Oh yeah, THAT was smart...thanks for ripping me off.

[Seraph]

Not been a good week for me and now I find out I'm probably screwed out of some hard earned cash.
Regarding the SC from this thread here http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=28074 ...

The collection agency has given up on her. Apparently she and her psycho mother managed to dig up some crazy Texan law about consumer debts...and the CA cannot pursue them further without being sued. Since it's a $135 debt...they told me they aren't going to even mess with it. From what I hear, they were practically CACKLING as they told him to tell me I wasn't going to get a cent.

Best part is that last month, apparently they promised TWICE to pay off the debt since they just "wanted to be over and done with this". Then when the CA called to remind them, she and her mom screamed "F*** YOU" and cursed at them until they had to terminate the call.

I'm so ticked off and hurt by all of this. I know, I know...it's a small amount. But she thinks she can get away with this...and I'm trying to figure out if I should go after this and show her that no, she CANNOT. I can't afford a lawyer though...so I wonder if that's why she's being like that.

...Probably.

I guess I'll be writing a letter to my state's attorney general and/or filing in small claims. Thing is though, if I bring her to small claims...I don't want just the $135 now. I'm thinking about pressing for that $50 bonus () and of course for court fees...but hmmm I wonder if there's anything else I can tack on since she was SUCH a nasty witch. The CA guy I spoke to said they can and will provide records of them promising to pay off the debt, and will also provide proof of their "belligerent and abrasive attitudes" from when they were reminded of their promise.

God I wish this week would improve...did NOT need to hear about this.

[SuperB]

Small claims is probably your best bet but be careful with what you tack on. The woman who tried suing us nickel and dimed us to the point of ridiculous and it made her look bad. (she lost too)

[SteeleDragon78]

Well, I did some research and here is the Texas consumer debt law. Now to me it sounds like you had a contract. If this is the case, do you have a copy of said contract w/signatures? Her refusal to pay may be considered breech of contract, and since its considered interstate commerce, could be a bigger deal than you think. But I’m not a lawyer so I wont advise anything right now, but would be a good idea to talk with legal aid if its available in CA on a pro bono basis

[QASlave]

I don't think you get go for court costs in small claim. (Sucks I know, but that's how the system works.) I would definitely file though, if they choose to ignore the small claims summons, it is usually a default judgement for you. Then, you can go after assets to recoup your money and it puts a nasty little mark on the ole credit report. Chances are that if you do go to small claims, you would win.

I had a guy from a body shop screw up my car royaly, so I sued him in small claims. (He decided not to show, judgement was mine.) So I called him a couple of times after that and he laughed and said the judgement had no teeth and I could f-off. Soooo, down to the courthouse I went, did a title search on vehicles that HE owned, called up the Sheriff and a tow company and yanked his 2 year old pickup out of his driveway. He was major league pissed! I didn't go to his house when the sheriff showed up, but I guess he was nearly in tears, then handcuffs. If he hadn't come after the pickup in 30 days, it was mine to keep, but he came for it right away, then paid with a check. He was pissed because I wouldn't release the truck until the check cleared, that got the police on my doorstep.

So, I got my money ($1200 and change), what I paid to have it towed and sat on giving him the truck back for 2 weeks. I was gonna wait until he sued to get it back, but the wife got tired of it in the garage.

Good luck.

[MMATM]

This stinks of intellectual property theft. It's a pretty common event for a programmer/web designer/graphic designer to be contracted to do some work only to have the client bail on their end of the deal after some/most/all of it is done. More often than not taking whatever they have (e.g. sample graphics, code, or even entire programs) and claiming that their [insert relative/relation here] will do it "cheaper". This really means that their fourteen-year-old nephew who has once used Lycos Tripod or Yahoo Geocities to create his own personal webspace will assemble all of your professionally-done work into a haphazard mess and either call it his own or else tack your name/company onto it, which will make you or your company look bad.

File in small claims. I'll bet they show up and whine and cry, but judges tend to have a lot more spine than most.

And as an evil bonus, if you do get to go after assets, take as much of their computer equipment as you can (like their monitor, mouse, keyboard, anything that doesn't have data stored in it that could be considered "valuable", should total up to less than $135 if they're using a desktop PC).

But as SuperB said, don't tack on too much ridiculous stuff. Wasted time spent trying to collect and whatever was charged by the collections agency might be reasonable but don't go too much farther than that.

[Seraph]

Small claims is probably your best bet but be careful with what you tack on. The woman who tried suing us nickel and dimed us to the point of ridiculous and it made her look bad. (she lost too)

Yep, I know better than to do that. I was thinking more of a flat "I spent hours trying to track you down, time I could've spent working." thing.

Well, I did some research and here is the Texas consumer debt law. Now to me it sounds like you had a contract. If this is the case, do you have a copy of said contract w/signatures? Her refusal to pay may be considered breech of contract, and since its considered interstate commerce, could be a bigger deal than you think. But I’m not a lawyer so I wont advise anything right now, but would be a good idea to talk with legal aid if its available in CA on a pro bono basis

No signatures, unfortunately, but I do have the whole email of "<Client> has accepted your bid on this project and here is what she wants you to do." It definitely would also probably be a breach of contract...I'm not CA, I'm VA, but I'll check into the pro bono thing as well.

MMATM....that's just evil and I like it. Pity I already have two extra monitors...but if she has an LCD... oooo...

