Thursday, December 08, 2005

 

Mail from Workaholiks (finally) and my response

Workaholiks finally responded. Please find my reply to them.


Hi Tej,

Let me reply to you point by point:

what are you trying??
Making people aware of how their material is not safe anymore on the net and how to deal with unprofessional ad agencies like yours.

we told you a week ago that the cheque was ready you have not picked it up and you make it sound like we are not paying for it.
On the 25th of November, after repeated mails and telephone conv., I had to send an ultimatum mail to you to which you replied back saying "We are mailing a cheque of Rs.2000 by courier today." Nowhere did you mention that I was supposed to pick up the cheque as you claim now and neither did you bother to even ask me on the suitability of the amount. Not that I was bothered about that given my reply to your mail in which I clearly thanked you for the cheque.

Secondly we asked you to come to our office and i also clearly remember offering to meet you anywhere convienient to you. you called us several times almost everyday and turned up after a month.
I agree with what you have said but you forget to mention that I called up everytime, I had fixed an appointment with you, expressing my inability to come over due to work pressure. And the last time when I was held up at office, I, in fact asked my wife to give you a call and cancel the meeting. At that time, Subu told her that there is no need for me to call up and I can come over anyday after 6:00. However, before the first time when I did come, I called up Subu who said you would be there and he would not be since he had already left office. And what did I get? I had to sit in your office for almost half an hour before someone turned up and asked me what I was doing there. The second time when I came over, I am sure you remember I spoke to you and you said that please come at 6:30. I left office and rushed since this time I definitely wanted to speak to you guys. But it was the same story. Empty office. And it was only after 20 minutes that you turned up and pretended as if everyting
was normal. Well, unfortunately, I like to be in on time and I expect others to understand that as well.

I replied to your mail the moment i got back.
Agreed. But then I sent a reply and no one from your firm has got back to me till now.

how do you expect us to send the cheque without the voucher or the invoice.
I really do not know since I am not in this business, you are. I am sure you remember our first meeting. You asked me for my address and phone and said that the cheque would be sent to my mailing address. As mentioned above, you also sent me a mail, saying that the cheque is coming by courier. Did you not think of this invoice thing then? Surely, I am not the first supplier you are dealing with.

I told you about the other work because i though your work was good not to compensate for the pic.
I guess I was a bit naive to believe that.

You have called ad mailed us till i said the money was ready and when you can collect it you seem to be taking this down hill.
Tej, I think you should check you mail box or ask Subu to check his. I have told you that I really do not have the time nor energy to come over to your place. I have done that twice and not with great results. Please let us not forget that I have a demanding profession and deadlines to meet. I gave you three options in my reply -
1. Send me the format of the invoice by post, I will create it, sign it and send it across.
2. Send me the voucher by post, I will sign it and send it across.
3. Please send someone from your office with the voucher and I will do the needful.
Surely all the three options here are practical and feasible. You have not even replied back to this. What do you have to say for that?

If you wanted anything else you shuld have told us this is not the way to behave, when subu has been replying to your mails and has been in touch with you the whole time.
I have never wanted anything else and I have always agreed to everything that you have said. You said I will mail money to your address, I said ok. You said you will give me 2000 bucks, I said ok. Please jog your memory and try to remember even one demand I have made. I am sure you remember me telling you in your office that I am least bothered about what you pay me and whatever you pay me, I would plough it back into photography. Subu indeed was more responsive and maybe in the heat of the moment
promised that everything will be resolved a few weeks back. That was the last I have heard from him.

I am sure you have now received Shankar's mail about his photograph being pilfered by your firm and posted on the website. Looks like this whole thing has opened a really dirty can of worms in your backyard.

I hope you learn something from this and at least now try to salvage whatever little is left. Just remember that in a few week's time, anyone who wants to search for your firm on Google will only get these kind of links about your firm. Not the best publicity that you would want given the fact that ironically all this started with Google.

Regards
Suyog

Well, that was the mail and my reply. Let us see how it moves from here. But the most important aspect of this whole episode was the immense support that I have got from all the bloggers out there and all my photographer friends frm BSB and BPC. Thanks so much guys! It means a lot to me. Knowing that there are so many people out there to help you is all I could have asked for. I have so many emails to reply to still. Will do that and I promise to thank each one of you individually. Meanwhile, these are the links of blogs that are currently talking about this issue -

Amit Varma

Vivek

Kousik

Reflex

Kiruba

Desipundit

Sumankumar

Copyright 2004-2008 Suyog Gaidhani. All rights reserved.

Comments:
//how do you expect us to send the cheque without the voucher or the invoice.//

Mr.Dumbaholics, Did you not know this when you copied a picture. Just like how you stole the pictures from the net, create an invoice yourself. a copy of invoice will be available in goodle images. and credit stealing a/c in your ledgers.

Suyog, how could those dumbaholics determine 2000 for your picture. ask ten times more.
 
Hi Suyog,

Came to your blog through Arjun Prabhu's blog.
Really bad on Workaholiks part to do the mistake then give an explanation to the whole episode !!!
Loved all the pictures you have taken!
Which camera are you using ?
 
The website (www.workaholiks.com) seems to have dissappeared. Hmm...
 
I guess the website is down to avoid the mails they have started getting for all the stolen images displayed in the web site!!!
 
I've noticed the same - just a directory listing available. Seems like they're building it from the scratch as probably (I think) *ALL* graphics used there was stolen?
 
probably they still think it is no big deal to use someone else's work without permission. His responses are weak attempt s to defend their actions. Actually ask them for more. How can he ask you for a voucher when they used your work without a formal agreement?
 
Probably they want to hide the fact of thievery.
 
Now they cant even accept EMails
http://sriturl.blogspot.com/2005/12/theft.html
 
Thank you all for all your support!

The Workaholiks website seems to be down or they at least they seem to have removed the index page. Their email systems were always a little bit quirky. Good moral lesson, I guess.

Srividya, I am using a Olympus C750 UZ. Nothing fancy. Plan to buy a DSLR soon :-)
 


Post a Comment



<< Home