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Out of state collections

TimToad

Active Member
My issue isn't close enough to Gino's to want to poach his thread, so here's a new one.

We had a customer who recently moved out of the area and is setting up another marital arts studio a few states away. We did a bunch of wall size decals and some smaller stuff. Maybe $450 worth of stuff total with shipping.

In my wife's effort to always offer the best customer service, shipped them out before getting the dude's cc information which I had made clear was needed before we'd ship the stuff. I never thought he'd skate on the whole deal given the other work we've done for him in the last two years here.

Well, off they went and after two weeks now, he won't answer the phone, return a call or respond to an email. I don't know what to call it other than theft, but I'm sure its not mail fraud if we sent them UPS.

Any ideas on how to compel this guy to pay for this stuff? Or at least make his life difficult for the effort?
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Most attorneys or like-minded businesses people will tell you.. at that amount, it ain't worth it to chase him down. Chalk it up to a learning experience.

You could file, but once there is that much distance, it makes it harder for anyone to collect, since the deed was done in your state and now he's somewhere else. Sure, the law has it that he owes you, but no one can enforce it without going to justices, sending out letters and all costing more than your lost $450.

Set up a time to go visit him and be sure to keep your distance or he'll swing at you and break your back.

Set up a paper trail and send a 'Letter of Demand'. It's always worked for people ignoring calls, letters and emails.
 
My issue isn't close enough to Gino's to want to poach his thread, so here's a new one.

We had a customer who recently moved out of the area and is setting up another marital arts studio a few states away. We did a bunch of wall size decals and some smaller stuff. Maybe $450 worth of stuff total with shipping.

In my wife's effort to always offer the best customer service, shipped them out before getting the dude's cc information which I had made clear was needed before we'd ship the stuff. I never thought he'd skate on the whole deal given the other work we've done for him in the last two years here.

Well, off they went and after two weeks now, he won't answer the phone, return a call or respond to an email. I don't know what to call it other than theft, but I'm sure its not mail fraud if we sent them UPS.

Any ideas on how to compel this guy to pay for this stuff? Or at least make his life difficult for the effort?

I think it is time to start using face book to ask people to pay. Your not in the wrong asking for payment for something you did. So check to see if he has a face book page and start hounding the the heck out of it
 

visual800

Active Member
I would start with a little light bashing on the web about him and the ramp it up! IF he threatens you ramp it up some more!
 

player

New Member
Before you go all internet on him I would be a little more patient. It has only been 2 weeks. Keep trying to contact him, and send him a registered letter if you want to step it up.
 

ddarlak

Go Bills!
it's only been two weeks.... give it time and don't give up. call everyday, what's the gonna put you out 10 seconds?

sooner or later you'll get ahold of him and get your money, persistence.
 

TimToad

Active Member
Yeah, its not some make or break us amount, but the dude is not answering either the business phone number or the cell number he ALWAYS answered whenever we needed to talk to him about his order before shipping it out.

He's not even the first in line of folks I'd like to bash online like the web developer who built our new site with problems, a headache tenant in our home back in NM, and The Donald for sure.

We'll give him a chance to possibly come back from a vacation, surgery, a martial arts tournament in Thailand, etc.

I've sufficiently guilt tripped the wife about it, she won't be doing that again, so we'll just see what happens.
 

decalman

New Member
I'm sure you already tried calling from another phone. If you can only talk to him. I had something similar happen. I wound up calling the guy about 75 times. Usually no answer. Finally after months, he did pay the 200 bucks. I asked him , " How come you didn't answer the phone?" He told me he was in Colorado. His kid was in trouble or something. Bad phone service. You never know, your guy could be having a family crisis or something. Give it another month.
 

TXFB.INS

New Member
*67 will block your caller ID, then try calling.

There are lots of ways to get a hold of him, know his full name you can track down and contact relatives.
Nothing like talking to his mother and then having her call him :Big Laugh

otherwise turn him over to a collection agency, the one we use only gets paid when the $$$ is collected so they are very motivated to collect also tack on the collection fees onto the final INV, that way you get the full amount owed and they are out the expenses
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Just make sure you have proper backup before taking on an out of state dojo.

karate-kid-1984-ralph-macchio-pat-morita.jpg


wayne k
guam usa
 

ams

New Member
You can always contact a collections company. I took a taxi company to court over $161, only because he was a jerk. It's now at over $300 in fees, didn't show up to court twice, now he has a summons out for him. If he doesn't show up on the 29th, he will be arrested (says so on the summons). If he does show up, he will be required by the judge to tell me where his bank accounts are, bank account numbers, etc. I can then legally freeze his accounts and he cannot use them until I am paid. Pretty sweet deal.

That is taking it to the extreme, but I am tied of being screwed over, this is about my 8th over the course of 5 1/2 years, the others I didn't do much and lost over $2,000 total.
 
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