The reason for the very low voices is because these people (supposedly) were hearing-=impaired and sight-impaired, and that is why Mr. May kept me going round and round to lower my register as I was the first female he decided to hire. Whatever he denies about hiring me or not - I have 30 emails from him that any arbitrator would see clearly how he changes his mind every moment almost, and renegs on what he has said before. As I told Paul, in a post-Madoff world we should all have our antennas out a little more - the fact that this is small potatoes compared to the other white collar fraud that goes on - does not excuse the fundamental lack of transparency. The other thing is - what kind of bona fide organization doesn't have a business phone number or a place to leave a message? The number I spoke to him a couple of times on had no machine and was only answered when he decided to pick up. One has to wonder what else he is using his non-profit status for.

That is interesting to hear that he hired off competitor sites to Voice123.

I wanted to add: the reason for Voice123 not revealing information on who is banned, has nothing to do with Voice123 hiding information.

Sometimes, people are simply embarrassed by what happened and don't want us to talk about it in public. Sometimes, they state the deal just went bad, and even though the person paid, they acted in a manner that was damaging to a sense of community harmony.

No web site should openly state someone is a scam until they have all facts cemented in place, and you have to understand this is a rare situation:

It grew into what everyone knows now because the online community is quite small for voice talent, and Mr. May's behavior was combative. When he went the route of hiring and not paying ... then hiring people who knew each other, and not paying them ... only to turn around and become combative again; he created this mess on his own.

The ill-advised belief that 'theft will occur online and no one will talk about it or do anything about it," thankfully, is a thing of the past due to proactive conversations like this, and something I have been able to write about more in the last year.

I believe many feared talking about this in the past due to fear of consequences, maybe the site did not know HOW to help, or yes ... sometimes the business deal just went bad, and there was no scam at all.

Personally, I don't believe it is the job of anyone to take punches, and transparency and moral obligation are two things needed for the job market of tomorrow.

As we see in this case, those who believe it is not necessary, soon find a public online record of all that happened, and no amount of counter-campaigns can erase what already happened.

Really, with web sites, instant karma will always get you.

Thank you so much for your encouraging responses. If you haven't read the follow-up "Story behind the Story" yet, please do so. I think it will answer some of your questions. Secondly, it will give you an idea of how (relatively) easy it can be to check someone's credentials, and how you can check whether or not a charity is legit.

RESPONSIBILITY
It is important to know that as a voice-talent you are always responsible for doing a background check on your clients. In my follow-up, I quote the voice123 policy:

"Although Voice123 tries to establish the legitimacy of all voice seekers, you are responsible for conducting your own investigation into any and all claims made by prospective voice seekers, agents and/or clients. You assume all liability for use of any information you find through Voice123, LLC, or any of its publications."

Even though internet voice-casting has been around for a few years, the major players are not in the habit of sharing information with us, about people they have banned and about scams that were uncovered. Rather than being afraid of negative publicity, I think they'd do all of us a great service by making this public.

Not only should they share this information with their members; they should also alert one another. Otherwise, individuals banned from one site, will simply set up shop nextdoor.

As far as this is concerned, the Pay-to-Plays can learn a lot from similar sites for translators. One such site (www.translatorscafe.com) has a "Hall of Fame and Shame". You simply type in the name of an agency or an individual, and if they happen to be blacklisted, you'll be the first one to know.

For now, our industry has left it to a colleague in Egypt (Mahmoud Taji), to set up a scam alert. You'll find a link to his site in my article.

OTHER NEWSPAPERCASTERS
After my blog was published, several colleagues have contacted me, and told me about their experiences with the editor of Newspapers for the Blind. Without exception, they mention being treated disrespectfully and rudely. Whenever the subject of payment was brought up, the relationship turned sour. Some had to threaten with law suits in order to get paid. Others decided that it was better to walk away.

It was impossible for Will May's newspapercasters to form a united front because we had no idea of who else was doing the reading. I knew their first names, but May made sure that we did not have eachother's contact info. It's a rather archaic way of making sure that employees are kept in line and prevent them from filing a class action. If you keep people isolated, it's easier to ignore the issue and intimidate the individual.

BACKLASH
As you can imagine, Mr. May is not too pleased with my article. He knew that it was coming because I told him I would write it if he refused to change his ways.

Someone in his situation can do a number of things: ignore the issue and let is dissipate. A story like this could blow over in a few days. People have a short attention span and are forgetful.

Another tactic is to blame the messenger, and to accuse the writer of making things up or not being trustworthy. That way, the attention moves away from the perpetrator.

Mr. May has already started a campaign to discredit me. When voice123 contacted him about his disrespectful behavior, he did the same thing by saying that he was not the problem. The voice-talent was the problem. As Dr. Phil would say: "you can't change what you don't acknowledge".

