Uh oh, it may be time for another employee group prayer at Tate Publishing.
Yesterday, The Journal Record reported that Xerox has filed a $1.7-million lawsuit against Tate Publishing for not paying its bills. Xerox is also seeking to repossess all printing equipment they have leased to the Mustang-based vanity press.
The Journal Record has all the details:
Oops. I always forget The Journal Record has a pay wall. Anyone know a lawyer, banker, realtor, or Saxum employee who can share a login and password with us? Right now, the only free stuff the Journal Record puts online are Ted Streuli’s columns about bow ties and what it was like to live in San Francisco in the 1980s.
Actually, I’m kidding. I don’t need a password. The opening line to the article is all we really need to see. Ryan Tate, the CEO of Tate Publishing, is seriously complaining that a company is using the legal system to intimidate him. That’s not cool, Xerox! As Ryan Tate has shown, the best way to intimidate people is to threaten to file a lawsuit… not actually go through with it.
Via a Journal Record article that’s not behind the pay wall:
In a recording of an employee meeting held this week obtained from a Tate employee by The Journal Record, Ryan Tate threatened to sue staff members and file liens against their houses and cars if they violated their employee contracts by talking to the media or sharing information about the company on Facebook and Twitter.
In the recording, Ryan Tate said he would fire 25 production workers after no one came forward to take responsibility for the anonymous email sent out to employees on Sunday that decried the rumored layoffs.
“Good people are going to lose their jobs – it’s not fair,” Ryan Tate said in the recording. “It’s not right, but that’s the reality of the situation. Jesus himself is the perfect mix of mercy, grace and justice. I have probably failed you in that I have been a little too lenient and a little too on the side of mercy and grace and not on the side of justice.”
At the meeting, Ryan Tate then went on to say several employees had already been named as defendants in a $7.8 million lawsuit for breaching their employee confidentiality agreements. A search of state and federal court filings revealed that no such litigation has been filed as of Thursday, a fact Ryan Tate later confirmed. However, the company is considering suing several of its former and current employees for contract violations, he said.
Ahh, what sweet memories. That’s the old Journal Record article about the time Ryan Tate prayed with 25 employees before bullying, berating, chastising, intimidating and then firing them for simply being worried about their job security. Well, actually he fired them because he wasn’t man enough to tell good, hardworking Oklahomans that their jobs were being outsourced to the Phillipines, but whatever, here’s the audio in case you forgot about it:
I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around, which probably explains why I live my life in a constant state of fear and paranoia, so I think this lawsuit is sweet justice. To this day, I still get emails, Facebook messages and even phone calls from former Tate Publishing employees and disgruntled customers who are still scarred from their experiences working at or with the company.
Emails like this one from May 11th, 2016:
Dear Patrick,
My name is <….>. I am a professional translator from Spain, hired as Spanish translator in October 2015 by Tate Publishing and Enterprises LLC, 127 East Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, OK, 73064, to perform the translation of various Christian fiction books.I am writing to you to because I thought you could be interested about that Tate Publishing owe me $ 6,123.24 for the services of “Spanish translations” invoiced to them on October, 20th 2015, November, 11th 2015, November, 25th 2015, February, 4th 2016 and February 13th 2016, which involved nearly four months work on a full-time basis.
As you can see, I don’t know if Tate have outsourced jobs to the Philippines, but I can assure that they came to Spain, and that they have an strategy not to pay us for our services. For the time being, I know two more Spanish translators that are in the same situation than me.
I just would like to add that I give you permission to use and disclose this information if you deem it necessary. Should you need further details, please, don’t hesitate to contact me.
And emails like this one from May 9th, 2016:
I published my book <…> worth Tate Publishing my book was released on January 19, 2016. I received a royalty check for a pre-sale book. Fast forward 5 months and I am not wasting over 40 days for my royalty statement. My question to you is. Can you find out why it’d a common practice for Tate Publishing to lie about the dates they will be receiving their royalty checks. Writers are businesses. We spend our money on hopes of a return and when your company has in its contract that it’s going to pay you but it doesn’t. We go out of business. Can you help me with a direct number to the top any one?
That email is 100% [sic]. I know I have my issues with typos and stuff, but that writing style is indicative of your typical Tate Publishing author. Let’s be honest, there’s a reason they have to pay Ryan Tate $4,000 or whatever to get their book published.
Here’s another email from March:
My daughter had a dance competition at Rose State last month. After a painful day of mediocre dances (except for my daughter of course), several dads were called on stage for a dance competition. Imagine my surprise when one of the dads was TLO favorite Ryan Tate. The douchebaggery was off the charts.
Okay, so that’s not a disgruntled employee or writer, but I think it helps illustrate what people around town think about Ryan Tate. He can’t even do the worm at a recital without pissing people off. In case you care, here’s the video:
If the whole vanity Christian book publishing / Fox “Business” expert thing doesn’t work out for Ryan, it’s good to know he can always pursue a career as a back up dancer for Color Me Badd.
