Monday, December 22, 2008

Centocor finally coughs up a check

Friday afternoon I was FedExed a soaking wet envelope (accepted as damaged at the driver's suggestion) with my darn check. I let it dry overnight, scraped it off of the inside of the envelope on Saturday and was fortunately able to deposit it.

What does this tell us? My invoice was acceptable/accepted all along. I never did need to fill out a W-9. And the 20 or so hours I spent wrestling with Centocor's obstructionist staff, opaque phone reception set-up and all other aspects of their bureaucracy in order to honor our agreement were a total waste of my time. "Hey, thanks, Centocor!"

Seasons Greetings indeed to the folks in Hopewell, New Jersey who've been Googling my full name and their company's name. Good use of our time, no? Also a hearty Wassail to the Centocor folks who have taken some time out of their busy trashing-each-other schedule on Cafepharma to pop by.

This is for you:


A person shouldn't have to pitch a fit and resort to public shaming campaign to get paid. I was talking with a friend of mine who's run her own business for years, and she said that from time to time she has to turn into a full-time collections agent in order to get contracts paid. Her "favorite" incident was spending two years to get a $2000 check. Two
years. Apparently at the end of the struggle someone at the company said "We didn't know you were still interested in the money." What's wrong with people these days?
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Saturday, December 20, 2008

End of year quiz schedule

Tuesday's quiz at Drinker's will be the last quiz of 2008. Thanks for a fantastic year! I'm away for the week and will resume a largely normal schedule the first week of January.

One exception: The Draught Horse is closed for Winter Break until mid-January, and there's a Temple basketball home game (which leads to huge, rowdy crowds) on the 22nd. Therefore the Thursday quizzes resume as usual on the 29th.

Tuesday, December 23, 9pm

Drinker's Tavern
Market St., between Front & 2nd Sts.
Subject Round: 2008 Events in Review
Second week of six-week tournament cycle.
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Centocor = holiday deadbeats

Centocor, a dysfunctional division of Johnson & Johnson (the fuckers who sued the American Red Cross for using a red cross, beyond all parody), are stiffing me on payment after I did a holiday party quiz for them two weeks ago.

UPDATES:

After or instead of reading this, read the resolution.

1) The claim now is that I should be getting a check on Friday, December 19 via FedEx. Let's see if it happens. Note that this means that I never needed to submit another invoice nor fill out a W-9, and any claims to the contrary have been obstructionist. I could have had a check cut all along a couple of weeks ago, and people chose not to do so.

2) Apparently this post has been picked up on the Cafepharma message boards, and at least one employee in Hopewell, New Jersey has been Googling my name to find this. My message to the company: now that I FINALLY have your attention, where's my check?

3) Looking into things, no W-9 would be required of me because the amount is under $600. This is a totally spurious claim.

4) I removed the link to PA code as it referenced wages and not contracts. Centocor is actually in violation of contract law.

I took a photo of the winning team and was planning to post that and scores here. Now that just ain't gonna happen. And why, you ask, if you're a Centocor employee visiting the blog, looking for a photo? Because your company friggin' stiffed me.

We had a verbal and written agreement that I would receive a check in hand for the quiz at the event I did for them at a restaurant. No check at event. There was a silly claim that because they couldn't print my Word doc invoice the way they'd like, my invoice was "not valid" and therefore, somehow, I didn't merit a check for work already completed. Incidentally, the claim at the time - I was told I was not getting a check while doing the program, in between rounds, by the by - was that people enjoyed the event itself. We're just dicking me around at this point because they're a corporation, and I'm one guy, and I suppose they figure might makes right. Well, these people are trying to fuck the wrong guy.

I told my public relations contact there last week that my next step if no check were forthcoming was to go public and go negative. This is Portion A of that process. Portion B is getting the word out via other, more popular websites. I don't think that should be difficult. This public shaming will continue until I get my check. If you're reading this and love to pile it on wrongdoing corporations, please feel free to send this link out and post links to it. The more the merrier.

Centocor wanted me, in the week after I should have deposited their check, to reproduce an invoice, in a different format using software I have repeatedly told them I don't have, in order to get paid. I have had over 40 email and phone exchanges with a variety of employees, most rude, a couple helpful (including one who literally laughed at how unjust her own company was being, stating "none of this should be [my] problem"), to try and get my lousy, piddling 3-figure check. I have now done far more work trying to get paid than I did in order to present the program.

Last Friday, after five aggravating days of fighting phone trees and in-company bureaucracy, I was told via an email from human resources that I should get a check in the mail on or about December 17. Today my public relations contact at the company told me on the phone in a call he initiated that that is not what is happening. The latest excuse that I "can't" get paid is that they now want me to fill out a W-9 form, a brand new demand that as late as this past Friday was not being made, and had not been brought up from when I was contacted to do the quiz months ago until today.

I always love the use of the word "can't" in an organization when someone chooses to do the wrong thing. See also Nuremburg defense. And note also the result of its use.

I know they can pay me; they choose to use company rules they select as they go along for not doing so.

No one contracting me to do a program - not even the
law firms I've done quizzes for - has demanded this before, for the simple reason that I am not an employee of any sort of Centocor, or of any other quiz host. I am not really even a normal contractor or sub-contractor, I did a one-off program and we agreed on payment arrangements, based in doing the work and in an invoice they accepted from me weeks ago, on two separate occasions now (the second after Centocor unilaterally violated the first). Usually an organization pays me out of petty cash or the like; this is the party budget here, I'm not an accounting temp or the like.

