Demand Letter and Correspondence

This was for Billy's July Project. As you can see, like Martha said "I thought it would be like pulling teeth to get our money for this project"...I thought it might take knocking some out! LOL... Um, for some reason we can't expect any more work from this client...sniffle, sniffle... But Sally and I are going to be unveiling the "Exodus Project" soon, and we think we have a way to not have to deal with this kind of bull shit in the future, and get passive income on our content while it's parked waiting to get cash on the barrel head for it.

Hi Sally,

They don't want to pay the full amount, if at all. Here is a demand letter I wrote, but haven't sent yet. Keep it confidential for now, tell me what you think, and don't worry about me. I recorded the phone calls, so I have everything backed up, along with email. I'll let you hear it if you want. I'm sorry it has come to this. Rich people suck.

Kevin


Dear  ****** and Billy,

Thank you for promising to pay us the "appropriate amount" after you review the invoice. The appropriate amount is: $4,386.52.

A penny less than that, and it's on.

I hate to use a cliche, but you two dip-shits don't know who you're fucking with. You are fucking with a guy who:

• Honors his contracts at all costs. You put me in a position where I owe over $3,000 to hard working poor people who are trusting me to pay them for their good work, that was all turned over to you, and accepted by you, and they were expecting me to pay them weeks ago.
• Who has nothing to lose anymore...That's where you should get goosebumps on your scrotums. Even when I had houses and cars, etc. I still sent a guy who tried to extort money from me on a gurney ride with my footprint on his face -after I choked him until he turned blue. No shit. Got a slap on the wrist. Simple assault and battery. Look it up.
• Who put the last person who threatened him and stole from him, in jail, most likely for life
• Who tried to kill (couldn't sink the choke) a guy who fucked with him, and left the prick in a heap on the floor. The cops called it self defense. (I would have been free to go even if he died.)
• Who knows where you work/live.
• Who has vowed, after this shitty deal ( and way too many others) to NEVER do another contract job again, chase money, or owe workers money that is owed to me. So shove any future work up your ass, or just outsource it overseas.
• Who is never again going to count on some client's/employer’s good will or sense of fair play to earn my living.

This is like when I was in construction for all those years...trying like hell to build someone else’s ideas, while negotiating constant scope changes -working with morons like Billy, who order something with missing details and important specifications, approve the samples, then after my crew and I deliver, say it wasn't what he wanted, even though it was exactly what he asked for -so he isn't paying. I changed my business model, built on speculation instead, and actually really enjoyed my work from then on.

So, from now on, I'm going to produce content only on speculation. I'm still going to be a hard worker. I'm still going to produce. I'm probably even going to stick with Internet content production. But from now on I'm going to capitalize on people's bad behavior, because in these times it's a much safer bet to count on any random douche bag to do the wrong thing rather than the right thing. So, for instance, first I'll produce the content, and then say to the potential customers "would you like to buy exclusive rights to this video I made of my balls consensually bouncing off your chin, or should I see what your husbands will offer me for it, or, should I just post it online for PPC revenue?"

Get my drift fuck-faces? I'm going "all in" in the personal/corporate competitive intelligence business. I'm going to do all the same kind of stuff, legal stuff, like I did for the Police (for free) to get that bitch who murdered her husband locked up. I'm not threatening you with physical violence if you don't pay me what you owe. Don't read that into those bullet points above. Those were just to let you know that I'm capable of violence, good at it even, and to warn you that when you get all pissed off about all the legal things I'm going to do to make your lives a suck-hole of misery until you pay -think twice before you counter attack in a way that allows me to physically harm you or your agents in self defense.

