I signed an agreement to work as an independent sales agent for a merchant services company in January. A copy of the signed agreement was never provided, even after I asked for a copy multiple times.
The person who hired me was my boss and he stated that since the company spent so much money on marketing, that they couldn't afford to pay an hourly wage, but I was told that there would be NO COLD-CALLING and that the average rep makes $1000 a week in commissions; any money I made would come from commissions only. This seemed like a pretty easy goal, since "prospects would call me to sign up for a merchant account and there would be no cold-calling".
After about a month working for this company I realized that the $1000/wk was a lie, because I spent at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week cold-calling. I spent a month staying until about 8pm and going in on assigned Saturdays to try to reach the $1000/wk goal. Needless to say, I never saw a check that big and neither did the many other people that would only last 2 weeks to a month there and then would suddenly quit. The biggest check I saw was for about $300 and that was because I had 2 commission checks overdue by a 2 weeks each.
A lot of the people that I had to speak to already had existing merchant accounts and I was instructed to tell them that "we were they're current back-end processor and that we were calling to give them a better deal and cut out the middleman." I discovered that this wasn't the case and that I was lying to people. I told my boss that I wasn't interested in contacting existing businesses, because I was required to lie to obtain a copy of the business' credit card processing statement, and that a lot of them told me that I was lying. He said that they had to lie on the recording the people listen to before pressing 1, or no one would press 1 to speak with a live agent.
I told him I was going to concentrate on contacting new business owners ONLY. I still wasn't able to make more than $100 a week, if that. So at this time I decided that I was going to find a part-time job, but continue selling merchant accounts in case I was just going through a dry spell. I wasn't able to find a part-time job, and in 3 months of working there, I probably made about $800.
There were multiple occasions where my commission check or my residual check wasn't paid out on time, or came with mistakes. This directly resulted in me not being able to afford the transportation to and from work, yet alone food and living expenses.
I spent about 3 months with the company and before quitting I spent 4 days straight asking my boss to please correct the error on my residuals report and to pay me accordingly for an overdue check. Each time he said, "we'll talk about it tomorrow". I explained that the situation was that I didn't have money to come in to work, but it was like he didn't care.
My last attempt to collect in person was on a Wednesday evening. He said he would pay me on Friday. I tried to borrow money from a friend to go into work for the next couple of days, but that didn't happen. I couldn't sleep that night and around 8am Thursday, I emailed my boss and I told him that I was quitting because I didn't have money to come in to work. The reason I gave him was that because he still hadn't paid me, I wasn't able to afford the trip to the office. I asked him to please have my check ready on Friday.
After emailing him Thursday morning, I didn't get a reply. My next reply came when I inquired about the check via email on Friday morning and his reply was:
"I sat with my partner who logged into your PC and email, and you deleted everything except the email to my partner. You signed an agreement with us that states you cannot tamper with intellectual property which is owned by the company. You used our marketing money and then leave with the documents, which is a breach of your agreement.
Your agreement states in 4.2 Breach: Agent agrees and understands that any
breach of its obligations will cause a forfeiture of all commissions....
I really would like to help you, but the way you left here was very unprofessional. "
I replied and told him that I didn't take anything from his company. That all my leads where on paper and were left on top of the desk, along with all pending applications and completed applications that he had already paid me for. I also asked him to please have my overdue check ready, because I had to pick it up by 6pm that day, or I wouldn't have anything to eat. He never replied.
My boss knew that I didn't have phone service to call him. He also knew that I had no money to come in and quit in person. Since day one all of my communications with him have been through email or in person at the office. I never called him for anything…I had no phone service.
I did delete email messages from the account his company provided me with, but I didn't do it to steal or to do any harm to the company. I deleted the messages on Wednesday before I spoke with him about my overdue check. My reason for deleting the emails was to start on Thursday with a clean slate and forget about all of those dead leads. I had no intentions of quitting when I deleted the emails. I didn't even have intentions of quitting when I left the office with no check on Wednesday. I found myself in a situation that wasn't paying off or even healthy for me, and I had no other choice but to quit. The decision was made on Thursday morning and I let him know right away.
My questions are as follows:
1. Are email messages that I compose related to doing business considered "Intellectual Property" of the company, even when I'm working as an independent contractor?
2. Have I breached the agreement by deleting email messages that I composed, which were dead leads, with the intention of starting on a clean slate?
