Getting money that is owed.. (small claims?)

[handsome]

A while back I posted about my car sale and receiving a check for $2,950 but with the wrong written amount ("Two thousand and fifty dollars"). Anyhow, the buyer sent me a new check... correct spelling, but wrong amount. $2,900 this time, so he still owes me $50.

The day I received it (Thursday), I gave him a call and basically said, "Hey, your check was for $2,900. Please send the other $50." He didn't call me back until today (Monday). I was taking a test in class so I couldn't pick up. He left a message saying he intentionally left out $50 to cover the cost of a carjack.

WTF? The day he came to pay for the car, he asked me if I had a carjack and I said, "No, I never had one." I thought we both understood that the sale would not include a carjack but apparently he didn't. My gut tells me he's just trying to get away with an extra $50.

Now.. I don't want to threaten him (yet) so I will make an effort to simply ask him for the money. HOWEVER, I have a feeling that he won't send it, so I need a backup plan. would small claims be reasonable for this? If so, what's the procedure of claiming a case?

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

if you have no document/contract or other proof of the deal, you are SOL. Also, im not sure small claims is even worth it for 50$ (fees/time and whatnot)

[lucas9000]

ask yourself this: is the time and hassle of taking this guy to small claims court really worth $50? if so, by all means look into it.

[handsome]

Well, what if someone pulled this on you? What would you do?

[jakethebake]

Who was carjacked? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[swede123]

I'm confused here. You sold your car, but the guy wanted a discount because he is giving you a jack? How does this make sense?

As far as chasing the money outstanding, just let it slide bro. Your opportunity cost of chasing down the fifty bucks will greatly exceed the money itself.

Swede

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
A while back I posted about my car sale and receiving a check for $2,950 but with the wrong written amount ("Two thousand and fifty dollars").

[/ QUOTE ]

How did you not notice this?

[handsome]

The car did not include a jack (to jack up the car in case of flat tires), so he took $50 out of his owed balance to cover that expense.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm confused here. You sold your car, but the guy wanted a discount because he is giving you a jack? How does this make sense?

As far as chasing the money outstanding, just let it slide bro. Your opportunity cost of chasing down the fifty bucks will greatly exceed the money itself.

Swede

[/ QUOTE ]

Car doesn't have jack. Guy wants jack. Guy thinks jack should come with car. Guy decides to take price for jack out of price for car w/o agreement from seller (OP). Guy is an idiot.

[handsome]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A while back I posted about my car sale and receiving a check for $2,950 but with the wrong written amount ("Two thousand and fifty dollars").

[/ QUOTE ]

How did you not notice this?

[/ QUOTE ]

My mom took the money because she thought I would get mugged.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, what if someone pulled this on you? What would you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

Tell him there was no agreement about the jack and that he bought a car not a jack.
Tell him he owes you $50 and you will give him an amount of time (3 days or a week) to pay you.
Threaten to take him to small claims court.
Call his mommy
Give up.

[swede123]

I see. Yeah, the guy is a [censored] moron for pulling that crap. You can buy a bottle jack for ten bucks at Harbor Freight, so what's up with the fifty? Still, it's not worth chasing down the money through any kind of outside source.

Swede

[chaas4747]

You will spend more than $50 to fight this. Setting fire to the car is a better idea.

[siccjay]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, what if someone pulled this on you? What would you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

Kidnap his family. Take them out on a boat with large cinder blocks tied to their ankles. Give him a call. Camera phone is a +.

[handsome]

This sucks.

[PLOlover]

Small claims court is easy. And when you win he also owes you your filing fees and postage. Since you know where he banks you can just walk into the bank with the judgement and have them pay you right there.

If he bothers to respond, you will have to waste a few hours at court. If he doesn't respond, you win by default.

In any case, it's good practice for your first small court case to be a slam dunk. I'm assuming you have the sale price in writing somewhere, like on the title.

Also don't sweat court and stuff it's 51% proof, so it is just whoever the judge believes.

Really the guy won't even answer your certified mail and you will win by default.

[swede123]

The one thing you are missing here is the time spent researching and filing this small claim. Obviously the OP doesn't have much expertize in this area, and unless he's a college bum with nothing better to do the opportunity cost of going through all this would exceed the $50. Or does small claims court also consider personal time spent when figuring out the damages?

Swede

[bwana devil]

in texas it costs $26 to file in court (i believe that's the fee). as the above poster mentioned you have to send a certified letter to him also. so that's an extra couple bucks plus writing the letter. plus the time you have to file the court fees. so you'll have spent about $30 and plenty of time right away.

you dont have to have a contract in court but you have to expect the other party not to lie and say what the true sale price was. if you win he has to pay you money owed plus court costs but then you have to file papers to get the money after that. (ive won $800 in small claims court before and never saw a dime of it).

the dude gained possesion of the property before properly paying for it and is screwing you over trying to renogotiate the price now. the dude's a jerk. id call him up and act like you're ready to play hardball but never intend to go through w/ it.

[xLukex]

Uhhh if you guys wrote out some sort of receipt (I HOPE YOU DID) you should just be able to say "the car was sold for $2950, I've only received $2900." if this was the only written agreement you have, you are in the right.

That is, if you took it to small claims...which is a waste.

[PLOlover]

He'll spend probably an hour at home filling out paperwork, an hour or two at court, and travel time.

