Smashwords

[greg]

Here's a sampling, Butterscotch, and hey, no-one should have to go through this kind of hell. If they'd tried to pull this kind of shit with me I'd have ripped into them pronto after the second message. But then bullies always know who they can victimise with impunity. What a sad reflection on human nature.

Keri McKie <[e-mail]>
12/11/12
to me

I have received your W8BEN form; however, the name you entered as your Payee(s) does not match what is listed on the W8BEN form. The name you entered on the W8BEN form is xxxxxxxxxx with an EIN ending in xxxx. The payee name and corresponding US tax id (EIN) needs to match what is reported on the W8BEN and what is recorded with the SSA and IRS.
Which one is correct?
Let me know,
Keri

* * * * *

12/19/12
to Keri

Sorry about that, Keri. I'm not used to filling out multiple forms and it totally confuses me. My legal name is xxxxxx. My pen names are xxxxxx and xxxxxx.


* * * * *

12/28/12
to keri

Did you receive this, Keri?

* * * * *

Jan 2
to Keri

Did you receive this, Keri?

* * * * *

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: xxxxxxx
Date: Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 12:24 PM
Subject: Fwd: Your W8BEN form for Smashwords
To: [e-mail]


Did you receive this, Keri?

* * * * *

Keri McKie <[e-mail]>
Jan 7
to me

You will need to go into your account(s) and update your payee information with your legal name (name on W8BEN form) and enter the corresponding US tax id.

After you do that, please send me an email so I can wrap up these forms.

Thanks,
Keri

* * * * *

Keri McKie <[e-mail]>
Jan 7
to me

If you are owed anything through Smashwords, you should still try and make sure your Payee information is correct or their may be some withholdings.,

Keri

* * * * *

Jan 9
to Keri

It's all done. Thanks

* * * * *

Feb 9
to keri

Hello is there anyone there, and most importantly, WHEN can I expect to be paid?

* * * * *

Feb 9
to list

I'm waiting!

* * * * *

Feb 22
to list

Still waiting!!!

* * * * *
Keri McKie <[e-mail]>
Mar 5
to me

Catching up here and it looks like you have the following account:
xxxxxx
Latest payee info: xxxxxxx / Entered: 2013-01-09
TIN? Yes / W-8 received? Yes, on 2013-01-14 / Form type: W-8BEN / ID type: itin / Current withholding: 0

Your account with username xxxxxxx still shows xxxxxx as the payee. Payee name on the account needs to match the assigned ITIN.

Let me know,
Keri

* * * * *

Mar 5
to Keri

The xxxxxx information has been updated. But I really must say I've never had so much hassle about a payment owed me by a publisher. It's almost as if you're throwing every obstacle you can in my path, in the hopes I'll just say "to hell with it," and you can keep the cash. I've unpublished all my titles from Smashwords -- too much hassle -- and want to close my account, permanently. My God, it's taken you two months to even get back to me with this response, which was totally unhelpful anyway.

* * * * *

Keri>
Mar 6
to me

xxxxx,

I am sorry to hear you are so dissatisfied with us. In regards to the W8BEN form, we are just following the IRS required guidelines when authors want to have reduced tax withholdings. We have to make sure the payee name and corresponding assigned US tax identification numbers match what is on record with the IRS.

You are currently approved for payment on the account that has a balance. Payments will be going out in the next quarterly payout which will be in mid-late April, next month.

As far as your payment amount, I am showing that you are owed $26. If you feel you are owed $75, can you please forward me the reports or other records of how you determined that number? I will need to take that to our engineers so they can determine what is going on.

Look forward to hearing from you,
Keri

* * * * *

Mar 6
to Keri

I am owed the $75 on the last account I had under xxxxxx.I closed that account and the money disappeared along with it. Wow, all this time, effort and angst for a paltry sum under one hundred dollars. Unbelievable!

* * * * *

Keri McKie <[e-mail]>
Mar 6
to me

Yes, with the email xxxxxx the account shows a balance of some $88. You have set up multiple accounts which seems to be the cause of confusion.

Since your account is closed, you probably can not see this information so here it is. Your account should have been properly updated before it was closed. Per this information, you would receive your payment with a 30% withholding rate.

Please provide the corrected/updated information in a response to this email so I can correctly send off your final payment.

Keri

* * * * *

Mar 6
to Keri

I don't know what you expect me to add here. The account is closed so I can't go back into it and add the ETN number or whatever. You already know my ET IN or whatever the heck it's called. xxxxxxx

* * * * *

Mar 6
to keri

I unpublished all the books in the xxxxxx account and the xxxxx, a couple of months ago. I'd like both accounts deleted.

* * * * *

Angela S. <[e-mail]>
Apr 16 (2 days ago)
to me

Hi, xxxx.

I see that xxxxxis currently closed (but that is separate than the ghost account located at xxxxx To delete that and the xxxx account, there are a couple steps that need to be taken to delete those accounts:

1. Please unpublish all books in the accounts. You can do that from your Dashboard page. (I see this is currently done for xxxxx).