Anyway, I guess we’ll continue to follow this story and keep you updated. Well, that is if we get that Journal Record password. Once again, can a Mole help us out with that? We’ll trade you Clark Matthews Brazzers password for it. Hey, a Clark Matthews reference!
p.s. – If you’re bored, you can view the lawsuit here.
How dare Xerox go through legal channels to get their property and money owed them back. Just because Tate would not allow them in the building to repossess their own printers, that doesn’t mean they should be allowed to use due process of law to regain their property. Don’t they realize Ryan Tate is doing the LORD’S work, and that supercedes things like nasty old money and legally binding contracts?
So aspiring authors pay Tate $4000 to run their books off on a Xerox machine? Would it be cheaper to go to Kinkos? Pro tip: put a pdf on the Web, no one buys printed books anymore.
As for being a financial expert, I hope he was saying, “Buy, buy, buy” the day he appeared on Faux News because the S&P 500 is 24% higher today than the quote on the screen.
Just for TLO and related purposes, I propose that we rename “the taint” to “the Tate.”
Ryan Tate’s social security number has “666” in it. I think we’ve finally solved this mystery….
Okay who’s going to start the office pool for the announcement Tate: Closes-Files bankruptcy-Tate flees in the middle of the night-Tate opens a new “cutting edge technological printing company shortly after all the above except fleeing town”
Anyone else think he and Aaron Tuttle should get together for a joint venture? hahahahahahhahaha
My douchebag detector is going thru the roof on that reference. Chip & Dale.
Two peas in a pod.
Look into their “new” business Luxe Creative Concepts.. It won’t be long before we hear more on Tate
OKLAHOMA CITY – Tate Publishing & Enterprises owes a vendor more than $1.7 million, according to a lawsuit, and is in danger of losing five printers to repossession.
In a lawsuit against the Christian book and music publisher, Xerox Corp. accused Tate Publishing and CEO Ryan Tate of defaulting on equipment leases, service agreements, a promissory note and a personal guaranty.
Tate defaulted in February, which led to the lawsuit. In December, the company signed a contract modification with Xerox following an earlier default.
Ryan Tate said Friday that the lawsuit won’t affect his business, which markets editing and printing services to authors.
“It’s all positives for us,” Tate said. “That’s part of (Xerox’s) problem, they wish we needed them more, would be my guess.”
He said there could be a counter-lawsuit that alleges contractual breaches by Xerox.
Tate Publishing is a self-publishing firm that charges some authors about $4,000 to edit, design, market and distribute books. For different services, Tate charges more. According to a lawsuit filed last year, author Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks paid the company nearly $12,000. In her lawsuit, Susskind-Sacks alleged that Tate Publishing distributed two versions of her book, both laden with editing errors. Tate has yet to respond to the lawsuit in court.
Last year, The Journal Record revealed that the Mustang-based publisher had been the target of nearly two dozen consumer complaints to the state attorney general in just eight months, the second-highest number of complaints for any business.
Most of the publicly known reviews and complaints against Tate Publishing mention a lack of royalty payments or displeasure with the company’s production and marketing.
When reached Friday, Tate declined to discuss specifics of the lawsuit, but said Xerox was trying to use the legal system as intimidation.
“They’re just positioning and posturing, trying to force us to sign some different long-term contracts we’re not interested in,” he said.
The five printing presses and their server systems are worth a combined $450,000. Tate said the printers aren’t the only ones the company uses to print books.
“We have large networks,” he said. “They do a small portion of our (print) volumes.”
Along with the equipment that Xerox has asked to repossess, the lawsuit filed in Canadian County states Tate Publishing & Enterprises owes Xerox nearly $1.3 million for lease payments, goods and services. That amount is in default, along with more than $463,000 on a promissory note personally guaranteed by Ryan Tate, documents show.
James Vogt, attorney for Xerox, declined to comment.
BRB, off to change my user name to Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks
Well since you called “dib” and if your taking that, I’m going to modify to:
Tate-Zionist Sucksallkindsof-Ballsacs!!!!!!!
The Mustang Chamber of Commerce must be very proud. Rita Tate was recently elected their new President for the upcoming year.
I want to see Tate on Undercover Boss. It would be like the Kylo Ren spoof episode SNL did when Adam Driver hosted.
I lol’d hard at the headline photo. Financial Expert. Haha. But I’m sure Tate is the perfect mix of mercy, grace and justice.
“Jesus himself is the perfect mix of mercy, grace and justice. I have probably failed you in that I have been a little too lenient and a little too on the side of mercy and grace and not on the side of justice.” WOW….so, more lenient, merciful and graceful than even Jeebus. Lucky employees!
He does seem to think he is a preacher…expect for the sarcasm and calling his flock morons, idiots and stupid.
Having been ripped off in an almost exactly the same type of situation from a self proclaimed “Christian Publisher” ( The louder they soew their “Christian Values” the more crooked they are.) I “Pray” that Xerox cleans his clock!!!
What, no update on Tate bouncing 27-cent checks?
http://tinyurl.com/zrn898m