[It's me]

Since they didn't pay for the material, you own it. Go to their ISP and ask to have the site taken down due to copyright infringment.

[SteeleDragon78]

Since they didn't pay for the material, you own it. Go to their ISP and ask to have the site taken down due to copyright infringment.

ooo, didn't think about that one, they levy fines for that, plus its supersedes the Texas state law with federal law. thats major pwnage

[Brightglaive]

You should file in small claims court . Afew things you should know:

1.) If you file a claim for the entire amount you can usually include court costs and subpoena costs and work time lost as part of the award. You can include any negative monetary effects that this had on you(such as overdaft or bounced check charges). You do need to provide the proof of time used to prepare and compile all your records including copying and driving to and from the collection agency (to collect their records) as well as phone records to show length of calls to the collection agency and to the customer.

2.) If you issue a subpoena and the people do not show up they can have a bench warrant sworn out against them (meaning they get arrested and thrown into jail the next time they have any altercation with the police).

3.) Usually if the defendents and their witnesses you have subpoena'ed do not show up the judge will rule summarily against them. If you have their driver license number or social security card number (or can get one of them) this will automatically be posted as an outstanding debt with legal action (HUGE black mark) on their credit history and they will begin to be turned down for credit and loan applications.

4.) If they lose the case you can then garnish any wages they may earn about 30 days after the judgement.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

$135 may not seem like it's worth worrying over, but I'd go ahead and escalate this to litigation. I hesitate to use a blatant SCism, but in this case, it most certainly is the principle of the thing. She thinks she has beaten you, and if you stop now, she has. But as others have pointed out, there are quite a few options open to you that will turn her petty victory to ashes in her mouth.

The Klingons may like their revenge cold, but I prefer it served up hot with a side order of "You're not really anywhere near as smart as you think you are."

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Addendum: what portion of the law did they cite? If it was the validation part, all that means is that the CA has to cease all collections until the debt is validated, which I'm sure you can provide. I don't really see anything else in there that looks like any kind of loophole that they can exploit.

[Brightglaive]

I don't think you get go for court costs in small claim.

I think it varies from state to state because I had a ruling against me that had court costs tacked on.

Soooo, down to the courthouse I went, did a title search on vehicles that HE owned, called up the Sheriff and a tow company and yanked his 2 year old pickup out of his driveway. He was major league pissed! I didn't go to his house when the sheriff showed up, but I guess he was nearly in tears, then handcuffs. If he hadn't come after the pickup in 30 days, it was mine to keep, but he came for it right away, then paid with a check. He was pissed because I wouldn't release the truck until the check cleared, that got the police on my doorstep.

So, I got my money ($1200 and change), what I paid to have it towed and sat on giving him the truck back for 2 weeks. I was gonna wait until he sued to get it back, but the wife got tired of it in the garage.

Good luck.

How did that work? Because he owed you money you repo'ed his truck? Is that legal? I've never heard of that. If it's legal that's COOL!! I assume he had no bank loan on his truck, otherwise you would have had a huge legal battle on your hands.

Addendum: what portion of the law did they cite?..... I don't really see anything else in there that looks like any kind of loophole that they can exploit.

The only other loophole is if the collection agency was using illegal practices to try and collect e.g calling before 8AM local time or after 9PM local time, calling more than 5 times a day, using profanity (all qualify as harassment, some under the National fair debt collection act), using threats or coercion, using unfair or unconscionable means or fraudulent deceptive or misleading practices. Too many collection agencies violate these on a DAILY basis. Why? Becuase the CA's agents are trained to get some kind of emotional response out of people. Whether it be anger, sorrow, embarrasment....whatever. If they can get you to pay your bill that is their goal. It's also why the industry as a whole has an average employee turnover of 85% per year. You can't pay a person enough to deal with the emotional outbursts of people that owe money. Especially when the job is making outbound calls to emotionally goad people into paying their debts. sorry, I suppose that was a bit of a rant. so /rant

I also am wondering what section the SC's quoted. On the other hand, if the CA screwed up they should make things right. Otherwise they could lose their bond.

[Seraph]

I don't know what part of the law they quoted...but whatever it was the CA stopped cold. To quote "It's just $135. No other agency will do more for you than what we've tried." If it was the other part, then heck yes I could most definitely validate the debt. I have like...fifty emails and acknowledgments, not even counting the one where she started the project.

Unfortunately, her website hasn't really used the material. I think she knows that if I saw even a smidgen, I'd go after it. But, her website does have testimonials from her customers talking about how nice she is. If only they knew.

I'm going to find out if VA allows for me to tack on court fees. All I know right now is...I can push for up to $5,000 if I felt ornery enough. But that would probably (read: most definitely) make me lose the case.

I'm wondering as well...I'm going to file on ic3.gov about her. I may also write my state's attorney general, and I am gonna hunt down the Texas BBB location and give them a nice report about her. Hm...I need to think of other things I can do as well...

[dj_hoodie]

Aw man, that's horrible. I hope you can find a way to really stick it to them. I hate it when people think they've had their bad behaviour justified. Also, things like this make me glad I'm Canadian, no offense. I'd have escalated to murder if it had been me.

[bainsidhe]

Now I'm curious, if you're in VA and this horrible woman is in TX, do you file small claims only in VA? I mean, that's where you yourself are based after all. Does that mean she'd be required to come to VA for the hearing or face losing?