So, after completing the install a day in advance on a smaller job ( two bedrooms, prefinished hardwood ), I left the client an invoice because she was not at home. I e-mailed the next day reminding her I left the invoice. She e-mails back saying she wants $300.00 off her bill because I did not "finish the job" on Saturday. I had gone back Tuesday to remove a bit of masking tape from one area and pickup the empty cartons. The floors were installed by Friday evening, a day earlier than we agreed upon ( not in writing BTW, only verbal ). Plus, I left her a full carton of flooring worth $175.00 ( my cost ). So this b***h figures she can screw me out of $300.00 by refusing to pay. At first, I threatened legal action, blah, blah, blah. Then I find out just how difficult it is filing a mechanics lien in CA. No problem filing the lien, BUT, here's the kicker, you have 90 days to "perfect" the lien, which means filing a lawsuit. And, you cannot use small claims to do that. It must be filed in Superior Court. So, I didn't see this one coming. So now, my two options are eat the 3 bills and accept her BS offer. Or, file a small claims lawsuit and pray the court isn't as effed up as she is. Either way, I'm the one getting screwed. I am so pissed off right now. This never happens to me. I just despise thieves and cheats. Obviously, she understands how to "work the system" in her favor. When stuff like this happens, I want to just quit and go work for someone else who can deal with these a-holes.

File a small claims suit Gary .
File for the $300.00 plus the cost of filing .
That is one lame arse excuse and i bet she won't want to waste a day in court .
And i don't think the judge is going to buy her story either .
Good Luck .

people like that make you sick don't they.......
i bet if you had have worked the saturday and the sunday she wouldn't have paid you $300.00 more for the extra day
make sure you get that pack of floor back Gary

The balance owed is $1,975.00. She only wants to pay $1,675.00. The job total was $3,975.00 and she paid $2,000.00 upon delivery of the material, which didn't even completely cover all the material costs. So if I accept her "offer" I guess I'll get paid the $1,675.00 soon. If I take her to small claims, then how long will I have to wait to get anything? And even IF i get a judgment, how do I enforce it? And in court, I risk her claiming poor workmanship, flawed installation, etc. Don't the small claims courts usually side with the "poor" homeowner against us "evil" and "shady" contractors? Seems to me like the cards are stacked against us legitimate contractors in favor of unscrupulous customers.

i took a few realiters to small claims court on occasion Gary for the same thing .
Agreed on a price and when i was done told me they don't pay that much .
The Judge will make them pay right then .
I know in Jersey if they don't pay you in the time the judge says they will send a court officer out to their place and sell the furniture .does she have a contract stating she can take off $300.00 a day if you are not finished on time ?
I still say the judge is going to laugh at her .

Well, you could accept the short payment to free up the money, as long as she doesnt mark the cheque as being "full and final payment" or something like that, you can still pursue the outstanding balance.
However, by all means send Bruno and Guido over to collect the box of material you "inadvertently" left behind. Sometimes a little intimidation is what is needed to free up a final payment.

What I would have done...

As soon as a read her e-mail response, I would have been knocking on her door.

A face to face explanation always gets results.

Show her the contract that she signed and the total agreed upon, and say pay up, or I'm going to go get my sleeping bag and putting up my mailbox.

Perfecting a lien is real easy.

Collecting on the lien is easy, you just have to have all the papers done, before you go to court. Went the judgment is ordered, you present the papers to freeze all their assets. ALL of them. Even with a very small amount, you can force the sale of the home, to pay you.

A follow up. The customer paid in full after I told her I would file a lien on her home. So in retaliation, she filed a complaint with the BBB and the Contractor's License Board. The BBB was quite easy to deal with. They were more interested in trying to get me to join than handling the customer's complaint ( which, BTW, was totally bogus ). The License Board was more of a pain. Since these are government bureaucrats who have a inflated sense of purpose and power, they had to "scold" me for not making my customer "happy" so to speak. After all the BS, the bureaucrat said it wasn't in their power anyway to deal with the finances of a project. It only mattered if there was a violation of the licensing laws, which there were not. At any rate, it's over, I got paid and the former customer has moved on.

I'm in a debate on the local Austin forums now, with a lady all bent out of shape, saying some HVAC company ripped her off.
They didn't rip her off, she paid $189 and knew up front with a contract to service and clean the drain line on her ac unit. Later she called the same company as the unit quit. She got bent with that company who incidentally originally installed the system 5 years prior, because it was not under warranty(5 years after installation) so she called another company to install a capacitor, and reservice the unit for $223, he didn't have to blow out the drain, so it saved her a $10 fee, and now she wants to sue the original company for price gouging.

I had to laugh at her. Seriously.

Nice to hear your out in the clear on that Gary.

Perry, my ac condensation line got clogged up over the weekend...son of a B____. Was spraying for bugs in there and noticed it overflowing out of the pan on the concrete and under the wall and into the hardwood thats in the hall. LOL I always warn people about keeping tabs on those damnnnnn things. He he



But the ole Bruce 3-ply is still laying flat!