| Topic Name: |
Accounting Errors |
| Message Name: |
Response to Commission Mistake |
| Date Posted: |
09/20/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
My company recently overpaid me in commissions for three months, our accounting department is always making mistakes on all of our commissions. I did not pick up the mistake until 3 months had gone by, now my company is deducting the $9,000 from all my future commission all at once. I probably will not see any money for about six months. I discussed with my supervisor, sone kind of payment plan. He said, he would set one up, and send it to me to sign. When I received my commission statement, my whole commission had been deducted. My balance is now $7,000. Since it was their mistake, shouldn't t hey be a little more agreeable with paying this back? |
| Message: |
I'm going to assume you have signed a Sales Compensation Agreement that stipulates the company can make certain deductions from your earned pay (commission) without your permission. If this is not the case, your company has potentially violated wage and hour laws. This, of course, is what's called "negotiating leverage."
You need to go back to your supervisor and let him know the "plan" didn't get implemented and it's creating a real problem for you (financial distress, emotional stress, feeling of being treated unfairly, difficulty focusing on the job at hand - you pick whatever is true for your situation). The point is that your manager needs to understand your productivity and potentially (depending on how you want to play it) your satisfaction with the company are being severely affected by the problems that were caused - and now compounded - by the company itself. Bottom line: you need to get him to be your advocate to fix the problem.
If I were a Sales Manager (your supe or his/her boss), I'd be all over Finance to fix it once and for all or risk losing good Sales Reps over it.
The company should absolutely be more flexible in allowing you to repay them - especially since it was their mistake that created the problem. If they are not willing to help by devising a repayment plan that suits your needs (not necessarily theirs), then I would have to question their committment to doing the right thing for their sales force and their employees in general. Any company worth much knows this basic tenet: mistreat employees and they'll vote with their feet.
Good luck.
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