And the beat goes on...

So I have a judgement against MRT Services and of course, have not been paid. But I did get a lovely email from their lawyer stating they are going to be filing a temporary restraining order. ??? Uh, okay? So I called their lawyer up to ask what it was about. Apparently the company is upset that I have made such an impact on the internet with my blogs and Facebook groups, and as much as I wanted to put my two cents in about what they have done, I had no idea I would cause quite this much of a stir on the internet community. The lawyer said I "breached the contract." Yeah, well, so did they, because it said I would get paid. And they breached it first if we want to get all old-school and point fingers at who was to blame and who made the first wrong. LOL

Now mind you, my intention is not to make their life a living hell. BUT, I am doing the simple right of any American citizen to tell the TRUTH about what has happened to me. It's called freedom of speech. The lawyer can call it slander, libel, defamation, whatnot, but that is only if the information I am stating is NOT TRUE. If I am making FALSE accusations and LYING about their company, making things up, say, "I found a unicorn in my fast food salad the other day," then yes, that would wrong. But I am doing NOTHING but posting factual information, and even looked back on all my blogs just to make sure--yup, not a thing was said that WASN'T TRUE. And the reason I have been posting this information is because as a transcriptionist, I know that we like to look into companies first to find out if they are a company we'd want to work for. We do our research. Check MTStars.com--they have an entire forum where people ask about certain companies and other transcriptionists opinions about them. This is no different.

Also, defamation can be defended if there is proof that the company or person that is filing the lawsuit has had a sketchy past and a poor reputation before any supporting facts were made. Well, I can tell you right now, and if you look through my blogs, read RipOffReport.com, etc, you will find I am NOT the only one that has had a problem with them. In fact, there was a post on RipOffReport.com that dates back to October of 2007 regarding their company. They did write a rebuttal to the report, but there are reports that follow that one that have not been defended by them. Either way, I did NOT experience the problems the person posted in the original 2007 statement on RipOffReport.com, so I went ahead and contracted with them only to find out that this was a disturbing hint of what was to come with their company...

The only information on my blogs that could be consider "non-factual" would be the reprints of emails I have received from other past (and present) transcriptionists that have found my blog after trying to research the company after the "pending bankruptcy" that was supposed to happen. But of course, I state when the information I have received is from a secondary source, and I also have quoted emails I have received, stating that they are from other people. These emails, of course, may be THEIR opinions, and not mine, and this is clearly set forth in my blogs. (If the court really wants to make sure I didn't make those up, I will gladly send them copies of the emails to show them that I received them from others.)

Regardless, the company has created this reputation for themselves. I have done nothing but worked for them with the understanding I would get paid, like any other person trying to make ends meet. My husband and I have been through living hell with finances lately, and our family really, truly depends on the extra income I can make from home, no matter how small it may be. That being said, $2300 (more, now that court costs are involved) is a lot of money that could really help us out right now. Heck, would have been useful months ago when it should have been paid...

So until court tells me I can't continue what I'm doing (which is nothing wrong, really), I'm going to continue to tell my story. THE TRUE STORY. THE FACTUAL STORY. Just like I've been doing all this time. If I do in fact receive a restraining order, I will be taking my story to the local news channels (it's already been done in Georgia!) which will only draw more negative attention to the company and their shady practices. I'm doing nothing wrong--I just want my money. The money I earned. I have a legal document that states I am entitled to my money. LEGAL. And I'd put money on the fact that the company owners have probably spent more than $2300 to the lawyer to go through all this hassle when they could have just written me my check and called it a day. (Just to make it clear, this is a speculation, not a fact.)

Also, people talk about other companies all the time. In fact, there are websites and forums for transcriptionists that work from home where they ask "what do you guys know about (so and so a company?" and people tell them their stories. Why do you think Scams.com and RipOffReports.com are so popular? It's the internet--people are going to talk about the good and the bad, whether companies like it or not. Which should be better incentive for them to treat their customers (and employees, contracted workers, etcetera) fairly.

