COMPLAINT about Karma Magazine / Eric Eslao

[angelahoy]

October 24, 2007

Eric Eslao, Publisher - eric@karmamagazine.com
Krissy Tran - krissy@karmamagazine.com
Fred Eslao - fred@karmamagazine.com
Karma Magazine / karmamagazine.com
2880 Zanker Road, Suite 203
San Jose, CA 95137
P408-449-4540
F408-449-4541

WritersWeekly.com has received a complaint about:
Karma Magazine / karmamagazine.com / Eric Eslao

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
-------------

[SS] (name not published here but was, of course, provided to the publisher)
alleges you owe her $460.00 and that you are ignoring
her 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_from_angelahoycom/003628_09132006.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

-------------------
COMPLETE ALLEGATION
-------------------

From: [SS]
To: Angela Hoy
Subject: Freelance S.O.S
Date sent: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:09:22 -0700

Hi Angela,

For the past two years I have written for a national nightlife magazine
called Karma. I wrote 3 articles for their
September 1 issue and I have a contract detailing the terms. They owe me
$460.

The magazine has recently disconnected its phone and fax and the editor is
no longer returning my emails (I
recently received a call for queries in late August so I suspect his
account is working and the emails do not
bounce back). I have called his cell phone three times and he has not
returned my calls.

I also know that his family runs a graphic design firm in Canada. His name
is Eric Eslao.

[SS]

UPDATE FROM WRITER SENT ON NOVEMBER 5, 2007

From: [SS]
To: Angela Hoy
Subject: RE: COMPLAINT about Karma Magazine / Eric Eslao
Date sent: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 10:17:53 -0800


I finally received payment this weekend via paypal.

Thanks Angela.

[angelahoy]

PUBLISHER HAS PROMISED CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO AVOID THIS IN THE FUTURE.

Subject: Karma Magazine
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:13:58 -0700
From: Eric Eslao <eric@karmamagazine.com>

Angela-

A posting was placed about Karma magazine several months ago; it was in regards to non-payment for one of our freelance writers (name removed).

Since then, we've made several changes to our writer's agreement with our freelancers, including 50% payment upon assignment rather than 100% payment upon on-sale date. Hopefully, positive changes like this will help our writers and the magazine. We are re-launching the magazine and I want to make sure incidences, like the one with [S], aren't repeated.

We are trying to move forward with the magazine on a clean slate. If it is possible, I am requesting that the posting about Karma be removed from the Whispers and Warnings page. The incident mentioned was an unfortunate situation, which I take full blame for, however, I am making moves to not repeating the same mistake.

Kindly consider my request. I would greatly appreciate it.

Thankfully yours,

--
Eric Eslao
Editor-in-Chief
Karma Magazine
95 S. Market Street, Suite 260
San Jose, CA 95113