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| CoVet Solutions CoVet Solutions, LLC, Amy Coleman, Morris B. Coleman CoVet Solutions Does Not Pay Contract Workers Tampa, Florida |
| 3rd of Jul, 2012 by User955976 |
I was contracted last year to work for CoVet Solutions, LLC, (headquartered in Tampa, FL – maintains an operations office in Baltimore, MD. D&B number: 964803147, CAGE Code: 66Q53, FEI Number: 25-1927302, Website ). The Tampa "headquarters" (9223 N. 52nd Street) is a residence. The "operations office" (400 E. Pratt Street in Baltimore) is as best I can determine, a small business hotel in Baltimore. Amy Coleman is the "Executive Vice President" who seems to be working for one business while attempting to run CoVet Solutions on the side. CoVet Solutions operates as a temporary medical and IT staffing agency, run by a retired Air Force Supply Officer by the name of Morris B. Coleman. The business is designated as a "service-disabled, veteran-owned small business." I am a freelance writer, specializing in technical documents, including RFPs and RFP responses, technical documentation, grants, etc. Amy Coleman approached me to work on proposal responses for government staffing contracts for CoVet Solutions. In one of our initial phone conversations, she made a point of assuring me that CoVet Solutions always paid its contractor invoices immediately because she understood how important it was to pay writers on time. I'm not sure how Amy Coleman defines "immediately," but despite having a contractor agreement that
specified in writing that my invoices were to be paid within 10 days (which was CoVet's own agreement, by the way), the company NEVER managed to pay me on time, and on more than one occasion paid me less than the invoiced amount. When I called CoVet Solutions out on that, I was told that the earliest their accounts payable system could pay out invoices was on Net 15 terms. (Right. I'm just guessing here, but they don't even seem to understand how stupid that sounds.) I was regularly told that my checks were approved right away, but somehow they always got "lost" in the mail. (Once maybe, but every month? Really?) Not surprisingly, the only two of my clients who ever claimed that the "check must have gotten lost in the mail" turned out to be major deadbeats, CoVet Solutions being one of them. Typically, CoVet Solutions paid their invoices 30-60 days past due. This woman soaked HOURS of my time on the phone at all hours of the day and night. On one particular proposal, I have documented telephone records showing nearly 40 hours of telephone calls with her, including one at 11:00 PM! And that's just telephone time. That doesn't even include the time I had to spend drafting the proposals she was looking for. She thought absolutely nothing of asking for same-day and next day turnaround on
proposals. Everything was always last-minute, rush work. I reminded her frequently that if she wanted to absorb that much of my time, she needed to pay my invoices in a very timely way, but somehow getting my invoices paid was never a priority for her or CoVet Solutions. Even after I explained to her that late payments on her part required me to take on extra work from other clients in order to pay my bills each month, and that reduced the time I was available to work on her projects, she still never quite managed to make my invoices the priority she initially claimed she would. After a short time of paying invoices 30 days late, CoVet Solutions started to pay my invoices 60-90 days late. After completing a major proposal, she tried to hook me into another large task and I told her that I couldn't work on any new projects for her until she paid my outstanding invoices - one of which was already 60 days past due. She swore up and down that the check had been sent (several times – and I will post all of her emails on the subject if she attempts to deny it), but in the end she simply walked away, leaving me with nearly $2,000 in unpaid receivables. I have transferred this account to a commercial collections agency, and will have to sue to recover the lost income. I've also entered them into the Freelancers Union database of deadbeat clients. Hopefully, this will at least prevent someone else from being ripped off by CoVet Solutions. My simple advice to you is this: do not do business with Amy Coleman, Morris Coleman or CoVet Solutions. Amy Coleman has a demonstrated history of taking advantage of freelance workers and thinks nothing of walking away after stealing dozens of hours of their time. I am a freelance worker, so that means I'm self employed and all of my revenues go to support my family. When people like Amy Coleman do something like this to me, it means that they're literally stealing food out of the mouths of my children. This woman stole WEEKS of my time, which I can't make up. Other firms actually partner with these clowns because CoVet Solutions is listed as a "disadvantaged business." I can't imagine another firm wanting to partner with a small business that is so financially unstable that it can't pay a $2,000 bill, or worse, so operated by people so thoughtless and unprofessional that they think that stealing time and work product from a freelancer is somehow OK. Were I looking for a temporary job or a contract job as a healthcare provider or IT professional, I would have serious concerns about a company like CoVet Solutions even being able to make payroll. I realize that work is at a premium in this economy, but don't waste your time with Amy Coleman, Morris Coleman and CoVet Solutions. |
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