Complaint Review: ANP Transcriptions - Suffern, New York Internet

I started working for ANP in 2008.  I worked there for nearly two and a half years, and it became too stressful and I quit.  The reason being was I was being paid $25 to edit interrogation files for an unnamed police department.  The work was horrible.  I was to review work that transcriptionists had written, and return it within a certain timeframe.  Unfortunately, hardly any of the transcriptionists that worked there understood certain lingo and there was a ton of correcting that had to be done. 

Sometimes these files were as long as eight (8) hours long, and I had to listen to every single utterance that was spoken on the recording to make sure the transcriptionist captured everything.  These could be gang related files, child abuse and murder cases.  Some of these were so intense and heartbreaking, you'd end the day with horrific images in your mind.  And I got a whole whopping $25 for serious mental damage from these, as well as abuse from the people who were offering the work if one thing was missed or a deadline wasn't met because of an extremely high volume of work coming in that was incredibly askew because the transcriptionists couldn't understand what was being said and just typed whatever they thought they were hearing. 

Twenty-five dollars, no matter how long the file, no matter how long it takes.  Calls would come in at nearly 5:00 a.m. my time, then on the other end, I would just hear screaming.  "You missed this or you missed that?" I was actually too busy fixing errors that the transcriptionists were typing, such as: The Munchkin gang, as opposed to what was really said, the Mexican gang.  That was one of my most memorable edits.

Twenty-five dollars per file.  I also had to be a counselor.  Each time we had a child abuse case, I had an enumerable amount of emails from transcriptionists that were so upset by what they had to transcribe, it normally took them longer to finish the file because they would become extremely emotional, and who could blame them?  Most of these women are stay-at-home mothers, and probably hearing about a child being hurt in any way or killed is not what a mother wants to sit around and type about, especially when it is true and completely real.  I also am a stay-at-home mother of two, one who has special needs, and this was incredibly heartbreaking for me to sit back and listen to, every word, every utterance, every gesture needed to be captured.  Not only the child speak of the experience, but also the accused, so you got the full idea of exactly what happened.  Not heartbreaking, heart-wrenching and nightmarish.  Twenty-five dollars, was it worth it?  Hell no.

I quit.  I sure did and I was so relieved.  One morning I came down with laryngitis and was literally unable to speak.  I got one of those early morning phone calls from Larry about a file, not sure what type of file, I was working on several different types.  I had been working all night, probably until about 5:00 in the morning and finally had fell asleep, then he had called.  I had had enough.  I quit.

Well, why am I writing about all of this now?  Well, I did something really stupid this past.  After all that, I decided to ask if they needed any help.  I was extremely desperate at the time; I had two kids to take care of, I had just left my husband of 7 years because he was abusive, and I needed to make money to take care of my kids.  I figured hey, why not?  At least I'll have money once a month. 

Unfortunately, when I signed the contract, I had realized that they pay once every SIX (6) weeks.  The same problems were occurring, a constant smothering and verbally abusive relationship.  I quit after a month and a half.  I was not going to put myself through the same thing all over again.

Well, it is now September, I've billed them twice for the month and a half that I worked for them and that was back in July.  I've sent countless emails, no response.  If there is a response, he says: "Checks are in processing.  Should be mailed out early next week."  That was three weeks ago that I received that response. 

How can a business get away with this?  I not only want to sue for my money, I want to sue for mental anguish.  I think it should be a collective thing, honestly.  If there's anyone out there that has gone through the same experience with this company, we all need to stand up and fight them.