Reply to: The story continues

[Denny]

Rip(ped Off) Roaring Success

Mailman is right. It's all Tim's fault.

[Mailman]

Jesus, I really am getting fed up with this.

Ill stop once you get to the "really, really, really,pee'd off" stage!

But until then you will be held directly accountable for every dodgy action agents carry out!

Mailman

[BlasterBates]

Well..the thing to bear in mind is that this is a company. Unlike individuals companies couldn't care less about a court case especially one that cost them £700.

The assistant gets a letter from an angry contractor, then he pops his head round the door and says to some manager "hey I have a letter from an angry contractor". The manager might shrig his shoulders or even smirk and it would go off to the legal dept. The legal dept deal with it like all other complaints and bed debtors angry creditors, gets settled by the accounts dept and eventually it ends up in some huge filing cabinet.

The point is you might come out triumphant probably having gone through stress, and nobody at the company you sued could care less; and the point is bad debts are so common place that every company trading has a provision for bad debts, and provided the level of bad debts doesn't rise 2% above the norm, nobody cares.

[tim123]

Another bit of reality Stang is that there are people (like Tim) who would have done absolutely nothing about being ripped off.

Its these people who create the problems because the agents think they can get away with this kind of behaviour!

Mailman

Jesus, I really am getting fed up with this.

I have not said that I would never ever do anything about this. AIUI the guy was owed a large sum of money. Of course I would take action to recover a large sum of money.

What I wouldn't do, is take action to recover a piddly sum of interest that accrued whilst it was owing. I have got better things to do with my life.

Personally, I didn't consider being paid a week late as 'being ripped off'. Do you pay all your bills before the red one arrives? Do you sometimes even wait for the disconnection warning? Is this ripping off the leccy company?

tim

[Mailman]

Another bit of reality Stang is that there are people (like Tim) who would have done absolutely nothing about being ripped off.

Its these people who create the problems because the agents think they can get away with this kind of behaviour!

Mailman

[Mustang]

Blaster, I take your point but at the end of the day, I had already done the hard work and they had done something illegal. If someone stole your laptop, instead of taking them to court, would you just say - "oh never mind I will just do some more overtime and buy a new one". I think not!!

It was an effort and took a few evenings and some time during the day for phone calls but thankfully I did not have to go to court and loose a days pay. If that had been the case I might have had to reconsider (Tim's point).

The contracting/freelance community has to send a clear message to bigger companies to say that we have legal rights too and larger companies can not just pick and choose what laws they follow.

Sadly, in reality, all of the above has to take into account the financial issues surrounding it.

[BlasterBates]

I am still over £300 pounds "up"

Well done, but really wouldn't it have been easier to a couple of hours overtime for a couple of nights.

[Mailman]

I see where you are coming from Tim but I based my decision on taking legal action on the amount of money owed to me by my "former" agents. The interest due was of little consequence but the several thousand pounds in unpaid invoices was of the most concern to me.

Again, I could have done as you would have done and just rolled over and taken one for the team. However what good would that have done? These scum would have carried on ripping people off (as I believe Im not the only one to be treated like this BUT I was certainly the first to deal with their dodgy as hell practices).

The upshot of my actions was the scum agents having to rewrite all their contracts and making payouts to some they had ripped off (for some reason their solicitors kept on telling us a lot more info than they should have ).

Its the old "Ill keep doing something until Im told to stop". In this case it was the court that told the agents to stop! However if we took your approach agents would get away with murder because there would be no consequences for their dodgy actions!

Mailman

[tim123]

So now you are basing your decision on the amount of interest owed?

Sorry...but I dont buy that.
Mailman

But that's always the way it works.

Unless the court is right by your place of work, going to court will cost you a half day off work - minimum. AIUI on the small claims track this is not an allowable expense, so you will be out of pocket by half a day's chargeout.

It really isn't worth sticking a summons on someone desk for 30 quids worth of interest.

And this is what I've always meant when I say that it isn't worth the aggro
(even if I didn't actually say so). I haven't just decided it this week.

tim

[Mailman]

So now you are basing your decision on the amount of interest owed?

Sorry...but I dont buy that.

If someone, like an agent, has deliberately broken your contract AND OR with held money due from you then people should take legal action.

No ifs, no buts because at the end of the day if you just roll over and let these scum get away with your money all you are doing is encouraging more of this kind of behaviour!

And yes, I have no problems with Agents or Clients doing the same where contractors have disppeared or done substandard work as this would also get rid of the cowboys who pass themselves off as contractors.

Win-win situation for everyone.

Mailman

[tim123]

I don't recall advising anyone to take, or not to take any specific action in these circumstances.

I think I just said that most people would see it as not worth the aggro and decide not to. Of course, whether this is the case or not depends upon how much the interest actually is.

700 quid is obviously a good result, but you need 10 grand owing for 6 months to accumulate this much interest.

Most times you will be due much less than this in interest owed.

tim

[Mailman]

Well done Mustang.

Imagine though if you had taken the advice of people like Tim and co. You would have settled for no money and no expenses claim. You would have settled for being bent over an apple cart and in 9 months time you would be giving birth to your agents love child.

Thank god there are people like yourself (and me ) who are not just prepared to roll over and be rogered up the jacksee!

Apart from the CCJ being removed...do you feel satisfied that you stuffed these cow boys at their own game?

Regards

Mailman

[ASB]

Spoke to the court today to notify them that the Defendant had paid. Imagine my horror when I found out that as they have paid within one month, the CCJ will AUTOMATICALLY be removed!!

So in summary: -

* They withold over £15K of MY money
* They refuse to pay interest
* I have to take them to court
* They refuse to defend themselves
* I win the case but because they just nonchalantly pay up, there is no legal penalty against them.

IMHO, they are criminals and deserve the judgement against them. ONCE AGAIN the laws in the Country of ours are seen to be an ASS!!!!

Forgive me whilst I go hit vent in an open field..............!!

Ok, in this particular case it seems reasonable that the CCJ should stay (but it doesn't).

But look at it from a slightly different POV.

You buy some goods or services from me. They are (in your opinion) outwith the spec/agreement. I believe they are within. Off we go to court. Judge decides they are to spec and orders you to pay up. So you do and write it off down to experience.

If the CCJ is not removed this affect your credit rating. Simply for having a legitimate dispute. That would be equally unreasonable wouldn't it?

Well done for winning and getting the interest though. Me, I gave up on my last claim.

[Mustang]

Post script.........

Spoke to the court today to notify them that the Defendant had paid. Imagine my horror when I found out that as they have paid within one month, the CCJ will AUTOMATICALLY be removed!!

So in summary: -

* They withold over £15K of MY money
* They refuse to pay interest
* I have to take them to court
* They refuse to defend themselves
* I win the case but because they just nonchalantly pay up, there is no legal penalty against them.

IMHO, they are criminals and deserve the judgement against them. ONCE AGAIN the laws in the Country of ours are seen to be an ASS!!!!

Forgive me whilst I go hit vent in an open field..............!!

[Tex]

Well done, Mustang.