California-based court interpreter Harinder Dhillon would like to share the information below with her colleagues in Nevada and around the world. According to Harinder, interpreters as far away as Argentina are owed thousands of dollars. Many of them have already sued the company in small claims courts in California (where the company is based) or contacted the Department of Labor. We have never worked with this company, and are merely posting the known facts as shared with us by Harinder, which she assures us are correct. Here's an excerpt of the message we received:
Scam artists operating under different company names
Company making money from free services of interpreters & translators
“International Language Interpreters” - www.ILinterpreters.com, (866)-546-8855. Owners: Faviola Valencia/Jose Aranda. Company also known as: www.411-OPTI.com. Previously known as Hispanic Services, H.S. Interpreters and Northern California Interpreter Network (N.C.I.N). They reside at: 7116 Koropp Ct., Sacramento, Ca. 95842. They have an unlisted home phone number for obvious reasons. Their current office address od P.O.B. 7575, Citrus Heights, Ca. 95621 could be at: 3017 Douglas Boulevard, Suite 300, Roseville, Ca. 95661.
This husband and wife team has been scamming interpreters and translators for several years now. They change the company name frequently and answer telephone calls and emails under different names rather their own. They give out assignments, collect money from their clients but then do not pay the translators and interpreters. When they are called for payment, the classic responses are: the invoice was not received, browser was down, fax was not received, the check is in the mail or went out to the wrong address, paid the wrong translator, accountant fell ill or Paypal allows them to pay only a lesser amount. Phone calls to the company frequently go unanswered because they are carefully screened. In trying to collect their payments, interpreters have faced intimidation, harassment, and threats of legal action. When approached by process servers, Faviola often tells them that it is not her and Jose chases them to their cars.
Several recent complaints have been filed with the local Police Department and with District Attorney Jan Scully’s office in Sacramento, Ca. Toni Ruiz, at the D.A.’s office, can be reached at: 916-874-4782.
Deputy Labor Commissioner Helen Morales and Investigator Jay Cui can be reached at: 415-703 4810 and 415-703-4828. Deputy Labor Commissioner V. Lane Jacopetti can be contacted at: 510-022-3272.
For more information, please contact Harinder Dhillon at 925-833-1133, harinderdhillon@comcast.net.
43 comments:
I thing the only language they are understanding is the one of hells angels debt collection agency ;-)
@Thomas: Good point. Hopefully, in this case, the District Attorney and the courts can handle it!
I am one of the interpreters that didn't get paid, I contacted the adjustor, and H.S. Interpreters had been paid. I got a money judgment but no money yet. I did confirm, with the Secretary of State, that Faviola is the owner of this company. I did get a threatening phone call from her...what a sad, miserable life she must live...always lying, and hiding...but it'll catch up with her...
I am also trying to collect payment some 100 days after my assignment and about 70 days after ILI was paid by the client for that assignment. Next step: Small Claims.
I am also one of the interpreters scamed by this agency. At the time it was HSinterpreters which Faviola closed down.
I have a court judgment against them but they ignored it to this day.
Do not work for this company.
Their new company JLA Medical interpreting is out there to scam more money from interpreters. Watch out!!!
Are they still out there?
Just found an ad placed by them, looking for translators.
They set up phone interviews with potential freelancers.
I can't believe they are still actively seeking workforce if they've been sued so many times.
I think I am not going to call them, right?
I was not paid, i was told they never received my invoice. Dont work for them they are liars and big fraud
The ILinterpreters ( HSintepreters in the past) is still in business. This is very upsetting.
They owe interpreters about 17 000 dollars.
Everybody who is owed money should call Sally Dominguez at the DA's office in Sacramento.
Thank you so much for posting this. I received an email from these lovely people, asking me to do a rush translation job, and it looked pretty legitimate. However, having been burned by a similar scammer (Derek Corley of In Other Words Translations), I did a search of their contact info and found this website. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! From now on, I will always do a search before accepting any new clients.
Did two interpreting jobs for them in SF in January and March of 2010. It's now the end of the year and I still haven't been paid. Pretty low.
International Language Interpreters is one of the biggest scam agency in the world of Interpreting and Translating. Their previous name was HSinterpreters and are located in Sacremento area.
They are recruiting new interpreters and translators in Napa Valley now. Watch out everybody. You will work for them but never see the money they promised you.
