Chikebrain:
I'd advise you go see and hear out what the legal team has to say to "fulfil all righteousness". If it's not as regards your payment, then you can leave the meeting. Seek out a lawyer who handles cases like this.
Using media as a tool to paint yourselves as not having money for legal battle yet paying for this advert on NL which isnt cheap doesn't help matter. Do the right thing, see their legal team.
Every day is a lesson. Subsequently, draft our a contract before you commence work and spell out all your terms and condition

Homextras:
First bank should quickly respond to these allegations...how much is even the contract sum here?

xtremecr8:

They are still using the same logo we designed(screenshot of their Twitter page and picture of their MD, Dr. Adeduntan presenting a package, carrying the 125th FBN logo we designed,to Senator Alasoadua are shown below).
We have not being paid yet she Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney sent us to their legal unit.
Every email we send and even enquiry from Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney by everyone we sought their help to intervene, she kept referring us to the legal unit(screenshot of her email reply)
Meanwhile, we can't pay our own bills.
Please help us tweet at them to beg them to pay us.
We are a small brand and admit that we can't match their kind of resources in Nigeria's legal system. We hardly pay our own overheads let alone paying for protracted legal case in Nigerian courts.
We just want to get paid for designing their 125th Anniversary logo. Nothing more, nothing less. We are ready to meet with their account unit not legal because we don't have business with their legal unit.

SocialJustice:
I tire for the guy, seeing how he's going about it, he is inexperienced and naive but he will eventually learn. Na when money don dey finish people like this dey go meet lawyer and they will see all the mistakes they made.

SalamRushdie:
So this woman called Ani Mumuney hasnt stopped all this hanky panky behaviour , that's how she mad us waste resources in developing a third party business model for her department and after draining us intellectually and financially she took the finished model and handed it over to another firm and even gave the 500 thousand US dollars to implement the idea whereas my firm would have don the implementation for absolutely free whilst recovering our investments from sale of the solution to third parties but this woman and her cartel backstabbed us and handed my 100% original creation to another company where she obviously had interest ..But God being on my side they company failed to deliver and the project now moribound while I have made a ton of money deploying the solution with 3 other Banks who supported us and didn't back stab us ..

adonainana:


Dear Op, God will bless you for this move you have taken, please do not mind this mummuuu people saying you should get a lawyer etc

Please for the sake of your mental and financial health, do not get any lawyer to do anything for you , the social media damage you are doing now is enough

Also try to get Instablog to get the story on its page too, or better still pay them for a sponsored post,

I am a nigerian lawyer myself, Nigerian lawyers would only use you to chop money, Once you start the court case against the bank, they will use you to pay thier own children school fees, via appearance fees, etc

You will regret going to court because 3 years down the line you may still be there are they can always appeal till the supreme court

It will be you versus first bank of nigeria a bank that has billions of naira in its reserve, even if you win in court, they can still refuse to pay you, in the end the court case might cause depreseeion of suicide self,

Everything would fustrate you legal wise, nigerian is not the uk where you will get swift justice, dont let lawyers use you to accomplish thier own life goals

You have done well so far as a freelancer, you done a job for FBN and they have refused to pay

Please pay twitter infleuncers to carry the story and retweet the story, send this page to newspapers as well

You can only get your justice and money back through this way

AVOID LAWYERS PLEASE I AM A LAWYER MYSELF

Egungun please be careful, so when it happens you wont say i didnt warn you

sexylassie:


i will like to ask you

why didnt you have a contract in place before dealing with them?

This should be a lesson for you, before dealing with any business, prepare your contract and write down penalties for breaking contract, that is how they do business

what evidence do you have that she used your work except the design you did

adonainana:


Dear Op, God will bless you for this move you have taken, please do not mind this mummuuu people saying you should get a lawyer etc

Please for the sake of your mental and financial health, do not get any lawyer to do anything for you , the social media damage you are doing now is enough

Also try to get Instablog to get the story on its page too, or better still pay them for a sponsored post,

I am a nigerian lawyer myself, Nigerian lawyers would only use you to chop money, Once you start the court case against the bank, they will use you to pay thier own children school fees, via appearance fees, etc

You will regret going to court because 3 years down the line you may still be there are they can always appeal till the supreme court

It will be you versus first bank of nigeria a bank that has billions of naira in its reserve, even if you win in court, they can still refuse to pay you, in the end the court case might cause depreseeion of suicide self,

Everything would fustrate you legal wise, nigerian is not the uk where you will get swift justice, dont let lawyers use you to accomplish thier own life goals

You have done well so far as a freelancer, you done a job for FBN and they have refused to pay

Please pay twitter infleuncers to carry the story and retweet the story, send this page to newspapers as well

You can only get your justice and money back through this way

AVOID LAWYERS PLEASE I AM A LAWYER MYSELF

Egungun please be careful, so when it happens you wont say i didnt warn you

Lucky4real28:
I am still not sure why you cant just visit the legal department and hear them out, obviously there is no written agreement on this which puts you in a bad spot, what do you have to loss If you visit the legal department?, You don't expect FBN to just credit you without any agreement written.
I understand they shouldn't have used the logo in the first place which is the only case you have.

