Receiving a bad e-check

Soupyone

Soupyone

Banned
Dec 8, 2009
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Someone signs a contract for web dev + ad work.

Tries to get you to do the work before the check clears

Then pulls the money out of the account before the check clears

Check bounces.

You contact them saying "your check bounced", we can't finish until payment for services rendered.

They respond back, we know we want you to do it for cheaper we pulled the money out of the account on purpose.
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EVERYTHING is in writing.

How do you proceed?
 


That's extremely sketch.

Tell them you won't complete the work unless they pay you the agreed upon amount, end of story. Be professional.

There's no use getting into a shouting match or threatening lawsuits.. that will turn a slim chance of payment into no chance of payment.
 
Yeah... I agree here. That's total fucked up'ness. Sell the work to their competitors, then post their info here or take out an SEO campaign to rank for them. They fuck you, you fuck them back.... or just sue them (although its gonna cost).
 
How much have you taken upfront and how much is due? I hope this wasn't the deposit that bounced.

What percentage of work is completed?

I wouldn't trust this company to pay for work on an ongoing basis if they think its acceptable to take back money in order to renegotiate a contracted price.

I'd call them and remind them we have a contract and say I can't change it (refer to a manager or company policy if you have to) but you do want to work with them. See how much they want to pay. If your contract is $1500 and they want to pay $1000, tell them you'll give them a $500 discount on an upsell package or something.

So if they got web design and wanted seo, they have to honour the web design price and you'll give them a discount on first month seo.

Depending on the amount, court is probably not worth time, money and frustration. Just keep it civil. You catch more bees with honey than vinegar after all.
 
I'd drop them. And I don't care how much money the job was worth. I'm not working with anyone who disrespects me and my time like that.

If someone pulled that on me (and I've been in similar situations), I don't care if they offer to double the pay and beg me to come back.

They've basically told you "we don't care about you, we don't value you and we're not to be trusted"...

Fuck all of that. Just drop 'em and find a better client.
 
I like Jon's idea. You tell them they either pay you what the agreed upon amount was, or you will publicly "out" them and make it rank for their company name. If they say "fuck you go ahead", do it, get it to rank, once it does, come back at them and say "Now, want this removed? Pay up and I'll give you the work I completed"
 
With Jon & Dreamache on this one. Don't go threatening law suits, because that just turns it into a trashy shit show. Plus, if the work is only for a few hundred or a few grand, the cost of suing someone isn't practical. Maybe some small claims court, but even that's a pain in the ass. Just out the shit out of them.
 
dont go the legal way, too much hassle and will also take time and energy. Just tell them to pay or get fucked. Dont be afraid to screw them with their rankings. When they get back to you with sorry reasons, ask for a interest on top of payment.

Next time, always ask for a pre-payment. I dont work with any clients big or small without they paying me full amount in advance.
 
They wanted us to build a whole site (jamula + virtuemart) w/ on-page SEO for $x,xxx and that amount was even cheaper than what we normally charge.

They insisted that we get started (and guaranteed the check clear) since they need to process orders ASAP (don't wait for it to clear, it'll be good... blah, blah).

INSIGHT: We've built three sites for them in the past. ALL COSTING MORE MONEY.

Their deposit is what bounced (50%). They even told me via email it's on purpose; the owner didn't agree with the price after he thought about it... (after signing the contract too)

I forwarded it to my manager who handles accounts and told him don't budge we'll deal w/ it tomorrow.

I emailed them saying "email bob .... @....com from now on" .

Pretty much, they've incriminated themselves... Then they asked for a discount.

I responded I don't have time for this, I'll simply have someone notify the AG and you can have a great day.

They responded wanting to do it for $x,xxx. Which is $100 less then what bounced.

I'm not having Bob respond until tomorrow w/ anything, but I'm curious.

My thoughts:

1. Don't touch it without 100% payment upfront (screw the deposit amount - the whole shebang).

2. Let one of my guys's brother (attorney) have some fun.

Either way, I'm not going to respond until I know exactly what we want to do and its ramifications.

War is deception.
 
Wait...you took a fucking eCHECK!? This is common sense shit you do NOT do. Learned this my first week on Paypal. In any event, go into Paypal and unclick the option to receive checks, they're almost never real.

Also just fuck them over some how, not sure how, but don't let them get away with it. I say you out them whether or not they pay.
 
EricVonDoobie said:
Wait...you took a fucking eCHECK!? This is common sense shit you do NOT do. Learned this my first week on Paypal. In any event, go into Paypal and unclick the option to receive checks, they're almost never real.

Also just fuck them over some how, not sure how, but don't let them get away with it. I say you out them whether or not they pay.
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I've used Paypal for years, they've been very good to me. Paypal protection is nice when dealing w/ chargebacks.

If a check bounced it's going to bounce anywhere.

Thanks for trying to help though.

As for what I'm going to do or not do that isn't directly involved with a contract it's best that I don't say anything in writing.
 
agreeing with "sue the bastards". or press charges, isn't this wire fraud or financial fraud of some kind?
 
papajohn56 said:
agreeing with "sue the bastards". or press charges, isn't this wire fraud or financial fraud of some kind?
Click to expand...
That's what I'm going to do. Just report them to the Attorney General.

I'm going to report them regardless of what else we choose to do.

Passing a bad check is a felony.

I'm just doing my best to be a lawful citizen... :action-smiley-052:

EDIT: http://www.sao10.com/worthless_checks.asp
 
Hey Soup, my advice is do exactly what you are doing- stop all work and pursue any legal remedies you have that are cheap or free. By all means, report them to the AG, but that won't go anywhere probably.

If they didn't receive any goods yet, then they probably won't get dinged for a "Bad Check"- They "stopped payment" the only way possible with a PayPal e-check by draining the account, and can just argue they were unhappy with the terms, schedule, etc... Just sayin'.

If you do come to terms with them, make sure and get 100% of the fees in Certified Funds (cashier's check) and wait for it to clear fully before any delivery is made.

If they continue to fuck around, then by all means take Jon's way- you OWN the work product and all copyrights thereon at this point. USE them and OUT them here.
 
People can really suck. Sounds like you have legal proof of default from their email saying they bounced the check on purpose.
If I had access to a legal eagle like you do, I'd let him dash off a scary letter and see if that works. 'course if you go that route, your committed to sue them if the letter fails -- or else you'll look like a freakin punk.
 
Post info here

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Soupyone said:
That's what I'm going to do. Just report them to the Attorney General.

I'm going to report them regardless of what else we choose to do.

Passing a bad check is a felony.

I'm just doing my best to be a lawful citizen... :action-smiley-052:

EDIT: State Attorney's Office 10th Judicial Circuit Florida
Click to expand...

I'm torn if you should tell them you're doing this or not. It might scare them into paying, but it also might make them flee.
 
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