They are located at 225 Estates Drive suite 2 Roseville Ca. Faviola Valencia and Jose Aranda still owners.
JLA Medical Interpreting Inc is recruiting interpreters in Bakersfield, California. Watch out!!!
I used to work for this company and quit because of how this company did business. I was a recruiter at ILI and when I first started everything so legitimate. Then the phone calls started coming, the angry interpreters and translators. Faviola was horrible to work for, she was incredibly demanding, unitelligent and completely unorganized. She would have us screen each phone call so that she would never have to talk to any lawyer, or angry translator. It was a horrible experience and I hated working there. If it makes you feel any better, her whole crew quit on her because of her immoral business ethics. Her accountant quit, her manager and me. She has had a lot of welfare to work recipients working for her, all unqualified and workers she does not have to pay. Also her company is now bankrupt so please please do not work for this company.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments! However, we do think it's much more powerful if you use your real names to share this information. We are also using our real names to get this information to our colleagues, so if you would be willing to tell us your real names rather than posting as @Anonymous, that would be ideal. Since none of you work at ILI anymore, we don't see the potential harm. It's a free country, and you are certainly entitled to have your opinion about previous or current employers (and to post them as long as you don't spread false information). Just some food for thought, and we certainly understand your hesitation. We will continue publishing comments from @ Anonymous, but greatly prefer real people with real names so we can actively exchange information on these important topics.
Dear Judy and Dagmar,
I'm seam to be in trouble also as I'm finding out that I'm not getting paid by I.L. interpreters.
Is there any help I could get because I'm in europe and ofcourse I want to get paid.
@Erik: So sorry to hear about your situation. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any help in terms of collection. We merely posted this information as an FYI, but in terms of taking action, we recommend you speak with some of the other interpreters. Good luck!
Update: We received a few e-mails from Faviola Valencia today, urging us to set the record straight from her point of view. However, she was unable to post her very long comment herself (not sure why) and asked us to post this for her. We think it's odd that she mentioned that she never had any issues before our blog post, as the issues reported to us led to this blog post in the first place. However, for the sake of balance, we have agreed to post the following. Faviola has failed to respond to our e-mail question of whether she has paid all the monies owed to interpreters. She had also sent some messages that she had received from former employees, but those messages are too long to post here. Her message starts here (unedited):
I've tried to decrease the amount of words and have spent a few hours decreasing the words to no avail. So I'm resending and hope that you will post. Thank you
(Excuse the grammar, punctuation, spelling) As the President of International Language Interpreters, Inc I want to say that I'm sorry for any wrong doing that you may feel that I have done, or that I'm doing. All of you are business owners/ should know firsthand the ups and downs a business can have. I took that risk with the vision of being able to provide the services to customers by providing them with "professional interpreters", had I know then what I know now I probably would have NEVER continued with this vision.
We provided work and paid over 2,000 interpreters and had NEVER had a problem, until this post. It's sad to see that previous interpreters who worked for us for over a year, made money, got paid on a monthly basis and got the opportunity to get into this industry through the training and opportunity that we offered, are now bad mouthing me, the agency - you know who you are!
As an agency I hired employees to handle the Accounting, the Scheduling, the Collections, HR, etc...and at the end of the day I know it's my responsibility to ensure that things are getting done, and as far as I knew and based on their reports they were getting done. Until one day I came in and did an audit and that's when I realized how big the mess was, Interpreters invoices were not entered, interpreters were being double paid, interpreters were being over paid or under paid, we were billing customers at the same rate interpreters were billing us (so we were not making a profit!) This whole mess has caused me my business, my reputation, and for what? Did you give me the benefit of the doubt to explain this situation - NO!
Due to this blog, now you have interpreters/translators trying to collect for work that they did not do, work that they canceled or no showed, accepting jobs and canceling 10 minutes prior - to teach me a lesson (where's the professionalism, why accept the job? they don't only hurt me, they are hurting the person that needs the interpretation!)
@Anonymous: Our pleasure. Happy to help. However, as we are using our real names to share this information (which of course includes potential conflict with the owners of these businesses), we kindly ask that you do the same. Please post under your real name to continue the conversation! Thank you.