Let me tell you what I thought happened, you designed and sent a sample to someone who works with FBN and then the person gave your design to someone else who remade it and signed a legal contract with FBN which they paid, FBN is not committing any crimes here as they don't even know you. So I think your fight is with the contact you sent your design to which is still naive of your to do that.
I feel sorry for you to be honest but you should learn from all this, a watermark would have maybe make them sign a deal with you and getting the real deal rather than the free gift you offered them.
please do not listen to that guy that advised against getting a lawyer, he wants you to keep calling out FBN, truth is FBN don't have your time, atleast not yet but if this campaign continues, they might look into it and sue you for all you have and it won't still cost them a thing.
I think you have no case with FBN. Good luck and be careful

paragon40:
You are not a Lawyer, and if you're one as you have claimed to be, then you don't know your onions, so a lawyer should not be paid for his/her services. You're a joke. Your legal advice is for him to make plenty noise on social media via influencers, he would then create an opportunity for FBN to sue him for Defamation. @op better don't listen to this, you need to get a lawyer, let them write FBN. On the legal fees, you can strike a deal with your lawyers.

Eberechi24:
Oga, you are stubborn but you are not daring. You lack principal quality of a business individual, how can you be so fearful of legal unit not a courtroom? Oga hear them out before jumping into conclusion of fraud- they may/not mean no harm, whatever be the case.

Go to that unit, look them eyeball to eyeball and defend your property. Note you are not sign any paper. Record your conversation if necessary. Be smart.

E case wey dey bring money. This may be one of them.

paragon40:
You are not a Lawyer, and if you're one as you have claimed to be, then you don't know your onions, so a lawyer should not be paid for his/her services. You're a joke. Your legal advice is for him to make plenty noise on social media via influencers, he would then create an opportunity for FBN to sue him for Defamation. @op better don't listen to this, you need to get a lawyer, let them write FBN. On the legal fees, you can strike a deal with your lawyers.

paragon40:
And how did you know? that this,is not a breach of contract?

SalamRushdie:
So this woman called Ani Mumuney hasnt stopped all this hanky panky behaviour , that's how she mad us waste resources in developing a third party business model for her department and after draining us intellectually and financially she took the finished model and handed it over to another firm and even gave the 500 thousand US dollars to implement the idea whereas my firm would have don the implementation for absolutely free whilst recovering our investments from sale of the solution to third parties but this woman and her cartel backstabbed us and handed my 100% original creation to another company where she obviously had interest ..But God being on my side they company failed to deliver and the project now moribound while I have made a ton of money deploying the solution with 3 other Banks who supported us and didn't back stab us ..

nathaliya:
Nawa o, going by another comment here the Ani Mumuney is notorious for this behaviour. I remember sometime last year I had an SBLC and needed some discounting service of 20-30% to meet up. This same wonderful bank refused to help saying it was my first deal. They watched that business nearly go bankrupt because I'm not a big fish. With God on my side, I was able to discou t the same SBLC from another country. Nigerian banks in general are just financial traps.

xtremecr8:

They are still using the same logo we designed(screenshot of their Twitter page and picture of their MD, Dr. Adeduntan presenting a package, carrying the 125th FBN logo we designed,to Senator Alasoadua are shown below).
We have not being paid yet she Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney sent us to their legal unit.
Every email we send and even enquiry from Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney by everyone we sought their help to intervene, she kept referring us to the legal unit(screenshot of her email reply)
Meanwhile, we can't pay our own bills.
Please help us tweet at them to beg them to pay us.
We are a small brand and admit that we can't match their kind of resources in Nigeria's legal system. We hardly pay our own overheads let alone paying for protracted legal case in Nigerian courts.
We just want to get paid for designing their 125th Anniversary logo. Nothing more, nothing less. We are ready to meet with their account unit not legal because we don't have business with their legal unit.

xtremecr8:


You will agree with us after watching this video https://www.instagram.com/tv/B8efKBsF27l/?igshid=1092xtnvmcfpm we already shared here
that you don't understand the issue sir. .

DNSPro:


Chai. Please what's the meaning of SBLC in this context?

nathaliya:


Stand By Letter of Credit. It's like a post dated cheque which the buyer's bank stands like a surety that instead of the cheque to bounce, they must pay you 100% immediately you present it to them.
It simply means once you deliver, your money is non negotiable or sacrosanct.

Discounting an SBLC is a loan offered by banks to support businesses meet up with huge projects. For example, the profit margin in a business may be 10 to 20% which can be a lot depending on the size but your capital may be 50 - 70% meaning you need at least 10% to 30% extra. The bank steps in and says since we are sure you will get paid, we don't want you to lose this deal, take this money, finish your business and pay us back with 1% interest.
Eg: you want to sell a cup of rice at #100 and your profit there is #20 meaning it will cost you #80 to buy and ship the rice. Meanwhile what you have is #60. Normally to borrow #20 from the bank, you need collateral or a guarantor who has collateral valued at 130% of what you want to borrow.
When you have an SBLC it's like a pending cheque so instead of you to fail, the bank steps in and gives you #20 at a very low interest of 1 or 2%. There's no risk because once you deliver, the money must come to your account with them and the loan will be deducted immediately. So you can meet up with your customer's order.

