Just because he's famous he doesn't have to pay?

[COMINATCHA]

You know what REALLY annoys me? When people who are famous, or even semi-famous, think that they don’t have to follow the rules like the rest of us mere mortals AND when the company is okay with it!

Here’s my example:

I organized for a hot tub to be delivered to a guy who is a famous ex-footballer here in Australia, as my job is to organize deliveries and payment of hot tubs from display centres and at the head-office warehouse I’m located at.

Now we have a strict rule that no goods are to be released to the customer until full payment has been received. I like that rule, it means I don’t have to do debt collecting anymore. We used to let spas/hot tubs go out with payment to follow, but often customers wouldn’t pay and it became a huge headache for me to chase the money up.

Okay so it comes time for this hot tub to be picked up by the truck driver this guy had organized. I checked in our system to make sure we had payment – no we hadn’t.

So I mention this to my boss who says not to worry about it – just let the spa go.
I said “Why? It’s not paid for?”
He told me that he will “sort it out” and that I’m not to call the customer about it, just leave it.

I don’t understand why this guy gets special treatment just because he USED to play football. Who cares? You still need to pay for the damn goods that you purchase.

That was a month ago and we still haven’t got his money, and it’s frustrating because I’m not ‘allowed’ to call him about it. I don’t know why, I don’t care about football. I’m not going to bug him for an autograph or be nasty or anything - I just want to do my job properly!

Oh well, it’s not my money so it’s the company’s problem.

[Banrion]

As long as management is getting on you about not having the money in, I would recommend just letting it go. The reason they are giving him special treatment is most likely because they are hoping that he passes your company's name around to all of his other football friends.

[lordlundar]

Com, you got that in writing not to pursue it, right? I ask because if there's an investigation into the missing money, it could very well come down on you. Look at what happened to kus over his manager's screw up.

[Rapscallion]

I agree - get it in email or writing that you were told not to pursue it.

Rapscallion

[hecubus]

Actually, that doesn't surprise me much at all. Famous people are always getting special treatment, especially here in the States. For example, both Kiefer Sutherland (24) and Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) have been convicted of various things, and have to serve jail sentences, but the court says that they don't have to serve the sentences until they are done filming their latest projects.

Gee, I wonder what the court would say if I was convicted of a crime, and told them that I couldn't serve my jail sentence for six months because I'm currently working on something. Oh, that's right, they'd say, "HELL NO!!"

And don't even get me started on O.J. Phil Spector, Robert Blake, Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton.

[Spiffy McMoron]

Actually, that doesn't surprise me much at all. Famous people are always getting special treatment, especially here in the States. For example, both Kiefer Sutherland (24) and Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) have been convicted of various things, and have to serve jail sentences, but the court says that they don't have to serve the sentences until they are done filming their latest projects.

I'm not going to disagree with you on "stars getting too much special treatment", but in the cases you mentioned, I have to wonder how much of that was studio bosses whispering in the ears of the judges and district attornies'. I'm not saying that it's right, I'm just saying that it might not be just the actor.

For what it's worth, we had a member of the local hockey team come in to get his work done, and he was very pleasant, paid everything in full, and generally a very good customer.

[Crazeyal]

As far as the jailtime thing... You have to consider the economic impact. It's amazing enough that they actually made the drug addled idiots responsible for their actions. If they shut down production you'd literally be putting hundreds of people out of work and probably costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

[Gurndigarn]

It's actually somewhat common, depending on the case/jurisdiction/judge to schedule jail time around a person's needs. Well, not common, but not rare, either. Many misdemeanor-type jail times get scheduled for the weekends, and stuff like that.

One aspect to it, I suspect, is how the person acts in court. Kinda like how he acts around the cop. Play it upfront, honest, quick, and the judge is more likely to be nice to you. Try to play head games with him, and you're screwed.

[edible_hat]

they shut down production you'd literally be putting hundreds of people out of work and probably costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

They can make their money back easily, all they have to do is accuse a few more computer-illiterate dead people of uploading movies to P2P sites.