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Hey I built getdispute.com to do literally exactly this: sue big companies in small claims court easily. First, I strongly recommend sending them a demand lett

Hey I built getdispute.com to do literally exactly this: sue big companies in small claims court easily. First, I strongly recommend sending them a demand letter. You can generate one for free on getdispute.com/products/demand-letter and/or pay us a few bucks to mail it. Second, physically mail the letter to their legal address. The mail goes to someone in legal tasked with reading the mail. 90% of our cases end here. A correctly written demand letter, sent by physical mail usually gets noticed and resolved very quickly. If nothing happens after a few weeks (give it 3-4 wks) then you could file a case in court. This will require you to file the case, pay the filing fee, and then serve the defendant via a 3rd party process server. Could all be done in 1 day if you know what you're doing. If you serve the defendant (FB) correctly, they are now obligated to show up to court or otherwise risk a default judgement against them that cannot be reversed later. Another 50-75% of cases end here as most defendants prefer to settle out of court. If they don't respond, you will need to go to your court date and explain the case to the judge. Usually, without a defendant appearing, the court will grant a default judgement in your favor, assuming the judge decides they do in fact have jurisdiction. To be safe on jurisdiction, file in the county FB does business, or otherwise has a legal entity registered. All of this said... it's probably not worth the time/money to do more than send a demand letter. It is probably worth your time to send a physical demand letter. Good luck. 2.7m small claims court cases are filed each year in the US, approx 50% by individuals. So you're in good company.

