I’d say a certified letter to the CEO and CFO saying essentially what you’ve told us, followed by a date in Small Claims court ought to do it. Make sure you say, “I regret taking this step, but <dragon lady> refuses to act on this.” I’m sure companies just love employees who get them sued.
Small claims. You’ll win, you’ll get all your money, interest, plus the satisfaction of sticking them with the fees. Screw the fuckers sideways with wrench as hard as you can while minimizing your own costs: I can think of no better way than to take 'em to Small Claims. Write a letter to your local newspaper afterward, as well as the Chamber of Commerce. The bastards need some bad publicity.
Fight it, don’t give up. At the least, take them to small claims court. You are owed this money, and by all rights they should pay it. You should be able to easily win in small claims court, escpecially since you have documentation.
I wonder (IANAL) is it possible for all the ex-employees who are owed money to get together a class action suit? Is there enough money owed total to make this worthwhile, considering one person is owed fifty thousand dollars? Would it be more productive or less productive? What are the pros and cons? I would think that it would drive home the point with more force, if you all banded together to point out what happened, wouldn’t it? Am I correct in thinking that Dragon Lady is involved in each case of an ex-employee not getting reimbursed? Just wondering “out loud”.
If you’re even considering not fighting it, try this short exercise - picture that $1400. Picture putting it in an IRA or some such retirement account. Do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how nice a cruise you can go on when you retire, just on that hunk of change (which, while a big dal to me, isn’t really so much when you think of your lifetime earnings) and the interest you’ll get on it. I don’t know how old you are, but if you think of what that money could mean to you after you’ve had it for a few decades…
Plus, the way I see it it’s “free money” to you now because you were going to just let it go. So unless you have bills to pay or credit card debt to take out, you can take a trip on it, upgrade your TV, or sock the whole amount away in a nice fund to earn you some money. $1400 dosen’t seem like a whole lot of money, but after twenty years of interest on it I think you’d go “Wow, I’m sure glad I fought for that!”
Not to mention, do it so they don’t pull that crap on others.
Oddly enough, I also was (still am, I guess) owed $1400 by an employer. I would have fought it, but in my case it was futile. The owners were gambling away all the company’s money, and then defaulting on the payroll. Some employees took them to small claims, won, but never managed to collect since by that time the company was in bankruptcy protection. We looked into the possibility of a class action suit, but it was deemed infeasible. I just bailed and tried not to look back, myself.
Winning in small claims court is not necessarily a guarantee that you will collect your money. It is entirely possible to show up in small claims, get a judgement in your favor for the full amount owed you by a corporation, and then have said corporation simply ignore the judgement. Unless you can convince the sheriff (in my jurisdiction, at least) to enforce the judgement, you aren’t much better off.
I wish I weren’t aware of the above as forcefully as I am.
So I guess my advice would be to pursue the claim, but not to let it consume you.
Regards,
Shodan
Fight! My purse was stolen a couple of weeks ago. The thieves charged $1200 before I reported my credit card stolen. The thieves have written my checks, using my driver’s license, for over $10,000 in merchandise. No one is willing to do a damned thing about it. The police don’t want to be bothered. The merchants don’t want to be bothered. Although I’m not responsible for the money, it just galls me that some people have learned they can steal and get away with it. I’ll be glad to pass some of my anger along to you if you’re running low.
In the past, I too won a small claims verdict, only to have the defendent simply not pay up.
Damn, I’m mad.
Get in her face. There’s no need to be polite at this point. Next time you talk to her, plainly ask her, “Do you have any intention of paying me?” or “How long do you plan on avoiding me?” See what her answer is, and go from there. You’d be amazed what she might say once you start backing her in a corner.
You have a job now… you don’t need her as a reference. Don’t be afraid to call her out. Not only could she lose her job for this, but she might be subject to a criminal suit as well.
I do this every day for a living. Email me if you’d like me to talk to her.
Adam
If you win in Small Claims Court and they don’t pay, hire some seven foot tall, 300 pound, completely tatooed biker as a collection agent. He doesn’t have to threaten or be abusive; all he has to do is explain that he wants the money NOW and you’ll probably get it, especially if he takes a few of his buddies with him. I once hired a licensed PI to collect a debt----the guy was HUGE, scary, and didn’t like deadbeats; we got the money within a week.
