So what's my next move? UPDATE

[eyenigh]

A lot of you may remember a few weeks ago that I posted about having an issue with my housekeeping service, which resulted in a parting of ways. Oddly, I didn't technically fire her. After I addressed the issues I had with the service, she let me know that SHE would no longer be serving the county I live in (which I'm pretty sure is BS, but it's unimportant to this situation since I was going to fire her anyway). She said that she would either finish the last 4 visits that she owed me or I could have a refund since I had prepaid. Since she wasn't even able to show up for the last 4 visits, I didn't want to have to deal with trying to get her here for 4 more so I chose the refund, which she said she would send me a check. The exchange was via email and was calm and professional. In the last email, I asked when I could expect the check to be mailed to me and she did not respond. I wasn't surprised because her ability to communicate was a lot of the problem that I had with her but I wasn't too worried about it.

So a week goes by and I hear nothing. I send her another email asking for the an update on the status of the refund check. No response. No check. Same thing happened the following week. It will be three weeks tomorrow and I sent her an email and a text message yesterday just asking the same thing "I haven't heard from you and was wondering if you could update me on the status of my refund check." No response. No check.

I'm pretty sure she now has no intention of refunding my money, which is absolutely not acceptable, so now I'm contemplating what I should do next. I don't think it's unreasonable to not get a response or a refund within three weeks, right? At this point, I'm considering filing in small claims court if I don't hear from her by next Friday, which will be just over a month. The other option, and I don't even know if this is possible, is trying to contact my credit card company to reverse the charges since she did not provide the service that I paid for but it's been awhile and the total amount of the charge reversal is way more than she owes me. I guess I could send her a check for the remainder and the terrible part of me would like to make her wait a month for it, too, but, really I just want this to be over.

Am I being unreasonable? What would you do at this point?

[smalltownmoon]

Not sure of the logistics, but I'd either go to small claims court or send her a strongly worded email letting her know if you don't recieve your refund by x date that you will be filing a claim in small claims court. This might be the kick in the tush she needs to give you the money you are owed. Good luck.

[eyenigh]

Feb 11, 2015 8:52:00 GMT -5 smalltownmoon said:

Not sure of the logistics, but I'd either go to small claims court or send her a strongly worded email letting her know if you don't recieve your refund by x date that you will be filing a claim in small claims court. This might be the kick in the tush she needs to give you the money you are owed. Good luck.

Yeah, I was definitely going to send her a final email letting her know that I was planning to file if it came to that. That was kind of my hope that it might get her moving, too.

I just have a hard time understanding how someone can be like this. If I owed someone money, particularly as a business, I'd have a check in the mail that day. I don't get it.

[TheEleventhHour]

I would send her an email or letter stating if she doesn't return the money in X number of days you will be filing in small claims court. It sounds like she is taking advantage of your patience and kindness and doesn't think you will do anything. If the idea of small claims is presented to her I have a feeling the check would appear. Is this her own cleaning business? I would also report her to the Better Business Bureau. They should be aware because I am sure you aren't the only person she has done this too. The whole pay up front and then she stops coming seems like an easy scam to pull unfortunately.

[helenahhandbasket]

Wow that's tough.

I am guessing though that if you are having a hard time getting a response, you will have a hard time getting her to show up to small claims court.

I can't remember if you said she works for an agency? If yes, can they get involved?

If not, I would actually suggest calling your CC company and asking them to reverse the charges. I haven't ever had to do that myself, so i am not sure how that works, but it's worth a try.

[smalltownmoon]

Unfortunately, this happens at my job a lot. We contract different trades and occasionally someone will disappear off a job after being paid and leaving the work in a shoddy state. We had to pursue one guy because he walked off a job and had used our CC to buy tools and was paying us back...he just disappeared and we ended up taking him to court over like $500. People can be so shady.

[eyenigh]

Feb 11, 2015 9:08:05 GMT -5 TheEleventhHour said:

I would send her an email or letter stating if she doesn't return the money in X number of days you will be filing in small claims court. It sounds like she is taking advantage of your patience and kindness and doesn't think you will do anything. If the idea of small claims is presented to her I have a feeling the check would appear. Is this her own cleaning business? I would also report her to the Better Business Bureau. They should be aware because I am sure you aren't the only person she has done this too. The whole pay up front and then she stops coming seems like an easy scam to pull unfortunately.

