From Fortune:

Back at home, Berns did what any consumer with $15 (in New York City) and a working knowledge of English (or Spanish, in most states) can do: He filed a small-claims suit against Delta for $938. Delta did not show up to defend itself, so on June 12 he won a default judgment. When a legal analyst from the airline called him two weeks later to negotiate a payment, he declined an offer of frequent-flier miles ("Confederate currency," in his words) and made a counteroffer: If you pay me within two weeks, I'll knock $100 off. Delta agreed but asked for a confidentiality agreement. Berns said they couldn't have both, and Delta took the discount. (A Delta spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)

"The lesson is, Don't let them bully you with bogus cancellations," says Berns. The whole thing took him about four hours, he recalls, resulting in earnings of less than half his hourly billing rate. "But I'd do it again," he says. "That's how good it felt."

A flier strikes back [Fortune]
(Photo: Zonaphoto )

I recommend suing telemarketers. I just beat one in Santa Monica Small Claims. And they sent their New York corporate counsel! (They're a huge international company.)

Anyway, I couldn't have done it without the help of a guy in Sacramento—a total stranger who went out of his way to advise me. His name's André-Tascha Lammé, and I found him through his site, KillTheCalls.com

He started it after he was getting 30 calls a day from mortgage brokers. He doesn't do this for a living or anything. Like me, he was just pissed off that they were using his phone and eating his time.

killthecalls.com

P.S. If it's an out-of-state company and you're in California, they have to have an "agent for service of process" on file with the Secretary of State. You look that agent up on the SOS's website and then just have the court serve them certified mail for $15. To sue them in L.A. and maybe in California, you have to have that in-state address—they can't be sued at an out-state one. But legally, if they're doing biz in the state, they must have the AFSOP.

Before all of you start contacting Mr. Lammé directly, you should check out his website, which has a lot of advice on how to successfully take a telemarketer to small claims court.

(Photo: Getty)

It's important to understand that if you have a business relationship with the company, they are allowed to call you for 18 months after your last purchase, delivery, or payment. However, if you tell them to add you to their own personal "do not call list" they are supposed to stop calling, even if your number is not registered on the do not call list.

So, let's say that you're sure that Whatever, INC. is ignoring the Do Not Call list and they've called you more than once over a 12 month period.

What can you do?

Well, we're not lawyers, and let's face it, we don't even watch Law & Order, so we decided to ask renowned smarty-pants consumer lawyer Sam Glover for some guidance.

He pointed us to a section of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act Of 1991 that deals with a consumer's right to seek damages from Do Not Call scofflaws. Here it is:

(5) Private right of action

A person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State bring in an appropriate court of that State—

(A) an action based on a violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection to enjoin such violation,
(B) an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive up to $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater, or
(C) both such actions.

It shall be an affirmative defense in any action brought under this paragraph that the defendant has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent telephone solicitations in violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection. If the court finds that the defendant willfully or knowingly violated the regulations prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in its discretion, increase the amount of the award to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the amount available under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph.

Sounds to us like it might be a lot of fun to file a lawsuit in small claims court if you can prove that the telemarketer contacted you more than once in 12 months. You could get your phone records from the phone company and start recording your calls.

Here's some information about small claims court and how to use it.

Anyone tried this? Let us know what happened! tips@consumerist.com

Caveat Emptor Blog
Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 [Wikipedia]
§ 227. Restrictions on use of telephone equipment [ Cornell University Law School]
(Photo: amyadoyzie )

Now that the California Courts have ruled that ETFs are illegal, does Consumerist have any advice for consumers, like me, who have an outstanding ETF debt with a non-Sprint carrier?

I ask because I canceled my 2002 Cingular (at the time) service due to horrible coverage, terrible customer service, and that I had to routinely call every stinking month to have bogus text message spam charges removed. I switched services, and after doing so, Cingular stuck me with a $270 early termination fee, failed to inform me of the fee or that it was going into collections, and next thing I know, I'm in collections for $580. I didn't find out about this until recently, as I am about to purchase a new car and needed a copy of my credit report.

I initially refused to pay because my cancelling my service was completely justified on my part; the service and coverage I was told I would receive when I signed the contract was NOT at all what I actually did receive. I also refused because their raising of text message fees was a materially adverse change to the contract. Neither Cingular nor their collections drones care.

You can imagine my excitement to hear that ETFs are illegal. I would like to file a suit in small claims against the collections agency and ATT (as successor in interest to Cingular) to recover damages incurred as a result of their sending my account, erroneously, into collections over the ETF AND for attempting to force me to pay a fee which is now known as illegal.

Any advice or leads for advice would be greatly appreciated.

You should obviously talk to a lawyer for real legal advice, "Jurgis," but for now you might want to break your problem into two separate issues:

1. You have a collection on your account that you are disputing;
2. That collection is an ETF, which may end up being illegal banned/voided in your state.

Forget about the legality of the ETF for now; you should file disputes with all three major credit reporting agencies over the $580 collection. The original problem exists regardless of what happens in state or federal court, which is that the company didn't honor their side of the agreement, then failed to notify you that they were sending it to a collection agency.

As to last week's news that ETFs are "illegal" in California, Sprint Nextel will almost certainly file an appeal. Additionally, the ruling might not stand if the FCC moves ahead with its industry-backed plan to step in and say states can't regulate carrier fees. (And if they do, then that might be overturned if states take the FCC to court.) Update: according to outphase, this court's ruling isn't binding upon any other court, or even on itself.

Find a local lawyer to ask whether you can take advantage of the ETF ruling, but our guess is for your immediate needs it won't matter.

That doesn't mean you can't try small claims court anyway, though, if you want to claim that Cingular didn't honor its agreement and that their text rate increase meant you were given the opportunity to legally get out of contract. (Here's a story of a reader who took this route with a subcontractor and won.)

(Photo: Getty

Last January I purchased two tickets from Kansas to Sri Lanka from a travel agent to go on a vacation in May to June. When I went to the airport with two paper tickets in hand I was informed that my tickets were canceled by the Travel Agent. This was due to the negligence of the travel agent. So I had to spend two nights in a hotel while they book me on another flight which was a much difficult route than the route that I was intended to fly.

So after getting back from my vacation I wrote them an e-mail asking for a partial refund of the tickets for all my expenses, trouble and lost two paid vacation days. This was about 2 weeks ago and after that I have given them 14 calls but they have been avoiding me. Telephone operator always tell me that currently the agents are unavailable and that they would get back to me.

This is a small travel agency based in NY, http://topholidaystravel.com, (not a big name like Orbitz or anything). They mainly cater to Sri Lankans who lives in USA and goes to Sri Lanka for vacation.

1. Is there anyway that I can persuade them to get a partial refund?
2. If that didn't work out I'm filing a complain with BBB in NY. Any advice?
3. Is there a Travel agent association or something like that which I can report to?
4. Since it's located in NY and I'm located in Kansas, I don't think that I could go to Small Claim Court. Any advice o this too.
5. I'm planning on creating a web page with the whole story (in my web site) and e-mail the link to all the Sri Lankans I know and ask them to forward it to their friends as well. Am I doing anything wrong here? Can they take any action against me for doing this?

Normally I would just advise doing a chargeback. Unfortunately, Dhanushka paid by check. So then, to answer his questions:

1. Find somehow to get past the customer service line and reach an actual decision maker and pitch them your case. Don't settle for a call-back. Demand to speak to a supervisor or manager immediately.

2. It's a pretty straightforward process and you just fill in a few fields online. The complaint, beyond the satisfaction of warning other people, will only be effective if the place cares about its BBB reputation. Since it's so small, I checked and it doesn't even look like they're BBB members. So this may be wasting your keystrokes.

3. Dunno, but I do know it would depend on whether they actually belong to one.

4. You can go to small claims, but you'll have to take a trip to New York and file there, and then either hang around until or come back when you get your court date.

5. 100% protection against libel or getting sued is the truth. As long as you tell the 100% truth, you are fine. Here is an article I wrote about fighting back against companies by making a complaint webpage. You do, however, take a chance that it will blow all your chances of getting money back from the company (without an outside agency forcing them to). You might be better off finding a way to leapfrog over the customer service people to the real people in charge (either by phone or by letter) and tell them that if you don't get your money back, then you will launch the webpage. A threat is much more effective if you tell them about it before deploying it.

Lastly, not to kick you while you're down, but I checked out the travel agency's webpage, and it was just a stock image and their contact information. To me, that screams sketchy. If a company doesn't represent themselves professionally, it's a pretty good sign that other parts of their business aren't going to be professional either.

Good luck!

(Photo: Getty)

Brrr! I called a leading HVAC company to come fix it, not wanting to risk fixing it myself (gas leaks scare me). The repairman spent 3 hours trying 6 different circuit boards, and finally said he must have gotten a fully defective batch, he’d have to come back the next day with parts from the warehouse. He then spent 30 minutes trying to force me to pay him for his time, despite not having actually repaired my furnace. I told him he’d better leave or I’d call the police. He left.

I broke out my trusty old multimeter and started testing things by reading the handy-dandy electrical schematic glued to the inside of the access panel. Within 15 minutes I found it was a “heat trip sensor” – basically a “fuse” that trips when it detects heat in the wrong place. This one was “downwind” of the chimney flue, where hot natural gas fumes normally rise upwards. A visit to the roof determined a chimney lining tile had fallen over and blocked the chimney.

Thus, the hot exhaust blew back down the furnace, and the furnace’s safety system kicked into gear. Banging on the tile in the chimney with a broomstick made it break and fall to the bottom of the chimney. A trip to an HVAC supplier resulted in a $4 replacement heat sensor. I installed the part, and just like that! My furnace started working just fine.

The next day, the HVAC company threatened to report me to collection agencies, sue me, and even threatened to put a lien on my condo. A few weeks later, I filed a small claims court complaint contending that I never agreed to pay a dime unless the repair was completed, and to boot, they were incompetent. Rather than appear before a judge, they settled by reimbursing me the filing fees and drop the collection attempt

How did I know to do things with the small claims court?… Consumerist. THANKS!

Going to small claims court is a lot easier than you might think. You don't need a lawyer and filing fees are minimal. Here's how to take a case to small claims court, stories and advice from a guy who makes frequent use of small claims court, and a success story from a reader who won after suing a subcontractor in small claims.

(Photo: beau-foto)

Name: Christina | Address: [redacted] | City: Tulsa > >| State: OK | Zip: [redacted] | Country: USA | Day Phone: [redacted] | > >Evening Phone: [redacted] | Email: [redacted]

I am disgusted about the service that I have received from your workers. I know that sears doesn't care about its customers nor does it stand behind its worthless products that it sells. I will not waste more of my time explaining this to you for the 100th time, you should be able to look at my account and clearly see that your stupidity and lack of customer service is my problem.

I have been waiting two weeks to get a water heater replaced. I was supposed to get a call yesterday and didn't. I was supposed to get it installed today and didn't. Big surprise, you don't care! I want you to reimburse for the water heater, the permit, the warranty, and to be compensated for the stress of not having hot water for three weeks while you did nothing. While no one called me, no one did anything. I will contact my lawyer, I will report you to the BBB.

You don't deserve to be in business and hopefully someone will put an end to sears soon. DO NOT CALL ME!!! I refuse to get stressed out listening to your scripted, we're sorry, we're going to do everything we can to help you out because your important. If I was, I would have hot water by now. You may email your response, if you can not honor my request you can send this to the corporate office and have the president of sears look at it. if he wont, then we will settle this in court. I fully expect for you to do the right thing for a change and get my water heater out hear within 24 hours and mail my check for my trouble of buying from sears to begin with which I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN!

Where was this water heater purchased? Was this through your local Sears or over the water heater sales line? If this was purchased through the store, we at Sears.com would not have access to your order and would need to direct you to the store.

If this was purchased through the sales line, what phone number was used and what name would it be under? Did you get a reference number? We would need some kind of information from the order to get the order to pull up. I have even tried calling the installation department as well as the service line and your name or phone numbers did not bring up any results.

I personally have not seen this order and would like the opportunity to try and get this resolved for you. I also understand that you have probably heard that before and do not feel like hearing it again, but I would like to try to help you with this. Even if the order was placed through the store, if you call us, we could even help by doing a conference call to the store and to the installation department and try to figure out what went so horribly wrong and see what can be done to get your water heater installed.

Our number here at the water heater sales line is 800-877-6420. My name is Grant and I am here most evenings, minus Sunday and Wednesday. If you would like to give me a call, my extension is 10093. If I am on a call, you can leave your name and number with whoever you talk to and I can call you back.

At this point and after reading your e-mail, I do not blame you for being angry. If you feel like you need to pursue this further legally, I would need to refer you to the legal department at 847-286-8371.

I know you do not want more apologies, but I do feel sorry that this has happened and do regret the inconvenience that this particular situation

has caused you.

If you feel so inclined to ask for my assistance, please give me a call, or e-mail me back, I have marked your e-mail so I can take ownership of

any further correspondence and will do what I can for you.

Look for Great Ideas throughout the store and find Sears exclusive innovations from great brands like Sony, Kenmore, NordicTrack, Craftsman and Reebok.

Grant B. Sears.com Customer Care

You can not find my information because I have called you all a million times and told you my new number but nobody seems to want to write it down.

The old number is [redacted] The new number is [redacted] The cell number is [redacted]

This is suppose to be a replacement because the other piece of crap water heater I got from you guys broke AGAIN! For God's sake just look at your own website, nobody has anything good to say about your water heaters. Its all people who are mad because their water heater is doing the same thing mine has. They should last more than a year.

I don't know why you cant look me up by anything but my number, you had my name and address what kind of shitty customer service is this?

If you can give what I have asked for by all means, otherwise, you will need to forward this on to your corporate office because I will not be swept under the carpet. I will not be ignored, every day I go without hot water is one more day that I take the time to spread the word about how sears has treated me.

Sears replied:

Dear Ms. [redacted]:

Thank you for visiting Sears.com, we appreciate hearing from you.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the information you requested via e-mail. We encourage you to contact our Installation department by telephone, at (800)859-6000.

Thank you for choosing Sears for your home service needs.

Sincerely,

Larry D Sears Holdings Corporation

Christina replied:

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:28:21 -0500

I got a call saying that you can not find anyone to install my water heater which is suppose to be covered under my warranty that I paid for. This is unacceptable! I will not pay someone to install your piece of shit water heater and only be reimbursed $219. I have called 5 companies in the Tulsa area and the quotes they have given me have ranged from $500-$700 depending on what all they have to do. You are not going to get away with this.

I want to be refunded to total price of the water heater plus tax, I want to be refunded for all of my warranties, and I want the cost of installation. I will go to another company. I refuse to have anything to do with you ever again.

You can not do this to me, I have the warranty which guarantees you to replace my water heater and installation, not a portion of the installation.

And I don't want any stupid vouchers for sears!

Christina

Before you put on your lawyer pants, you might want to try Sears' public relations number: 847-286-8371.

In May of 2005 my wife was mugged at one of the elevated train stations in Chicago. After calling the police and filing a police report, she started calling each credit card company to cancel each account. Except she forgot about one card, her CapitalOne card. A card hardly ever used and only had a $500.00 limit...

When we got the bill, we immediately realized our mistake, called Capital One and faxed in the police report showing she had been mugged on that day. We even got the signatures on file from the local grocery store that showed the mugger's girlfriend signature was used, rather than my wife's signature. The mugger even signed my wife's last name wrong and the clerk who checked out the girl, knew the mugger (I guess they live in the same project housing complex, and threw a party with all that liquor they bought...on our dime). Anyway, any sane, logical person could see this is a pretty clear case of someone else using her card. However, Capital One refused to budge on the issue since it was out of the standard reporting time. They indicated we were responsible for all of the charges.

We tried fighting it longer and refused to pay the card. After a few months of trying to fight Capital One, the card now racked up $700.00 of late charges and over-limit fees that they said we were additionally responsible for on top of the thief's purchases. Finally, after talking to one of their bill collectors we said we were willing to pay the $500.00 of unauthorized charges and just be done with the whole thing. Them, in true greedy corporate fashion, refused that deal and said we were responsible for the whole $1200.00. We refused, and they have been sending threatening sounding collection notices since then (as well as ruining my wife's credit, for the sport of it).

Apparently, when we were on vacation this week, Capital One took us to small claims court, supposedly they sent us a notice but I am unaware and unable to find such court notice (It doesn't help that Chicago's postal system is notoriously unreliable). Since we were unaware of the court date, and we were out of town to begin with, the judge ruled in Capital One's favor. Now we have to pay them $1200.00... or we go to jail.

Mugger: 1
Capital One: 2
Average Joe consumer: 0

I'm pissed, frustrated and don't know what to do. Any advice?

-Andy

Your first action, do this now, is go to the courthouse that your case was heard at and file a motion to overturn the default judgment that was filed against you in your absence. You will have another court date, in front of a judge. You can explain there that you never got the summons to court. In most cases, the judge will overturn the default judgment and schedule another court date. I've seen this happen in CC dozens of times. Obviously it's better if you get a lawyer to help with this, but the CC Court Clerks are also pretty helpful.

Hi Consumerist,

I've been reading your website for quite a while and need some help for my brother. He went to Bay Ridge Nissan in Brooklyn, NY to lease a Nissan Pathfinder. He negotiated the deal to 311 a month and 1200 out of pocket costs. When I went with him to the dealership on Wednesday to pick up the car and sign the paperwork, the numbers were all changed. They added a bunch of fees, including a mysterious prep fee. After much negotiating, we decided not to buy the vehicle. My brother had left a $500 deposit earlier, and they said he would get it back.

Today, the salesman called and begged him to come take the car. After he said no, the salesman said he's not getting his deposit back. The salesman also intercepts any phone calls to the manager and says we must only speak to his manager and his manager will be in tomorrow. He said we'd be surprised at what he can make up to keep the deposit. I'm wondering what to do to get the deposit back.

Your other recourse is to take the dealership to small claims court, where you stand a good chance of getting back your money.

Whatever you decide to do, you should also report the dealership to the New York Attorney General's office via their complaint form, and while you're there read up on their advice and warnings for car buyers in New York.

"How To Kick A Scammy Car Dealer In The Nuts"
"Suing Big Companies In Small Claims Court Is Fun And Easy"
"How To Take Your Case To Small Claims Court"
"Consumer Issues" [NYSOAG ]

RELATED
Tips
"Dealerships Rip You Off With The "Four-Square," Here's How To Beat It"
"13 Step Method For Buying A Car While Controlling The Sale And The Price"
"Buying A Car: Always Up The Ante"
"The Art of The Buy: Hide Your Time Wisely"

Scams
"Reader Falls Victim To Spot Delivery Dealership Scam"
"Car Dealership Bilks Old Man and Steals $2000 With His ATM Card"

Neither company bothered to send a lawyer to the hearing—although the day before the hearing, they contacted him with a settlement offer if he agreed not to discuss the case with the media—and last week Karantsalis won damages plus court fees for a total of $756.80.

Okay, so that's clearly not enough money to hurt either company—Sprint easily spends 50 times that every day giving lobotomies and tongue-bobs to Customer Service new hires—but we're impressed with Karantsalis' DIY approach to legal justice. As Evan Schuman notes in a related article, there are lots of ways you can define "winning" in a situation like this, but few of them can beat the odds of wrapping up a small claims case quickly and in your favor:

Is the objective to make the consumer whole, in the sense of getting them to the point financially where they would have been the data privacy booboo never happened?

Is it to make it much more likely that the wrong will never be repeated, sparing other consumers of the headache? Is it to make money for the consumer? Is it, dare I say, to make moneys for the law firms?

The recent TJX lawsuits, for example, could be said to have failed for their consumer plaintiffs on all of those objectives, other than making money for the law firms and even that money was rather paltry.

With this settlement publicized, will tens of thousands consumers now take these frequent breach notification letters and drive to their local small claims court? The onerous nature of a retailer having to defend against literally tens of thousands of virtually identical accusations was precisely the kind of situation that class-action lawsuits were supposed to eliminate. But the civil demands for financial losses create a crack for these cases to slip into.

(Thanks to econobiker!)

"The Librarian Wins In The Data Breach David Vs. Goliath Battle" [StorefrontBacktalk]

RELATED
"Sears, Where America Sues" [StorefrontBacktalk]
(Photo: Getty)

"In February of 2007 my wife and I moved into our newly built home. We had issues with one of the subcontractors. The issue is really a moot point here but if you really want to know the low-voltage company messed up the wiring of our in-the-ceiling speakers and it shorted out my surround sound receiver."

(I'm not a lawyer and I cannot offer legal advice...only tell my experience. I tried to keep this as general as possible to help others while keeping the specifics of my case and plan to win out of it)

"Over the next two weeks I was going back and forth with the builder and the subcontractor. Finally the subcontractor agreed to repair/replace the receiver. The VP of the builder played mediator and agreed to the agreement. This was about two weeks after the problem initially happened.

Fast forward to the beginning of May when I finally give the receiver to the subcontractor for repair. I made sure to have the person picking it up sign a hand receipt noting the model and serial number of my receiver and the details of the agreement.

For the next few months I didn't really think much about the whole mess and in all honesty just the thought of dealing with the low-voltage company put me in a tizzy. Finally around November I called them and asked the status of my receiver. They said that they did not repair it since it was too expensive to repair and they were not going to replace it because it was not their fault.

I once again contacted the builder and they offered no help. Around this time I read an article on the Consumerist [The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back (Revised Edition)] where they listed the legal route. That told me exactly what I should do since I tried the nice and the hardball route.

I spent about an hour or so researching small claims court policy in my state and local jurisdiction (in my case the county). My local county had a great handbook about the whole process and I downloaded this and read it to find out the idiosyncrasies of my local court. I also scoured the webpage to find anything else to use in my favor. The one interesting tidbit that I found was that in my county if you take a corporation to court seeking an amount of damages over a certain amount (in my case $1500) they would have to have representation by an attorney. Under $1500 and any full-time employee could represent them.

What I figured is that at a couple hundred dollars an hour that it would not be worth the company to go to trial with an attorney. Plus, I figured that if they show up to court without an attorney then I would just seek default judgment. I was going to seek about $1600 in damages (cost of the speakers, cost of the receiver, and cost of 6 months free monitoring that I was promised).

The next day I went to the county court house to file my case. The county clerk gave me a one page form where I wrote down my information, the information of the company I wanted to take to court, and I had about a paragraph to explain my case. I also had the option of submitting evidence/contracts at this time but I did not do that for a couple of reasons.

My reasoning was that this isn't a criminal trial and you don't have to file evidence ahead of time for the defense to see. I wanted to blindside the company with as much evidence that I could when I got in front of the judge. Remember, in small claims it's not beyond a reasonable doubt, it's only a preponderance of the evidence.

I paid $85 to file and have the papers delivered to the company via the county sheriff. I paid an extra $10 for that service and figured that it was worth it for shock value. One interesting thing is that you have to have a true street address and not a PO Box like this company had. I eventually found their address by doing a whois lookup of their domain name. I also set a court date at this time.

A couple of days later they were served the paperwork and immediately the owner called me and left a voicemail. I tried to return her call numerous times over the next week and she never called back so I decided that I would let the court decide.

Eventually our court date came around and I went to court dressed in my best lawyer garb armed with all my evidence (in my case contracts showing the price we paid for the speakers, the hand receipt signed by the company employee, e-mails, phone records, the owner's manual of the receiver, receipts, and pricing of a replacement receiver). I was the first case called before the judge and I was told that the defendant was in a car accident and is in the hospital. I was given a new court date. I still don't believe that the lady was in an accident but that isn't for me to decide.

As the next month went by I didn't hear anything from the company but suddenly about two weeks before the new trial they called me. We exchanged a couple of calls and finally we agreed upon a settlement. I ended up getting the cost of a new receiver and court costs paid in addition to six months of free alarm monitoring. Total value of what I received $920. Less than I was seeking but still agreeable to me to be done with the whole mess.

I agreed to dismiss my case and turned in the paperwork to put a rest to this ordeal.

The entire small claims court process was pretty sweet in my opinion. The system was easy to use and offers a good venue to settle disputes. I have no doubt that I would have won my case but I guess that I'll never know.

Here is the time breakdown from the time I decided to go to small claims court:

Initial research - 1 hour
Court filing - 1 hour
Collection of my evidence - 1 hour
First court date - 2 hours
Phone calls leading to settlement - 1 hour
Collection of settlement - 1 hour
Filing of settlement - 1 hour
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—--
TOTAL: 8 hours for $920.

I will definitely use the small claims court process again if I have problems with a company.

-Jason"

Inspired? here's some posts we did on how to take a company to small claims court. They may seem invulnerable, but suing big companies in small claims court is actually fun and easy. Daunted? Here's the steps you need to take to take your case to small claims court. Finally, a state-by-state index of links to small claims court papers and brochures.

(Illustration: Leo Espinosa)

Here's his typical expenditure for a small claims suit: $24 and 45 minutes. The $24 is the cost to file a claim. The 45 minutes includes his total time of driving to and from court to file, as well as the time spent on the phone with the company when they call to settle.

See, in all cases, he hasn't even had to go to court: the company calls him up the day before the court date and gives him a settlement. It seems they prefer to do that then pay to fly a company representative who isn't fully versed on all the facts to court. Here's his true story of how he got what he deserved from Tmobile and Washington Mutual, without breaking a sweat.

Bill writes:

Twice I have taken T-Mobile to Small Claims court. Each time I asked for payment of my many hours of time, to have early termination fees waived and to have money refunded to me for equipment that never worked. Each time they have called me and settled for what I was asking. Then I would tell them to apply the settlement to my account. Since I'm a heavy user of my cell phone and I know that changing companies is just another set of headaches, I opt to stay put. Mostly because I know how to fight this monster. In those two cases combined, I have got my $2912.00 back. Settling the case.

Washington Mutual bank had taken overdraft fees of $58.00 even though the check was deposited and they didn't clear it when they said it was immediately available. I took them to small claims and asked for $2,058.00. $2000 for the impact it caused and for punitive. They called 7 days before the court date and sent me a check, settling the case for exactly what I asked for. I have not had a problem with them since.

It important to note that corporations can't use an attorney in small claims and they have to send (fly) a representative that is NOT fully versed on the facts. It's easier to just pay from their point of view. In small claims, they are stripped of their lawyers and the odds are in favor of the consumer. [ed. Depends. In some states, companies can send their lawyers.]

The bigger point that I'm making here is that perhaps to the average consumer this is a lot of hassle. However, if a reasonable person was to take a look at this from a time management point of view, here was my total investment in money and time: $24 to file the small claims, 45 minutes total on each case, that includes driving to the court to file and talking with them on the phone once to get the settlement.

It's understandable why consumers do not want to sue and to try to work it out. But in reality, that is a lot of aggravation, time for the least amount of gain. However, the satisfaction of wining and getting paid for it is unbeatable. Now, I do not get upset or angry, I just wait for them to play their games and I sue. No warning, no anger and no headaches.

Now that that's out of the way, here's some posts we did on how to take a company to small claims court:

How To Take Your Case To Small Claims Court
Here's a state-by-state index of links to small claims court papers and brochures.

(Illustration: Leo Espinosa)

The power the judge has over the parties is granted by the contract of adhesion they sign to appear. If the defendant loses, the tv product team pays the plaintiff the judgment fee. If the judge finds for the defendant, both parties receive an appearance fee. The judges are not bound by real rules of procedure, evidence, or even behavior. Since it's a contract of adhesion, a decision can only really be successfully appealed if the decision falls outside the scope of what's in the contract.

So while the cases and people may be real, the courts could be held on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise and still have the same effect. It's all just part of the collective hallucination we call television.

The concern is that in making syndi-courts look like real courts, they can warp potential jurors attitudes about how a court case should be conducted. In a survey when asked whether a judge should be aggressive with litigants or express displeasure with testimony, 26.32% of non-frequent viewers said yes, and 63.76% of frequent viewers said yes.

Syndi-Court Justice: Judge Judy and Exploitation of Arbitration (PDF) [ABANET.org]

RELATED: What People On Judge Judy Don't Know

(Image from Judge Joe Brown)

Sep 6 2007

I bought a Dell laptop in 2004, and in 2006 was told my warranty was going to expire. I responded to the notice, which said that for $248 my new warranty expiration date would be June of 2008. I paid the amount and have the credit card statement proving this.

Unfortunately, no one at Dell seems aware of this agreement, and it seems Dell has arbitrarily decided that my warranty ended in June of 2007. This comes into play now because it appears I need a new motherboard (again). I placed calls to the warranty department, then to customer service. I faxed them copies of the relevant documents (the notice, the credit card statement) and have been dealing with this for a month, but to no avail.

I was told my case was forwarded to the appropriate department. That was over a week ago, and I've yet to hear anything back. I sent another complaint e-mail to the manager I was dealing with, but have yet to hear back.

For Dell's part, the 2008 may have been a typo, but that doesn't change the fact that 2008 is the agreement.

So I'm thinking small claims court, but first, I was wondering if you might be able to help me find out executive customer services numbers that might be more expedient, or if you happen to know of a better route I might take.

Saundra Sorenson

Sep 18

Hi Ben,

just wanted to give you an update on my Dell issue. I finally heard from Dell's customer service department today, telling me that they've decided my warranty is expired. (I've attached the invoice I mentioned, which promised me that if I paid $229, the warranty would expire in 2008).

When I brought up this invoice (which I had faxed to Dell twice) nobody had a good answer for me, and said simply that my case had been "escalated" and that my warranty was expired. I called the corporate line to get some contact info for the legal department and dropped the term "small claims court' several times. They gave me an address and fax number for the offices in Round Rock, Texas, but I think I may do as it was recommended on your site— deliver small claims papers to the Dell kiosk at my local mall.

Any advice on further steps to take before I go the small claims route? Any advice about taking a corporation to small claims?

Thanks,
Saundra

Did you fax them the relevant documents? I would do that before taking the small claims route. This post, ""How To Take Your Case To Small Claims Court," is also a good primer for how to go about going to small claims court:

Ben,

I did — and then I e-mailed them to another representative. And then I asked the representative who told me my warranty had expired if they had received these documents, and the rep said yes. So I told them to make a note in my case file that I was unhappy with this decision, was not satisfied, and would be pursuing a legal route (in small claims).

Any advice about small claims or another next step?

Thanks!
Saundra

Dell can avoid losing their ass in small clams court by emailing tips@consumerist.com and we will be happy to put someone with a working brain cell in touch with Saundra.

(Photo: fallenposters)

Sucks that it's come this far but we applaud Ian for his tenacity and wish him luck.

On a related note, here's how to start a blog to tell the world about your customer service complaint. — BEN POPKEN

How Sears Ruined My Life

Unlike bank fee changes, doing so won't cancel your service.

In case you tossed it from the mail, a scan of the pamphlet is inside...

,hr>

Lawsuits against companies aren't just for people looking for a buck because they spilled coffee down their pants. Consumers have successfully used them to get money back that Verizon owed them due to billing errors, to force HP to give them a new computer after losing theirs in the repair process, and even to sue telemarketers who violate the Do-Not-Call list.

Arbitration can be a more cost-effective way to resolve a dispute without going to the courts. However, the decisions are binding and are not subject to appeal.

The practice has drawn criticism from consumer advocates who say there's a conflict of interest as these arbitration companies essentially rely on the referring companies for repeat business. There's also that thing about no judge or jury being involved, aka forgoing the Sixth Amendment. If any of this leaves a funny taste in your mouth and you're a Comcast subscriber, hit the link below. — BEN POPKEN

Arbitration Opt-Out [Comcast] (Thanks to TM!)

So David filed suit against them in small claims court. Without even contesting it, HP sent him a brand-spanking new laptop. All it cost David was $14 in filing fees.

Small claims court. Use it. It's for you, it's easy, it's awesome. Here's a list of states and info about filing such a claim.

I'm A Plaintiff and I Win! Me: 3, HP: 1 [Barzelay.net] (Thanks to Brian!)

Inside, some tips to help you win your case in conciliation court.

The price of admission is generally low, between $50 and $100 most places. The plaintiff (the person who starts the case) files a short statement of the claim, pays the filing fee, and serves the defendant either by mail or by using the sheriff or other third party for personal service.

Conciliation court is a great place for consumers to get some justice. Before bringing your claim, however, you will want to check with your state's conciliation court to make sure you can actually bring your case. Generally, the defendant you intend to sue must have some personal or business presence in the state. Also, the amount of money you are seeking will probably have to fall beneath a certain amount. In Minnesota, for example, the total amount of the claim must be below $7,500.

You can probably find the complaint forms and other information on your state's or county's website. Fill them out carefully and completely, and bring them to court to file.

Here are a few more tips for your day in court:

• Spend a bit of time watching the daytime court shows. Seriously. Other than the judge's sass, they're not too different from conciliation court. Notice what the litigants do wrong.

• Bring all your exhibits and witnesses with you to court. Make an extra copy of documents, and keep them organized.

• Focus on the logical reason you should win. So often I see people want to tell their story. (A) There isn't time, and (B) it's irrelevant. Stick to the facts and why they matter.

• Always show respect for the judge or referee. They are the ones who decide whether you win or lose. The no-fail method of address is "your honor."

Conciliation court is a great way for consumers to get some justice in the courts. Build your case carefully and present it as professionally as you can, and good luck on your day in court! — SAM GLOVER

(Photo: mikehager66)

When DELL failed to show in court, Pat Dori, of Hackensack won $3000 by default. A ruling allowed court employees to close the kiosk and confiscate equipment if the judgment was not paid.

Dell settled out-of-court with Mr. Dori under an undisclosed arrangement.

The victory came after five-months and 19 phone calls to Dell after Dori's laptop fan broke. When he turned it in for repairs, Dell lost his laptop and returned just his hard drive. To compensate, Dell offered a refrubed laptop without an extended warranty.

"My big issue was, they never wanted to talk to me, never wanted to hear me,'' said Dori. "The little guy found a way to hit them in the head with a rock. You get their money, you get their attention. God only knows how much their legal team cost them.''

— BEN POPKEN

NJ Man's Lawsuit Against Dell Settled [1010 Wins] (Thanks to Stefan!)

When he called to demand a refund, they told him to choose a different transfer option next time. Did he stop there? No, he threatened to take them to small claims court.

Read his tale of consumer vengeance gone right and an online scam to beware, after the jump.

"Neteller is used by many on line casinos and poker sites to fund a bankroll.

Last month, I was about to sign up to a poker site but I wanted to have money in a Neteller account before I signed up so I went directly to the neteller.com site to open up an account.

I went through the sign up process. It was pretty cool how they identified me. I gave them my name and address and they asked me a bunch of personal questions they must ve gleaned from Choicepoint-type databases they subscribe to. The questions were multiple choice, You once lived on a street shown below. Select the street. A) Imperial Highway B) Buttonwood Ave. C) San Remo Drive D) Sarah Circle You have a sister, is her name A) Karen B) Diane C) Christine or D) Mary They also called my phone to verify identity.

Once they verified my identity this way, they took my bank account information and offered to transfer money from my bank account to my Neteller account instantly, up to $750. I chose the full $750. I received an email a few minute later that said $816.75 was debited from your bank account. WTF?

I called Neteller and was surprised to reach a human being who spoke English. It was pretty late at night. He said that the method of transfer that I chose was called Instacash and it came with a fee. I asked that he cancel the Instacash transmission and refund the fee. He said he couldn t do that. He said next time, I should choose normal transfer which is free. I didn t remember choosing Instacash and I m sure I would never authorize a $66.75 fee to transfer money, but he insisted that I authorized the payment and the extra fee.

I asked for Neteller s Agent of Service in California. I told him I would not be touching the money tonight but that I would be filing a claim in my local Small Claims Court on Monday morning for the full $816.75 plus expenses and interest. He put me on hold while he spoke with his supervisor.

His supervisor said that if I left the $750 alone in my bank account until Friday, they would waive the service fee and my balance would be raised to the $815.75. I would have to call back in order to have this done. The following Monday, I called back and they put the fee back in my account.

So, the story ended well even though I had to spend too much time on the phone (twice) when all they had to do was make it very clear about the fee instead of burying the language in the small print. I m normally very careful about extra fees and I m sure I would ve seen mention of it, if it wasn t hidden in the click through screens.

Notice they don t mention fees here where you choose what kind of deposit you will make:

Or the next screen:

Even if you click on the View Info from the first page, you won t see them mention any fees:

Should I have known to use Electronic Funds Transfer because it received 5 stars from the Preference people?

-Dustin"

No Dustin, you should've known that internet gambling is immoral and gone to a scuzzy riverboat like a normal person.