Now, this is what I'm going to start doing, and I'm not going to stop until $4,386.52 is in my bank/paypal account, and all of my writers have been paid:

• I'm contacting every one of your clients and telling them that you are using stolen content to do the SEO work that they contracted with you to do, and that gives them grounds to get out of any contracts they have with you. Lantium won’t be the only company stopping payment on their credit cards.
• I'm offering to sell the flat spun articles directly to them for .04 per word (they can just back charge you) I’ll tell them that the black hat SEO you practice is obsolete since the Panda / Farmer change. Your services are a sham. You are trying to game Google.
• For those clients of yours that decline, I'll use the articles (with their company names) to do an SEO campaign of my own design. All those keywords will point to my own site, where I will post one of my famous "exposes" on your company, and any company who colluded with you to steal our content.
• I'll contact the Better Business Bureau, and whomever else has interest in reporting on screw-job, rip-off  businesses.
• I'll see if one of the two lawyers we wrote content for will be interested in helping us sue the shit out of you Bozos

How you like me now bitches? What do you think of that approach? Stupid? Were you expecting me to kiss your ass and apologize for all the mistakes your incompetent, lying, sneaking, backroom-deal making project manager made behind your back? You see everything, huh? You’re an arrogant douche.

I'll take you up on the offer to pay us with your own money, Billy. That was a very honorable offer to personally pay for your own fuck-ups. Out of respect for your admission that you screwed up, I was willing to meet you half way. Rescinding it makes you a real asshole, and I’ve obviously lost that respect. You said you just "hate it when people don't get paid" It sounds like you've seen this happen before by that statement. Did you ever tell your manager that you think he’s a “hard-ass?” Are you intimidated by him? Pussy. To summarize: Pay us or reap the consequences and then go fuck yourselves.

Sincerely,

Kevin Leland


Kevin,

Good evening, there seems to be a bunch of drama going over here at my firm today about a rude, threatening email you sent last night and then this invoice pops up for services rendered.

I am trying to get to the bottom of it so why don’t we have a talk tomorrow so I can get you squared away.

Regards-

(President of Company)


Hi *****,

I can imagine I caused some discontent. Your guy Billy shouldn't have played games with me and my team. We worked hard, and delivered what he asked for. Then we heard we were not getting full payment because it wasn't right. Review the correspondence. You will see that the problem was on your end, and I had every right to be pissed.

I can't have a phone conversation with you. I'm in CT right now, not home in Vermont. So I can't legally record our conversation. CT and CA are both two party states. You would have to be willing to go on the record, and allow me to "keep you honest" in the negotiations, that we shouldn't even be having at this point. We should have been paid by now.

Let's exchange emails, or chat online. That will keep it simple, and give us both a record of our agreements. Let's do it before noon, I'll have a lot of work to get busy on (see my "rude" email) if I can't convince you to do the right thing and pay the full amount on the invoice. Sound good?

Respectfully,

Kevin Leland

Kevin,

Thanks for the response. I have cc’d my corporate counsel here so he is abreast of the situation as this is the 2nd time on record you have threatened to slander and defame my firm online, below in red is one instance and the other email I have on file from last night where you threatened to call my clients and tell them we use black hat methods and such.

There is absolutely no need for this type of behavior as I am simply trying to work this situation out and get you paid so we can move on and go our separate ways.

Now, you are saying my tech Billy “played games with you and your team”, please explain exactly what is going on here and what you are referring too.

I have reviewed some of the correspondence and will get to all of it in the am. Your email was way out of line last night threatening to call my clients and slander my firm , not very professional. You can get pissed yes if you feel you were being wronged, as would I, but then you probably should have escalated it to me as the owner and the guy who writes the checks, not send threatening emails about calling clients and writing bad things about my firm.

As to recording any conversation, not sure what you are talking about but yes I am trying to work this out or I wouldn’t be talking to you would I? I would simply send it to my corporate counsel and not look back and let them handle it. This doesn’t seem a matter yet to have them handle unless you continue to send the threatening emails you are sending.

Yes we should keep it on record and it is good we have a continued trail while we try and resolve this situation.

All I want is to resolve this issue and have us both move on with our lives.