3. By unknowingly breaching an agreement, does that cause a forfeiture of my OVERDUE commission and residuals check?
The person who hired me was my boss and he stated that since the company spent so much money on marketing, that they couldn't afford to pay an hourly wage, but I was told that there would be NO COLD-CALLING and that the average rep makes $1000 a week in commissions; any money I made would come from commissions only. This seemed like a pretty easy goal, since "prospects would call me to sign up for a merchant account and there would be no cold-calling".
After about a month working for this company I realized that the $1000/wk was a lie, because I spent at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week cold-calling. I spent a month staying until about 8pm and going in on assigned Saturdays to try to reach the $1000/wk goal. Needless to say, I never saw a check that big and neither did the many other people that would only last 2 weeks to a month there and then would suddenly quit. The biggest check I saw was for about $300 and that was because I had 2 commission checks overdue by a 2 weeks each.
A lot of the people that I had to speak to already had existing merchant accounts and I was instructed to tell them that "we were they're current back-end processor and that we were calling to give them a better deal and cut out the middleman." I discovered that this wasn't the case and that I was lying to people. I told my boss that I wasn't interested in contacting existing businesses, because I was required to lie to obtain a copy of the business' credit card processing statement, and that a lot of them told me that I was lying. He said that they had to lie on the recording the people listen to before pressing 1, or no one would press 1 to speak with a live agent.
I told him I was going to concentrate on contacting new business owners ONLY. I still wasn't able to make more than $100 a week, if that. So at this time I decided that I was going to find a part-time job, but continue selling merchant accounts in case I was just going through a dry spell. I wasn't able to find a part-time job, and in 3 months of working there, I probably made about $800.
There were multiple occasions where my commission check or my residual check wasn't paid out on time, or came with mistakes. This directly resulted in me not being able to afford the transportation to and from work, yet alone food and living expenses.
I spent about 3 months with the company and before quitting I spent 4 days straight asking my boss to please correct the error on my residuals report and to pay me accordingly for an overdue check. Each time he said, "we'll talk about it tomorrow". I explained that the situation was that I didn't have money to come in to work, but it was like he didn't care.
My last attempt to collect in person was on a Wednesday evening. He said he would pay me on Friday. I tried to borrow money from a friend to go into work for the next couple of days, but that didn't happen. I couldn't sleep that night and around 8am Thursday, I emailed my boss and I told him that I was quitting because I didn't have money to come in to work. The reason I gave him was that because he still hadn't paid me, I wasn't able to afford the trip to the office. I asked him to please have my check ready on Friday.
After emailing him Thursday morning, I didn't get a reply. My next reply came when I inquired about the check via email on Friday morning and his reply was:
"I sat with my partner who logged into your PC and email, and you deleted everything except the email to my partner. You signed an agreement with us that states you cannot tamper with intellectual property which is owned by the company. You used our marketing money and then leave with the documents, which is a breach of your agreement.
Your agreement states in 4.2 Breach: Agent agrees and understands that any
breach of its obligations will cause a forfeiture of all commissions....
I really would like to help you, but the way you left here was very unprofessional. "
I replied and told him that I didn't take anything from his company. That all my leads where on paper and were left on top of the desk, along with all pending applications and completed applications that he had already paid me for. I also asked him to please have my overdue check ready, because I had to pick it up by 6pm that day, or I wouldn't have anything to eat. He never replied.
My boss knew that I didn't have phone service to call him. He also knew that I had no money to come in and quit in person. Since day one all of my communications with him have been through email or in person at the office. I never called him for anything…I had no phone service.
I did delete email messages from the account his company provided me with, but I didn't do it to steal or to do any harm to the company. I deleted the messages on Wednesday before I spoke with him about my overdue check. My reason for deleting the emails was to start on Thursday with a clean slate and forget about all of those dead leads. I had no intentions of quitting when I deleted the emails. I didn't even have intentions of quitting when I left the office with no check on Wednesday. I found myself in a situation that wasn't paying off or even healthy for me, and I had no other choice but to quit. The decision was made on Thursday morning and I let him know right away.
My questions are as follows:
1. Are email messages that I compose related to doing business considered "Intellectual Property" of the company, even when I'm working as an independent contractor?
2. Have I breached the agreement by deleting email messages that I composed, which were dead leads, with the intention of starting on a clean slate?
3. By unknowingly breaching an agreement, does that cause a forfeiture of my OVERDUE commission and residuals check?
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