DESPITE THE FACT THAT OUR INITIAL CONTACT WITH THE PUBLISHER STATED "***All correspondence for our investigations must be in writing and
is subject to publication.***", THE PUBLISHER HAS REQUESTED WRITERSWEEKLY REMOVE HIS EMAILS FROM THIS PAGE. SO, WE WILL PARAPHRASE HIS NOTES BELOW.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: COMPLAINT about Faiyo
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:36:55 -0400
From: angela at booklocker <angela@booklocker.com>
To: filip@faiyo.com

August 18, 2008

Filip Knesl (Owner) - filip@faiyo.com
Faiyo / Faiyo.com
Salvatorska 10, Prague 1
110 00, Czech Republic
www.faiyo.com
+420 603 169 549
+420 731 949 309

WritersWeekly.com has received a complaint about:
Faiyo / Faiyo.com / Filip Knesl

WritersWeekly.com is a publication that publishes information for
and about freelance writers. The publication is the
largest-circulation freelance writing ezine in the world.

As part of that information, WritersWeekly.com publishes a Warnings
section on its website and in its newsletter. This warning section
contains reports about publications that are unprofessional in
dealing with writers, haven't paid writers money that is owed to
them, who have not abided by their contracts, or who have unfair
contract terms. These reports are used by WritersWeekly.com's
subscribers
to decide which publications they should and should not work with.

Your firm has been submitted to us for inclusion in the
WritersWeekly.com Whispers and Warnings section.

Step one of our investigation of this report is to gather all
relevant correspondence between your publication and the person
submitting the complaint so that we can piece together that person's
side of the story. Step one of our investigation has been completed.

-------------
THE COMPLAINT
-------------

[MJ] (name not published here but was, of course, provided to the publisher)
alleges you owe him $280.00 and that you are ignoring his
correspondence. See complete allegation under my signature.

-----------------
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
-----------------

The second step in our investigation is to send this communication
to your firm to get its side of the story. If you have evidence
disputing these allegations, or would like to make your own
statement about these allegations for publication in our report, please
email angela@writersweekly.com within two business days.

***All correspondence for our investigations must be in writing and
is subject to publication.***

If you do owe this person money, we strongly suggest you read
this article before responding:
http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest ... 32006.html

Our report on your firm is scheduled for inclusion in our
publication next Wednesday, though it may appear in our Whispers and
Warnings forum before that time.

If there is no response to these allegations, WritersWeekly.com will
still publish this complaint, but our readers will not be able to
read your side of the story.

We appreciate your prompt response in this matter.

Angela Hoy
Publisher
WritersWeekly.com

~~~~~~~~~~~
ALLEGATION
~~~~~~~~~~~

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Whispers and Warnings
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:14:18 +0000 (GMT)
From: [MJ]

Hello Angela,

This past winter, I briefly lived in Prague, Czech Republic. During
that time I found casual work writing for an online magazine called
Faiyo. I mostly wrote short fiction for the magazine, but was not
limited strictly to fiction. Articles were typically a maximum of
seven-hundred words. During my time in Prague, all I needed to do to
receive payment was to walk down to the magazine's head office and they
would pay me on the spot. I developed a good working relationship with
the magazine's owner and small staff.

In March I discovered that I would have to leave Prague. I informed the
magazine that I would be leaving but would still like to work for them
from Canada (where I currently live). The owner and editors readily
agreed and told me that we could work out payment options through Pay
Pal or bank transfers. The owner even gave me his business card and
asked me to try to find advertisers for the magazine in Canada. I told
him that I would do my best.

After arriving home, and roughly throughout a two month period, the head
editor of Faiyo emailed me requesting work for upcoming issues. I
complied and ended up writing four articles/stories, which the magazine
published on their website. However, no payment was ever received for
this work. After emailing them the first time regarding payment, I was
told that they wouldn't be using Pay Pal and therefore I would need to
send them my banking information. Once again, I complied. Then I
waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing. When I emailed the magazine
again to see what the problem was, the owner informed me that he had
sent the money and that it should be in my bank account. I then
proceeded to check my bank account, asking at the bank if any payment
had been placed in my account from overseas sources. The answer was no.
I had records of account transactions going back two months printed
out. No record of any payment from overseas.

Several days later, I received an email from Faiyo asking me to write
another article for them for an upcoming issue. I responded by saying
that I would love to write for them again, but first I would like to
receive the money I was owed for past articles. There was no response
to this email.

Next I emailed the owner of Faiyo, who incidentally is named Filip
Knesl, asking him to send me the name of the bank he dealt with when he
sent my money, as well as the transaction number for the transfer of the
funds. The email was not returned. I repeated this email several times
through the weeks, but have still to date, received no response.

Faiyo owes me just over $280. I don't want anyone else to be cheated in
the manner in which I was cheated.

All the best,

[MJ]

PUBLISHER RESPONDS

Subject: Re: COMPLAINT about Faiyo
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:34:23 +0200
From: Filip Knesl <filip@faiyo.com>

PARAPHRASING:
He said it was a misunderstanding and that he thought he sent the money. He said he didn't communicate with the writer "because I am extremely busy."