bag_boy 3y ago
The last sentences read like the opening header on a landing page. That’s a cool business.
npsomaratna 3y ago
^ This. Physically mailing the letter makes a difference. (Been there, done that).
- rinze 3y ago
  I keep this article in my bookmarks re: how to write a proper complaint letter. It talks specifically about credit reporting agencies, but a lot of what he says can be applied anywhere else: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...
- phdelightful 3y ago
  I achieved my quickest, simplest, most pleasant customer service interaction yet with an airline by writing a letter explaining what they did (with transaction IDs, confirmation numbers, etc), and what they should have done. The situation was not entirely simple, and I was not looking forward to explaining it verbally to a rep. They sent me back a simple letter a couple weeks later saying they'd resolved the issue the way I requested and provided me the updated documentation. I'll definitely consider this approach next time something like this happens.
  - mock-possum 3y ago
    Sounds like you’d do very well as a QA professional
dheera 3y ago
How well does this work for medical bills? I have $4000+ in collections because insurance didn't pay for what they were supposed to, and the hospital decided to send it to collections. Should I send the demand letter to the collector, hospital, or insurance?
- withzombies 3y ago
  You should contact your state's insurance regulator. They're very powerful and generally get proper reactions from insurance companies.
- ksaun 3y ago
  20+ years ago, I was in a situation that, at this high level anyway, was similar to what you're describing. The collections agency had also put a black mark on my credit history. I don't recall the details, but to whatever extent I did contact the medical provider or the insurance company, they claimed to be unable to help me. (I no longer owed them money, afterall.) The amount I supposedly owed was some hundreds of dollars, not thousands. After repeatedly failing to have any success communicating with the collections agency, I sent a letter to the Better Business Bureau about the situation. The collector stopped contacting me and my credit history was restored. I never spoke with a lawyer about it and don't know if my approach to addressing the problem was typical. From my experience, I would suggest that you take the fight to the collector. They are the ones to whom you currently supposedly owe money. (I did not attempt to sue anyone, though, and maybe that detail, or others, would change the answer for your specific situation.)
  - bityard 3y ago
    > The collections agency had also put a black mark on my credit history. This doesn't seem to be true. According to Experian, the original _creditor_ is the one that puts the black mark on your credit history when they sell your debt to a collections agency. (Typically for pennies on the dollar.) > After repeatedly failing to have any success communicating with the collections agency, I sent a letter to the Better Business Bureau about the situation. The collector stopped contacting me and my credit history was restored. I never spoke with a lawyer about it and don't know if my approach to addressing the problem was typical. At a guess, the collections agency might have decided it wasn't worth fighting you over it for a few hundred dollars and dropped your case to spend more time on larger targets. But I don't see how they (or the BBB) could have fixed your credit report, they don't have the power to do that. > I would suggest that you take the fight to the collector. I mean, you can try but you are unlikely to succeed. These people are (usually) skilled negotiators, they can't easily be outfoxed or convinced to be on your side. Their only goal is to get money from you. The dirty secret that the collections agencies don't want people to know is that nobody has any actual obligation to pay them. They buy bad debt and hope they can convince you to pay them. The ONLY leverage they have is the ability to guilt and intimidate. Some agencies engage in shady behavior (calling friends and neighbors, making threats). These behaviors are generally illegal, but the kind of people who fall that far into debt are generally not the kind of people who can afford to take legal action against a lawyered-up agency. You never HAVE to pay a collections agency, and even if you do, the debt NEVER gets paid back to the original creditor, just the agency collecting it. Neither will paying them fix your credit report in any way. If you have debt that was legitimately defaulted on and made its way all the way to a collections agency, the very best thing to do is not engage them. They will give up eventually. They _might_ try to help if the debt wound up in collections due to a creditor's mistake, but I wouldn't bet too much on it.
tverbeure 3y ago
I see that your website asks $9 + $10/month for the basics package. I've never once had the need to write a demand letter, so if I ever need to, I'd expect to be a one time thing. I definitely won't need a monthly service. How does that work in this case? Does it mean I'd pay $19 and then cancel the monthly service?
- silisili 3y ago
  Agreed with this. IMO, it should charge a one time fee to handle it all, and probably more than $19. I can't see many people suing folks monthly. Charge me $40 or $50 and take care of everything for me!
  - obblekk 3y ago
    There is a one time option (click one-time at top) and it is $35!
    - silisili 3y ago
      Neat. I'm definitely bookmarking this. I personally think you could charge more if needed. Dealing with legalese and paperwork is a huge, huge headache to most people. Nicely done.
- markdown 3y ago
  They rely on you forgetting to cancel. Then when you notice a few months later, you demand a refund. They won’t give it to you, necessitating that you resubscribe in order to send them a demand letter. #growthhacking
  - xu_ituairo 3y ago
    If they don't refund, take them to small claims court
    - obblekk 3y ago
clnq 3y ago
Are there equivalent services in the EU and the UK?
- AdamGibbins 3y ago
  You honestly don't need one in the UK, filing small claims via the governments site is very easy. They'll auto send a demand letter for you etc. https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money
binarymax 3y ago
Just a note that you should add https:// https:// to your links so we can click on them!
wk_end 3y ago
OP explicitly said in their post that they've already sent a physical demand letter: > I wrote a letter twice, and sent in the mail via postage, with tracking, which was delivered, to cancel my Ad services and provide a refund. No response however.
- viraptor 3y ago
  They sent "a letter" twice. Not necessarily a specific demand letter and not necessarily to legal. At this point details like that matter.
creeble 3y ago
IANAL, but: >they are now obligated to show up to court or otherwise risk a default judgement against them that cannot be reversed later. Is definitely untrue. You can appeal a default judgement and win. Ask me how I know. (Edit: attempt to fix formatting)
- ajhurliman 3y ago
  Does that apply to small-claims court?
  - balls187 3y ago
    IANAL—yes. Appellate process looks into whether or not the judge followed the law when making the ruling/judgement. Smalls Claims Court is still a court, and the rulings are still subject to the laws of the land. From a practical matter, you will spend more in legal fees appealing than what is in the judgement.
- cgb223 3y ago
  How do you know? (I genuinely want to hear this story)
  - creeble 3y ago
    Late reply, sorry. My company got a default judgement in small claims court ($3k) that I only learned about months after it happened because the state of California had a totally wrong address (mixed up with some other company) in their database. So I was served at some random address that was fortunately only 50 miles from me; “fortunate” because I still had to appear at that county’s courthouse to make any appeal. The fact that The California State Corporations Board had the wrong address had no bearing on my appeal - that was “my fault” for not monitoring it and having it corrected. So I filed for an actual appeal, appeared before the judge with the plaintiff (and a lawyer on my side that cost $2500), and won the appeal on the merits of the case. Had I not won, the state would have issued a bill and denied the business renewal unless paid. It was an utterly bogus claim by a plaintiff that admitted he made a hobby of small claims court. Most of his cases he won because he defendants never showed up; as I didn’t originally because of the wrong service address. Two lessons: check the state records for your business religiously (because it’s your fault if they get it wrong, no matter what), and fight the claim no matter what or you’ll become a target for future small-claims rewards because the judgements are public information.
hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
[flagged]
- jeron 3y ago
  guerilla marketing strategy is crazy
- obblekk 3y ago
  Uh this is not the case... and also most of my comments on HN are not about my company. The only evidence I can point out: the OP is not concisely written and disputes $300... not the best selling points.
- neilv 3y ago
  I'd love to crack down hard on unscrupulous behavior in tech companies. But the kind of penalties I have in mind demands due process and default presumption of innocence. Which means not making accusations based on only a hunch. In this example, how can the question be investigated quietly?
- stjohnswarts 3y ago
  I too, once had a 2 day old account as did you, correlation != causation.
- hoppyhoppy2 3y ago
  >Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

