Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:75454 comp.sys.amiga.tech:17308
Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!DEVA
From: DEVA@cup.portal.com (David Michael Alves)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Amiga Plus does not pay its authors!!!!!
Message-ID: <37420@cup.portal.com>
Date: 31 Dec 90 15:44:26 GMT
References: <0762.AA0762@we>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 94

Keith Wilke writes:

>  Subject: Amiga Plus does not pay its authors.


Yes, they do not.  (or at least not on a timely basis)


>    I am conducting a survey of authors that have had a 
> article/program published in Amiga Plus.  Please email me your 
> experiences with this disk based magazine.  If there are enough of us
> that have not been paid in a timely fashion, we might be able to start 
> a class action suit against them.

>    Please send your mail to ...!ucsd!nosc!we!keithw.


I'll email this also, but I thought this was an important enough issue
to discuss publicly too.  I sent them a program on May 7, 1990 which
was later published in the Oct '90 issue.  According to the contract,
payment was due on publication, but as of yet, and after many phone
calls, I have not seen it.

I had the same problem with a program that I wrote for their Dec '89
issue.  Payment for that program arrived about 3 months late with what
sounded like a sincere apology attached to it.  So I gave them another
chance by sending another program... my mistake.


>     I know this sounds a bit extreme, but I have been waiting for 
> about  six(6) months to be paid.  My program was published in the 
> Aug/Sept issue which hit the newstands around July 5, 1990.  After 
> numerous phone calls to them, I have concluded that they are never 
> going to tell me the truth about when they will pay me.


No, it doesn't sound extreme.

Each time I called I got the same thing: the check would get to
me within about 2 weeks.  After enough of this I was told to call
Chris Ballard who is the credit manager for Amiga Plus.  I called about
5 times but he would never answer or return my calls.  I even had an
employee of mine call him once -- the secretary told him to hold while
she got Mr. Ballard -- returned to ask who was calling -- put my guy
on hold again -- returned to say Mr. Ballard doesn't know who you are,
so, (in other words) he doesn't want to talk to you.  "Goodbye."

It was funny in an odd sort of way.  It also says a lot about how
bad things must be at Amiga Plus, when the credit "manager"  never
returns calls, or is "afraid" to talk to people he doesn't know.


>     I recently sent them a letter warning them that I was going to 
> initiate legal action if I did not receive payment by December 30, 
> 1990.  In response  to this, they sent me a check for 1/5 of what they 
> owed me.  I guess that they thought they could forestall legal action 
> this way.  Well, I am so pissed off at them for all the other stuff 
> that they have done, that I have decided to go ahead and sue them.  
> The question is, what is the best way to hurt them the most.  The 
> possibilities are: small claims court, Class Action suit, and/or use
> the RICO statutes.


The last phone call I made to them was to tell them I was going to pursue
legal action also.  The editor told me to "do what you have to do".  So,
I'm just assumming by the way he said that, that the only way to get paid
by Amiga Plus is to take them to court.

In the long run, Amiga Plus will turn out to be the ones hurt by their
business practices.  (Developers often tell each other who pays and who
doesn't).  There are other good disk magazines out there.  JumpDisk pays
_VERY_ promptly and Richard Ramella, editor of JumpDisk, seems like a very
nice, honest person.  AmigaWorld also pays when they say they will and
have good, professional people working for them too.

Good luck in your pursuit to obtain the money for your program that you
should have received 6 months ago.  It should be pretty cut-and-dry if
you decide to take them to court, armed with a contract saying you were
supposed to be paid on publication.

But, it's too bad that you (and I, and I'm sure many others) have to go
to all that trouble.

Give me a call or email me to tell me how it's going.  Good luck again.


> Keith Wilke - keithw%we@nosc.mil or ...!ucsd!nosc!we!keithw
> 7687-F Rancho Fanita
> Santee CA, 92071


David Alves
Devasoft / Tel (408)927-9645
DEVA@cup.portal.com