So this being said, obviously first I cannot use you as a vendor further with the threats of contacting my clients and posting bad or negative content about my firm online. Below in red you made yet another  threat in reference to slander and defamation of my firm’s name. Not a good angle to come at me with Kevin, I don’t take threats lightly.

Second, as to your invoice due, I am hearing from Billy he had to constantly correct your content on his time, for some reason he simply never went back to you and told you to fix it. That is my problem now, although this cost me a lot of extra hourly charges for his time because if the content was done right, this wouldn’t have happened. He is sending me all the work tonight for my review.

This is why I am asking for your side of the story to just get all the facts here so please send it for my review and we can end this as it wastes both of our time when we can be working on positive things.

When I receive and review it I can contact you back in the am. If you are due the full invoice amount from the facts, I will have no problem paying it of course. If not, we can hopefully come to an agreement on a number so we both move on but please stop on the threats of your “a lot of work to get busy on”, it isn’t professional or appreciated and doesn’t sit well with me. In fact, it really makes no sense that you would threaten my firm twice in emails with you stating below you want everything on record, which it is now. This puts you in the bad guy’s seat doesn’t it, I am just trying to work this out. This isn’t my first rodeo and it doesn’t sound like it is yours but keep it professional and let’s not have a 3rd email like the first two please.

The way I see it, you are a vendor, you sent me an invoice for July/August work of which you feel is due. My staff is telling me the work was not up to par and cost a lot of their man hours to fix thus I shouldn’t pay the entire invoice, I am simply trying to get to the bottom of this. Let’s keep it simple as you mention is right so how about enough of the threats and let’s stick to the facts so we can resolve this. There is no reason to escalate this any further then the two of us currently.

I look forward to receiving your side of what happened here so we can handle this in the am and then have a nice weekend-

Thanks,

President

Hi (President),

You are right. This is not my first rodeo. Thanks for noticing. I’m not going to bore you with my autobiography, just know that I have justice issues, anger management issues, and I swear this is going to be the last of a long string of screw-jobs over the last five years that have busted me down to parade rest. I have a feeling that the day is coming when we’ll all be having a good laugh about this over some cold beers. But until then, I’m fighting for what me and my team are due without a single threat, but only very real promises.

My side of the story has already been composed and sent to (Middle Manager), but maybe you fired him today for allowing Billy to send me a spread sheet with half your customer base without having me sign a non-disclosure / non-compete agreement first. So, I’ll send it again, to you this time. I’ll also attach a copy of the invoice that I’m updating to include charges for all the extra work you are making me do to collect what you owe us. I spent about five hours today, my birthday, playing Judge Judy with this nonsense. If you have already read the doc I sent (Middle Manager), with mine and Billy’s correspondence pasted on it, and still can’t see that Billy obviously fucked up and caused this train wreck, then you are as stupid as he is.

Now let me defend myself against your accusations that I’m threatening to slander your company by explaining to you tonight, what your counsel will probably explain to you tomorrow. Hypothetically, if I was to publish this online, and then copy the link to 53 of your clients...

( President) and his crew flew to the East Coast and took turns blowing me at a cheap motel that I paid for, and then turned around and considered that full payment for all the flat spun content that myself and my team produced for his company that they used for what I consider obsolete link building and “black hat” Search Engine Optimization methods for the following list of clients: (list of your client’s Web sites here)

That would be slander because it isn’t true, and would be considered by most people derogatory and intended for the purpose of defaming your company and harming your personal and professional reputations... It would be easy for your lawyer to go after me for libel, especially if I couldn’t show as much as a motel receipt to back up my story.

On the other hand, if I publish the story of how I got ( figuratively ) screwed by (President , Middle management guy and Billy) of (Company) for all the flat spun content that myself and my crew produced for his company that they used for what I consider obsolete link building and “black hat” Search Engine Optimization methods for the following list of clients: (list of your client’s Web sites here)

That would not be considered slander any more than when TransUnion reports to the world that my shiny new Ford Mustang got repossessed because I was unable to make the payments, and that I had two houses foreclosed on after the housing market crash in ‘06... because it’s true, even if it makes me look like a loser. As far as my opinion of your professional modus operandi -I’m entitled to it, and as an American, I’m free to express it any way, any where I want -especially because as I mentioned, I never made any legal promise not to.

