E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World-Chapter 64 - Episode 64 Mysteriously Outsourced

The work put out by their temporary design team could indeed pass muster.

However, the subsequent production requests that came in were not as simple as before.

Not only did they have to create banners, but they also had to make retractable banner designs, and the materials were no longer pre-processed, background-less images. They had to do the image clipping themselves.

“Yinyin, do you get the feeling that we’ve been outsourced?” Kang Siyin asked doubtfully as she looked at Zhou Xueyin.

“I get that feeling too, just look, the ads they want us to make are all of different styles…” Zhou Xueyin shared the same suspicion.

“When you signed the contract, did you look at it carefully?” Kang Siyin asked to confirm.

“Yes, I looked. There was no problem… They had full qualifications, everything was in order…” Zhou Xueyin recalled, “It’s just that their suffix is also a media company… And the payment was based on the items produced. The last batch of 10 we completed has already been paid for.”

Zhou Xueyin showed Kang Siyin the bank statement. Although still skeptical, since they were getting paid, it was better than just waiting indefinitely for Yao Shanshan to finish her art lessons.

“But this time it’s 15 items, plus retractable banners to make. That’s a total of 30 items we need to produce. The price is still 800 yuan each…” Kang Siyin said worriedly, “I’m afraid we won’t have enough time; they want them by next week.”

“Let’s just do it…” Zhou Xueyin was still speaking when another few banner production requests came in from the other side.

Were they really being treated as outsourcers? The tasks sent the previous day hadn’t even been completed yet, and more were coming?

Zhou Xueyin directly contacted the person she was coordinating with, but before she could speak, the person asked if the tasks given could be completed by tomorrow as they were urgent.

“Brother, when we signed the contract, you didn’t say we’d be treated as outsourcers, right? Now we only have three people, but you’re giving us a workload for 10, isn’t that a bit…” Zhou Xueyin said unhappily.

“Miss, we’re paying you to solve problems. I don’t care how many people share the workload. In any case, our leadership needs to see the finished products by tomorrow! If you don’t do it, you’ll need to pay breach of contract fines as stated in the contract!” To her surprise, the other party was bringing up the contract?

“KK, bring the contract…” Zhou Xueyin wanted to see for herself what she had missed, “Compensation for breach of contract? I don’t remember there being such a clause?”

“Do read it carefully! We’ve signed a time-based contract, not a quantity-based one. You need to fulfill any requirements we pose during the contract period!” The other person said unapologetically.

“…” Now that she had the contract in hand, Zhou Xueyin indeed saw that clause—it really was her loss, “Handling your requests isn’t a problem, but from now on, don’t send us any more. We can’t handle them all!”

The contract expired the next day, and if they couldn’t complete the tasks given to them today, not only would they have to return the money they had received, but they would also have to pay ten times that in damages.

“Whether I send requests or not isn’t up to me…” The man’s arrogant attitude made Zhou Xueyin want to hit someone.

However, refusing to receive further requests wasn’t a hard thing to do.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Xueyin set her email to no longer receive emails from that party. No matter how they tried to email her, it would be sent right back to them.

After working overtime, the three of them managed to complete the tasks that were sent. Just in time, they sent the emails, and included the other party’s supervisor in the CC.

But when the time came to make the payment, the other party delayed in transferring the funds to Zhou Xueyin’s account. Calls to them were met with no response.

In desperation, Zhou Xueyin called Luo Jing, “Hello? Sister Luo, about that client you introduced, we haven’t received the final payment… Have they contacted you recently?”

“Little sister, I’m so sorry… I only found out yesterday as well; they’re a gang of scammers! Their specialty is exploiting contract loopholes to embezzle money from shell companies!” Luo Jing apologized profusely over the phone.

“Blast it… What a mess. But no worries, we didn’t lose anything in the ordeal.” Zhou Xueyin said thankfully; not only did they not lose out, but they also managed to earn 8000 yuan from the scammers.

“If there’s no loss, then that’s great! Otherwise, I would have felt tremendously guilty. I’m really sorry, truly sorry to you guys!” Luo Jing continued to apologize.

This really was a time when scammers ran amok before the New Year! After some investigation, Zhou Xueyin finally understood the whole story.

This gang of swindlers specialized in deceiving small companies into working as subcontractors for them. The products Zhou Xueyin and her team created would never appear on any website.

These simple tasks were just bait!

Once a small advertising company got hooked, tasting the initial sweetness, they would endlessly and crazily send over impossible-to-complete requests.

Then, when the contract deadline arrived, they would claim breach of contract and collect exorbitant damages from the other party.

Many small companies would just have to swallow the loss.

But there were also shrewd ones like Zhou Xueyin who straight-up refused to accept any more tasks. While the other party couldn’t openly tear up the contract, they could simply vanish and refuse to make the final payment.

Though they didn’t lose out this time, it was a lesson learned for everyone involved: in the future, when signing contracts, they must carefully check whether it’s a quantity-based or an open-ended time-based contract.

Even promises made verbally outside the contract must be put down in writing. One must not give scammers any opportunity to exploit!