Yes, it's her own business, which is why I really don't get this. I like the idea of reporting her to the BBB or even at least threatening her with it.

Yeah, I've learned a great lesson about pre-paying. I only did it since it, essentially, got me a month of free cleaning with the discount that she offered and, up until the prepay, the service had been pretty good. I hate feeling like I'm being taken advantage of and I also hate this type of confrontation.


helenahhandbasket, Even if she doesn't show up in court, it doesn't really matter because I would still present my case and the judge (from what I understand) will just rule in my favor if the case is sound and the evidence backs my claims, which it definitely does. I would rather reverse the charges, too because I feel like it might be more efficient for me. I'm going to try to call the CC company later to see what they say.

[eyenigh]

Feb 11, 2015 9:34:09 GMT -5 lildis said:

Send it certified mail so she has to sign to get it & you get evidence that she received it.

Make sure to look into if there's a minimum amount of money owed also. (No idea how much she owes you)

It's about $400. Definitely enough to meet the minimum and enough that I want it back.

[BostonKisses]

Feb 11, 2015 8:52:00 GMT -5 smalltownmoon said:

Not sure of the logistics, but I'd either go to small claims court or send her a strongly worded email letting her know if you don't recieve your refund by x date that you will be filing a claim in small claims court. This might be the kick in the tush she needs to give you the money you are owed. Good luck.

Agree with this.  I'd also file a complaint with the BBB against the company/her (if she's self-employed).

[BostonKisses]

Also, I wouldn't hesitate to blast her on Yelp, because she's shady as fuck. That way others can see the review and decide if she's worth the risk of hiring or not.

[eyenigh]

I was thinking about Yelp and even Facebook, too but I was also thinking it might be another good thing to use as leverage in the final email/letter that I send. Like "here is what I will do if you don't pay," kind of thing. Once I gave my money, I'lll do it anyway to warn others. The more I talk about it, the more disgusted I am.

[stellabunny]

I'd call the credit card company first to see if they can reverse part of the charge. I think there's a time limit on it though, but if they can do it that would definitely be the easiest thing for you.

If they can't, I'd send her an email and a certified, return-receipt-requested letter saying you're taking her to small claims court if you don't get your check within 2 weeks.

Good luck - let us know how it goes. I'm guessing she doesn't have the money anymore otherwise she would've sent it just to get rid of you. So, if you end up having to go the small claims route and get a judgment in your favor, you're still going to have to try and get money from someone who likely doesn't have any. What a pain.

[TheEleventhHour]

Feb 11, 2015 10:40:29 GMT -5 eyenigh said:

I was thinking about Yelp and even Facebook, too but I was also thinking it might be another good thing to use as leverage in the final email/letter that I send. Like "here is what I will do if you don't pay," kind of thing. Once I gave my money, I'lll do it anyway to warn others. The more I talk about it, the more disgusted I am.

Definitely wise to stay quiet until you are paid because you can use it as leverage but I would 100% warn others once it is done with. I am probably just being a cynical bitch but I really wouldn't be surprised if she has tried this with others whether she succeeded or not!

[penguin129]

I forget if she was a working on her own or with a business. If she was working with a business I would contact the Better Business Bureau. If she was working on her own or whatever post a review about her on Angie's list or something like that. I think you can do that. Court might cost more money than she owes you. You're in a hard spot.

[namastebiotches]

Feb 11, 2015 10:40:29 GMT -5 eyenigh said:

I was thinking about Yelp and even Facebook, too but I was also thinking it might be another good thing to use as leverage in the final email/letter that I send. Like "here is what I will do if you don't pay," kind of thing. Once I gave my money, I'lll do it anyway to warn others. The more I talk about it, the more disgusted I am.

I think this is great. Sorry you have to deal with that bs.

[eyenigh]

I called my credit card company and they were happy to dispute the charges for me in the amount that she owes me. I guess as soon as the dispute goes through (in 24 hours) the money is automatically removed from her account and put temporarily in mine. She has 90 days to contact the banks and work it out but I never actually have to deal with her again. The credit card company will negotiate the rest, which is perfect.

