American Language Services Freelance Interpreter contractors beware - lousy business ethics at ALS Los Angeles, California

As a freelance interpreter, I am appalled by the business ethics of ALS.  I accepted an assignment to interpret an all-day conference from ALS, and sent my Terms of Service in to the hiring specialist before accepting the assignment, which clearly stipulated overtime and travel compensation.

ALS shorted my invoice payment more than 10% of the total , citing that my travel was not "preapproved" and attempted to claim that my overtime rate had not been approved, despite the fact that the billing invoice template they sent me clearly stated my overtime differential on it.  

Trying to resolve the situation with them was an unfortunate waste of time.  Their accounting manager was professional but did not respond to my followup for a week, only responding to me when I contacted the senior accounting manager for ALS, and stated that I had no right to contact him, which is ludicrous.

The senior accounting manager was extremely unprofessional in his communication with me. I had let him know that, having received no contact from the accounting manager that I had contacted legal counsel, but was hoping to resolve the issue without.  His initial response to my email opened with "I will happily take a look, but I I don't even know you.....threatening me over $67.50....c'mon now."  I made it clear to him that this was not about the money, it was about maintaining appropriate business ethics and practice.  

Ultimately I settled accepting 2/3 of the remaining invoice balance to end the ridiculous exchange with this organization.  I'd been warned by many of my colleagues not to accept assignments from non-local agencies without a professional relationship, and this was my first (and LAST) experience doing so.