Tips on Collecting Money?

rainmn

New member
Aside from the obvious show up at his house with a bat...

Back in December, my wife had a guy come to the house to give us an estimate on re-upholstering a couch. Like a dumbazz, (hindsight of course being 20/20) I wrote him a check for $1000 as a deposit, with the remaining $1250 to be paid when the job was complete.

To make a long story short, I now know the guy's a scumbag with money problems. He picked up the couch when he said he would, but that was it. He hasn't done chit to it in the month he's had it, and is avoiding phone calls, even from the detective I had call him.

According to a local detective, it's not a criminal case because he actually picked up the couch. Had he just taken the deposit and never come back for the couch, then it would have been criminal. Lucky me. :rolleyes:

He's supposed to be returning the couch, untouched, tomorrow, but of course doesn't have the $1K to return. I'm going through the motions with small claims paperwork, but even if I get a judgement, I know he doesn't have any money.

The shop he used to have is no longer there, and he rents the place he lives in. I know plenty of you have gone through this with marine businesses in the past. Any suggestions?

I'm already working on the ruining his life part. I bought the domain name for his business, and will soon be building him a nice website, free of charge. He also made the mistake of telling me he sends his daughter to school in my town, even though he doesn't live here. I'll be talking to a friend at the Board of Ed later today about that. He prides himself on being religious, and told me what local church he goes to. It just happens that I have the e-mail distribution list for all the members there...maybe they would like to know what a piece of chit he is.

Let's here it...what else can I do to this scumbag, without getting myself arrested in the process?
 
Post his info. It is winter and most of the members have nothing better to do than harrass some schmuck until he pays you the money he owes you.
 
I got a default judgment in small claims, filed a motion to seize the defendant's vehicle. Bailiff met the tow company @ his home, impounded the vehicle. Defendant had to pay the judgment and the tow charges before the vehicle was released. I bet your jurisdiction has something similar. Check enforcement of judgments. My county had all the information on the court's web site. It takes work to get your pound for flesh but in my case it was well worth it.

Best of luck.
 
Blackmail him with the school thing. Surely he cares about his daughter enough to keep her from getting kicked out of the school where all her friends are. Even if its only $50/month.
 
Sea-dated...I'm going to hold off on posting his info and letting the dogs after him until I get the couch back. At least at that point, I'm just out $1K...instead of $1K and a couch.

Fountain - I just checked our county court info online, and they do have something like that. It says I need to get a certified copy of his title, which is available from the DMV. I have to assume that they aren't just going to give me that until I have a judgement to show them. I guess I'll find out in a couple weeks.

Thanks for the info - that's promising, since he needs his van to continue to rip people off.
 
I got a default judgment in small claims, filed a motion to seize the defendant's vehicle. Bailiff met the tow company @ his home, impounded the vehicle. Defendant had to pay the judgment and the tow charges before the vehicle was released. I bet your jurisdiction has something similar. Check enforcement of judgments. My county had all the information on the court's web site. It takes work to get your pound for flesh but in my case it was well worth it.

Best of luck.

Hopefully it is not a leased vehicle....
 
Stay away from the website thing. Could backfire on you. The e-mail too. You have the high ground, both legally and ethically. Keep it.

The small claims thing is good. It's going to take a really open minded judge to give you a seizure order, but I've done it. Most won't unless it's particularly egregious or alot of money, which mine was on both counts.

Find out what your state needs to renew a judgment. Most expire if not renewed. Most only require an effort to collect to automatically renew. Costs a few bucks to do a single bank request.

Often times I'll have my married sister send Christmas cards with $10 checks to people. I wait to see where they deposit them and I now have their bank. Now all you have to do is have the clerk go clean them out. Inevitably this guy is going to need to finance a car, a home or something.

For a thousand bucks, it could be more aggravation than it's worth to you.
 
+1 on filing with small claims court and getting a judgement against him. It makes things alot easier with you have the police or your side.

Good luck! :cool:
 
$2,250 to recover a couch??? That was your first mistake. You can get one hell of a new couch for under 2 grand.........
 
Just remember, you cant get blood out of a turnip. Use your own good judgement on wether or not the guy even has the money or assets to pay you back. If you dont think he does then your probably wasting your time and more $$.

Getting a judgement granted in your favor only means that technically you "won". Theres absolutly no guarentee that you will ever see a dime.
 
$2,250 to recover a couch??? That was your first mistake. You can get one hell of a new couch for under 2 grand.........

Exactly,

What did you lose your virginity on that thing or something? I woulda bought a new $1000 couch with the down payment you gave him.
 
I have had 2 issues similiar to this.

I filled out a Warrant in Debt and threatened to file it at the county court in both instances. One was with the guy doing my granite work, and one was with our wedding photographer. I made sure to give them an untimatum and time frame on when I wanted my money back, or I would file the warrant in debt. I also was made sure to mention that if they didn't show up in court that a warrant would be issued in there name, and that if they did not pay me before hand that I would be seeking additional monies for my inconvienence, and that when I won my verdict that I woudl be able to put liens on their assets. BOTH times the people folded and sent me the money back.....
 
Yeah, I expected to hear some chit about that much coin to re-upholster a couch....trust me, I think it's insane too.

It started out with my wife telling me she wanted a new couch for Christmas. I said fine...go pick one out, and it pretty much went downhill from there. This was an expensive couch to start with, and everyone loves the thing - especially my wife. She gave up on replacements and started down the re-upholstery path.

Who am I to argue? I've spent way more $ on dumber chit. :cheers2:
 
make a flyer and put it on all the cars at his church when they are inside.they will all come out and stand at their cars reading it as he does, by the time he is done everyone it stairing at him ,,, be in the corner and watch ,,it,s worth a million bucks..
 
Often times I'll have my married sister send Christmas cards with $10 checks to people. I wait to see where they deposit them and I now have their bank. Now all you have to do is have the clerk go clean them out. Inevitably this guy is going to need to finance a car, a home or something.

Love it.
 
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