Company refuses to pay senior what it owes for seven years. Until W5 steps in

The mini-investigations you don’t get to see.

From time to time, W5 gets a request for help for a story that’s legitimate, but doesn’t justify a half-hour or full hour TV investigation.

Those stories are still worth telling. This week, I’m sharing the case of a senior who was frustrated by a long-overdue bill for his services.

Syd Rabin is 72 and lives in Las Vegas. He’s retired now, but used to run a small professional video company. If you needed a video shot, you called Rabin and he’d take care of it.

In 2016, he was contacted by Brian Smith from Vaughan, Ontario – just north of Toronto. Smith owns a company called University Prospects. It claims to “help our student-athletes receive a great education while obtaining an athletic or academic scholarship to help them pay for it.” In a nutshell, the company helps market student athletes to colleges based in the U.S., with the hope they will land a scholarship.

Producing marketing videos is one way University Prospects seeks recruitment. Smith charges students (or their parents) a fee to produce these marketing materials.

American retired videographer emails W5 to help recover a long-unpaid bill.

Smith told Rabin he’d like him to shoot video of several student athletes who were visiting the Las Vegas area. So, Rabin shot six soccer games. As a soccer dad, I know that’s a LOT of soccer.

Rabin told W5 he thought the gig was “great.” It’s a good chunk of work, and since he had done work for Brian Smith in the past with no problems, he figured there was nothing to worry about.

After he filmed the games and sent all the footage to Smith, things went awry.

“He refused to pay me, telling me that he had some personal and family problems,” writes Rabin. “He assured me that he would pay me in the near future.”

But that’s not what happened.

The bill was for $632 USD, plus the price of the media and shipping – a little under $1000 Canadian. Not a fortune, but for a small businessman who just spent three days working his butt off, it was more about the principle to Rabin than about the money.

So he started a long process of trying to cajole the cash out of Smith. He emailed. Sometimes, many days would go by before he’d get a response, which he says were often “elusive.” And when he called on his cellphone, Smith never answered, according to Rabin.

He figured he didn’t have a lot of options, so he filed a claim in international small claims court. He won, and Smith agreed to pay him back in installments. But that didn’t go well either. After one payment, he stopped paying and once again ignored Rabin.

Almost seven years passed and Rabin had retired. But this one unpaid bill just kept eating at him. Again, it wasn’t the amount, it was the injustice. So he emailed W5.

“It really upsets me that he is running a successful business in Toronto,” writes Rabin. “I’m sure he’s making more than enough money to pay me back now. It’s frustrating that there appears to be nothing that I can do about this, especially living in a different country.”

If what Rabin was saying was true, I could certainly understand how it would eat at him. So I figured I’d look up University Prospects and see if I could get an answer.

After a quick Google search I found the contact information for the company and sent him an email. Here’s an excerpt:

I’m the executive producer for CTV’s W5, Canada’s most-watched investigative journalism series. I received a message about work you contracted to Syd Rabin in 2016. I reviewed the email thread between you and Syd, his invoice and his claim and I have a few questions.

Why did you not pay the invoice – you clearly and repeatedly said you would.

How common is it for you to have trouble paying contractors?

It seems odd that you never question that you owe him money and it’s a small amount, but yet do not pay, so I’m intrigued by your thinking.

Before I decide whether to assign a team to look into this as part of a story on unpaid contracts, I would like to give you a chance to respond.

Brian Smith emailed back the next day, saying he’d prefer to call me, which he did a day later. Smith admitted back then he was in a bit of business trouble and he didn’t have the money. He said he wanted to pay back Rabin, but then Rabin made him mad. He says Rabin started sending message to several of his clients, saying he scammed him.

“Well, was what he was saying true or untrue?” I asked.

“I’d have to go back and review my notes,” Smith said.

“But you know if what he said was true or not – was he just telling people that he didn’t get paid?” I asked.

“I don’t think it was the amount, I just think some of the things that he did, I took it personally. Looking back on it now, if I could do things differently, I should’ve tried to settle at that time,” Smith said adding he had no outstanding invoices with any other contractors and wanted to do the right thing. By the end of the six minute call, he agreed to settle with Rabin.

After seven years, Syd Rabin finally received the money he was owed.

Five weeks passed and I asked both Smith and Rabin if things had been settled. They hadn’t. But then a few days later, I got this message from Rabin:

Hello Derek.

I am totally pleased to inform you that today, February 28th, almost seven years later, I collected the monies that Brian Smith owed me.

You were able to do in one call or connection that I could not do in almost seven years. I’m most impressed, thankful and appreciative.

This was a very satisfying email! But then, there was a twist:

Not only did he pay me back but we became texting buddies and now when he is in the U.S. next year to take his son to college in Arizona, we might meet up. He’s actually a good guy that just got off the path for a short while. We all make mistakes. All’s well that ends well!

Smith deserves credit for not running away, bravely talking to me on the phone and then doing the right thing. And for that, he not only has cleared his conscience, he’s earned a friend.

From frustration to bromance!

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