SECOND THOUGHTS
I wish there wouldn't have been a reason for me to write this story. Newspapers for the Blind is a terrific service and I hope it will continue. When I was still reading the papers, I told Will May that I'd be happy to use my experience as a radio and TV journalist and media trainer, to spread the news about his charity.

As you may have gathered from Chris Coulter's comments, not too many people in the blind community have heard of this service. Just look at the number of hits on their website... it is rather disheartening.

Will never took me up on my offer. And when he complained about his bookkeeping woes, my wife (she's a great bookkeeper) offered to help him out, because we really believed in this charity. Again: no response from May.

Why wouldn't he allow someone to take a good look at the books and help him out with accounting? Why wouldn't he want to have an experienced newsmaker on board to help shine a bright light on his service? It simply doesn't make sense, does it?

THE FINAL WORD
Ultimately, this is not about Will May. It's about something much bigger. It's about openness, accountability and transparency.

I hope that you will take my experience with you and be more alert. I hope you'll contact your internet voice-casters and ask them to be open about con-men and scams, and share the information with you. After all, you are a paying member. You have some clout.

Don't you think it's unfair to purposely hide the name of a voice-seeker and then add a legal note making YOU fully responsible for conducting your own investigation?

I also urge you to tell services like voice123 and voices.com about the problems you have had with voice-seekers. If they don't know about it, they can't do anything about it. And in my experience, they are willing to do something about it. You owe it to them and to your colleagues.

Paul Strikwerda

PS if you wish to share information on your experiences with Newspapers for the Blind and its editor, drop me a line. The only reason why things like this can continue, is because people with the best intentions don't take any action.

Paul - THANK YOU so much for telling this story with such "gory" detail and for those who contributed. What a tragedy, really. I'm sorry for those affected negatively. Was there any effort to deal directly with others at the company, in order to get some sort of turn-around on this? You had mentioned the names Dr. Edward E. Boas Jr. and Noelle Mills Adler. Also, this seems a case for an attorney potentially (albeit unfortunate) for the many others unpaid.??? Not that I'm litigious but this seems a crime.

Best regards,
Rebecca Michaels
www.LoveThatRebecca.com

Thank you for bringing this name to our attention, as a community of voice providers. I'd like to see Voice123 and other casting sites take a step further when they ban an individual from posting jobs, since there's nothing to stop them from contacting talent directly and getting free voice work. I've been waiting a year to get paid by Russ Nelson in Utah, who is banned from Voice123, but was able to hire me directly. I wish I had known his shady status before I did work for him.

Paul,
Thank you for your words of advice. As a relative newbie to the world of voiceover marketplaces, I still feel uncomfortable with the anonymity of many of these voiceseekers and the miles between us. While I have an agent in my hometown with several repeat clients, I am aware the Internet has vastly changed our way of doing business. Articles like yours strengthen the talent alliance in our industry and that may be the smartest thing we can do at this point. Blessings to you and Ms. Gray for your courage to speak up.

Paul,
Back on Sept. 16 of 2009 I auditioned for William May through Voices.com and was selected as a finalist. Fortunately, I was not chosen. Thank you for this information about a scam artist. He will eventually "pay" for his behavior. The less we have to deal with people like this, the better. I will be notifying Voices.com about this man. Also, I believe people ARE their behavior, when such behavior is consistent.

As I mentioned on my blog (http://andyboyns.com/vo/2010/01/synergy.html), there are times when many individuals are willing to contribute to develop a cause, and this is a very positive thing. Following the “Talk about Haiti” project I contacted several VO talent about their thoughts on setting up a volunteer register, and all responded positively.

The issue which Paul raises here is an important one, as this case is where the relationship with the organisation was understood to be contractual and payment terms were understood (on the performers' side, at least). What is sad is that the "Will May" approach raises questions about the integrity of organisations which we'd naturally want to "help" - whether as a volunteer, or by providing preferential rates.

As a community I find that professional voice artists are incredibly generous. The question is how to enable this to be chanelled into useful and deserving causes, and to avoid the sort of abuse discussed here. Furthermore, there is the dichotomy of how to balance our professional, income generating, goals with the desire to be philanthropic.

Thanks for sharing this, Paul.

I find it interesting that Tenors and Sopranos were excluded, for the Visually impared usually don't have a problem with those voices, and the Hearing Impared would rather read a papper than hear it. But food for thought, no matter where you are, there will always be those ready to exploit the kindness of others.

Maybe there are news and information reading services for the blind that I'm not aware of, but as a blind person and a member of a promenant national organization of the blind as well as a voice actor, I've never heard of Newspapers for the Blind. In my opinion, both voice talents and blind people who would benefit from a service like this are being exploited. Did anyone look into the records for this organization and find out about its 501C-3 status?

Paul
I was Hired Also BUT when I mentioned payment the Subject was changed.
I walked away.