Complaint Review: Index Tree And Revedia Under Lawrence Johnson - Henderson Nevada

Since the first freelance project I had worked on for this guy, Lawrence Johnson, the owner of indextree.com and revedia.com, he never paid for my work on time after I delivered the final comps. He is always telling lies such as, "Oh... I am very busy, so I forget about to pay you." He is always a month to three months late to pay after the invoice had delivered to him. I started working as a freelance designer for this guy since Fall 2007.

When I first had interview with Lawrence Johnson and his wife, Anne-Marie Kovac, back in Fall 2007, they kept saying that they had to sign a contract with Walgreen. They didn't want to bring me on board till everything had been confirmed, but they were interested in working with me on some freelance projects. That was how I started to work some freelance projects for them on and off till June, 2008.

I had worked on about a total of four projects for them from Fall 2007 to June 2008. Throughout this freelancing period, I always delivered their urgent projects on time. But I also became a bill collector, chasing after Lawrence Johnson, to pay for my work for a month to three months. I understand that he might be too busy, and he cannot remember to write me a check and pay me, so I never pushed him. I just kept sending him reminding letters and invoices.

At the end of May, 2008, Lawrence Johnson called me and asked me if I could help him with another urgent project, designing the web templates for their client, Dan. Even though I knew that the deadline was very unreasonable, I wanted to help designing the web templates for the client, Dan, who wanted to launch vacationforapurpose.org, because I knew that this would be a very meaningful project. Then again, Lawrence Johnson used the same excuse, trying to escape from paying for my work.

I didn't realize that he was such a jerk, always firing employees and freelancers for the reason of delaying to pay them, and he does that to every designer and employee till he wanted to bring me in his other company, Revedia. He realized that I wanted to move back to Los Angeles, but he wanted to know if I could work with him in a long-term. He hired me as an Independent Contractor. At that time, I was telling myself, "Just give him another chance. He might not be such a terrible person, whom keeps telling lies and pretends he is busy and forgetting to pay for the designers and the employees for at least a month."

During the third or fourth time interview within a year and a half, he said, "I don't want to deduct the tax for someone, whom will move back to CA, within couple months. I don't know how the tax rates works in CA." I understand that deducting the tax, while I am in CA, can be a headache, and I can do that for myself; therefore, I told Lawrence Johnson, "OK. I can do that for myself and to save your time." I started to work as an Independent Contractor in house from June 23, 2008 to August 13, 2008. I supposed to work a longer time. However, during the days I worked in-house with Lawrence Johnson, Anne-Marie Kovac, two employees, and one freelance accountant, I found out the truth behind all the lies.

First of all, Lawrence Johnson pretended that he already pay me for working on the project vacationforapurpose.com, when he first had the accountant to give me a printed check, three weeks later than the paid period, which the accountant had described to me on the first day I started working in-house. I told Lawrence Johnson, "No. I started to work on vacationforapurpose.com before I started working in-house as an Independent for you. Please don't mix the two together." This drama was just a beginning of the storm.

Second, I wondered how come Lawrence Johnson could not pay me on time, and he had to have the accountant to print a check under Revedia. Lawrence's lying description was, "Oh... Revedia is Revedia. Indextree is Indextree. We are just outsourcing to Revedia to work on our websites, but you are hired under Revedia. We have to pay Revedia for the work, so there are a lot of money transfer work need to do, and that's why you get paid late. You are not an employee." I was like... How come the accountant described to me that I got paid every two weeks?

Also, how come on the contract Lawrence stated, "You got paid bi-monthly?" Moreover, it really doesn't matter if I am hired by Revedia and working for both companies, because Lawrence Johnson is the owner of the two companies. Anne-Marie Kovac, Lawrence's wife, seems acting as the CEO, but she was not. She told me that she was not responsible for the payroll, and Lawrence Johnson and the accountant should be the right people to get me paid. In fact, for the other freelance projects I had ever worked for them outside, Lawrence, always wrote me a check instead of using Revedia's account and printing a check.

