Is it your first paycheck coming from Hala or you have received some in the past?
No, I've received several payments previously, although always very late and only after repeated reminders. I stopped writing for them in October because I hadn't been paid for the work I completed over the summer. First contacted Hala about it in November and eventually received $500 less approximately 10% in Money Gram fees, just as in Perry's case, although I didn't have to open any kind of account for it.
Starting in late November, she told me that she'd issued a wire transfer of the rest of the money owed and told me it would be deposited in 10 business days. When it wasn't, I contacted her and she apologized, promising it would be deposited in another week. That never happened and the next promised payment dates were Dec 25 and then Jan 1st. When nothing came through by Jan 10th, we went through two more rounds of promised wire transfers, the last of which she said that she personally confirmed by checking the bank statement and that it was guaranteed and non-refundable.
When no wire transfer came through, she began talking about Money Gram transactions again. My questions about what had actually happened to the wire transfers never got answered. At that point, I began forwarding the email chains directly to WritersBeware because I'd seen how the other writers here who had complained about not getting paid by WRT were all accused of having been fired or of lying about the facts. I wanted an independent observer (who happens to be the industry's premier authority on this kind of thing) to see what was going on before I posted about it publicly. Hala never provided the pickup code for the first two MG transactions and never explained what happened to them. Then, after profuse apologies, she guaranteed that the next one would go through. I asked just about every single day for the pickup codes (she'd said there were 3 of them) and forwarded WB all the responses from her promising to get me those 3 codes the next day...and the next day...and the next day...she kept telling me that those codes were in the process of being "verified" and she never responded to my requests to have those actual codes in the meantime.
She eventually gave me one code but when I called to confirm, MG had no record of it, at least not associated with any variation of my last name. I informed Hala that MG could not confirm any transaction in my name and she responded that it was because she'd paid extra for a "category 4" transaction that was more secure and unable to be accessed in the MG system by MG service reps. So, I went to the MG website and used their system to ask about that. This was their response, verbatim:
From: CustomerService <CustomerService@moneygram.com>
Subject: XCRM0097249
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:51:04 +0000
Thank you for contacting MoneyGram International. Please accept our apologies for the delayed response. Once the transfer is completed, it is available in our system within 10 minutes, and we do not have "Category 4" transactions. We were unable to find an available transaction under your name and suggest that you contact your sender in order to obtain reference number and transaction details. If you have any additional questions, please contact us by email, or call our customer service line at 1-800-926-9400.
Regards,
Customer Care Case Management Specialist
MoneyGram International
OAS This message may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system.Then, Hala started talking about having the money issued by an agent of hers. A few rounds of promises and assurances but no money. Some of those responses were emails she said she was composing while she was personally at the agent's office waiting to get my information for me (and WB is in possession of all of these emails because I forwarded them as they came in).
After some more inquiries about it, I got an email from Hala's IPad that said it was from her sister and informing me that Hala had entered Cromwell Hospital for surgery and would get back to me after she recovered. So I went to the Cromwell Hospital website to get their phone # and I tried calling just to wish Hala my best. The hospital checked for her name and found nothing. So, I let Hala's sister know and she responded with a different spelling of her last name that she said Hala used. I called Cromwell back but the same thing happened: no record of any patient by that name.
A few more rounds of email promises but no answer to what ever happened to any of those wired transactions, the MG transactions, or the money issued by the agent.
Then, she said she'd be in NYC the following week and we shifted from emails to repeated phone messages and conversations, each and every one of which I recorded. She said she would pay me in person, take my wife and me out to dinner, in addition to inquiring into whether I had kids so that she could bring them all IPads. As in Perry's case, she always talked about wanting to pay me an advance of $1,000/mo for an entire year and I eventually stopped saying that I just wanted the $1,750 because it always got us off the topic of immediate payment. That's about the point that I started posting here about this hoping that might motivate her to make good on the debt. She also promised to provide her local phone # and address as soon as she arrived. As you've already read, she called me a half a dozen times since arriving in NYC but after 3 or 4 days in town, had still not managed to find out which Trump building she lives in (and on which Trump building her father built a roof-top home for her driver), what her address is, what street the building is on, or what her local phone number is.
Since I pointed out how implausible all of that is, I no longer get any phone calls, any emails, or even any auto-responses from her email account.
That's the story, and, as always, I have made no accusations, comments. or conclusions beyond stating what actually happened and what was said. WB has dozens of these emails and I can post audio files of the phone conversations or her acknowledging the debt and repeatedly promising to pay up. Naturally, if that should happen, I'll let everyone here know immediately.