I Think I'm Getting Screwed, And Not In The Good Way

For those of you not in the know, I'm broke.
I'm damn broke.

I'm so broke, if someone robbed me they'd just be practicing.
(thanks for letting me steal that one Chris Tucker)

Over the past few months I've been working after work for my Chiropractor putting fliers on cars in parking lots. (yes, I'm the guy you all hate.) it's tough and pretty hard on the body, but really, it's not all that bad. I'm being paid Forty bucks per ream of fliers (each flier is a full sheet of paper and there are 500 in a ream). while it seems like a lot i can get nearly a ream an hour done. of course, "running" two hours a night has the benefit of slimming off those "gamer" pounds. hehehe

For months the system has been working pretty well, but this last month seems to be showing a snag in the system in two departments:

A. she's been falling behind in the payments. when we started i was being paid every time i got the fliers. then, i was being paid after i was done passing them out. lately, she "hasn't had the money" to pay me, and she's been getting backed up on her payments.
example: for the month of April i passed out $415 worth of fliers. i kept calling and asking for the money and every time i went in she always "forgot." when i was finally told she had money for me i picked it up and there was only $140 in the envelope. today i picked up three more reams and i got an envelope with $80 in it... so now she owes me $195 plus what she owes me for the reams I've picked up over the last two weeks. (I'm worries she's doing it so I'll lose track and forget how much she owes me.)

B. the week before last i had to return a ream of fliers because i miss judged how long I'd have to work on Sunday at my day job (sometimes i have to work my day job one the weekend, yes my life sucks.) today i picked up three reams of fliers from her office assistant she "relayed" a message to me, she said "well, if you're going to return fliers, it's going to come out of your pocket." i asked her how much is supposed to come out of my pocket and she implied that it would be $40.
This simply will not do, see, with that formula if i get two reams of fliers and i can only pass out one ream, then i will have passed out a ream of paper for nothing.

unfortuantely passing out fliers does have it's down side aside from the aforementioned woes.
1. I'm only charging for passing out the fliers, and in theory it should only take me an hour per ream, but if i can't get a ream done in time (due to lack of cars or time), then it could take me two or more hours to pass out a single ream.
2. security doesn't like me, and those little golf carts are fast. once security hassles me i have to leave the lot, and the time it takes to stop, get in my truck, and move on to another lot make passing out a ream take even longer (see above.)
3. some people are psychotic, I've had two people try and start fights with me because i was putting fliers on cars.
4. there is shit everywhere in parking lots (like those concrete tire stopper thingies) that's a twisted ankle for sure. (and i won't even go into how many chips nails I've earned.)
5. we've been over farming these areas pretty badly, often hitting the same lot twice a week. which means I'm crossing that line from from irritant to nuisance, and while an irritant can be ignored, nuisances are... dealt with. (i can barely afford my mortgage, think i can afford bail?)


in the end, it all comes down to survival.
these are thing things that i do to survive (and trust me, I've done a lot worse)


and for those of you wondering why I'm sticking with this instead of getting an official night job, well, let's just say i want to keep my nights free...


Exile