Invision Group Consulting Services / Teray Stephens Consulting Failure to Pay for Services Rendered Laguna Hills / Newport Beach, California Internet

Teray Stephens utilized my consulting services as an outside resource.  I provided my Microsoft Excel expertise in creating spreadsheets for her client. She had explained that creating spreadsheets was not her forte. I have known and provided such services to her over a 10-year period. We agreed that she would pay me $1,000.00 for my services with an initial payment of $500.00 (50%). She used the excuse that her client had not paid her and that she would be paying me out of her personal funds which were in short supply according to her. She ended up paying me only $250.00 to start my work, and she did not pay this amount for several weeks. After I completed the work she had contracted me to perform, she paid me an additional $250.00. So, there was still an outstanding amout of $500.00 due.

Her typlical M.O. is  to pile on an extra amount of work just prior to the completion of the job. She does this at the last moment. This added work usually involves making substantial changes to the spreadsheets under the guise of extreme time pressure and urgency. After I had completed the job, and with this enormous amount of changes pending, she told me that she would have to submit my work without the changes and that it was my fault for not completing the job. I did not hear from her for about 1 month. She then explained in an email that she had to hire someone else to compelte the spreadsheet work and that the cost of this outside provider greatly exceeded the $500.00 she owed me.

In reality, she did not hire anyone else. She used that as an excuse to not pay me. This represents a recurring pattern in Teray's business conduct. I will never again assist her in any of her projects. Moreover, she would contact me over the years to ask for my written opinions about various business issues confronting her clients, offer to pay me for my expertise, then fail to pay me. She is a sophisticated rip off artist to be sure.