Articles

Working Overseas… Tips From The Big Gun + More

by Mahmoud Taji

The Following webcast, videocast… whatever you want to call it. Is from Ed Victor’s Straight Shootin with The Big Gun Series.

Since I exclusively work overseas (if the work comes from anywhere in the world its considered overseas to me) Ed’s Tips are pretty comprehensive and accurate. Although I usually prefer to get paid in Bank Transfers because the bank’s commission is allot less than my getting paid to Paypal … then transfering that amount to my canadian bank account (thereby incurring exchange fee costs) then withdrawing the amount from my ATM machine here in egypt.

Also… I got this email yesterday from a fellow voice over artist from Spain…. I am publishing her email as is… no changes:

Hello,
Has any of you ever rendered VO services to companies in India and did not get paid? We did and, after 7 months of pursuing payment and sending repeated messages, we were challenged to search for the end client and pursue payment through them. However, it was not the end client who contracted us. It was this Localization Company in India by the name of Vox Box where the three people running are: Melory D’Mello, Michelle D’Mello and Shaw Pereira. They are all listed in Linkedin if you want to take a look. What is sad about this situation is that they have been banned out of sites like Voice 123, Voices.com and others for failing to pay their VO job on time. So, just a friendly warning…. Some companies located overseas could not pay you for your work.

We welcome any suggestions, comments and appreciate you passing the word to all your colleagues. We will not get paid but, at least, we can help all of you avoid a situation like this.

Sincerely,

Isabella Arévalo
Talent Director and Spanish Voice Actress
Certified Spanish Translator and Interpreter
IsaTalent International ITI
“Offering Ethnic Voices and faces”

I am publishing her letter here so you guys are forewarned.

Taji

5 Comments

  1. Thank you much for publishing our friendly warning and for your support and comments about our situation.
    with kind and sincere appreciation,
    Isabella Arevalo
    IsaTalent International

  2. One other reader sent me this email about the Voxbox people:

    “Hi Mahmoud,

    I saw your posting (about voxbox) and The same company sent me this email when I inquired about payment for another voice talent. It shows the depth of his unprofessional way of doing business. The only thing this person has done right is market himself – he has plastered his information all over the internet, making himself appear to be a large, well-established company. In reality, he is a charlatan who once played guitar in a failed rock band in India. It’s very sad – he does not pay his talent.

    …”The people I pay late are the inept ones. They are being made to wait for payment because they sucked at what they did.
    Yours Sincerely,
    Melroy D’Mello
    +919833020332
    http://www.voxbox.in
    Sent from my iPhone”

    I can assure you the talent is by no means “inept” and is one that my clients request repeatedly. This talent has almost 20 years experience and has always delivered a perfect performance!”

    after reviewing my voice over directory I noticed that I did include voxbox in it … they’ve been removed.

    If Melroy wants to clear his name (though the best way at this point would be that they make those pending payments first before trying to justify his actions.) then he can do so here. If he does decide to clear his name… his comments (if he leaves them) will not be posted until I get verification from these other voice over artists that they did receive their payments.

    Taji

  4. Hi everyone! I am the Spanish VO female who was not paid by Vox Box and Melroy D’Mello in India. I truly appreciate all the support and feedback I have received from a ton of fellow VO professionals. The emails keep on coming non-stop! This goes to show us that even when we demand and receive a deposit in our pay pal accounts prior to commencing the project, we still cannot trust that we will be paid for our work. I also wanted to share that I received messages from Voice123, Voices.com and Bodalgo to let me know they had banned this character and his Box from their sites and had received complaints about them before my inquiries. I am posting an email from Aline, another female VO colleague who is not being paid by Vox Box. She wrote the following:

    From: Alline
    Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 4:08 AM
    Subject: problems with VoxBox

    Dear Colleague,

    My name is Alline, and I’m also facing problems with VoxBox. I even had to record (over 50 files) twice, as they asked me to record them as mono, low quality files and then complained about them. Almost 2 months have passed since I sent the files, and they keep on sending me excuses and apologies.

    I wonder if there’s anything we can do to stop them!

    I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon,

    Best regards,
    Alline

  5. Hola Isabella,

    I’m really sorry about your situation and I will do my best to let colleagues know about these guys and their incorrect business behavior.

    Hope you get your money soon!

    Saludos desde Bogota, Colombia

    And Taji, congratulations on your GREAT blog. I’ve been reading it for months, but this is my first comment.

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