bag_boy 3y ago

The last sentences read like the opening header on a landing page. That’s a cool business.

npsomaratna 3y ago

^ This. Physically mailing the letter makes a difference. (Been there, done that).

rinze 3y ago
I keep this article in my bookmarks re: how to write a proper complaint letter. It talks specifically about credit reporting agencies, but a lot of what he says can be applied anywhere else: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...
phdelightful 3y ago
I achieved my quickest, simplest, most pleasant customer service interaction yet with an airline by writing a letter explaining what they did (with transaction IDs, confirmation numbers, etc), and what they should have done. The situation was not entirely simple, and I was not looking forward to explaining it verbally to a rep. They sent me back a simple letter a couple weeks later saying they'd resolved the issue the way I requested and provided me the updated documentation. I'll definitely consider this approach next time something like this happens.
- mock-possum 3y ago
  Sounds like you’d do very well as a QA professional

dheera 3y ago

How well does this work for medical bills? I have $4000+ in collections because insurance didn't pay for what they were supposed to, and the hospital decided to send it to collections. Should I send the demand letter to the collector, hospital, or insurance?

withzombies 3y ago
You should contact your state's insurance regulator. They're very powerful and generally get proper reactions from insurance companies.
ksaun 3y ago
20+ years ago, I was in a situation that, at this high level anyway, was similar to what you're describing. The collections agency had also put a black mark on my credit history. I don't recall the details, but to whatever extent I did contact the medical provider or the insurance company, they claimed to be unable to help me. (I no longer owed them money, afterall.) The amount I supposedly owed was some hundreds of dollars, not thousands. After repeatedly failing to have any success communicating with the collections agency, I sent a letter to the Better Business Bureau about the situation. The collector stopped contacting me and my credit history was restored. I never spoke with a lawyer about it and don't know if my approach to addressing the problem was typical. From my experience, I would suggest that you take the fight to the collector. They are the ones to whom you currently supposedly owe money. (I did not attempt to sue anyone, though, and maybe that detail, or others, would change the answer for your specific situation.)
- bityard 3y ago
  > The collections agency had also put a black mark on my credit history. This doesn't seem to be true. According to Experian, the original _creditor_ is the one that puts the black mark on your credit history when they sell your debt to a collections agency. (Typically for pennies on the dollar.) > After repeatedly failing to have any success communicating with the collections agency, I sent a letter to the Better Business Bureau about the situation. The collector stopped contacting me and my credit history was restored. I never spoke with a lawyer about it and don't know if my approach to addressing the problem was typical. At a guess, the collections agency might have decided it wasn't worth fighting you over it for a few hundred dollars and dropped your case to spend more time on larger targets. But I don't see how they (or the BBB) could have fixed your credit report, they don't have the power to do that. > I would suggest that you take the fight to the collector. I mean, you can try but you are unlikely to succeed. These people are (usually) skilled negotiators, they can't easily be outfoxed or convinced to be on your side. Their only goal is to get money from you. The dirty secret that the collections agencies don't want people to know is that nobody has any actual obligation to pay them. They buy bad debt and hope they can convince you to pay them. The ONLY leverage they have is the ability to guilt and intimidate. Some agencies engage in shady behavior (calling friends and neighbors, making threats). These behaviors are generally illegal, but the kind of people who fall that far into debt are generally not the kind of people who can afford to take legal action against a lawyered-up agency. You never HAVE to pay a collections agency, and even if you do, the debt NEVER gets paid back to the original creditor, just the agency collecting it. Neither will paying them fix your credit report in any way. If you have debt that was legitimately defaulted on and made its way all the way to a collections agency, the very best thing to do is not engage them. They will give up eventually. They _might_ try to help if the debt wound up in collections due to a creditor's mistake, but I wouldn't bet too much on it.