So, I don’t know what (Corporate Counsel) is going to give you for options, but here are three from me:

1) Hire me. I want a one year contract, 33% commish on new business I bring in, or deals that I renegotiate and save (like the two clients I know you lost) with a $5,000 per month forgivable draw. I’ll show you guys how to roll with Google’s Panda / Farmer change, testing my ideas for new and better ways to promote our clients Web sites...White hat style. I’ll also give you some good advice on competitive intelligence and especially counter-competitive intelligence methods that will prevent what is possibly about to happen to your company from ever happening again. You will assure me that you will not hustle any clients or vendors that I do business with on your behalf, and of course, I’ll need the first month’s forgivable draw upfront.

2) Pay me $25,000.00 and I will sign a non-disclosure / non-compete agreement. I honor my contracts, and if we make this agreement, I’ll stay away from your current clients and won’t even go near the SEO business, except to promote my own sites. I won’t mention a thing about your company online, in print or on the street. I’ll get everyone on my team to sign one as well, and I’m sure they will honor it -these are good people, and even though they are pissed off and disappointed that they have been forced to wait too long for payment, some are actually giving me flack for the way I’m going off on you guys in order to get our money. My attitude may have cost me my right arm, Sally Collins.

3) Keep playing games with the money you owe us, as we start contacting your clients one by one, pointing them to a site where all our correspondence will be posted, and your own bullshit words, and the obvious way you unfairly treated your vendor will put you in the “bad guy seat.” I’ll seek payment from your clients for the spun articles you are stealing from us and using to promote their businesses. I’ll convince them that you are a scammer. For about a hundred bucks each, they will get everything they need from us to legally get out of their contracts with you. You compromised their online reputations by giving out their company information and promotional strategies to vendors who you are ripping off, and as you can see, I can prove it.

It’s laughably ironic that one of the points of contention on this project was that Billy failed to instruct us not to use company information in the content until after we completed the majority of the work. Now you want to back charge us for the time he spent editing it out. Apparently you have your heads up your asses when it comes to counter-competitive intelligence. You never should have given us that info in the first place! Keywords would have been sufficient. The “certain level of secrecy” that ****** said is important to maintain when promoting these Websites wouldn’t have been compromised, and non-disclosure agreements would not even have been necessary.

Here is one last tid-bit that should convince you that option #1 or #2 is best for everyone: your team, my team, our clients and the Internet in general:

We might understand how search robots think and behave, even though it’s complicated and changes constantly. But think of how ludicrous it sounds to the average business owner when you tell them that you are going to buy a whole bunch of content and post it all over the Web and by doing so, promote their company and drive lots of traffic to their site...Yet none of this content is going to have their name or logo or anything identifying them in it. This will all be kept  “secret.” The theme of the articles they are purchasing, if they are written correctly, won’t be at all “promotional.” Sounds sketchy. Sounds “black hat.”

You should hear my “white hat” pitch! That’s something folks can get their heads around. You’ll get to hear it if you choose option #1. Curious? Make a command decision by tomorrow. If that invoice isn’t paid, by tomorrow night my team and I are embarking on option #3.

Thanks,

Kevin Leland

....I got paid $4,386.52 (every penny) less than twelve hours after sending this last email. Surprisingly, I wasn't asked to sign a non disclosure / non compete agreement. That helps with future plans. I only needed to promise that I wouldn't post anything derogatory about the owner or the company. Hence the reason I blocked it out in this correspondence. I would have borrowed money to pay you guys if I had to. Let's work on a better way to make money in this business without working for taskmasters that take away our straw while we bust our asses to make their bricks....Project Exodus is the answer!