Area 4 / Max Kovalsky review: Unauthorized Billing / Bogus Service Claims 1

My company has been in business for 25 years. We have a very honorable reputation and do business with Major Studios and Fortune 500 companies. We have never filed a lawsuit against anyone nor has one ever been filed against us. We operate with the highest level of integrity, honesty, and good faith with all of our clients and suppliers.

35 years ago, when I got in this business at age 15, I was told the following by a person who worked on the Johnny Carson "Tonight Show."

"A Producer only has his name & reputation to bank on. Always do the right thing and you will do well in this business."

I have lived by that rule ever since and it has served us well.

Also, I do not file a complaint here unless I am at my wits end and 100% justified in doing so. There must be no doubt in my mind that the other party is wrong and not acting with genuine integrity and honor. With that said, here is my [redacted] realted to Area 4 and Max Kovalsky

Max Kovalsky at Area 4 took a deposit of over $21, 000 for work we were to do at his facility. Max then only worked off a portion of the money paid in advance. In fact, getting Max to even do this much was a battle. He was HIGHLY uncooperative.

After trying for over a year to get the balance worked off, I got tired of Max promising to do work and then refusing and leaving us in a bind .. and not coming through ... when we were ready to do the job. This made matters worse as it now cost me time and money in my productions schedule. I had to scramble last minute to get the work done elsewhere.

In addition, Max's bizarre sense of entitlement lost me a good client and almost cost me another. His customer service skills and attitude when interacting with clients is appalling to say the least. I actually had 2 of my clients ... who I have never even heard raise their voices before ... scream at me after dealing with Max. I can see why now since he has a ridiculous sense of entitlement and an attitude that really strikes a nerve with anyone who has integrity and is used to dealing with a quality supplier like us.

After a year of trying to collect, and me pushing to get the balance worked off,
Max is still refusing to provide services he was paid for in advance.

The sad part is we tried to make it really easy for Max to honor his debt. We offered to use our own labor and have him bill us machine time only to use his Sony Bluecode System. We then offered to have him do the Blu-ray encodes for us. We offered to have him do a some DVD Encodes. Max has refused to do much of the work for for us no matter how simple we tried to make it for him.

Now that I am pushing harder to collect, Max is trying to make up stuff to bill me for ... like having business meetings to discuss quoting a project and then providing a price quote for the job from over a year ago.

To be clear, Max came in WAY too high and did not get the job. In all honesty, it was a big job and Max has mentioned the fact he was upset that he did not get the work. However, his price was twice as high as my other bids and I could not use him. It is possible Max is angry he did not get the work but then again maybe not. From what I have seen over the past 2 years of dealing with Area 4 and Max Kovalsky, this is simply the way he operates in general.

Also, to make it quite clear, I was never billed for any time by Max for meetings or providing a price quote for a job we discussed over a year ago ... nor was I told I would be charged for evaluating a project to give me that price quote.

Since Max is now trying to bill me for these business meetings ... the reason why is quite obvious. He plans to use this lie to try and justify his actions. However, anyone who looks at the facts can see he is just making a desperate attempt to get out of paying what he owes us.

If there was any billing for these services they should have been mentioned up-front and billed over a year ago. The fact that they were not shows these charges are bogus and clearly unjustified, unauthorized, and unaccountable. One cannot claim to bill my company a year later for meetings we had to discuss a project so he could provide a price quote. There was never any mention of billing me for this meeting or providing us a price quote up-front or for a year after the fact...not until now.

In fact, Max provided services to pay down his debt well after the time he is now trying to bill me for. In fact, up until 2 weeks ago Max was still discussing how he would provide services to pay me back.

I can only say I feel totally ripped off at this point and will have to pursue collecting my money in a different way. We have tried everything we could think of to make it easy for Max, but he continues to be unreliable, unreasonable, uncooperative, and inflexible when it comes to working this out like gentleman and good business associates should.

We are very reasonable and woudl work with Max if he did not draw a line in the sand...which he has. Max really is not giving us any choice but to pursue this through other channels at this point.

Based on my experience and the experience of the only 2 clients I ever let deal with Max, I have to advise anyone who values their business to stay away from Area 4 and Max Kovalsky.