He then says he'll check and will contact the writer tomorrow.

~~~~~

WRITER RESPONDS

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: COMPLAINT about Faiyo]
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:36:18 +0000 (GMT)
From: [MJ]

Hi Angela,

I just wanted to let you know that Filip just emailed me and this is
what he had to say:
[i]

PARAPHRASED

He says he was informed about "your complaining ragarding payment" (sic) and that he's sorry the writer didn't get the money. He says his problem is that he is extremely busy, that he's working on a TV show and that they moved their offices, "and some things are in big mess." He says that's why he didn't answer and "also to many other people." He says he didn't intend to do bad things to the writer. He said he needs some time to check it out and to send the money again.

AS OF THIS DATE, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008, THE WRITER HAS NOT RECEIVED PAYMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER, NOR HAS HE RECEIVED ANY ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATION FROM THE PUBLISHER.

PUBLISHER RESPONDS

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: COMPLAINT about Faiyo
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:54:15 +0200
From: Filip Knesl <filip@faiyo.com>

PARAPHRASED

He says he's dealing with possible investors and that the complaint on WritersWeekly can cause damage to them.

He says the delay of payment to the writer wasn't "with a bad intent" and that he paid for all previous articles without problems. He says he sent the money on Friday and that he was double checking the amount to avoid the same situation as before.

He then asks us to remove the complaint from WritersWeekly and says he's communicating with the writer and that the writer knows about his request. He then thanks us for our understanding.

WE HAVE NOT YET RECEIVED WORD IF THE WRITER REALLY DID RECEIVE PAYMENT AND/OR IF IT CLEARED THE BANK.

WRITER RESPONDS:

10/8/08 - The writer emailed WritersWeekly with an update. Faiyo did not pay him even after WritersWeekly publicized this situation. Only after the writer posted a blog online about Faiyo's activities did he get paid.

HOWEVER, he reports he was not paid in full. He claimed Faiyo still owes him $40.00.

PUBLISHER EMAILS WRITER, COPIES WRITERSWEEKLY:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Faiyo
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:01:49 +0200
From: Filip Knesl <filip@faiyo.com>
To: [MJ]

PARAPHRASED

He says the writer sent note to WritersWeekly that claims he still owes $40. He wants to know why (and uses lots of exclamation points). He adds, "Amout was 4000 Czk and I sent you litle bit more than this. I dont understand why did you say that I was owing you $280." He says the information wasn't correct. He asks the writer to plese stop this unfair campaign against him and Faiyo. He says it's causing serious damage to him and to the magazine's goodwill. He tells the writer to confirm the amount paid was the whole amount and "immediately remove belie and insultingly links, you left on internet."

He includes a scanned copy of the bank transfer.

Enclosed I am sending a scan copy of a bank transfer confirmation.

~~~~~

WRITER RESPONDS

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Faiyo Complaint
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:01:55 +0000 (GMT)
From: [MJ]

Hi Angela,

After checking the exchange rate, I have realised that I made a little error. Filip did owe me $280, but I guess the Czech crown has really taken a drop because yesterday when I checked what 4,000 crowns amounts to, it only amounts to $250. I received $240 from Filip, so instead of stiffing me out on $40, he actually stiffed me out on $10. I received $230 from Filip and my bank took $10 for the transaction. I have now deleted my site about Filip, but the links on Google still remain. I can't get rid of them. He is angry that there is still news about him on Writer's Weekly as well as my own links. Personally, I don't really care seeing as he brought all this on himself.

Mike

WRITERSWEEKLY IS HAPPY TO POST UPDATES. HOWEVER, WE DON'T REMOVE POSTS FROM WHISPERS AND WARNINGS.

If publishers don't want people talking about them online, they shouldn't force writers to seek help from websites like WritersWeekly.com in order to get what's rightfully theirs.

AS OF THIS MORNING, the publisher is still requesting we remove this warning, claiming he did pay the writer the correct amount. We did the math.

The writer claims he was originally owed $280.00 Canadian - or 4000 CZK.

Using the exchange rate on the date of the complaint, the 4000 CZK would equal $257.52 CAD. See:
http://www.exchange-rates.org/Rate/CZK/CAD/8-18-2008

However, if he'd been paid back on June 30th, he'd have received $268.36 CAD. See: http://www.exchange-rates.org/Rate/CZK/CAD/6-30-2008

According to the publisher's own scan that was emailed to us, the writer only received $250.00 CAD.

While exchange rates do come into play and can confuse things, in our opinion, it would only be fair to pay the writer what he'd have earned had he been paid on time months ago. So, we have to agree with the writer on this one. In our opinion, he was underpaid. The net amount to him in Canadian dollars should have been the same as it would have been had he been paid on time by this publisher.

PUBLISHER RESPONDS

Subject: Faiyo
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:07:27 +0200
From: Filip Knesl <filip@faiyo.com>

Angela,

This is too much. I just saw your "calculation".
I paid always to Mike in CZK and also agreed price for one article was
1000 CZK.
I paid for 4 remaining articles 4 175,75 as agreed and again you didnt
say, that debt was settled. You are continuing with unfair campaign
against to me....

Filip