Have you ever taken a Vendor to Small Claims Court to get your money refunded?

Re: Have you ever taken a Vendor to Small Claims Court to get your money refunded?

• hlvonb member

  

  January 2014

  
  

  visualfx said:

  Have any of you ever had to take a vendor, mainly a photographer, to small claims court to get your money back due to them not fullfilling their contract? If so, how was the process? I realize it may be somewhat different in each area. Just wondering what the process is and if it was worth the hassle. Thank you.
  
                 -Brian
  

  Depending on what the photographer did / didn't do and how much money we're talking might change my answer. 

  
  

  Anytime you go to court it is going to be a pain / hassle. 

  
  

  @visualfx  please let us know how much money you're talking about and how he did not fulfill the contract.

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• VarunaTT member

  

  January 2014

  You should be able to go to your county courthouse and get all of the forms you need for small claims.  The clerk should be willing and able to help to a certain point with it as well.

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• visualfx member

  

  January 2014

  We have paid almost the entire amount of money to this photographer. Just under 5k. We were supposed to have Save the Dates over a month ago. We still have nothing. She does not return emails. Does not return phone calls. We have called numerous times at all hours of the day and she does not answer. Her cell phone voice mail box is full so we are unable to leave messages. We are less than 4 months away from our wedding and do not have money to start paying another photographer. That is why we are unsure how to proceed.
  

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• artbyallie mod

  

  January 2014

  Do you have a mailing address for this person? You could send a certified letter asking for your money back due to breach of contract and specify that if you don't hear from them within a certain time frame, you will begin small claims proceedings. Even if that doesn't get them to pay up, you have it as evidence for your hearing.

  

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• tawillers member

  

  January 2014 edited January 2014

  Have you walked into her place of business and asked wtf is going on?

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• visualfx member

  

  January 2014

  That's the next step, although it isn't really a normal place of business. Her studio is this old building on the East side of Milwaukee in a residential district.  Thank you for all the suggestions thus far.
  

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• 6fsn member

  

  January 2014

  Send a certified letter.  Go to the courthouse and pick up the paperwork.  It can take some time to get a hearing, but the process is pretty simple.

  I took an ex to small claims.  The process was very simple.  The filing fee was something like $30 and he had to pay it when I won.  I also got to start charging interest and if he defaulted I could garnish his wages.

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• MNNEBride member

  

  January 2014

  Ditto to all the previous posters.  In addition, I would start NOW on a plan for a new photographer and how you will pay for that.

  

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• cmiles89 member

  

  January 2014

  Have you paid any of this money with a credit card? I know most people don't recommend it, and I usually don't either, but most cards have some protection against this sort of thing. So you may be able to take it up with your card carrier and get some of it back before it even starts going through small claims.

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• visualfx member

  

  January 2014

  Unfortunately we chose not to do that so we wouldn't be paying interest on top of the fees they charge for each transaction. (They do monthly payments and each transaction was like a $5 fee to run a credit card). Looking back now, I kind of wish we would have done that to have some protection. Thank you for all the help and suggestions.
  

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