Peerflix/LiveUniverse paid me every penny it owed me!

I’ve written several times recently about how LiveUniverse was weaselling out of paying me what it owed me for my participation in the Peerflix ad network, which LiveUniverse bought over the summer. (For the background, see the posts “Peerflix/Live Universe is a deadbeat” and “Peerflix/LiveUniverse: still a deadbeat”.)

I’m delighted to report that LiveUniverse has now paid me the $912.50 it owed me. I received a check last week, though not after quite a bit additional hassle and more weaselly behavior on LiveUniverse’s part. There’s no need to go into the details of the hoops LiveUniverse made me jump through in order to be paid money I was already owed, because my film critic colleague Eric Snider, who was in the same boat as I was, has already done so, here: “Shaming Live Universe into paying what they owe you actually works!” I encourage you to check out Eric’s post, because it’s hilarious. My experience was virtually identical to Eric’s -- and when we compared notes while this nonsense was in progress and after it was over, it turned out that our responses to LiveUniverse’s, er, requests were almost identical, too.

I’v already thanked Eric privately, and now I want to thank him publicly, too, because it appears that it’s only because he launched a LiveUniverse-shaming blog at Live-Universe-owes-me-money.com -- to which I contributed my story -- that we got the company’s notice at all. The posts about the situation on our respective individual blogs did not have the same affect. So thanks again, Eric.

And to all those Netizens whom LiveUniverse still owes money, this seems to be the lesson of my and Eric’s experience: Make as big and as public a stink as you can about it, and don’t shut up until they pay up.