Hi all, please welcome a new victim of ilinterpreters. I did 4 jobs for them and sent 2 invoices due a month ago. They first ignored my e-mails and reminders then threatened me and warned me of DEFAMING them, and after I posted negative rating for them on Proz.com and TranslatorsCafe.com they came again with possibility to pay me IMMEDIATELY only if remove my comments. I refused to remove or amend anything before I see my money in my paypal account, and then they again vanished. Here's a part of their e-mail to me:
"At this point if YOU DON’T REMOVE YOUR BAD POSTINGS, WE WILL NOT PAY FOR YOUR “SERVICES” THIS IS NOT FAIR FOR US, AND IT’S VERY UNPROFESSIONAL ON YOUR PART, SPECIALLY WHEN YOU AGREED TO THE FOLLOWING:! When you accepted your assignment you agreed to the “Payment Terms: Net 30 Business Days or upon customer payment whichever is greater”. I’m very tired of you guys trying to use that darn posting against us, all because you guys can’t adhere to the terms, after you have accepted them!".
I'm really disappointed to see such thieves playing with us and keep stealing money using our efforts without taking any action against them!
As you will see due to this BLOG, I have Vendors posting more and more lies!!! Here are emails to the Vendor, as well as payment information...This is unfair for me, as it is affecting me personally, physically, emotionally...All I'm trying to do is rectify the mistakes made due to bad management...Again, I relied on "Previous Staff" to Recruit, Contract, Bill, Pay, and manage. My job was to bring in the business, had I known that relying on Employees was going to cause so much hate, pain, bad mouthing - I would have NEVER, EVER given so much power to my "previous employees"...At this time, I'm a 1 man show, and I'm trying to audit, collect, repair any harm, wrongdoing as much as I can. However, your "Blog" makes it impossible.
You were PAID on TIME & in Full!
03/05/2013: ***PD VIA PAYPAL - TRANS#5S351785AV2xxxxxx - Please note that the following payment has been made on your account; however, I see that there’s a discrepancy with the invoices on our end. (wrong billing to customer), apparently you had a revised invoice and it was not attached to your profile or modified to the customer. We will re-search fix, and will process the remainder balance (if any) before the end of the week...
How are you a VICTIM if you were PAID!!!
03/04/2013: Mr. Ahmad
My email to you 2/19/13 - Your invoices are due March 3, 2013, and therefore will be paid on or before the due date or upon customer payment whichever is greater
03/07/2013: Finished researching & paid interpreter ***VIA PAYPAL 6JS982xxxxx
In fairness to me I think it's only fair to REMOVE all the post that are "Anonymous" and allow me the opportunity to respond. As there is so many quote on quote so called "Professional Interpreters" that are jumping on the ban-wagon and posting things that are un-true!
Mohanpal Singh, your post above about us lying/fraud.
I have searched hard files and computer files and there is NO INVOICE ever received from you or that you ever did a job for us...These are just some of the notes I found - "12/23/2010: Vendor has not responded to complete his File.SA
12/16/2010- close vendor box 2010 "A". SA
12/15/2010 left a voice mail regarding missing forms. SA
12/10/2010- Assignment opportunity(s) Thai-12/13 and Punjabi-12/15. Left voice mail, will set up appointment to have interpreter come in and sign necessary paperwork…CW
11/19/2010 S, Missing Forms:
Interpreter Certification, Social Security/Federal Tax Id Verification, Background Check, Employment Verification, TB test, Hepatitis B, Personnel File and Orientation, Job Description, HIPAA, BL/BI, w-9, DMV print out
@Selma: Thanks for reading and for commenting. To get payment information about specific LSPs, we highly recommend PaymentPractices (www.paymentpractices.net). It's fee-based, but there's a free trial. Best $20 or so you will spend all year. It's an invaluable tool.
Dear Judy and Dagmar,
Thanks for your suggestion. However, I saw paymentpractices when I was reading posts here, so I checked it immediately, but the page seems to have a bug, it forwards me to an irrelevant web page that seems to sell NFL shirts. That is why I decided to post a comment and ask.
Selma
@Selma: Sorry to hear you are having trouble. Looks like perhaps there's some malware on your computer that's redirecting to these fake sites. We just checked Payment Practices, and it's running very well on our end. Have a look here: http://www.paymentpractices.net/Default.aspx. If you still have probs, you might have to run an anti-virus program on your computer.