I've made it very clear that Pennsylvania law states that I'm owed this money, and no amount of post-quiz mid-level-management office petty tyrant jiggerypokery un-makes their debt to me. I just want my damn money. The next step is I sue in Small Claims Court, with damages and costs, and win.

Centocor, one may learn through the information superduperhighway, is a bunch of morally challenged mother-stabbers and father-rapers. The public should avoid doing business with them and avoid their products. To wit:

- Apparently Centocor's anti-arthritis medication Remicade jacks up your chances of fatal cancer, "significant blood abnormalities ", and can even lead to latent TB kicking your immune system's ass. (In fairness to the company, the joint pain melts away in the cold grasp of death.)


- There is an unfortunately underutilized blog called CentocorGossip that people locating this post who may work for the Unholy Machine may use to bring it down from the inside. Please do so. The lone post on there thus far contains the ever-popular combination of medical malpractice, unlawful firings and the magic words "strip club." Ha! I love you, Internet, and your internal dirt cornucopia!

- Even better is the bitter harvest of employee rants in the Cafepharma anonymous Centocor employee message boards. Juicy! Hopefully this post leads more employees right to it, where the internal workings of pissed off workers can do to the management of Centocor what Remicade does to you. Thrill to employee accusations of fraud and illegal mismanagement! Meet such lovely Centocor employees as "Patty Patty Puke Puke," the "Virginia Beach Nazi!" Find out which pharm sales rep is a "middle-aged hag" whose "husband doesn't love her anymore!" Learn which department is "useless!"

These are the people making your medicine - what could possibly go wrong?

This is post #1 of the Centocor posts in my attempt to get paid, which will be updated. I'm sure vast amounts of dirt on Centocor can be dug up easily, and this is what will be happening on this blog until the damn check clears. In the long run, it would have been much easier to cut me a check.

Pay me, Centocor! And pay me fast! Justice delayed is justice denied.
Digg!Add to Technorati Favorites

Please give generously to Lyon's Den soup kitchen fundraiser

Easiest just to retype the flier:

LYON'S DEN SOUP KITCHEN FUNDRAISER
2nd & Christian Sts.
Wednesday, December 17th, 8pm - ?

Philadelphia soup kitchens are very low on supplies this holiday season.

Please bring anything you can spare such as food donations, clothes, diapers, computer products or cash donations. Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated.

$1 OF EVERY DRAFT BEER PURCHASED WILL BE DONATED TO PHILADELPHIA SOUP KITCHENS.

Special performances by: Brownske, Dr. Thunder and Cicco Peppino"

I have to say it's nice to be associated with a bar that does this sort of thing. The employees are doing this of their own volition, everything from organization to entertainment. Good people. Incidentally, when football season ends I'll be returning to Lyon's Den to do either a Monday or Sunday night quiz, TBD.
Digg!Add to Technorati Favorites

Monday, December 15, 2008

Muthathar al-Zaidi for Congress!



Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Exciting Mid-December quiz schedule

It's Elemental Week!

Tuesday, December 16, 9pm
Drinker's Tavern
Market St., between Front & 2nd Sts.
Subject Round: EARTH
This week will begin a new tournament cycle, aside from normal weekly prizes available. Not sure what the Big Prize is yet.

Wednesday, December 17, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: WIND

Wednesday, December 17, 9:30pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E. Passyunk Ave. (near 9th & Federal Sts.)
Subject Round: FIRE

Thursday, December 18, 9:30pm
The Draught Horse
15th St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Temple University campus
Subject Round: WATER

Friday, December 19, 3pm
The Union League of Philadelphia
If you don't know the address, you're clearly not invited
Subject Round: DOESN'T MUCH MATTER, EVERYONE CHEATS
Private party, screw you proles!
Digg!Add to Technorati Favorites

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Could've been worded better

"Sen. Craig loses appeal in airport sex sting case"

Take a good look at this guy... I ask you, how much appeal did he have to begin with?
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

All the cool cats are hittin' this week's quiz

Tuesday, December 9, 9pm
Drinker's Tavern
Market St., between Front & 2nd Sts.
Subject Round: DOGS
This week will not count toward a tournament cycle, but normal weekly prizes are available. Another six-week cycle begins next week.

Wednesday, December 10, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: CATS

Wednesday, December 10, 9:30pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E. Passyunk Ave. (near 9th & Federal Sts.)
Subject Round: RAIN & SNOW

Thursday, December 11, 9:30pm
The Draught Horse
15th St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Temple University campus
Subject Round: WORLD'S LARGEST
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Monday, December 1, 2008

Calling all nerds for a new week of quizzes!

Tuesday, December 2, 9pm
Drinker's Tavern

Market St., between Front & 2nd Sts.

Subject Round: MUSIC

Final week of six-week tournament cycle! The cumulative score tourney prize is a brand new iPhone!


Wednesday, December 3, 7:30pm

12 Steps Down

9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: LONG & SHORT


Wednesday, December 3, 9:30pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar

1200 E. Passyunk Ave. (near 9th & Federal Sts.)

Subject Round: TALL & SHORT


Thursday, December 4, 9:30pm
The Draught Horse

15th St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.

Temple University campus
Subject Round: ACTORS & ACTRESSES

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites