I feel it is time to take action against a company. They have told me they owe me $300. I have an email that states this. I preformed the merchandising to the.writtan standards. The company is in Californiaand the work was done in Pa. I have called and emailed enough times. Any suggestions? Lawyer or just myself?

Check with your Small Claims court. Chances are that requirements and costs are posted on line. Mine I could probably file a claim on a 'foreign' (i.e. not registered/licensed in my state) but the cost would be around $250. If I won, that could in theory include being reimbursed for my fees. Reality in my area is that all Small Claims are sent to arbitration where 'split it down the middle' is the norm. I doubt any lawyer would take on so small a case, especially with the company on the other side of the country.

Have you tried the BBB approach? Sometimes the threat of lawsuit is also enough to get some motion.

Ouch... I have read somewhere that in PA it is a flat $170 for litigation. I will have to check on the bbb. $250 would not be worth my time. Thats something I wasnt thinking about. I havent had much success with them in the past. But then again I havent had this much evidence yet. (I have all the fax sheets and confirmation pages. I have several emails saved in my draft. Plus I have an email from the scheduler saying she saw that I was owed the agreed on sum)

There is a local law professor that is a deacon at my church. I will talk to him on Sunday.

The last straw that broke the camels back was calling their accounting department and hearing, "Thank you for calling. The inbox you are calling for is now full, please try again later."

That sucks to hear, cooldude.

Unfortunately, it's been my experience that 'vigilante justice' is probably the best approach in getting your money out of a MS/Merch company. By that I mean naming the company publicly and calling the president/owner on a daily basis until your check arrives.

Almost one year after filing my BBB claim against Restaurant Evaluators, I was informed that the claim had been dropped due to the nature of the complaint. As IC's, we are business owners. The BBB would not handle a business-to-business complaint. They focus on consumer complaints.

For small claims; even if you went through the hassle of filing the claim and getting a judgement, it's another difficult process to force them to actually pay it.

We shoppers are basically on the loosing end of any legal battle for pay. The options for seeking remuneration are limited and only marginally effective when used.

If the company is part of an organization like the MSPA, you could also appeal to them to put pressure on the company.

My best capture of an uncollected debt came from visiting the office of a MSC hat had all of the earmarks of going under. When I researched it and found out the company was local, I stopped by unannounced and walked out of there with a check. The company shut down a few months later and left a lot of shoppers being owed money, so acting in a timely manner can make a difference.

Hello Cool - It's enough money to really hurt, but not enough to come out if you have to pay legal and filing fees. Stevesocal gave good advice. Making contact every day might eventually get you paid if they're an ongoing business. You have some leverage in that you can name them publicly to other shoppers/merchandisers. You might discuss with your law professor at church as to whether, since they breached the contract by not paying as agreed, you could contact the company that hired them. It should be very much in your favor that you have a document from them stating they owe you. Good for you.