International Language Interpreters Part1
ANOTHER scammed interpreter. I'm starting this letter after many,many unsuccessful attempts by phone (phone numbers:1-866-546.88.55 + 916-989-1029 + 916-989-3314 and they will ask for your name just in order to answer you or not and a private Cell. 916-220-4397) and by many emails and threats to get my outstanding invoices paid from september + october 2012.I also would like to answer on a letter from Nov 20, 2012 from this same post from Mrs. Faviola Valencia and her 411-OPTI + I.L.Interpreters “company”.I understand about up & downs in business. It's a pity that she is having the wrong view on business by not continuing services to her costumers and not paying the interpreters after work done, as she should. She says that she has provided work and PAID (????if you do not pay you do NOT provide work, you are SCAMMING and taking advantage of people) over 2000 interpreters (that are many interpreters and why are they leaving???) AND never had a problem (WHICH I DOUBT) until this post (many people complain about not getting paid/being scammed).She says that interpreters made Money??? (Not if you don’t get paid) She still hasn't paid me my bills from september + october 2012 being now august 2013. ALMOST 1 YEAR to pay bills?? Is she SERIOUS??? GETTING PAID ON A MONTHLY BASIS or until the customers pays. Are you trying to tell me that your customer hasn't payed yet after 11 months.Is the lack of control in you "business" SO big. This must be a joke. I've been in this business for many years and needed no training as she says that is provided (no training whatsoever was provided to me). If she doesn't know how to run a business by having no control over accounting, collections,HR, etc. then she should not run a business if you got no clue how to do it. Most important DO NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE BY NOT PAYING THE INTERPRETERS if you got a mess in your own accounting. Many excuses have been given about her accounting department for not paying, no control, misunderstanding, people being paid twice, never recieved the invoice, still not received payment from customer(come on), simply lack of control.
Part2
Are you Mrs.Valencia surprised that people is posting here about you and your so called "business". Scamming serious working people by not paying them. I hope that this information is going to be important to other people (Interpreters)to prevent them to work for this so called I.L.I.Inc "business". This company has been BANNED from ProZ.com for translations (why.??) imagine yourself. As Mr. Ahmad Hassaballa stated before you will get threatened if you do not take your post away from this page (which I WILL NOT REMOVE) in order to get paid.I do not care anymore to get payed after sooooooo many unsuccessful attempts but most important to me is that everybody gets to know about you and your scamming business. This is posted here and I will try to post it on as many web pages as possible to avoid interpreters to get scammed by your "company". Agreement says 30 business days or upon customer pays (almost 1 YEAR). As she told Mr. Ahmad ,she is a one man show (everybody has left the company???) and is TRYING to audit. But PLEASE, you do not know how to audit, otherwise you would have had control over your "business".Ofcourse I hope you will respond to this post and so will I do also, but I will under no circumstance remove this post. This is not an UN-TRUE post as you Mrs Valencia claim from many other post.I cannot believe you try to "make them look that way".You should be ashamed.If you are realy sorry for wrong doing it should be time that you are paying the outstanding invoices to all the interpreters. I want to emphasis that I called one more time to claim my money before posting this and got the answer " I'm still waiting to get some payments in" to pay you, as in many other occasions. Please be aware to work for Faviola Valencia. You will not get paid. It’s a SCAM.I called on july 24+25,2013 (got no answer) to ask for my payments but there was no answer.Today august 1,2013 none of the 3 phone numbers is available. Be Aware interpreters!!
SCAM letter 2
As I stated before I will answer to all your comments because the truth is NOT going to set you free (I don’t understand what god has got to do with your actions). I’m honestly amazed by the quick answer on this post (you’re never available by phone) to answer for payment requests. Again if you do not know how to run a business, don’t run it. If you want to call it an EFFORT to pay $25.24 from invoices dated august 2012 and pay them in April 2013 (after 8 months) I think you have chosen the wrong word. I would call it an ABUSE or are you trying to tell me that your customers have paid you after 8 months? You told me and others you were trying to make payments but are still NOT paying. I’m not going to tell you how to run a “business” because that not my business. Nor your private live is to my interest, everybody has problems in their lives and with their families, you are not the only one. Have you ever thought how much harm you have done to the interpreters by not paying them?? Sure NOT!! I’m not happy with your situation but even less with my and other interpreter’s situations. As you tell us now you have filed for bankruptcy again to not pay what you owe. Why are you not giving out the complete information of your attorney besides his name, like the address, phone number(s), and email? Why are you still not answering the phones at your office?
The owners of ILI, Inc. have declared bankruptcy. Many of you must have received papers from the bankruptcy court. Watch out because they probably will be opening up a new agency under a new name.
