rSlash - r/Prorevenge Won't Pay Me? I'll Take $1,300,000 from You!

Episode Date: June 12, 2022

Get Honey for free at http://joinhoney.com/rslash Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to our slash pro revenge where OP puts his toxic boss out of business. Today's episode is sponsored by honey. I don't know about you, but I do literally 100% of my shopping online. Because of COVID, I pretty much have to shop online because yeah, I don't want to catch COVID and die. But on top of that, I read stories for a living, so I can't afford to sound like this for three weeks straight. Don't you hate it when you get to checkout and you don't have a code to put in that little promo code box? With honey, you never have to leave that box empty. Honey is a free shopping tool that scours the internet for promo codes and automatically

applies them to your cart. For example, I buy a lot of audio equipment and I just saved 15 bucks on a microphone with honey at checkout. If you don't already have honey, you could be straight up missing out. It's literally free and installs in a few seconds. And by getting it, you'll be doing yourself a solid and supporting this podcast. I'd never recommend something that I don't use. Get honey for free at joinhoney.com slash rslash.

That's joinhoney.com slash rslash. That's Join Honey.com slash r-slash Our next reddit post is from Beat Me Saber. This happened 12 years ago and I am still reaping my rewards. I worked for a company that did 3-phase photography. We photographed families and kids. No weddings or events or anything. Each shooting was booked for 10 minutes and we were supposed to shoot 30-50 different events a anything. Each shooting was booked for 10 minutes, and we were supposed to shoot 30 to 50 different events a day.

Yeah, it was as wretched of a job as it sounds. It was fast, high energy, and at times simply brutal. So here's how it works. First, the pre-seller would come in 2-3 weeks in advance and sell a special and book the appointments. Then the photographer, me in this instance, comes in for about a week and takes the pictures. Then the salesperson returns two weeks later with the agreed upon specials, along with six other poses that I took and tries to sell you $400 worth of pictures. I was very good at what I did. The company's

sales average was $100 per customer. The more you shoot, the lower your quality, because you spend less time taking care of details, and details sell pictures. My average was $175 per customer, and I was making this company a lot of money. But they consistently treated me like garbage. Their business model was to shoot as many sittings as fast as you can. To them, shooting 50 customers at $100 average was better than shooting 35 customers at $150 average, even though the profit margin was exactly the same. I never agreed with their philosophy, and the boss and I went round and round about it every week. They would held raises from me because I didn't have enough sittings and they took my bonuses

because I wasn't meeting their quotas. So I figured out how to be fast, efficient, and good. So that's the background. Now the good stuff. Enter the jerk. The jerk is a pre-seller who would like to the customers and the store. He would book appointments from 9 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.

Even though studio hours were 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. He told every single lie in the book. And I think he even added a few of his own. When it bring your dog, family of 15? Sure. Bring five different changes of clothes and the photographer will even do your makeup for you. To be clear, I don't even do my own makeup. Come and get your picture taken and we'll throw in a free toaster. And just to make it interesting, he would triple and quadruple book appointments. And when he ran out of those, he would sell

open appointments and tell people, just come in anytime, my photographer will work you in. Just writing that makes me mad even after all these years. The biggest problem was that he would wave the sitting fee and just not tell them. I was obligated to collect that $8 fee. Every time that I didn't collect that fee, it would come out of my check. It was a freaking nightmare! I refused to work with the jerk for those and a thousand other reasons.

I told my boss that if they ever allowed jerk to schedule my appointments, I would quit, which is exactly what happened. They knew that he had been working at the store that I was assigned and they lied about it. I immediately called my boss and told him this was my last week and he needed to make arrangements to get the photography equipment at the end of the shoot. I should have just walked out, but I was young and dumb. It was a three day shoot and I shot 316 customers by myself.

This is an insane amount of sittings and nobody was happy about it. Every night, the store manager had to tell my customers to leave because the store was closed. People were lined up at 9 a.m. waiting for me. I took so much abuse that week. After one customer threw a shoe at me and another spit on my pizza, the store security guard brought a chair over and stayed with me almost the entire time I was there. I honestly can't remember how many people were escorted out of my store because they acted like a fool in my studio. It's been over a decade, and I still have nightmares about that week.

But nobody came to get the camera equipment, so I started making phone calls and plotting. I asked my boss, hey, what do you want me to do with your camera equipment? You're gonna need it next week in Florida. No, because I quit. You didn't give me any notice, so I'm not accepting your resignation. I'm sending you to Florida next week. I'm an independent contractor. Remember? You can't make me go to Florida. This is not complicated. I quit. Just go to Florida. I don't have time for this now. You can quit in three weeks if you can find your replacement and he hung up on me. Nope, I am not going to Florida. I packed up the camera equipment and took it home with me. The camera was a brand new Canon T2i 550D, and those were pricey back in 2010.