He'll probably win 75 dollars or so at court, and next time he's near the guys bank he just goes in and gets the money.

But the main thing is is it's fun and he'll be learning how to assert his rights. Also I figure this will become more important in the future. Just look at New York and the subway search thing.

[handsome]

UPDATE:
I gave the guy a call today, and he's being a dick about the $50. He's now saying I purposely chose not to tell him about the car not including a jack, claiming that I'm changing my story, from "not owning a car jack" to "not knowing about a car jack," which doesn't quite make any sense. I'm having a hard time explaining that the jack was his responsibility, not mine. He doesn't quite understand that he was not allowed to spend MY money and I have a feeling I will do something drastic if he's gonna be a stubborn little donkey.

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
He doesn't quite understand that he was not allowed to spend MY money and I have a feeling I will do something drastic if he's gonna be a stubborn little donkey.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like post about it on the internet a few more times?

I hope you saved a key to the car. If you really want to be drastic, claim he didn't pay you the assigned amount and reposess the car.

But then you'd have to sell it again, so [censored] it. Duct tape a small jug of milk to the underside of the car and hope he doesn't notice it. Or a dead animal.

NT

[HopeydaFish]

Do *something*...be it taking him to court, or burning down his house. From the sounds of it, talking to him is a waste of time, so stop doing that. Don't waste any more time stewing about it, either. You'll regret it for a long time if you just end up letting him walk all over you, so you need to do something.

[EliteNinja]

[ QUOTE ]
Do *something*...be it taking him to court, or burning down his house. From the sounds of it, talking to him is a waste of time, so stop doing that. Don't waste any more time stewing about it, either. You'll regret it for a long time if you just end up letting him walk all over you, so you need to do something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed.

You still have a key for your old car, right? What you can do is steal a wheel or two from the car. Since he has no jack, he will actually need to buy a jack to replace the wheel(s).

Or you can slash the tires.

Or you can smash a window of the car and steal the radio.

Or you can spraypaint the car with swearwords.

Or smash a window worth $50+ at his house.

Have some fun.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
A while back I posted about my car sale and receiving a check for $2,950 but with the wrong written amount ("Two thousand and fifty dollars"). Anyhow, the buyer sent me a new check... correct spelling, but wrong amount. $2,900 this time, so he still owes me $50.

The day I received it (Thursday), I gave him a call and basically said, "Hey, your check was for $2,900. Please send the other $50." He didn't call me back until today (Monday). I was taking a test in class so I couldn't pick up. He left a message saying he intentionally left out $50 to cover the cost of a carjack.

WTF? The day he came to pay for the car, he asked me if I had a carjack and I said, "No, I never had one." I thought we both understood that the sale would not include a carjack but apparently he didn't. My gut tells me he's just trying to get away with an extra $50.

Now.. I don't want to threaten him (yet) so I will make an effort to simply ask him for the money. HOWEVER, I have a feeling that he won't send it, so I need a backup plan. would small claims be reasonable for this? If so, what's the procedure of claiming a case?

[/ QUOTE ]

Cash the check, then go stab his tires at like 4:15am (for a poker player, this is a reasonable time of the evening to be doing this).

Two days later, do it again.

4 months later, do it again.

Then call him and ask for the $50.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
You will spend more than $50 to fight this. Setting fire to the car is a better idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

No it's not.

I've got a pretty basic philosophy on crime:

You can't get away with murder, but you can get away with lesser stuff.

Arson isn't "lesser stuff": you'll have a team of experts trying to track you down. Not a good idea.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A while back I posted about my car sale and receiving a check for $2,950 but with the wrong written amount ("Two thousand and fifty dollars"). Anyhow, the buyer sent me a new check... correct spelling, but wrong amount. $2,900 this time, so he still owes me $50.

The day I received it (Thursday), I gave him a call and basically said, "Hey, your check was for $2,900. Please send the other $50." He didn't call me back until today (Monday). I was taking a test in class so I couldn't pick up. He left a message saying he intentionally left out $50 to cover the cost of a carjack.

WTF? The day he came to pay for the car, he asked me if I had a carjack and I said, "No, I never had one." I thought we both understood that the sale would not include a carjack but apparently he didn't. My gut tells me he's just trying to get away with an extra $50.

Now.. I don't want to threaten him (yet) so I will make an effort to simply ask him for the money. HOWEVER, I have a feeling that he won't send it, so I need a backup plan. would small claims be reasonable for this? If so, what's the procedure of claiming a case?

[/ QUOTE ]

Cash the check, then go stab his tires at like 4:15am (for a poker player, this is a reasonable time of the evening to be doing this).

Two days later, do it again.

4 months later, do it again.

Then call him and ask for the $50.

[/ QUOTE ]

Theoretically speaking, the correct procedure for this is to put the knifetip to the tire and slowly press into the tire, rather than actually attempting to stab the tire. If you have a buddy come with you, then you guys can take out both tires on each side at a very quick pace. Park your car a ways away, and run towards the car. Bonus points if the guy lives near a ravine that you can run through to reach your car (and if the ravine opens out onto a few different streets). Take a quick walk along your escape route before attempting this. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Edit: Be calm when running with knives, as slipping and falling on one would be both painful and embarassing. Bonus points if the knives have some sort of sheathes for when you're not using them.