Many of you must know that they are declaring bankruptcy. They probably will be opening up a new agency and do the same thing all over again. Watch out for them.
I had not visited this blog for sometime now. Reading through all the newer blogs, I find that the same tactics are used with the interpreters time and time again. After I put up the blog, I got a threatening letter from Faviola's husband to bring it down otherwise I would be sued. In my case, there was no mention of payment. The letter came from their $12.00 a month legal subscription service. Their livelihood was living off of interpreters' work. What an illegal and immoral way of making a living. In the last few years, I have had dozens of people call me and tell me the same things that all of you are mentioning over here. I know that they are all true.
I have received letter from Bankrupcy court that Faviola Valencia and Jose Aranda are filing bankrupcy. When I called her bankrupcy attorney they told me that she wants to have the debt 600USD owed to me to be wiped out in bankrupcy. For everybody's information she collected 1400USD from the attorney's office on this assignment. I drove 3 hrs each way to do this job for her. Yeah right, she really wants to pay interpreters for doing work for her. I hv been trying to collect from her for last 4 years. Even the server who tried to serve her papers to bring her to court the second time since she ignored the court judgment told me that she is very experienced person in avoiding being served court papers. It is hard to believe that criminal like this is still walking free and now probably opening another interpreting agency. I wonder what will be the name of her new company.
She reached me out in November 2013 to work for her!! I.e. after bankruptcy and still under ILINTERPRETERS and still didn't pay me!! she should not be allowed to be free scamming people!! I contacted the FBI already
So I guess I'm her most recent victim!!! A question: so many victims like ourselves can't we do something??? Cause she is not a scam calling from overseas she lives and work in USA and she hired me AFTER October so after bankruptcy. Maybe she is also an identity theft she has all our information and God knows what a person like her is capable of. She owes me $300 which I thought doesn't worth her risk her reputation for but now I know that she doesn't really have a good reputation!
I am willing to testify I have proves and I'm in whatever you do to get this person.
Sorry for replying so late. I finally managed to receive my money from her with help of this great blog and other rating portals. However, Pleeeeease be aware! Thanks for your great help :)
Hello everyone my name Jose De La Luz Aranda I run a company by the name of Jla medical interpreting Inc. this company has been established in Fresno California since 1997. In no way is this company affiliated with Jose Aranda or Faviola Valencia.
While conducting interviews in Monterey County it was brought to my attention that my company name was somehow associated with these two individuals. I personally have never dealt with either individual so I personally can not talk bad about them. I am just wanting to clarify that Jla Medical Interpreting, Inc from Fresno, Ca is in no way associated with Jose Aranda/ Faviola Valencia from Northern California. Please feel free to call my office at 559-226-8835 if you have any questions.
@José: Thanks, José! We are happy to publish your comment on this forum.
No one is posting lies Faviola and the only liar here is you! You are the biggest liar in the world and I am willing to do anything with my fellow interpreters here, to see you behind bars. You keep giving false promises then you vanish then you reply but you never really pay anyone. You are a horrible person and I judge USA police and FBI to be leaving you free until now! You and people like you are what is wrong in this world!
Jose Aranda Jr. of JLA Interpreting has no connection with this company. He has been running his company very ethically for the last 17 years.
Hello everybody. Stay away from this woman and her company. She is nothing but trouble. All she can give you is lies and empty promises. She never runs out of lies and lame excuses to not pay you. It was unfortunate to deal with her. All I got from her is lies and headache. I got paid aftet seven months after continuously asking her to pay. This woman keeps delaying hoping that you will get tired and forget your money. She is very hopefull. My advice is, stay away from Faviola and her company iLinterpreters, they are nothing but a huge headache.
Hi everyone: Just a quick note to let everyone know that as of today, June 26, 2014, we will no longer be accepting any comments on this topic. We feel that this has run its course, and the post has been open for almost five years now. We think that everyone has certainly made their point and has been heard, and we have provided the forum to do so. Please remember that we do not have a dog in this fight and have posted this information here only for our colleagues' information. We have never worked with the company in question nor do we have personal knowledge of their practices.
So: this blog post is now closed. Thank you for all your comments and input! To continue posting on payment practices, please visit www.paymentpractices.net. It's a subscription-based service run by a fantastic colleague dedicated to exactly that: reporting payment practices, and it's ideal for these types of issues. Thanks!
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