Nigerian banks still play god even in these situation by looking at your 1year acct history. If the money there is not up to the amount you want them to discount sorry 4 you. Meaning if you haven't blown before, they won't help you blow even when it costs them nothing and they'll happily watch you fail.

DNSPro:


Thanks so much for the lectures. Wow, this is an eye opener. Yeah, I have an idea about Letter of Credit but didn't know the abbreviation was SBLC. From your explanation, this is clearly an export business and thankfully, you didn't lose the deal.

Do you mind if I send a PM please? I have some questions to ask but if you want me to ask them here, no problem.

nathaliya:


You're welcome but I'll rather answer the questions here

DNSPro:


Okay, thank you.

I also have interest and I know an identified product that would do well after extensive research that I spent months on but means of receiving payment has been what I was wary of, in a case whereby goods get to buyer and they still do not pay. How do you avoid such? I once read that from a respected Nairalander experienced this and lost money. How would you mitigate against such?

Do you have a specific place where you get buyers for your goods or you just google companies directly and pitch to them?

Are there any means of meeting this people first before doing the deal or it is just over the internet?

If it the latter, how did they trust you enough to want to do business with you for the first time? Do you have a website built to help boost your credibility?

Also with the cost of shipping containers and hold up at the Apapa port in Lagos, how do you battle this for shipping containers?

Thanks in advance and I hope I have not asked too much.

xtremecr8:

Very intelligent question. We are their vendor and this is the tricky part of the treachery. When we finished, while we are still on the discussion of our Bill, Fbn through Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney requested us to produce small sample of about 100 ipad covers with the logo. We did to the best of our ability.
What we found strange until now is how Mrs Mumuney believe that the vendor job of supplying iPad covers we printed same logo we designed for them gives her and the bank a licence to use our intellectual property and then when we reminded them of our Bill, she refered us to legal. We have a reason to suspect it is a scheme from the onset to cheat us as a small brand.

nathaliya:


It's not too much.

In a case whereby goods get to buyer and they still do not pay. How do you avoid such?
- Irrevocable Letters of Credit payable at sight, Bank Guarantee and Blocked Funds.

I've explained how SBLC works, there's another LC called DLC, it's also like a post dated cheque but the bank isn't a guarantor. It's strictly you and the buyer, if the buyer goes bankrupt, na your luck but if the buyer has money in that account, the bank is compelled to pay you.
Bank guarantees are another name or a twin brother to SBLC.
Blocked funds is simply the buyer freezing your money so that even he can't spend it and once you deliver, He's auto debited.

All these financial instruments are supervised by the bank to bank thereby adding more credibility.
Your main issue with them however is that Nigerian banks have very low reputation and many countries have barred them from receiving financial instruments so if you rely on these instruments, your buyers especially from Asia may struggle.

Do you have a specific place where you get buyers for your goods or you just google companies directly and pitch to them?

The internet is your best hope because the buyer's that are offline, hmmmm. You may not be able to meet them even if they spend donkey years in Nigeria due to the calibre of people they row with. Check b2b websites and register on them and begin to post products and services. Even if they don't buy, when your company turns up on different sites saying the same thing, it shows you are kinda serious. Your own website would also be nice and boost your image but it's not compulsory.

Are there any means of meeting this people first before doing the deal or it is just over the internet? If it the latter, how did they trust you enough to want to do business with you for the first time?

If the product isn't something that requires them getting their hands dirty to inspect or test, many buyers will buy and conclude and even pay via the internet but not with cash. That's why letters of credit and the rest are available. You have to be a wealthy crook to dupe them with a financial instrument.

how do you battle this for shipping containers?
Never try to foot these costs on your own, the temptation to make your price the lowest in the internet is always there until you have orders that will put you in 20yrs debt and I'm not kidding. Add 2weeks extra in the shipping timeline and explain to them that normally the product reaches earlier but for documentation and unforseen circumstances, you're adding extra days. Get a quote from shipping companies online and add +/-5-10% to avoid stories that won't touch. And always pay for insurance so you can sleep while the goods are on the sea so you don't turn an astrologer trying to predict the storms
Who will buy will buy.

xtremecr8:

Thank you so very much for your valuable advice. We have noted them for follow up action. We have nothing to hide on this issue. If you consider how long between the day we posted this news here and constrained to escalate it now, you will bear with us and understand that we were truly constrained by the email from Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney and First Bank. In particular the continuous use of the logo we designed which we see on a daily basis while they have not paid us and still want us to be meeting with their legal unit is a troubling psychological torture we don't wish on any small Nigerian brand.