tverbeure 3y ago

I see that your website asks $9 + $10/month for the basics package. I've never once had the need to write a demand letter, so if I ever need to, I'd expect to be a one time thing. I definitely won't need a monthly service. How does that work in this case? Does it mean I'd pay $19 and then cancel the monthly service?

silisili 3y ago
Agreed with this. IMO, it should charge a one time fee to handle it all, and probably more than $19. I can't see many people suing folks monthly. Charge me $40 or $50 and take care of everything for me!
- obblekk 3y ago
  There is a one time option (click one-time at top) and it is $35!
  - silisili 3y ago
    Neat. I'm definitely bookmarking this. I personally think you could charge more if needed. Dealing with legalese and paperwork is a huge, huge headache to most people. Nicely done.
markdown 3y ago
They rely on you forgetting to cancel. Then when you notice a few months later, you demand a refund. They won’t give it to you, necessitating that you resubscribe in order to send them a demand letter. #growthhacking
- xu_ituairo 3y ago
  If they don't refund, take them to small claims court
  - obblekk 3y ago

clnq 3y ago

Are there equivalent services in the EU and the UK?

AdamGibbins 3y ago
You honestly don't need one in the UK, filing small claims via the governments site is very easy. They'll auto send a demand letter for you etc. https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

binarymax 3y ago

Just a note that you should add https:// https:// to your links so we can click on them!

wk_end 3y ago

OP explicitly said in their post that they've already sent a physical demand letter: > I wrote a letter twice, and sent in the mail via postage, with tracking, which was delivered, to cancel my Ad services and provide a refund. No response however.

viraptor 3y ago
They sent "a letter" twice. Not necessarily a specific demand letter and not necessarily to legal. At this point details like that matter.

creeble 3y ago

IANAL, but: >they are now obligated to show up to court or otherwise risk a default judgement against them that cannot be reversed later. Is definitely untrue. You can appeal a default judgement and win. Ask me how I know. (Edit: attempt to fix formatting)

ajhurliman 3y ago
Does that apply to small-claims court?
- balls187 3y ago
  IANAL—yes. Appellate process looks into whether or not the judge followed the law when making the ruling/judgement. Smalls Claims Court is still a court, and the rulings are still subject to the laws of the land. From a practical matter, you will spend more in legal fees appealing than what is in the judgement.
cgb223 3y ago
How do you know? (I genuinely want to hear this story)
- creeble 3y ago
  Late reply, sorry. My company got a default judgement in small claims court ($3k) that I only learned about months after it happened because the state of California had a totally wrong address (mixed up with some other company) in their database. So I was served at some random address that was fortunately only 50 miles from me; “fortunate” because I still had to appear at that county’s courthouse to make any appeal. The fact that The California State Corporations Board had the wrong address had no bearing on my appeal - that was “my fault” for not monitoring it and having it corrected. So I filed for an actual appeal, appeared before the judge with the plaintiff (and a lawyer on my side that cost $2500), and won the appeal on the merits of the case. Had I not won, the state would have issued a bill and denied the business renewal unless paid. It was an utterly bogus claim by a plaintiff that admitted he made a hobby of small claims court. Most of his cases he won because he defendants never showed up; as I didn’t originally because of the wrong service address. Two lessons: check the state records for your business religiously (because it’s your fault if they get it wrong, no matter what), and fight the claim no matter what or you’ll become a target for future small-claims rewards because the judgements are public information.

hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago

[flagged]

jeron 3y ago
guerilla marketing strategy is crazy
obblekk 3y ago
Uh this is not the case... and also most of my comments on HN are not about my company. The only evidence I can point out: the OP is not concisely written and disputes $300... not the best selling points.
neilv 3y ago
I'd love to crack down hard on unscrupulous behavior in tech companies. But the kind of penalties I have in mind demands due process and default presumption of innocence. Which means not making accusations based on only a hunch. In this example, how can the question be investigated quietly?
stjohnswarts 3y ago
I too, once had a 2 day old account as did you, correlation != causation.
hoppyhoppy2 3y ago
>Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html