This has all been so annoying to me that I'm shamefully satisfied to know that the money being removed from her account like that is probably going to cause her some serious disruption. I'm half nervous and half excited to see if I get some sort of contact from her once she realizes the money is gone.

[smalltownmoon]

eyenigh, Glad it worked out! That's awesome. You can't say you didn't give her a fair amount of time to return the money to you.

[eyenigh]

Feb 13, 2015 8:42:41 GMT -5 smalltownmoon said:

eyenigh, Glad it worked out! That's awesome. You can't say you didn't give her a fair amount of time to return the money to you.

I know. I really struggled with if I was being fair. I told my boss about it and she finally set me straight and she pretty much said, "Not only have you been more than fair, why are you so worried about upsetting someone who is treating you unfairly? The fact that she ignored your messages and didn't send the refund she said she would is unfair. She brought this on herself." I couldn't argue with that.

Also, I disputed the charges in the full amount that I feel like I'm owed, too, which is like $120 more than she was trying to give me.

[smalltownmoon]

Feb 13, 2015 8:50:37 GMT -5 eyenigh said:

Feb 13, 2015 8:42:41 GMT -5 smalltownmoon said:

eyenigh, Glad it worked out! That's awesome. You can't say you didn't give her a fair amount of time to return the money to you.

I know. I really struggled with if I was being fair. I told my boss about it and she finally set me straight and she pretty much said, "Not only have you been more than fair, why are you so worried about upsetting someone who is treating you unfairly? The fact that she ignored your messages and didn't send the refund she said she would is unfair. She brought this on herself." I couldn't argue with that.

Also, I disputed the charges in the full amount that I feel like I'm owed, too, which is like $120 more than she was trying to give me.

was that because she flaked out a few other times before canceling your last month? I remember reading your original post about this nonsense. 

[TheEleventhHour]

Happy to hear the CC company is helping you deal with it! You were being more than fair. Way more than I would have been!

[eyenigh]

Feb 13, 2015 8:52:00 GMT -5 smalltownmoon said:

Feb 13, 2015 8:50:37 GMT -5 eyenigh said:

I know. I really struggled with if I was being fair. I told my boss about it and she finally set me straight and she pretty much said, "Not only have you been more than fair, why are you so worried about upsetting someone who is treating you unfairly? The fact that she ignored your messages and didn't send the refund she said she would is unfair. She brought this on herself." I couldn't argue with that.

Also, I disputed the charges in the full amount that I feel like I'm owed, too, which is like $120 more than she was trying to give me.

was that because she flaked out a few other times before canceling your last month? I remember reading your original post about this nonsense. 

She definitely did that but the issue that I had was that I prepaid for 6 months because she was offering a deal that if you did that, you got 15% off. There was no stipulation in the offer that if her service degraded to the point so badly that I had to stop it, that I lost the discount. She arbitrarily decided that I lost the discount for accepting a refund that she offered so she took the original amount that I paid her and deducted what would have been the full price amount for each visit and wanted to return the rest to me. If she would've sent the check the next day, I would have accepted it even though I didn't think it was fair. I only did her stupid prepay because of the discount-- that was money I had in the bank, earning interest or could have been used for other things, not for her to hold onto. Plus, like I said, I didn't sign anything that said that I lost the discount because of her poor performance. I actually didn't sign anything at all that said I lost the discount for any reason. She just sucks.

[namastebiotches]

That's awesome on your cc company!

[helenahhandbasket]

Late to the party, but glad this seems to have worked out!

[BostonKisses]

That was a really, really smart move. And I'm with your boss on this one. This chick is being unfair to you, and honestly I wouldn't feel the least bit guilty about doing this and getting your money back. It's a business deal and all, and she didn't hold up her end of the deal. Hopefully this is resolved quickly and for good, and then you can blast her on social media so no one else falls prey to her shadiness.

[stellabunny]

This is a big reason why I use my credit cards so heavily; you don't get the same protections when a company withdraws directly from your bank account or you use your debit card.