2. Wait until all books have been removed from the retailer sites. Once a take-down is sent, it can take around two weeks for this to happen.

3. Sign into the account you wish to delete, and send us the deletion request via the Comments/Questions box only. We cannot delete the account based on a direct email. We can then delete the account(s) for you.

Best wishes!


--
Angela S.
Smashwords Marketing Team
Smashwords Content Team

* * * * *

Angela S.
Apr 16 (2 days ago)
to me

xxxx,

I cannot continue until the instructions are followed. That's our policy. I'd be happy to help, but please follow my instructions so I can.


Best wishes!


--
Angela S.
Smashwords Marketing Team
Smashwords Content Team
www.smashwords.com

* * * * *

on 4/16/2013 2:43 PM, xxxxx wrote:
I've already done this ages ago. And this is precisely why I don't want
anything more to do with Smashwords. You seem to go out of your way to make everything as difficult as you can.

[Christie Bremmer]

Oh wow, nobody should have to go through something like this. They treated her shamefully and just ignored her for months at a time.

[rennie]

Tacky, very tacky and totally incompetent. I have a book at Smashwords but I'm going to unpublish it, I haven't been happy with things there from day 1 and this episode cinches it.

[skyelar]

I've been following this on another forum and it seems the mix up was because Smashwords couldn't understand that although the author/victim said she had unpublished all her books and asked that her accounts be closed there were still some of her books published. Of course, these were the books on her publisher's Smashwords page and she had no way, of course, of removing them. Smashwords are totally to blame for this debacle. Dumber than dumb. It also seems that the two broads Keri and Angie were not even supposed to be handling this. This came out when the author/victim had been ignored by those two doozies for two whole months and had to try to contact someone through the comments page on the Smashwords site. Here is the correspondence, published yesterday on the MS site:



On 4/1/2013 3:38 PM, xxxxx wrote:
Smashwords Site Comment:

I requested that my account with Smashwords be closed and all my books
deleted, but this has not been done. I made the requests many times in
emails to Keri McKie, who has stopped replying to my messages.
----------
Aaron <[e-mail]>
Apr 1
to me

Good afternoon, xxxx.

1) This is not Keri's area -- she is the CFO. When you unpublish your books, allow 1-3 weeks for the books to be pulled from all the retailers' sites.
2) We cannot delete books.
3) Your account is now closed.

Best,
Aaron

Aaron F.
Smashwords Content Team
www.smashwords.com

[skyelar]

Kudos to the author/victim and to Greg for making this info available to us all,and you can see by the number of hits how popular it's been -- over 400 in less than two days. Bravo! It is so important to get the word out there. I'm going to do a write up about it on my blog.

[kelly]

I had a similar experience at Smashwords. Needless to say I no longer publish with them.

[avery]

What's great about this is that it isn't hearsay, the evidence is there for the world to see. The author-victim was put through the Smashy meatgrinder in more ways than one. Very unprofessional conduct. If there was a medal for incompetence, and how not to treat a client, they'd win hands down.

[jacklawson]

So one nasty message accomplished what 30 nice ones could not. This proves that whoever said it pays to be nice was wrong, and he (obviously) never had to deal with Smashwords. Authors should be able to close their own accounts. The fact that Smashwords doesn't let them is one very good reason to avoid them.

[luvbooks]

Interesting thread. I hope it serves as a warning to anyone contemplating publishing with Smashwords. Their actions in this instance were rude, incompetent, unhelpful and unprofessional.

[jd]

Apr 19, 2013 22:32:44 GMT -5 jacklawson said:

So one nasty message accomplished what 30 nice ones could not. This proves that whoever said it pays to be nice was wrong, and he (obviously) never had to deal with Smashwords. Authors should be able to close their own accounts. The fact that Smashwords doesn't let them is one very good reason to avoid them.

Nope, it doesn't pay to be nice these days. Nice guys finish last.

[william]

Smashwords have a holier-than-thou attitude, a "do as we say because we know better. The continually told me my formatting was wrong because I was using the spacing bar to indent? Who uses the SB to do that. I will explain; they tell you this and offer you a service that will format your work for a fee of course, its a scam in sheep's clothing, stay away. Create Space are leaning in that direction too, as they use a blind chinese monkex to format your manuscript and hope you will lose patience. I used harsh ("f "word) language and called them morons until they got the message.

[william]

Smashwords have a holier-than-thou attitude, a "do as we say because we know better" one. They continually told me my formatting was wrong because I was using the spacing bar to indent? Who uses the SB to do that? I will explain; they tell you this and offer you a service that will format your work - for a fee of course. Its a scam in sheep's clothing, stay away.

Create Space are leaning in that direction too, as they use a blind chinese monkey to format your manuscript and hope you will lose patience. I used harsh ("f "word) language and called them morons until they got the message.