| AaronM |
01-11-2005 04:08 PM |
Here's the condensed version of the AJ story. (Still a long post)
AJ contacted me to shoot for a client of his. He said he was consulting for a guy who had good financial backing and wanted into adult.
AJ promised to cover all expenses for me to travel to Toronto for a week and shoot for his client. The only reason I agreed to this is because I knew and trusted AJ.
At first, the trip was supposed to be the week of the Webmaster Access West show. AJ then called me and said that "Mark", the guy he was consulting for, had decided to attend the show with AJ. AJ said we would meet there and Mark would cut me a check for a 50% deposit. Mark never showed.
As it turns out....AJ's brother Fris decided to attend the show and to make a long story short...AJ went with him...ALL at Fris's expense. He even told me right in front of Fris that Mark was going to reimburse everything that he had put on his card since Mark had not shown up.
Moving on.....
Now AJ and I continue to try to work out the dates and details. I suggest that AJ and I do a 3 way call with Mark so AJ gave me a number.
I called the number but got no answer.
So...We agreed on another week. I cleared my calendar and took off for Maui.
The day I arrive in Maui, AJ contacted me and told me that the wire had been sent that morning and everything was a go. I spent the rest of the week trying to contact AJ to get the wire tracking number. Funny that I have never had any problems reaching AJ until that week. Anyway....When I did reach him all I got was excuses. I wanted to trust him so I put on my blinders and chalked it all up to bad circumstances because there is no way that AJ was full of shit.
Back from Maui.....Wire still missing...AJ still avoiding me.
What's this? Oh! It's "Mark's" phone number. Maybe I should call it and see why Mark has us running in circles?
Ring ring....No Mark lives there huh? Hmm, sorry to trouble you.
Next stop...Research the phone number. Interesting...The 2 names associated with the number belong to AJ's brother and his mother. That's odd. More digging turns up that the number used to be AJ's line when he was living at home.
So I start calling people who have had past long term business dealings with AJ. Nobody has anything positive to say but lot's of bad things. Nobody is interested in coming forward because they are concerned that it may piss off AJ's brother...A position that most people are not looking for.
One final call and I hit a gold mine of information. Among other things, I found out that AJ was not consulting for anybody named Mark and all of the other info I provided this person with was also bullshit from AJ.
After all this, it became painfully clear that AJ had made the entire deal up. He had allowed me to go out of pocket knowing that nothing was going to go through.
Believe me or don't believe me. I honestly don't give a rat?s ass which way you go.
Final note...Like most of you, I liked AJ. I trusted him, and I even considered him a friend. I have no reason to make any of this up and it certainly is not going to bring me any business.
AJ...If you want to set this right then simply apologize to me. Stop with the lies and bullshit and come straight with the truth....I already know the truth but it would be nice to hear it directly from you.
As for the various companies that AJ is representing....I have no beef with those companies in any way.
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