivering, things were sadly lacking.
Once they actually agreed to pay (grudgingly) for services we provided them we found it a horrific experience to get paid. As in, 4-6 months on average to see monies, finally taking them to a collection agency so the stress could be dealt with by someone else.
We’ve spoken to other companies with similar stories and would hope Silver Lining ltd. folds soon so as not to damage any more small businesses they purport to support.
We still have a lot of anger over our treatment and disrespect Silver Lining Ltd. inflicted on us. They set us back a year for our own growth, damages calculated at over 15,000 dollars.
Good luck with them Jon, don’t back away from your position. They will pay if you keep on them.
@Karishma: Thanks! I think taking a stand on this was pretty much the only thing I could do – I had kept this issue private since October now, only confiding in very few people, which I think was a mistake. Once I started spreading the news, it just made me realize that I wasn’t the only one who suffered from it, so I had to get it out there to make sure people knew what was up.
@Satish: Thanks brother, appreciate having you in my corner.
@Chris: I don’t think it’s an issue with Carissa deliberately short changing me, but I think she feels she’s completely in the right here by justifying her non-payment of my services because of the non-payment from her client for her company’s services. What she doesn’t seem to want to understand is that my contract was with Silver Lining, not with her client, I created exactly what Silver Lining wanted me to create – I shouldn’t shoulder the blame because they created a concept that their client didn’t like. I would love to believe that I’m being completely one-sided here, but having experienced what I did, I really don’t think I presented this with much of a bias!
@Another Victim: I’m sorry to hear that you experienced a similar experience with Silver Lining Ltd, I’ve had a lot of stories come out of the woodwork about their practices and it genuinely makes me sad that other small businesses who are providing quality service get shafted like this. The lack of payment set back my own growth and I have barely scraped by (personally and professionally) for the past three months. I’m glad that I have a client roster that is slowly filling up, but I can’t help but think how much farther ahead I would be if I were actually just paid on time. But I digress, thanks for sharing your story!
Jon,
I really hope the best for you in this situation. Silver Lining Ltd. worked with us 3 years ago and it was NOT a great experience. They held back on payments by 6 months. Considering the people involved on my side of the equation, once we really started hustling for our money, they finally paid up. (Assuming to preserve their ‘reputation’)
@Chris Taylor – it is hard to believe that a close friend/colleague could do this to others, but I know that this situation is NOT unique. It is clearly evident here that it is happening to many others.
Hopefully we all learned something valuable.
All the best Jon (and others)
Cheers.
@Another Victim #3: Thanks for your words! It makes me a little sad because Silver Lining aims to help small businesses and all of these stories are coming out where they have been directly hurting those small businesses. Hoping that isn’t the case, but what can you do.
It’s sad but all true!! — I have seen it with my own eyes…
Every single small business that has come into Silver Lining’s world has left unhappy… It very difficult to blame anyone else but the president whent the company is so small and the ownership is 100% Carissa Reiniger. I would recommend very strongly against any small/big business to do business with Carissa Reiniger and Silver Lining… stay away!
Hang in there Jon — good luck!
Honestly. i think you handled it wrong and maybe the e-mails you sent firing back to them when you were steamed up must have made you look like a kid and a moron to them. When people lose respect for a person because of his actions, they get left the bottom of the list. It must have been the reason for them to treat you like that. I don’t know but i’m assuming
When a company sees a lawyer letter for $1,606.04. Honestly if I was in their position.. i’d be laughing.
No offense but hope you can retrieve the money owed back to you soon.
@Former employee: Thanks for your input!
@James: Your assumptions are wrong in this case – I never sent an unprofessional e-mail to Silver Lining whatsoever, usually just e-mails asking when I will be paid, and then when things started getting ugly, explaining my position and exactly where I stand.
Plain and simple: they haven’t paid me because they don’t seem to think that my contract was with them and them alone, it isn’t because I “look(ed) like a kid and a moron” to them.
Did you see any payment, Jon?
Nope!
I haven’t heard anything from them, so I’m not expecting a payment any time soon.
You should assume that you will not until you rattle their cage again. Carissa will put you to the end of the list (if there even is one) because she simply does not care and would prefer you go away rather than pay you.
It sounds harsh, but it is the truth. Sorry.
Tweet Tweet.
Interesting times at Silver Lining this past week.
1. One or more employees resigned
2. Employees not paid for a couple pay periods
3. Some other stuff we are waiting confirmation on
Drama! Stay posted!
This bodes not well for your money, Mr. Lim.
Tweet Tweet.
Update!
Confirmed! At least three employees resigned!
Drama!
Angst!
@Tweet Tweet: Interesting, definitely not going to get my money any time soon then haha. Thanks for the update!
WOW, what a horrible story!
I have an idea, email me to discuss.
Sam,
What is your idea?
June 3, 2010
I paid for a “SLAP” and got slapped for certain! Carissa had me contact a guy (Jonathan B) in new york to email a $2,500 money transfer directly into her account before she would even meet with me. Her counterpart in New York was to email me my contract which he never did and when I tried contacting him he tells me he has limited dealings with Silver Lining and cannot help me.She missed every meeting we ever scheduled and then when I asked for a refund she agreed whole heartedly and then continues with “the cheque’s in the mail” or most recently July 24 “I emailed you a money transfer” so once you accept the money tear up the cheque when you get it. She is UNBELIEVABLE. Must be some disorder…I’m not giving up though. I am a small business women – who she so passionate wants to help !?* Now the main number to her office is not working, it’s been a week and they are claiming that the buiding is doing a rewiring ?? Web site was down for several days too last week..There is also a new Silver Lining Facebook page, other one no longer exists..she keeps on with “the cheques in the mail”..she at one point told me I’m sending you your SLAP because I’ve done work on it and I can’t do anything with it so along with your refund, you will get your SLAP. I told her – do not dare send me a slap – then what?? claim that you did the work so I should pay you..I made it very clear that I do not want to do business with Silver Lining and have emailed Nina and Allistair (in his big bomber fur coat on facebook!) who is apparently their director of sales What?? Wow, I got duped big time..I’m not giving up though..
Wed July 25 ’10 5:00pm
I just received an email money transfer with a password and i was able to accept my full refund from Carissa at Silver Lining. I am so pleased.
Glad to hear you got your money back Barbara!
Jon, this is the first I’ve heard of this, clearly late to the party. I’m so sorry for your experience with non-payment. For the record, I was very happy with your work and happy to pay for it. Hope it works out for you and we’d definitely hire you again for work for ZOË.
Thanks for your support Angie, it means the world to me. I would love to do more work for you in the future – love the cause and love the concept. Let me know!