Get Transcribed Non-payment Franklin Ohio
I started working for Get Transcribed around mid-March 2013. In fact, I took my first assignment for this company on the 20th. It started out good, but ended badly in just a few short months. For starters, I was working long, hard hours on lengthy transcription assignments. Unlike with Scribie, another transcription company I do work for, you had to contact the owner directly for available work. That didn't raise any red flags for me. On the website, you have to first fill out a form and then take a transcription test to see how accurate you are with words. You have to score at least an 85% just to work with the company, but your score has to come up to 98% after a few months.
When I first started out for this company, I didn't know the exact rules on how I should transcribe one or two speaker assignments. In fact, I had to ask Mr. Ryczko on how things should be done and he sent me the guidelines. I copied them and tried to do things to the best of my ability. Now, I do admit that I made some blunders and should've been more careful about what I did. But when I look back, I realize that things weren't always what they seemed. I tried looking up Get Transcribed's reputation and realized it was a newer company. In fact, their score with the BBB was raised to an A- only because no other company that has done business with them complained. We all know that could change. One thing I did learn is that Mr. Ryczko will only keep you if you're making him look good. If you don't, then you'll get the axe and he won't even bother paying you for the work you did do.
The first and only time I received payment from Get Transcribed was on May 28th 2013. And that was for work done between mid to late March 2013 and early May 2013. Matt claims that the workers get paid sometime between 15th and 20th of each month provided if they have at least $100 in their account. He said that if you have less than $100 with him, then your earnings roll over into the next month. But, I didn't get paid until sometime between eight and 13 days later. Why didn't he pay me between 15th and 20th of May? Now, he did mention that sometime around the early part of that month that he had to wait for his client invoices. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I even emailed him on the 20th of May about when I was going to get paid and he told me how much I made with his company and said he was going to release the money sooner than the 15th of next month.
This past summer was the worst. In July and August 2013, I took on more assignments than I needed to and made mistakes on a few of them. Mr. Ryczko realized this and eventually terminated me for my faulty performance on August 15th. He never paid me the $73.08 he owed me for all the assignments I did between May 20th and August 2nd 2013. I even threatened to report his company to the BBB for failure of non-payment that night. I did this twice before getting a response from him on his company's Facebook page that Friday night. He finally gave me a formal response to my hotmail address asking me to waive the $73.08 so he doesn't have to charge me with $151 and tens of thousands of dollars in damages I did to the transcription assignments. When I read that email I was like, "Is he for real?" Even if this guy were to charge me tens of thousands of dollars I wouldn't have paid him a cent. He could've taken me to court and did the whole nine yards. All I could've said was, "I'm broke," and that's the truth.
Then, in this same email, he offered to pay me the $73.08 out of his own pocket that way it would "work in my favor." I sent him an email saying that I would take the $73.08 and that I wanted to get this over with. Unfortunately, I felt guilty for screwing up those few assignments so I apologized for what I did and explained to him my disability. He acknowledged my apology that Sunday morning in another email, but mentioned nothing about paying me what he owed me. I thought, "Okay, everything worked out after all."
Eventually, I realized that I was just being used. It's quite obvious that he used my second guilt-ridden apology email as an excuse to stiff me. Nearly three months after I was terminated from this company, I tried filing a complaint against Get Transcribed without notifying Mr. Ryczko first. I finally got a response from the BBB saying that they couldn't help because it was out of their purview. They forwarded me to the Department of Labor website. From there, I asked a question about how I can retrieve lost wages from Get Transcribed. They told me that they couldn't help me because I was just an independent contractor not an employee and suggested I file with my local unemployment office over the matter. Now all I can say is that I tried.
There were definitely some subtle warning signs with Get Transcribed. Matt Ryczko didn't always responded to me concerning whether my transcripts were accepted or rejected. I had to send him an email in early March about whether or not I passed the transcription test. His company web page claims that they get back with you in a couple weeks to tell you whether or not you passed. My biggest regrets was not quitting this company sooner instead of waiting for him to fire me or as he put it, "let you go". If I had did that, then maybe I would stop thinking about what happened. I finally confronted him with an email back in late November on how I felt about him since he stiffed me out of payment. As of this day, Mr. Ryczko has never responded back. He knew what he did was wrong.