I really didn't want to give it back, but it wasn't mine to keep. I had an idea. My boss was an absolute train wreck of a human. If he didn't want to do something, he just wouldn't. If he could find someone else to do it, he would. I decided to use his own worst traits against him. Avoidance and procrastination. The next thing I did was take the company credit card and go to the nearest storage unit

with climate control. I rented a unit and paid for the first month, but just one. I unloaded all of the camera equipment into the storage unit down to the last halogen light bulb. I took detailed pictures of everything and an inventory. Then I locked the door and walked away. At this point, there was nothing I could do but wait and hope that my boss would continue to be the worthless train wreck that I knew him to be.

Next, I called and reported the card stolen. Why? Because I knew that if I didn't, that card would remain active and rent would be paid every month on time. And that just wasn't gonna work for me. I cut the card in half, sent it, and the combination to the storage locker to my boss via FedEx. Along with a hand painted sign that said, I quit. I also sent an email to HR telling them that I was terminating my contract and that boss had the information on the equipment. This is probably the only sketchy thing that I did.

The person I emailed was out on medical leave and I knew it. I could have sent that email to a dozen other people who worked there, but they might have paid attention to it. By the time she got back to the office, she had so many emails that she couldn't even begin to tackle them all. A month goes by and the police knock on my door. Okay, I wasn't expecting that. The company has reported the equipment stolen and the police are there to investigate. I really thought that I was going to jail. The cop who knocked on the door was fully expecting

to take me away in handcuffs until I explained what was going on. I ended up taking copies of the emails to the police department as well as my copy of the contract on the storage units. I also had a copy of the shipping label. Both my name and the company name were listed on the contract. The company had placed a monetary value of $12,000 on the studio rig, so I potentially wasn't a lot of trouble, except I covered my butt. The police told me that I was in the clear because the storage unit had the company name on the contract. Their credit card was used to pay for it, and I hit in the combination and all pertinent information to the company. I was very good at covering my own butt.

At this point, I figured the jig was up because surely they were going to come get the equipment or send someone or something, but nope. My Xbox is still worthless. Two more months go by. I get a call from the storage facility. They're about to cut the lock and auction the contents. I just about peed my pants because I was so excited. I called my ex-boss again.

He dodged my calls and ignored my emails to please call me immediately. I never specifically stated what I wanted to talk to him about, and just like I was hoping he would, he ignored me. Okie dokie, I've done all that I can. And that's when my plans started to come together. In this state, if a storage unit goes up for sale, the owner cannot purchase it at auction. I didn't know that, but where there's a will, there's a way. The unit went up for auction on my birthday.

My neighbor went to that sale, and he bought the unit for $125. I almost died when I found out. And of course, we were incahuts on this, but we had to make it look like we weren't. My neighbor then put an ad in the local paper for photography stuff, $1,000 firm. But he didn't list anything specific. And whoops, he put the wrong number in the ad. A week later, he wanted the stuff out of his garage and he sold it to me for $126. He has a bill of sale from the auction. I have a bill of sale from him. The $12,000 worth of camera equipment is now mine and there's nothing the company can do about it.

But, they sure tried. I now have a fully functional photography studio. All the contacts I need to start my own business and the skills to do it. I started calling all the stores I worked with for the last eight years and offered them a much better deal than what the company was giving them. I did my own pre-selling, my own photography, and my own sales, except I took it one step further. I bought a computer and I let people preview their pictures and order the day of the shoot. They paid in full and I mailed the pictures directly to them.

People love this method because there were no high pressure sales and no tricks. My customers were happy and so were my stores. About six months after my first independent shoot, I heard back from the company. I got several nasty letters from them, which I ignored. Word had gotten back to them that I was using their equipment and that I was working for someone else. I just laughed at them. Then I got a nasty legal letter from a lawyer.

It started with a cease and desist, accused me of violating the non-compete clause, and ended with them demanding the return of their stolen property. They had, apparently, not told their lawyer all the facts. I sent the lawyer copies of everything. I waited a few weeks for the lawyer's response, but I heard nothing back. A few days later, I got a certified letter in the mail saying, no other legal action will be forthcoming from this office. I would have been content

to just let it slide, but this whole thing ticked me off, and now I wanted blood. I made a real effort to really hurt them. Little by little, I built my business and my reputation. I didn't have to do any of the nasty tricks that the jerk did. Within a year, I had stores and schools calling me. I had more work than I could handle on my own, so I took on a second photographer than a third. I actually hired four different people out from under their noses. At the height of my business, I had eight other photographers and a full-time office assistant. I could have grown much larger, and in hindsight, I'm so glad that I didn't.

