The Dude
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2010
- Location
- Portland, OR
Two things up front: 1. I don't want to get into the details of this (supplier, type of product, etc.) and 2. I would really prefer to stick to the subject at hand as I can't afford to waste much more time on this.
I made a down-payment on a "machine add-on" system, about $3K for a $6K total. This was for a standard "brochure type" product, not custom (made-to-order). There were two "add ons" that you could consider custom but they quoted a fixed cost. Assuming they (might just be "he" as I think it's a very small company) are telling the truth (which is increasingly looking more like "lying"), they are having trouble with one of the add ons. Long story short, it's way over-due and there has been NO evidence that the item has even been built (I've asked for photos and videos). Response to emails and phone calls is getting slower and slower, I'm at the point where I'm thinking legal action if the only alternative.
One other important detail: I'm in the US, they are in Canada.
So, my one and basically only question is, has anyone been in a similar situation: made a downpayment (let's say for a less than $10K item), got nothing, took legal action and had any kind of success in at least getting part/most of the payment returned?
I am not really looking for legal advice, more just "how did you do it?" (type of attorney,etc.) and "what was the outcome?", "was it worth it", "are there other alternatives?". For car insurance claims, some contractors, etc. they have mediators but I can't imagine there's one for this process. No, didn't pay with a VISA (dammit, I wanted to do it that way and it was an alert that I should have started to question the integrity more).
I've had worse situations but they involved much higher investments. This one is on the lower end of balancing the outcome with further input.
Thanks for any advice but also please don't spend too much of your time on something that's already become a learned lesson for me: do a bit more investigation on the business when you make an "over the airwaves" purchase on a company you don't know much about. I learned this for larger companies years ago and just didn't think it would be an issue for this smaller purchase.
Thanks,
The Dude
I made a down-payment on a "machine add-on" system, about $3K for a $6K total. This was for a standard "brochure type" product, not custom (made-to-order). There were two "add ons" that you could consider custom but they quoted a fixed cost. Assuming they (might just be "he" as I think it's a very small company) are telling the truth (which is increasingly looking more like "lying"), they are having trouble with one of the add ons. Long story short, it's way over-due and there has been NO evidence that the item has even been built (I've asked for photos and videos). Response to emails and phone calls is getting slower and slower, I'm at the point where I'm thinking legal action if the only alternative.
One other important detail: I'm in the US, they are in Canada.
So, my one and basically only question is, has anyone been in a similar situation: made a downpayment (let's say for a less than $10K item), got nothing, took legal action and had any kind of success in at least getting part/most of the payment returned?
I am not really looking for legal advice, more just "how did you do it?" (type of attorney,etc.) and "what was the outcome?", "was it worth it", "are there other alternatives?". For car insurance claims, some contractors, etc. they have mediators but I can't imagine there's one for this process. No, didn't pay with a VISA (dammit, I wanted to do it that way and it was an alert that I should have started to question the integrity more).
I've had worse situations but they involved much higher investments. This one is on the lower end of balancing the outcome with further input.
Thanks for any advice but also please don't spend too much of your time on something that's already become a learned lesson for me: do a bit more investigation on the business when you make an "over the airwaves" purchase on a company you don't know much about. I learned this for larger companies years ago and just didn't think it would be an issue for this smaller purchase.
Thanks,
The Dude