Getting Paid
If an employer refuses to pay up after a shoot, what recourse do we have through Mandy, any-one know?
Editorial Comment Hi Michael,
If you have a complaint about an employer please contact our customer service team via email (emails@mandy.com).
The Mandy Admin Team.
If Mandy are as helpful about this as everything else, very little I imagine. You could get Equity involved if you're a member. It doesn't need to have been an Equity contract, I don't think.
Alternatively I had a corporate video employer a few years ago not pay for ages. I chased and chased and then got fed up with being fobbed off. I sent what is known as a Letter Before Action, which notifies them of your intent to use the Small Claims Court. I made sure I copied it into the senior management and not just the accounts dept I'd been dealing with. I had my money within a week - never needed to actually file the claim although it's not arduous if you do need to. You can google everything I've mentioned. I used a template I found online for the Letter.
Excellent advice Rebecca.
None. As Rebecca says, Equity then threaten small claims. Also name and shame on Twitter and in any relevant FB groups (The Watchlist is a very good one). If they're local with an office... go and visit. Maybe take a few beers, a boombox (or bluetooth speaker for you young 'uns!) and sit there enjoying yourself as their clients come and go.
The Watchlist - https://www.facebook.com/groups/934284610033248 It's very good and all actors should be aware of it. You can also search to see if the company has been mentioned previously.
Good luck with trying to get Mandy to do anything. Rebecca and Mark have given the best advice. Thanks Mark for the facebook watchlist.
They're based in Bulgaria.
Within minutes of posting my thread, I received the following from Mandy:
Editorial Comment Hi Michael,
"If you have a complaint about an employer please contact our customer service team via email (emails@mandy.com).
The Mandy Admin Team."
I'll let you know if they respond and how.
Bulgaria... that might be a bit of a long shot. If they do a lot of work here (or from here) it might still be worth Tweeting them and posting about them on FB.
I got my former agents kicked off here and StarNow (they stole money from me and were convicted in court), but that was a few years ago - not this current bunch of useless...
This is the response I got from Mandy:
"Hi Mick,
Please note that Casting Directors have up to 30 days to process a payment for talents that worked for them.
If by any chance the amount agreed between you and the casting director is not paid within these 30 days, you can reach out to us.
Typically we don't intervene directly in payment disputes involving payments made outside of our website, but we certainly don't mind having the casting department reach out to the poster to encourage them to pay what was stated as payment in the posted casting notice.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Regards,
Joao"
Arghh! I hate that expression 'reach out' - drives me up the wall!
Encourage them to pay? Not very forceful. Better with Equity. How long have you been waiting? Did they say they weren't gong to pay? It's a minefield sometimes. Keep us up to date.
All four actors concerned with this have not been paid although we were promised payment 72 hours after the shoot. We have been treated badly with each of us having texts messages saying " the payment will be done today" and then nothing arriving. I think the best route.will be via Equity but they might have to wait until the usual 30 days have elapsed. The shoot was on 25 March.
If you were told the payment would be in 30 days then I would wait. It seems you’ve already been told you’d be paid sooner though, so I’d definitely start making noise about it.
I spent a lot of my time gathering evidence for Mandy on a company that did not pay me for my work. Mandy said they needed to have all the emails, contracts as evidence so that they could look into it for me. I heard nothing so got in touch to ask them what course of action they were taking, only to be told there was nothing they could do! I was so frustrated, as they just wasted my time. They did say they would blacklist them so hopefully it may prevent someone else from losing out, if they do in fact blacklist them. You can get good advice from Equity or Citizen’s Advice. Good luck.
I’m surprised they actually offer to ‘look into it’. Probably simply ‘saving face’ with no intention of doing anything. I did get my previous agents kicked off here (they stole money & were convicted in court) - but that was the ‘old’ Mandy… A very good FB group that’s dedicated to naming & shaming (and chasing) dodgy industry individuals/employers is “The Watchlist - film industry companies or persons to watch out for!!” I’d highly recommend joining it.
- got paid a couple of days ago and so I did not test the integrity of Mandy's promise to bring about an investigation if I'd provided them with the information they requested.
I do wish every success to those with an outstanding non payment grievance.
Hi All,
Please continue to leave honest (allbeit negative) reviews about Backstage etc here:
- https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/mandy.com (Currently a 3.5* rating) (down from 4.5*)
- https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.starnow.com (Currently a 1.3* rating) (down from 2*)
- https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.backstage.com (Currently a 1.5* rating) (down from 2.5*)
This is helping us in the fight against poor fees, working conditions and rogue castings.
Thanks!
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