Heavensgame and Jeremy Beynon

on Nov 04 in News tagged , by

I have been in business on my own for some 6 years now and I am well aware that this means taking the odd non-payment on the chin – such is life. However, Mr. Jeremy Beynon is a different fish. Jeremy Beynon and his company/website – whatever – Heavensgame.com took me for £1500, which is bad enough, but it is more the way in which they did it.

Back in July I saw an advert on linkedin asking for a social media manager to do 20 hours a week for Heavensgame.com – so I instantly dropped him a line, having pinged him a few news items in the past from the Arabian Gulf and Asia etc. He instantly acknowledged, and hired me. Job done. A quick skype call later and I was away – spending several hours a day blogging on his website and ‘digging’ articles on his behalf etc – we got Heavensgame up to 3rd place on page 1 of Google for the search term ‘Rugby World Cup’ …. no mean feat.

We decided upon payment every 2 weeks for around £320. The first invoice fell foul to a ‘banking error’ as he added an incorrect IBAN number to the transfer. No problem, easily done.

Invoice 1 got added to invoice 2 another 2 weeks later and this time it was simply …. forgotten. Whoops.

Invoice 1 + 2 + 3 was sent for what had now been 6 weeks work and this found Jeremy ill. his wife answered my email with:

“Hi Max, I am sorry about the money situation, I will deal with it right now. Thanks again, Kath.”

Yup – you guessed it … nothing turned up. Although he did follow it up himself with a heartfelt:

“Hello Max, I hope all is well with you, I am back in the land of the living/working and am finally off the drip, back home etc….

I undersand things have lagged since we spoke, I will bring everything uptodate on Tuesday (including $$), apologies for the delay. Kath (wife) said that you have been keeping the daily blog going, thanks – I really appreciate that. Talk soon. Jeremy”

At this stage I was also covering HIS half of the BLOG too as he was ‘ill’. So – I decided enough was enough, Jeremy was quite clearly a liar and a cheat and so I sent him this:

“Good morning guys,  I am attaching my usual DIGG etc for you. I am also attaching my third invoice.  Guys, right now I am extremely busy 7 days a week and more and more work is coming in so I am having to prioritise – unfortunately, like everyone else  my business has to perform the very basic functions and that is ‘money in for work out’. I love doing this work for you and being a part of heavensgame but I have still yet to see a single penny in payment and I have been annoying my wife for 8 weeks by digging and blogging for you guys every evening until midnight sometimes and then first thing in the morning before even having breakfast … so something has to give.

I am a 100% straight character and I always give the benefit of the doubt, so I do hope that the invoices get paid at some point and that you ask me to continue with the work I have been doing – but for now I am going to have to stop and prioritise doing work for those who have paid and who continue to pay. Let me know your thoughts on this and whether or not you want me to continue after today.

I hope you are getting better Jeremy and wish you all the best for the future. Best regards, Max.”

Now – you would think that any kind of man – even a cheat, would read this and call it a day – you know – maybe explain his cashflow problems and suggest a compromise …. maybe, – maybe even attempt an apology? Sorry we haven’t paid you for 8 weeks work and lied on several occasions … ? Nope. On September 16th 2010, Jeremy Beynon of Heavensgame.com sent this:

“Hello Max, Apologies, all cash will be paid to your account on Friday, when I return home from hospital. Best regards Jeremy. Jeremy Beynon. Managing Director. Heavensgame.”

This was the last communication I had from Jeremy and I presume he thought that I was affluent enough to write off the money he owed me and take it no further. I can only presume that he figured with him in Sydney Australia and me in Devon, England – that there was nothing I would be able to do.

But – that isn’t me. That isn’t Max. That isn’t how I work.

The great thing about the ‘RuckinRugby’ side of my work is the people. I love rugby people, because wherever you go in the whole world, they are the same. Straight. Okay, you get a bit of banter – maybe even en route to the game, but once you’re warming up it all changes – you cannot fanny around on a rugby pitch like you can at football – you have to be on board, straight. Genuine.

I’d like to think that if anyone else had had an experience like this with Jeremy Beynon – then they would have written about it, so I could have had a heads up. More importantly – I want to make 100% sure that if ANYone ever looks to do any kind of work for this guy and/or his company in the future they get 100% payment up front or even better – they think better of it and tell him to ‘jog on’. I have instructed a debt recovery agency in NSW Australia but he is not answering phones or email.

I’d like to ask everyone who reads this and knows what a straight guy I am – to pass it on. Retweet it, Facebook it, Digg it … just use the buttons below. Forewarned is Forearmed and the last thing any of us needs in the current climate is 8 weeks unpaid work! many thanks for your help.