I completely ran the company out of three states. They lost all their contacts to me, including the store where it all blew up. The jerk lost all of his stores and ended up working at a gas station. The boss ended up demoted because his district was dissolved when I snipe the contracts. The jerk actually tried to convince one of district was dissolved when I snipe the contracts. The jerk actually tried to convince one of my photographers to hire him to do the pre-selling for her. My ex-boss left the company for good, and he used me as a personal reference. He was a good photographer, just a terrible manager, and I took great joy in telling the people who called me that I was legally not allowed to tell them what I thought of the man.

The age of the cell phone camera pretty much destroyed traditional photography and I closed my doors as a business in late 2017. The company closed for good in 2016 and I would like to think that I had a hand in that. I'm still standing and they are nothing but an empty building. I still have all the original camera equipment but the camera has been replaced several times. I do senior pictures and the occasional venue shoot. Most of my photography is for restaurant menus now. People ask me if that's boring but I've never had a meatball scream, cry or kick me which was pretty much a daily occurrence when you work with kids. This may not be as epic as some stories on here, but I beat them at their own game, and

that still feels pretty damn good. O.P. don't sell yourself short. Personally, I love reading stories where someone destroys their toxic employer. Not only did you beat these people at their own game, but they essentially paid you to do it. Buying $12,000 of camera equipment for $126 bucks, what a deal. That's like a 99% discount. Our next Reddit post is from Reddit AdMineDum.

My buddy is an accountant who has his own firm. His biggest clients are small to medium size businesses. Well, we had a client who owned four different clubs, slash bars, and two different cities. The client was always shady and always slow on payment. I was also a customer of one of those bars. They had a poker game that I would play on Thursdays. Well, one day I'm at my buddy's house having a few beers, and he's complaining about non-payment from a client.

I ask who, but he doesn't want to say. But it's really bugging him because it's a significant chunk of change. He then says the guy's name. Let's call him Scott. I'm like, wow, Scott isn't paying you? He then says that, according to Scott, his business is way down, and I think that's odd because I've been going to one of Scott's places every Thursday and it's packed. My buddy looks at me and goes, really? I go, yeah, he does this new cash discount, I think. It's like 15% off your tab if you pay cash. My buddy goes, really? I tell him about my experience at Scott's Bar and eventually the topic changes. A few weeks later my buddy calls me up and says,

Are you going to Scott's Bar to play poker? And I say, yeah, and he says, can I join? I say sure. He joins, we get a few drinks in us, lose our money at poker, and my house is closer so he decides to crash there. On the way over, he breaks down his theory. He thinks Scott is vastly under reporting his revenue. The reason why he suspects Scott is offering cash discounts is because

cash is easier to hide. He says he's going to do a deep dive on Scott's finances. My friend tells me that his plan is to go to all four of Scott's establishments, get the prices he charges at each place, and piece together how much alcohol he's serving. Versus how much revenue Scott is saying that he's earning. He looks up how much money Scott is paying in payroll, rent, bills, etc. and keep in mind that he has access to all of this info. He determines that Scott is basically using his credit card plus a little bit of cash to cover the cost of his business to include rent, payroll, insurance, liquor, food, etc.

However, based on the amount of products that Scott is selling, my friend suspects that Scott is under-reporting his total income by about 35-40%. He goes back into Scott's books even more, and he figures in the last year, Scott has been under-reporting his sales by 35% to 40%. But also, he's been underreporting his sales by at least 20% to 25% for years on end. Simply put, there's no way that Scott is going through as much product and alcohol as he's purchasing and having the revenue numbers like he's claiming. He's underreporting his sales to his accountant,

which also means that he's under-reporting his earnings to the IRS. By this point, Scott owes my friend thousands of dollars that he hasn't paid. My friend says the amount owed could buy a brand new motorcycle, but he never gave me the exact number. My friend decides, screw getting repayment from Scott.

Let's get repayment from the IRS through the Whistleblower program. He's estimating that Scott's underreported his revenue by millions of dollars over the course of years. The Whistleblower fees that he would earn from the IRS far outweigh the amount that Scott owes him. The IRS will pay out Whistleblowers 15 to 30% of what they collect. So, with the assistance of a lawyer, my friend gathers all the evidence he has of Scots under reporting to the IRS and piles a whistleblower report with the IRS. During this time, my friend fire Scot as a climate for non-payment. Eventually, the IRS comes down on on Scott and they come down hard. It's estimated that Scott under-reported his income to the IRS by about $4.5 million.

Now, my friend never told me how much the IRS was able to recoup, but Scott's businesses are no longer his businesses. And $4.5 million would put the Whistleblower reward at $675,000 to $1.3 million. Keep in mind that this is based on what the IRS collects, not the amount that's reported. I've asked my friend how much he got in the end, and he simply said, I no longer have a mortgage, and it would have been much cheaper for Scott to just pay me. Well, sounds like Scott didn't get away. Scott free.

That was our Slash Pro Revenge, and if you liked this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.