Hello all, I am not sure whether this is the right section for this topic, but it's certainly related to legal issues... Here is the background: I had been working with this person for a long while and he offered me several linkbuilding services. I used to pay him through Paypal, but we later switched over to Western Union. Everything was fine (even though he is terrible with deadlines and we argued about that constantly) until that last project. The story: We agreed that I would pay him $XXX with a 50% upfront payment for a project that would take about 2 weeks and we set a 5% deduction on the price for every day of delay after those 2 weeks. I sent the upfront payment and he supposedly started working on the project towards the end of June. A few days before the deadline, he replied to one of my many emails asking for an update by saying that everything is going according to plan. To make a long story short, after failing to meet the deadline by a couple of weeks and after not responding to my many emails, he later decided to tell me that he never started the project due to personal problems. I was obviously very outraged, but I thought that the best thing I could do at that point is to ask for a refund and find someone else to do the project. He agreed to that in mid-August. Since then, he had been claiming that he is trying to gather the money to pay me back. At the beginning of September, since he had still not sent me any money, I agreed to compromise by allowing him to repay his debt by completing a different project for me. Since then, he has been avoiding me. Now, if we were both in the same country, then I could have taken him to small claims court to get that money back. But we are not. I have copies of all our correspondence where he obviously accepts all the responsibility and the owed amount. Is there anything that I can do? This is a good guy, but I have been so understanding with him and have been so patient with all his issues, so now that he simply ignores me I feel that maybe it's time for him to understand the seriousness of the issue. Maybe I won't do anything about it, but I would like to know my options. I have all his personal information through the Western Union payment. Thanks in advance!
It would be difficult for you to take any action against him. This is the worst part of dealing through Western Union. If you have a friend in his country, might be could meet the guy personally. But, there doesn't seem to be any other possible way to get refund.
Paid through Western Union + Never received the service = you've been scammed. Take it as a lesson learned and move on. Never pay using Western Union unless you already have the thing you are buying in hand or completed. As soon as I read "paid through Western Union" in the thread title I knew you were scammed.
The person is based in Europe - not in one of the big countries though. I know - I have been around for a while, and I know that WU is basically a humongous red flag for scams. This was different. I have paid the person before through western union and he delivered, and this was not for a project that was more expensive than others that we had done in the past... That's why I never even second guessed sending the payment through WU. Here is the thing: If the person was in the US, I am assuming that we would have dealt with this issue quickly. He is not. However, I still have all his info. Couldn't I file a claim with his local authorities? Again, I have a full name and address, I have a receipt from WU, and I have a long list of emails describing every aspect of the deal that was put in place AND emails from him agreeing to the debt. Still nothing I can do?
I accept western union for lists and have never scammed anyone. I also accept check, money order, and bank wire though. They can check my legitimacy through my company bank account i guess.
Maybe that guy feels very lazy when he got the money. Spend and spend and never did anything for you in return. Where are you from spycraft? Maybe you may want to consider threatening him to go for legal action about that, tell him you have all your information and thus you can file a claim. Also set a time on how you would take the action, for example set a time for about 1 week for him to respond in your messages, and tell him if he's going to still ignore you, you will have to go to court with him. Just scared him, I'm sure if he uses his real info, he will bite it. OJ
I live in the US, but he lives in Europe. Yes, the guy basically got very lazy, and decided to do nothing about it. What bothers me the most is that he doesn't even fess up to it. He kept saying "Yes, I will give you the money as soon as I have it" and then switched his tune to "Yes, I am doing the new project"... After that, he simply stopped replying. It's the disrespect after my being so understanding that bothers me. It's not even the money at this point. My question is whether I COULD take him to court or take any sort of legal action against him since we live in different countries.. I am guessing that I can, but I don't even know how to Google that as a question lol. The bottom line is that Western Union doesn't matter in this situation. I could have sent him an envelope with cash, or a check. What matters is that I paid him through a method that allows me to have a receipt of the payment, which can be used as proof. The only difference with WU is that unfortunately they don't allow for any sort of chargeback/refund or anything like that. The minute you send the money through WU - it's gone. Then again, even if I were to pay someone in cash, as long as I had a receipt from them that they received the money, I could take them to court if they don't give me the product/service that they received the money for. I would take them to small claims court in the US - I am trying to figure out if there is a cross-country equivalent, that doesn't require both parties to be present for a decision to be made and enforced. Any ideas?
Yes you can, but you don't have to google it, you have to go to talk with your lawyer if you are serious taking some legal action
Of course you could. Whether it would be successful or a further throwing of your money away seems kind of obvious, at least to me. Lets skip the hard part and assume that you win a judgment for your $xxx in court. Now that you have that paper how do you think you will get your money back?
i am using western union since many years.. i always got my payment early than i am thinking..i trust them a lot
If the money you sent to him in the amount of $xxx is not that big, consider it as a gift to him. If you are going to sue him from other country, I am sure you will be going to spend more money than the amount you sent to him. And if you win, I am not sure if this guy will be in jail. Or you will get your refund. Make this experienced a lesson for your future transactions and precautions to all who wants to use WU for paying workers. By the way, do you asked this guy about the personal issue he is referring to? Isn't he dying?
No lol... Nothing important like that... He was "moving" is what he said... Anyways, the bottom line is that I don't either want to waste too much time or more money for this... I guess what I am wondering is whether there is a cross-country debt collection agency. I could call them and let them deal with it.. How does that sound as an idea? I know that it could be done here, and I know that it could be done in MANY EU countries... Do you think that I stand a chance through something like that? I just want him to understand that his neglect may have some consequences. At the moment, I am just a guy who gave him money which he spent without thinking about it... And that just pisses me off. On the other hand, I am smart enough to just forget about it if I need to go through a lots of hoops to do anything about it. Any ideas would be much appreciated.