My previous job that I had overpaid me. I quit, and they paid me for one extra week, and today, I got a notice in the mail that they say they have overpaid me $312.88. As it stand right now, I am pretty poor, and I quit this job over a month ago. Simply put, I don’t have the money right now.
So, now the questions. First, so I HAVE to pay it back? They sure did take their sweet time getting this to me, and I have relied on that money, thinking it was legitimate for the hours I worked. Second, what if I HAVE to pay it back, but don’t have the money to. They can’t make me, because I didn’t know, right? What would you do Dopers?
Well they probably can make you since it was a mistake, and you didn’t actually work those hours. Is this a big company or small ma and pa store. Anyways if it is a big company, I would suggest you start finding away to save up that money. They’ll probably send you two more notices just like that one, then threaten to send you to a collectors agency. As for how long it took, that just must be how long it took for the payment to make it’s way through the accounting department, and then for them to find the missing money (missing because when the add up all the hours of all the employees, and all the bills and expenses etc etc etc they came up with a number that was $312.88 less then the amount of money that should have been spent and they had to track that down and find it.)
As a side note, I was once at a store it a mall, when I paid my bill, they ran my check through one of those check readers (ya know, they slide it through, and then give you the check back, almost like a credit/check card). Any ways, apparently there was some sort of problem with the reader and I got a letter from someone saying that the payement did not go through and that I need to send them a new payment etc blah blah blah. Anyways that would normally have been no big deal, but this was TEN MONTHS after it happened. I called them up and told that what a poorly run company they have if it takes them ten months to catch an error like that. You think they would just cut their losses since it was only $30. Oh well.
If you owe someone $50 for coming to fix your window, but you hand him a $100 bill by mistake, would you want the extra $50 back?
The length of time they took to pay you is a non-issue. Sure, they should have paid you on time, but it has no bearing on whether or not you have to pay back the extra money.
Maybe you can offer to pay back a little at a time? It happened to me once, they paid me three times for the same month, I called them & they told me to keep it, but didn’t want me to work after that. So much for being honest.
Regardless of the moral implications, as a matter of precedent large companies will often pursue you until you do pay it back.
But, on the other hand, some of them are amenable to a good-faith effort to pay it back in installments. If you said that you were going to pay them back $25 a month, and actually did so on a regular schedule, it is possible that they will go ahead and work with you.
I reckon if you want to ignore them, you can. The sum of money is small enough that they don’t want to spend any major effort on it. Besides, there’s probably no way they can make any substantial proof against you.
Hmm. A matter of “should you” or “are you required to.” I believe that you should ay the money back in either case. They did not authorize you to be in debt to them (like you will have to be to a bank or something to pay it back). Doesn’t matter the amount of money.
Don’t count on it. If they have full-time counsel on-staff, then it’s already a sunk cost. I spent perhaps $5000 in legal time to get a $300 payment. Why did I do that? Because the lawyer was already on the staff full-time, and he didn’t have anything better to do, so why not?
Plus, there is precedent. You can’t just ignore all debts.
Umm…how about the fact that he cashed the check?
I mean, it was a mistake on the part of the company. No one here is blaming Chekmate for taking the money. I’ve been overpaid too, on a few occasions. The point at hand is what does he do now, that the mistake has been discovered.
There are a few options:
Ignore everything and hope the company leaves you alone. Well, this might work, but it might also get a big goose-egg on a credit report too, when a collection agency gets involved.
Pay it all back at once. Not a good option, since he said his financial situation was tight.
Declare bankruptcy. This can likely be avoided, by option 4.
Work with the company, and show good faith towards some level of payback. This will work with many companies, so long as they believe you will actually pay them back. I let my clients slide much longer than I should on paying, if I am confident that they will, in fact, pay me.
And if the company is hostile and threatening, when you are making a good faith effort to work towards a payback, then you may be able to get the amount eliminated in small claims court. I have seen judges completely wipe out debts when a creditor was being abusive, and refusing to work with a good-faith effort debtor.
They can prove, through the OP’s time sheets, the hours he or she actually worked. They can prove, through their own cancelled checks, what he’s been paid.
I have two answers, and naturally enough, as with many favorite topics, they contradict.
Keeping money you didn’t earn is stealing. Period. If you got it by mistake, you should make arrangements to repay it somehow.
Except. . . as I think I recounted before, once the bank gave me $11,000 by mistake. Long story short: I returned it right away, but their screw-up was so complicated it took several trips to the bank (working with the bank manager) to resolve it.
If: a) It had been $11, and b) I thought they were going to put me through that again, and c) there was a very good chance they’d never, ever figure out, then I’d keep the money. Or to be precise, I’d do nothing in hopes of not being involved in such time-wasting garbage.
There’s some emperical evidence for party_warmer’s feelings: This story of a man that deposited nearly $100,000 fake check and then tried to give the money back…
My paycheck always say “NON NEGOTIABLE” Not sure if that means anything though. If it were me I wouldn’t worry about paying it back.
Also in most states an employer is required by law to pay you in seven days after time went in. So if it took them a month to pay you your cash; they were in the wrong. Unless of course you only put your time in once a month.
OP: Pay it back. Two reasons. First, they’ll probably chase you down, the amount isn’t worth fighting over, and you’ll ultimately lose if they sue you. Second, unless you’re leaving the working world forever, you’re going to be listing this job on a resume. Guess what is likely to happen if Prospective Employer calls Angry Unrepaid Ex-Employer?
If you do pay it back, make sure they take the amount off of your W-2. You don’t want to be paying taxes on any amount you repay.
Shakes: Not true. State laws vary widely. While this may be true in your state, it isn’t true in mine, or in any state I’ve heard of. Most states do have a wage and hours law, but a requirement that employees be paid within seven days is not universal.
It’s not that easy. How does the company actually show that you owe them money?
It’s very sticky. Say your company overpaid somebody? Yes, you have the cancelled cheque, but all it says is this person has cashed it. There’s nothing about why he should not have that money.
I have to question this – could this really become a bad mark on his credit report? There was no credit contract entered into by anyone. I’d always been under the assumption that negative credit gigs only applied to credit situations (e.g., credit, utilities, rent, et al).
This is the GQ forum. We try to provide factual and accurate answers to questions here. Your persistence in defending an inaccurate assertion, in the face of corrections, is annoying.
As I posted above, the company has both the cancelled check and the relevant timesheets. The timesheets show the number of hours actually worked, and the check shows the amount of money paid. Taken together, this is prima facie evidence of the overpayment.
Indeed, once I’ve shown that I’ve given you money, and challenged that transaction as improper, it’s up to you to show why you’re entitled to the money. If you got the money improperly, this is “unjust enrichment” and the courts can create a constructive trust to reach an equitable result - that is, the return of the improperly paid money.
In short, it’s not “sticky” at all. It may be, as a matter of policy, the company will choose to ignore it. But as posters above have indicated, it’s by no means certain or even likely.
A debt may be enforced by a court, which will issue a judgement - a decree that you owe the money in question. As a matter of public record, a judgement may appear on your credit report.
So, yes – the above situation could indeed become a black mark on a credit report. The judgement could also be used to ask the court to issue a writ of fieri facias, which orders the local sheriff to seize certain of your personal and real property and sell it in order to satisfy the judgement.
