Owed money, what to do?

[CapeGLS]

So here's the rundown. I worked for a company where my position was in sales and it was salary+commission+bonus (if u qualified.) I resigned at the end of last month and I qualified for my bonus but they are not wanting to pay me because they changed the pay plan after I left. All of the other salespeople that hit the bonus are not getting paid either. (don't know if they qualified or not)Do I have any recourse? If so who should I contact?

[ClockworkChad]

So here's the rundown. I worked for a company where my position was in sales and it was salary+commission+bonus (if u qualified.) I resigned at the end of last month and I qualified for my bonus but they are not wanting to pay me because they changed the pay plan after I left. All of the other salespeople that hit the bonus are not getting paid either. (don't know if they qualified or not)Do I have any recourse? If so who should I contact?

all good salespeople leave comission on the table, they are supposed to pay you after you leave for money you earned while you are there but it rarely happens. I beleive you can take it up with the department of labor and go to a hearing if its enough for you to really consider.

i left a few grand on the table every time i switched jobs, another company is trying to recruit me over currently and i might be putting quite a bit in limbo once again if I were to leave my current position. did you resign to go to another job or are you now unemployed?

[CapeGLS]

I gave my 2 weeks to go to another company. I still have to deal with the company that owes me money as I am now one of their partner reps. I want to keep it civil, but they have scewed me out of a few grand over my time with them and I have a bad taste in my mouth for them.

[joness0154]

The only way you're getting money from them is if you have a lawyer. They should be able to do it fairly quickly (assuming you have a case).

[ClockworkChad]

The only way you're getting money from them is if you have a lawyer. They should be able to do it fairly quickly (assuming you have a case).

depending on lawyer costs, time out of the office costs, etc he has to figure out if its worht it. and his new company partners with the old company so that might not be in his best interested. and he doesnt want to take time out to go to court when hes starting a new job either...

[Diamond Dave]

Do I have any recourse? If so who should I contact?

No offense, but how long have you been in sales? I mean, jeez dude, they changed the sales plan. What don't you understand?

Some companies change their commission plan regularly when they see what they're paying to the reps. Then when it seems like everyone is pissed off and they need a miracle, the company will change the plan again to make everything better. It's what happens in lower tier sales programs or with companies that are more $$ focused than people focused.

Next time, get your bonus payout and then quit; or tell your new company that you want a signing bonus because of the commission you're going to forego by leaving.

[sethgood]

Agreed, this is part of the game in sales. Usually getting commissions is a challenge. Bonus is unheard of.

[redman43]

Is it only the bonus that isn't being paid?

I'm a Sr Commission Analyst at my company (for 8+ years). In other words, I figure out how much is due to the sales reps. In my experience, many bonus programs contain verbiage that says leadership has the authority to void payments at their sole discretion, or are also dependant on a larger company goal. Also some bonuses say you must be in the role at the time of payment, otherwise you forfeit it.

Since nobody else is getting their bonuses (it is probably a good assumption that some portion of them qualified for a payout of some amount), it sounds like either management said no bonuses or the larger company goal wasn't met.

For these reasons, you probably do not have any recourse.

I hope you learned the important lesson that next time you leave one company for another, make sure you ask the new company for a sign-on bonus to compensate you for the outstanding commission/bonus that you are walking away from, or wait to quit until after you receive the bonus.

[Diamond Dave]

I
I hope you learned the important lesson that next time you leave one company for another, make sure you ask the new company for a sign-on bonus to compensate you for the outstanding commission/bonus that you are walking away from, or wait to quit until after you receive the bonus.

BOOOM! where have we heard that before?!

[redman43]

BOOOM! where have we heard that before?!

Great minds think alike, don't we?

By the way, I had one of my guys just do this. I told him on Tuesday what his annual bonus would be and on Wednesday, I received the notice that he resigned effective Thursday. Best we could figure, he was just waiting for the bonus announcement.

[CapeGLS]

Yeah, well I made the error, by not waiting or getting my new company to compensate. The previous employer holds off till the 3rd week of the following month to pay bonus. I couldn't wait another 3 weeks.

[CapeGLS]

So they sent me a check for 10% of my bonus, and stated I knew about the change to the payplan. Not only did they do that, but they charged me for insurance (THAT I DON'T CURRENTLY HAVE) and..... They sent it more than 60 days since I last worked for them.

Thank you for my 10%... your so ****ing gracious.

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