So regarding all those lovely emails I get from people (I have a whole folder in my inbox dedicated to emails I have received from people regarding MRT), it's been a while since I've posted some quotes from others. Of course, as always, I am keeping these posts anonymous, and for all the "lawyers" out there, let me add my small print: these are the writings of other people, not me, and are not MY opinions or statements. Okay, so let's proceed...

Here are some quotes from emails I have received:

"I worked for MRT also. I contacted their newest lawyer, [name removed], this morning and he said for me to settle for $0.25 on the dollar. Is that all I can get or should I try to take them to court?...I ended up contacting [the lawyer] and he said that if I didn't sign the settlement papers that I wouldn't get anything."

"I also worked for MRT for 2 1/2 years and they owe me over $6,000.00."

"What is being said in my circle is that they [MRT] filed bankrupcty and offered to settle and that all the girls [transcriptionists that had cases against them] had to really or get nothing. This is just purely for my own knowledge, I have known them for years and there is so much gossip going on that I just don't know what is true and what is not. One other thing being said is that part of the settlement, no one can't post anything negative about MRT or the Sossas'."

"As you have probably seen, MRT is no longer. They sold it (or had another outsource company whom they owed and could not pay, I suspect, take over.) This is just a suspicion...This company did not, however, take over their debts, so they still are on the line for those. I wish everyone luck on their court date coming up and wish I could be of more help. Everyone has been real closed about things going on, so I haven't heard much. I did hear about Henry calling the girls and trying to intimidate you to all take a settlement. Intimidation is Henry's favorite weapon. Although they are still telling their 'friends' that they have been wrongly accused and are 'victims,' ...they are very concerned with their reputations and people in their church finding out...they were religious and wonder what their church elders would think of them cheating people out of money they owe. I am not sure any of their church friends are aware of all of this, but I am hopeful they will be outed there."

"You girls have not been their only victims. They have told lies about many people in this area and have defrauded others and we are hoping that they will reap what they have sowed very soon. Laurie and Henry Sossa are the king and queen of spinning a story to suit their agenda. They start with the facts so it sounds like truth, add their lies and spread the story with their new spin on it. Be careful. They have gotten away with this for a long time."

"I hope you don’t mind me contacting you. I too have been ripped off by MRT and have been fighting for my money I earned from them for several months now. They owe me more than $2600.00. I’m tired of their run around, but I don’t know what to do...I’m in Utah , so having to physically go to court there would cost me more than I am owed. I am so ticked off at them."

"I just found out about all of this myself. I have been trying to get in touch with MRT for a week now to "check up" on unpaid invoices. My last invoice with them is over 6 months old. I am owed over $1000 in unpaid invoices. I am glad, in a way, that I have been unable to do anything for them due to MAJOR medical problems that have kept me in and out of the hospital and having very frequent outpatient procedures. I finally got someone on the phone today and all they told me was that an attorney was handling MRT now. She, [name removed] I think, gave me an email address for L. Sossa to try to get information and perhaps speed things along. I never got a letter or anything saying that such things were going on. I need that money badly!"

"I have heard three times this week from different people that they have sold MRT. When asked, these people admitted the word "sold" was not used, but they were given the impression that Laurie and Henry were out of MRT and assumed that they meant they sold. As far as I know, they are still owners. They are trying to distance themselves from anything MRT so they could claim ignorance. Since Laurie's father still goes in almost every day, I am sure that is not the case."

"I'm a fellow transcriptionist that was duped by MRT. I appreciate your blog and reporting on that company...They didn't get me for as much as you, but it still hurts that I put so much time in for them for free."

"[Client name removed] would always want verbatim transcripts and apparently one of the transcriptionists left out about 20 minutes of text. Of course, they sent an email to all of the transcriptionists blasting us and told us that [client] was threatening to hire a third party because they didn't trust MRT's transcripts. I sent somebody at MRT an email telling them that they better watch out, that when you don't pay people, there's no incentive to do a good job and that basically, you get what you pay for. Of course, they thanked me for the insight and things never changed. Shocker. I think [client] eventually stopped using MRT and they were a HUGE client."