Third, I supposed to work on Revedia's website. I also wrote a very clear timeline and sent to Lawrence Johnson, Anne-Marie, and one employee, who supposes to have a title, Online Marketing Director. I stated that, "Even though the Revedia's website can be done in three weeks, I cannot start to work on the development part till the design stage is finalized." During that time, Lawrence and Anne-Marie went to Canada for almost two weeks. Anne-Marie supposed to act as a project coordinator, but she didn't want to do those kinds of things. I told her, "It is okay. I understand.

I will contact the client, Dan, and follow up with all the detail info for designing and developing another project, Flor de Cabrera. At that time, I was not sure if I could get paid, but I tried to be optimized, and I handle Flor de Cabrera's design and revisions, working on Revedia's design and planning for the development, taking Anne-Marie's responsibility, contacting the client, and working as a project coordinator, and helping other two employees' to work on their named, "urgent" projects, fixing those Flash banners and headers, and etc.

Revedia's logo in an Illustrator format supposed to be delivered by a freelance designer working in New York, a year ago. Lawrence and Anne-Marie blamed the designer and dropped all the responsibility onto her shoulders, when I asked Anne-Marie, "When will the logo designer give us Revedia's logo?" I didn't understand why Anne-Marie and Lawrence wanted the logo designer to fix Revedia's logo after a year she delivered the Illustrator file.

I mentioned to Anne-Marie and Lawrence, "I can fix the logo myself. It is not necessary to wait till the logo designer to give us the revising logo. You can tell me what you want to change. It can save us sometime." Anyway, I finally found out that Lawrence and Anne-Marie didn't pay the logo designer for her work, so she didn't want to deliver any more work till they pay her.

Throughout this painful and full-of-lies working period with Lawrence Johnson and Anne-Marie, I found out that I was not the only designer falling into their trap. There was one web designer before me worked for them in-house. He worked on websites and Flash for them. He is not in Thailand. One client of Indextree wanted to change something on a Flash header of their website. The Flash animation was done by the former designer.

The two employees working at Indextree wanted that designer to fix the Flash for them. The designer oversea in Thailand knew how lack of creditability this company is, he never replied any e-mails regarding to fix the Flash header. I took the responsibility of fixing the Flash header instead. Then a designer who supposed to work on the 360 degree website header for Flor de Cabrera responded back with words such as, "I am not going to deliver any more work for you guys unless I get paid!"

I also heard that for so many times Lawrence and Anne-Marie were got burned by the designers and employees for their terrible reputation. They even got into courts. For all these dramas, I thought probably the designers and the former employees who got fired by Lawrence Johnson cannot work harmony with them. However, after so many similar painful situations had happened to me, I cannot keep silence, and I must tell the rest of the world, "No! Don't ever work for Lawrence Johnson and Anne-Marie for their whatever companies, Indextree and Revedia, they can ruin your life and your family's life!"

Lawrence Johnson and Anne-Marie acted extremely picky and unreasonable, when they realized that they owed you so much money for your effort and work. If you don't chase after them to pay you, you are okay. You just keep working without pay. Then of course, they are happy about it, because they are taking advantage from you! Who doesn't want to hire someone whom doesn't ask for payment, but he/she is very hardworking!?

Once you realize the truth behind all the lies and dramas, and you start chasing after them to pay for your effort and work, they will set up all kinds of traps to make you wanting to fire yourself or they will fire you! One employee who is still working at Indextree, mentioned to me, "It happened to me before. Lawrence didn't pay me on time. I had to work into his office many times to remind him, 'Hey Lawrence. I cannot work like that. I have a family and kids.'"

I didn't want to report this Ripoff company at the beginning. However, I don't want any more people fall into the traps. I sincerely hope that everyone who is looking for a job or a freelance job won't encounter this problem.

Again, DON'T WORK FOR LAWRENCE JOHNSON AND ANNE-MARIE KOVAC! They might change their company names later for all those terrible reputations. Whenever these two Canadians who speak French post hiring ads online or in any other media, please consider the offer twice! Money is nice, but you must think about what you are going to do if they keep delaying to pay you and setting up all kinds of traps to fire you.

Mc2008

San Gabriel, California

U.S.A.