A final demand letter stating that you intend to do the followng within 7 days if not paid in full:

Place a Mechanics Lien on the property

Notice that you intend to file a 30/60 day late notice on their credit report- Not hard to find someone's SS number

Then:

Letter from attorney to include original amount, interest, attorney's fees

Final: file a lawsuit in small claims or superior court and have them served by a uniformed Sheriff or police officer. Nothing like a uniformed peace officer walking into their office to serve them.

Because there are laws protecting the privacy of individuals.  If you are a collector, and you call someone who is NOT the person who owes the money, you cannot tell them what it's regarding.  If you do, your ass is gonna get sued, and they'll win.

Let's say for example, this guy is a total douche, and because of this phone call, his boss fires him.  Now let's say this guy makes 200k per year.  How much is the court going to award him because your phone call got him fired?   

Here's the law.

A Collector may not contact anyone else to discuss the Debt with them. Collectors may contact other people, one time only, to find out where you live, work and what your phone number is.(15 U.S.C. §1692c(b).)
A Collector may not:
Contact another person more than once --unless that person tells the Collector it is okay to call again; or
Tell the person he contacts that it is in the debt collection business; or
Send them a postcard or any type document with any information or marks on the envelope that may communicate that the Collector's purpose is to collect a debt.
(See What can a Collector say? What they may not say.)
A Collector may only make contact once with your employer. A Collector who has not contacted your employer can send a letter asking for verification of your employment. . Collectors are not allowed to ask your employer or co-workers personal information about you. If the Collector contacts your work-place more than one time, for the same purpose, you may tell the Collector not to phone you at work because your employer does not want you to receive those kinds of calls at work. (15 U.S.C. §§ 1692b-c)





 

Trying to find a loophole here:

Is he considered a "collector" even though he is not a debt collection agency?
Is he not a small business owner just trying to get paid for his services....is that considered a "collector" or can he dance in the grey area, if there is one?

There is no grey area.  Customer owes him.  He's trying to collect.  He's a collector.  

You cannot talk about a persons debt with anyone except that person. 

Best thing to do is to just play "Country dumb"  show up at the guys house (when you know he's home, because you watched him pull in the driveway).  Show up a few minutes later under the pretense that you were in the area finishing up an installation, and since you guys keep missing each others phone calls, you figured you'd drop by.  

Get your check or your sh!t.  But don't leave without something.  

If you get your Sh!t send him a bill for X amount of dollars for every hour viewed on the projector.  

I'd charge about $150. per hour.  

Send him the invoice, when he doesn't pay that either, take him to small claims court.  You'll win. 

You won't recover all of it, but you'll recover.  Once you get a judgement, if he doesn't pay, the court has the power (and will use it) to seize the money from his bank account.

He'll literally wake up one morning and the money will be gone.  



 

back when i installed i had this guy who was your typical pretty boy, BMWs, nice condo, talked a big game but when it came to paying the bill he never had the money or wanted discounts and promised referrals etc

well i got sick of waiting so i remoted into his Control4 system and renamed every room and source to "I Dont Pay My Bills"

I then set a timer on his DirecTV to change the channel every 20 minutes and to execute stop on his dvd player after 30 minutes

48 hours later i had a check

Kevin,

Love that solution!

except it being illegal and all..

There would be nothing illegal about waiting in his driveway until he came home from work, or better yet showing up at his office and ask for him. What's it regarding? An unpaid bill that is 90 days overdue. Could be very effective.

Especially if you are a giant human.

I have a lot of stories in addition to my earlier post.

My partner had a customer who wasn't paying. I started to call his home and mobile number daily and leave messages about his outstand invoice. He didn't respond.

The guy worked at a bank. I called his office and the receptions told me he was busy, but could take a message. When she asked what it was regarding, I simply stated that I wall calling about a past due invoice. This was much better than getting a voice mail.

He called my partner later that day and told him we was mailing a check, and to please get me off his back. We even did subsequent work for him. (85% deposit to start).

Don't give up yet.

Would it be illegal if the contract said that all equipment was owned by the installer until all bills were paid?

And/or if the contract said that "Failure to pay upon Substantial Completion may result in the cessation of system operations."???

from the many discussions about this, my understanding is that if you remote into a system to disable functionality without the customer's permission, you are trespassing.

nothing was disabled :)

I "enhanced" the function of it

but you still trespassed.   

i'm not saying that i am against what you did, just that it isn't legal.

Going 60 in a 55 isn't legal either. I say take your chances.

How hard would it be for a customer to PROVE you got into their system if all the sudden it didn't work? They NEED you now. And its VERY simple, pay the bill and I will come fix it.