If a check never arrives from a webcam program, $60 fee to reissue fair?
 

Hi,

Someone I work with is owed money from the second half of December from a webcam company. She is one of the girls on the site. In the "Payment" section of this companies forums, it seems like there are many other girls complaining of the same issue.

This is the kind of response they are cutting and pasting daily in response to the women there:

"Please note that xxxx corporate policy is that xxxx is not responsible for theft or loss of checks sent out to Hosts or Agents. In the case of loss, theft, or destruction of a check, xxxx shall in no case be liable for replacement of the check or payment of the funds by alternative method. However, if you did not receive your check for at least 60 days, and the check in question has not been cashed, xxxx is willing to stop the check and re-issue the payment via check or ePassporte with a cancellation fee of $60. Please keep in mind that once the check is canceled and the $60 deducted, we cannot stop or reverse the process, i.e., even if you receive your check after its cancelation, xxxx will not refund the $60 and the original check cannot be cashed. Therefore, it is Hosts and Agents best interest to allow 60 days from the moment the check was sent out before requesting for its cancellation. Thank you for your understanding."

Is a $60 fee fair? Keep in mind, this company already keeps 70% of proceeds and pays women only 30%. You would think that all business expenses would be in their cut. Especially when dozens of women appear to be involved so the issue appears to be at the fault of the program.

No I don't think it is. Especially if she has a longstanding relationship with the company thus is very unlikely to be conducting some sort of check fraud scheme. If it happens to her all tne time on the other hand or she is brand new I could understand some suspicion. Also I think the standard bank fee for a stop payment is $30 but there may very well be a few who charge $60.

Personally the only compromise I would accept (I'm an affiliate) would be a 50/50 split on the actual bank fee itself. If they insisted on more I would probably sever my relationship with them as much as is possible. If they won't compromise in my opinion you should name them so others know.

Seems to me.. and I'm no expert..

You didnt lose it.
You didnt steal it.
You didnt destroy it.

I think that I'd just be asking them to please SEND the check.

Obviously a program to stay away from with such an exorbitant fee.

Splitting bank charges sound fair although in the mainstream business world no salesperson (that's what you are) would ever be asked to have to pay for stop order.

In 15 years I have had ONE check not arrive (they are not even sure it was sent only that it was printed) so they issued a new check and told me if it turns up to throw it away as they never wasted the money on a stop order on a $6,000+ check.

Where the hell is the integrity and trust in business anymore? Not in adult, that's for sure.

Most raw diamonds are transported in and around this country via US mail. Most diamond brokers don't even fill out paperwork or have contracts. Its all done with a handshake.

Same here. It's only happened a few times in 13 years. In addition I've had sponsors forget to sign the check (thus I couldn't legally cash it) a few times. In all instances they have re-issued the check free without any argument or hesitation whatsoever.

If its who I think it is, I have never lost a check in the mail from them and I have been getting them for 7 years now. I think that fee is a little much but whatever. I did however not cash an old check before they switched payment processors and told me to send it back and they would swap it for 60 dollars, I think I still have that check lol. It wasnt worth it to me one way or another. I now have a payoneer card with them but have not cammed there for awhile so I have not received a payment from them on it. But that 60 dollar policy has been in place for years, fair or not, it is what it is. Business as usual.

Someone is going to charge me $60 because they were unable to get a check to me? Bullshit.

It's happened to me too - a program sent me a check for $160 and I never got it. They had better reissue me a fucking check and they better fucking over night to me.

arrange another method of payment and find a new sponsor

all sorts of room for abuse here

If I ran the company? I'd have such a policy in place.

Then I'd tell my reps who actually deal with models to do this on a case by case... 1st let them have a new check. 2nd in same year, charge them $30. 3rd ever, suggest ACH...

When Direct Deposit was rolled out in the US, it was designed to save money and paper over paper checks and US mail. So why doesnt anyone use it?

I once discovered a cheque had fallen down and hidden itself for a few months, and it clearly had "void after 180 days" written on it. When I asked the company to reissue it they did comply (without charge) but informed me that if it happened again and it had been more than X months (I think it was 6, can't remember) that they wouldn't do it at all. ie, the entire value of the cheque would be written off. Not sure if it's the same company, but I thought that policy was a bit rough, considering at the time that my cheque amounts were several hundred dollars, sometimes into the thousands.

same thing happened to me thrice with ccbill.,

and they charged me 60 bucks for check cancellation.,

coz i m from 3rd world., check doesnt reach their destination with regular mail. gotta use fedex, lesson learnt,
but 60 bucks for 1check stop payment is too much.

afetr this i sent them wire details.

blow me if u cant pay webmasters u shouldnt be in business of paying to webmasters. GFY to those who charge this much.

Appreciate the replies.

In our case, the girl I know is from the USA. It seems like no checks arrived to women in a dozen or so states linked in the same geographic area as there are quite a few complaints on this companies forum for this same missing pay period. Despite those complaints, so far the company hasn't decided to resend the checks without the fee as a courtesy, and is sticking to their 60 day story when its fairly clear that something happened on either their end or the end of their payment processor. They just say they aren't responsible for payments not delivered.

checks are so 1978...

a 70-30 split is decent. hosting and marketing is HUGE costs.

$60 reissue isn't cool.

$30 is fair since that is what the bank charges for putting a stop payment on the original check

They could always send cheques via registered mail, but that would probably end up costing more in the long run than replacing a relatively small percentage of lost cheques, and wouldn't be reliable (or available) for cross-border delivery.

60 days seems an excessive amount of time to wait, unless they're not sending the cheques via airmail. (Do standard letters even go via sea any more?)

It's a little pricey maybe. A bank can easily charge the business $15 to $35 to place a stop payment on a check. Then there is the time it takes to research and review the case which takes time away from other things. Is it pricey? Maybe. Is it fair? Yes if its the policy of the company and if its stated before you choose to do business with that company.

Bull Shit.

Unfair ESPECIALLY based upon a batch of problems. If in this instance they burn everyone for at least an extra $30 per check, you should all run and never look back.

Of course it's not fair...

You're owed the money no matter what
 

It's legal to charge a check replacement fee to cover the stop-pay fee the bank charges.
Very few mainstream companies charge that fee.
Many companies, especially those that have a lot of employees use Positive Pay. Positive Pay is a system where when companies issue checks, they send the bank a list of checks issued, check number and amount. Issuer should know if any checks are still out.
Even mainstream companies have short time limits on time period checks are good.

If you're owed the money, you're legally owed the money until you cash the check. The issuer still owes the money. After 2,3,5 years depending on state law, if you have not cashed the check, the issuer is legally required to give the money to the state along with telling the state who is owed the money and any other owner identifying information, such as a FEIN or SSN, last known address. This process is called ESCHEATMENT, and every state has escheatment laws. Violating these laws can be felonies. Of course we all know how every porn company is totally legit. States do escheatment audits, but mostly to large corporations, but they are hungry for cash so they are looking everywhere. They get to hold the money until the rightful owner claims it (sometimes never).

Financially speaking, a fee makes some bit of sense.

BUT!

If I got a chick on camera making me money I'm not going to worry about $60.

it's way too much.

$0-$25 sounds fair

So you prefer death by a thousand small paper cuts?

Cheating, theft, scam and unfairness is not diminished by the size of the cheating, theft, scam and unfairness.

Ethics baby. Learn to live by it and love it and yes, you can be ethical in adult. :2 cents: