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This isn't about moral rights to be a dick. This is about business and how you handle companies that owe you large sums of money and have made it clear they ha

by modoc 18y ago

This isn't about moral rights to be a dick. This is about business and how you handle companies that owe you large sums of money and have made it clear they have no intention of paying. Boredguy8's suggestion seems odd to me, in that it's unlikely to work too often, and even if it does, the attitude of the other company in the OP is such that I would want nothing to do with them going forward.

maryrosecook 18y ago
But it seems to me like an unkind ("dickish") way of getting the money back. Other people have made suggestions for alternatives: tptacek (small claims court), tjic (scary lawyer letter), boredguy8 (a social engineering approach).
- modoc 18y ago
  Small Claims Court: usually limited to 2-3k, so you're giving up 7-8k, AND you have to spend your time in court. Doesn't seem like a wise expenditure of time versus revenue given the other options. Lawyer Letter: TJIC's suggestion is a very good one. However he's already sent them a copy of the legal contract the company signed, so it's possible this could likely be a waste a few hundred bucks of attorney fees. If he tried this, and they continued to ignore him, would a collections agency be a logical next step? If not, what would? Social Engineering: Frankly it sounds like the new CEO isn't going to say "Oh you're going to fly here, man I better cut a check quick". So you're probably out a plane ticket a day of work. The last thing a small business needs to do is to have a key person wrapped up for hours/day/weeks trying to recover money from a clearly uncooperative/belligerent person. They need to find the best balance of revenue versus time spent. After the threatening legal letter (which is sort of dick-ish I guess), I think a collections agency is the next logical step.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Just a reminder: look upthread, it's not "2-3k"; in many of the places you're likely to be doing business, it's over $7k; the mean is ~$6k, the median is $5k. Yes, MA is $2k. That sucks.

by modoc 18y ago

maryrosecook 18y ago

But it seems to me like an unkind ("dickish") way of getting the money back. Other people have made suggestions for alternatives: tptacek (small claims court), tjic (scary lawyer letter), boredguy8 (a social engineering approach).

modoc 18y ago
Small Claims Court: usually limited to 2-3k, so you're giving up 7-8k, AND you have to spend your time in court. Doesn't seem like a wise expenditure of time versus revenue given the other options. Lawyer Letter: TJIC's suggestion is a very good one. However he's already sent them a copy of the legal contract the company signed, so it's possible this could likely be a waste a few hundred bucks of attorney fees. If he tried this, and they continued to ignore him, would a collections agency be a logical next step? If not, what would? Social Engineering: Frankly it sounds like the new CEO isn't going to say "Oh you're going to fly here, man I better cut a check quick". So you're probably out a plane ticket a day of work. The last thing a small business needs to do is to have a key person wrapped up for hours/day/weeks trying to recover money from a clearly uncooperative/belligerent person. They need to find the best balance of revenue versus time spent. After the threatening legal letter (which is sort of dick-ish I guess), I think a collections agency is the next logical step.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Just a reminder: look upthread, it's not "2-3k"; in many of the places you're likely to be doing business, it's over $7k; the mean is ~$6k, the median is $5k. Yes, MA is $2k. That sucks.