If you hate the thought of working on this, set it up with someone to do the work (you’ll provide the documentation and sign the requests), for a nice percentage of the money. If you’re considering giving her the $1400, your friend might do it for $700.
You’d have to show up in person at the Small Claims hearing, and you(r friend) needs to know what to do, probably starting with getting an outline from an attorney on Step A, Step B…
One thing about a Small Claims judgment, if ignored you take it to the Sheriff’s office in the county they do business in, and provide the Sheriff with info on where the money is: bank name, branch, and bank account number for instance (check old paycheck stub or whatever you have), or location of cash register (they will scoop the money right out of the cash drawer if there is one, and come back until they’ve got it all). It helps to know their timing, ie when the most money is in the account or cash register.
The lawyer or a call to the Sheriff in advance can be useful with this. Again, it’s your bud that’d doing all the hassle, not you. And you and your bud get to have a fine lunch when you get your hands on the cash.
…then there’s a lot in what LousB has to say, too.
Or use the judgment to garnish any accounts that are being paid to them. Or have the sheriff seize and sell their assests (starting with the desk and computer of the boss of the person not paying you).
Drat.
“if you’re considering giving her” -->“if you’re considering giving your ex-employer”
and
LouisB
def. fight. in most companies change is not made until money is taken out of the pockets of the owners.
we had a manager in my office who inspired 2 people to walk out in one day. numerous complaints from staff. the guy was a fav. of one of the vps. the one in charge of operations… oy. the day this manager cost the vp money (client sued and won due to manager’s policy) manager was gone.
you and anyone else who is owed money from company should sue. the more time and money this person costs the company the less time she will be there. she may be in someone’s pocket… but when money comes out of that pocket so will she.
Apart from the legal routes that others have suggested, I wonder whether you might get them some bad publicity. I can recall reading about someone who felt that his car dealership wasn’t as responsive as he would have liked. He had a sign mounted on his car that said something like “These guys sold me this lemon and they won’t fix it.” He drove to the dealer on a Saturday morning and parked it on the public street, in a legal space, as close to the dealer’s entrance as he could get. No one had any right to chase him away, and he sat there until he got satisfaction from the dealer. He also got coverage from TV crews. Who knows how much business the dealer lost? Maybe you could do something similar. Be careful of the language–don’t call them crooks, for example–but just something like “they owe me money and refuse to pay” in a place where customers and clients could see it might encourage them to be more responsive.
A class action suit would be bad publicity, and the higher ups couldn’t ignore it either, she wouldn’t be able to make it go away so easily. She’s been picking off the people one by one, but banded together they’d be harder to ignore. That is, IF a class action suit is a good idea considering everything, and IF it’s not too late to form one?
In trouble with who? Don’t be a pussy.
One more vote for fighting it.
Also, who filled your shoes at the company? It might be really nice to drop them a letter warning them not to personally pay for company purchases. No one else should have to go through this either.
Then make a simple written request via registered mail for payment within a month, and when it is not made then take it to small claims court without further adoo. Don’t do anything else that may put you at risk of liability – no protests, no threats, no publicity, and in paricular, no mention of anyone or anything that is not directly related to the debt. If you can prove that there is a debt owed, then you have nothing to be afraid of with small claims court…
Uh, the government? I know what I’ve seen and been a party to. Many assistants see everything, though they lack any say in the matter. I have no intention of sticking my neck out and hoping they don’t somehow turn something around on me. Would I be cleared? I’m almost sure of it. Cold comfort after I spend all my savings on lawyers.
You feel like insulting me while I’m having a bad day? Go visit the pit and leave me alone with the people who can play nice.
I really think this is what I’m going to do. Simple, straightforward, and it doesn’t require me to talk to her anymore. I appreciate the sentiment behind fighting the good fight, by all I really want is my cash and to close this chapter of my life.
Does anyone know what kind of interest I can charge them? Can I charge the interest my CC company charged me for the time I carried a ballance for those items? What about after that?