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by: James G Wilson |
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1.) |
When I started working for Karen Crawford in November of 2006, Scottnienhaus.com was her domain name of choice,
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2.) |
Note: 3partharmony.com was also available at the time she chose Scottnienhaus.com to promote her bands,
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3.) |
After earning some money from Karen for work I did on her site, Scottnienhaus.com, I decided to invest it in my own production company in early January of 2007 as a way to generate more revenue with my web design skills,
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4.) |
Whilst searching for a name for that production company, I noticed Karen's email address, 3partharmony@...., and thought that it sounded good. Thus, 3PartHarmony Productions was born,
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5.) |
Karen has absolutely no claim over the slogan, "3 part harmony" because she obviously didn't invent it and never once used it at any time prior to late November 2007 as the name of her bands (well over a month after we parted ways),
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6.) |
The fact that she's trying to use it now is just a sleazy attempt to trick people into thinking she had been using it all along.
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7.) |
One need only review Karen's introductions of the band on The Set from July 18th, 2007 to see that she never once referred to them as 3-Part-Harmony (and that was seven months AFTER I had created 3PartHarmony Productions).
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8.) |
I have the records showing that I purchased the domain name and web hosting service with my own credit card in early January of 2007,
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9.) |
Some days after that, I started showing Karen a new design for her site that I created from scratch using the front page of my new production company,
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10.) |
I wasn't yet ready to advertise as a production company, so it seemed to be no big deal to me to use the front page to test what I had created for her (a rookie mistake to be sure),
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11.) |
I kept telling her that she needed to transfer that design over to Scottnienhaus.com, but she would blow me off and never get around to it,
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12.) |
I'm now guessing that she did that on purpose as a way to glom onto my production company and try to call it her own,
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13.) |
Eventually, I struck a deal with her where I'd let her continue to use the front page of 3PartHarmony Productions in exchange for her promoting me as a web designer to her audiences, the venues she played at and to her other various musical connections. Sadly, I've since discovered that her niche is much smaller than I was initially led to believe,
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14.) |
That agreement was contingent upon the stipulation that, once I got going, the band site would be moved back over to Scottnienhaus.com where it belonged in the first place,
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15.) |
Karen (without telling me) got rid of Scottnienhaus.com soon afterward and started telling folks to go straight to 3PartHarmony.com instead,
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16.) |
I eventually found out that Karen was taking credit for my work and website the whole time; which explains why she never once promoted me as stipulated in our agreement,
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17.) |
One need look no further than the January 2008 issue of Flaire to see that Karen is still taking credit for other people's work. She makes no mention of the fact that she is clueless when it comes to website design and needs to hire professionals to do the work for her,
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18.) |
Karen tries to assert that she paid for 3partharmony.com and all its designs. As shown above, nothing could be further from the truth.
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19.) |
In fact, I received only about $500.00 TOTAL for all of the work I did for her during those nine plus months of our agreement. |
20.) |
That is largely because she would plead poverty to me on any number of ocassions. So, I let some months' payments slide until she had the money. Of course, she never did...
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21.) |
When you consider that her bands make that much money in one night, it is hard to (retrospectively) figure the poverty angle.
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22.) |
She had me at her beck and call anytime a whim hit her to change/add info on the site. I worked on it seven days a week (mostly correcting her scheduling mistakes). Sometimes, it'd be two or three hours a day. I did it, though, based on Karen's (empty) promise that bigger and better things were coming. Such things were never forthcoming, and she knows it,
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23.) |
Now, Karen is finding out the hard way that such work does not come cheap from those with whom she can not easily cheat. That is why her new website is languishing. Usually, it is only updated a few times a month, depending on what she can afford.
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24.) |
I'm willing to bet she's spent well over $500.00 on that site in just the first two months alone. Despite the good PhotoShop work, her new site has only a fraction of the functionality that I had created for her.
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25.) |
If I were to conservatively assess what Karen Crawford owes me for my work, designs, logos, scripts, etc., it'd be in the three to four thousand dollar range.
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26.) |
That's a minimal figure when considering what she cost me in terms of potential clients never sought by her during that period. I don't yet know how to calculate all of the revenue lost due to such blatant deceit on Karen's part.
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27.) |
Yet, SHE wants to play the victim in all of this. It's absolutely shameful and despicable of her to try and do so.
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28.) |
I hope folks now see this matter for what it is. And, I can only hope that they start to see Karen Crawford for who and what she is...
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