"Clients can purchase "minutes" every year and MRT always got paid in April (fiscal year) and that's usually when they would catch us up, but it was mostly from the last three months. That was the only time that we were ever "paid in full" and totally caught up. That did not happen the last two years."

"I can tell you that working for MRT turned me into a person that I had never seen before. I can count on two hands how many times I turned into a raving lunatic... one time literally screaming at the top of my lungs over the phone at [name removed]...numerous times I hung up on the person I was talking to. I've always been such a mild mannered, happy go lucky person and they changed me. People have even commented on how much happier I've been since no longer work with them. "

"I used to work for MRT & quit about a year ago when they wanted me to sign that horrific contract that took away all my rights. I was fighting for my checks on a weekly basis - going in and standing there until they wrote them. I heard from another transcriptionist (through one of the employees) that their habit was to call out to each other, "Who did a lot of work for us this week?" "Oh, so-and-so." "All right, write her a check." I could see the handwriting on the wall, but I never dreamed they'd owe so many so much. So sorry about your plight and kudos for sticking up for your hard work. I found 3 other companies that send me regular work, communicate with me (including encouraging me when the client likes the work) and pay me regularly (I mean within 1-2 weeks!) Those businesses are out there."

"I've been meaning to email you and let you know that Channel Two ran the same exact story on MRT on Sunday. My mom saw it and called me. She said it was almost exactly the same story with no new information. I'm thinking a slow day in Atlanta that morning or maybe it was a week ending recap. I'm really disappointed they haven't taken the ball to run with this story!"

"I've been working for them since August 2007 and while they've definitely had their highs and lows with paying it's never been this bad, not that that makes this situation any better. I just wondered if we combined efforts, us typists, then maybe we could get farther ahead. I've been writing [name removed] back and forth on email because she won't return phone calls but wondered if you knew of any other typists or what can/is being done collectively as a group."

"I just received an email from a friend of mine about MRT being in the news and possibly filing for bankruptcy. This was the first I had heard of any problems. They haven't paid me in about 6-7 months, for work I did last summer and fall but since they always paid slow I figured it was the normal deal. I felt like others that although they paid slow, at least they did pay but now I am wondering if I will ever receive my money. I did a search on Google today, looking for additional information and that is when I found you blog...Like you though, I'm not going to let this go away like it is nothing. They currently owe me $1,200.00...This is very unfair and we deserve our paychecks!"

Oh, there are so many more...it's amazing the response I got after I posted my initial blog. Oh, and just to point out, I started by NOT posting the company's name to allow them to make the situation right, but right after my blog published, there was a story on the news about it, so the cat was already out of the bag.

But I will say, for all of you that have been emailing me and helping me out, I sincerely appreciate all of your efforts and generosity. I am amazed at the power of the internet, and the kindness of people--pure strangers, in fact--that are willing to step in and offer some help to others in similar situations. I'm just a random stay-at-home mom that posted her story to vent and has found some great people all over the US that have joined in my fight against this company. Even if I haven't replied to your email yet, as I do get quite a few of them, I appreciate all the support pouring in from everyone and hearing that I'm not the only one that has experienced difficulties with MRT. All of these emails are invaluable when it comes to court. And if the company didn't want this information to be made public, they should have done the right thing and paid their transcriptionists--instead, they've made a mountain out of a molehill by treating their workers the way they have.

The reason I have been posting this information is so that other transcriptionists looking to work for them know what has gone on in the past and take caution if continuing with the company. It's a sort of "pay it forward" kind of thing, I suppose. Let others know what happened to you, sharing your story, and then let the person make a decision based off the information laid out to them. I'm just one person with one story--and I know from all the emails that I am not alone when it comes to being left empty-handed by this company.

Thank you all for your support. Keep the emails coming--this isn't over til everyone gets paid!