Customer paid with a bounced check outside of my state for an item

[desirae hinkle]

Jurisdiction

Texas

I have a business that I sell items from in Texas. Recently a client bought a piece of furniture from us and we shipped her item to Florida where her and her business reside. She paid with a bounced check and we are now trying to get the money that is owed to us. We have pictures that she has received the product along with a "Bill of Landing" where she signed for her product as well. In what state do I file my law suite? What do I file? Check fraud? Theft? Should I put a mechanic lein on her business as well? All three and maybe even more? help!

 

[army judge]

I have a business that I sell items from in Texas. Recently a client bought a piece of furniture from us and we shipped her item to Florida where her and her business reside. She paid with a bounced check and we are now trying to get the money that is owed to us. We have pictures that she has received the product along with a "Bill of Landing" where she signed for her product as well. In what state do I file my law suite? What do I file? Check fraud? Theft? Should I put a mechanic lein on her business as well? All three and maybe even more? help!

It might be best to report the bad check she gave you to scam merchandise out of you to the police or sheriff's department located where you shipped the products.

As far as ever receiving any payment for the goods she scammed out of you, you'll have to sue her in Florida.

Yeah, that sucks.

Furthermore, even IF you receive a judgment against her for the money she owes you, collecting it might be impossible.

But, let's not try to get the cart to pull the horse.

Start by reporting the bad check to the proper law enforcement agency, or county prosecutor.

You'll have to track that down yourself, but with the delivery address she used, that shouldn't be hard.

In the future it might be best NOT to accept personal checks or business checks from small businesses.

Furthermore, if I were you I'd require a certified check, cashiers check, maybe a money order, but no checks.

Of course, credit cards can also be a safeguard for you.

You can send the check for collections (takes about 10 days, ask your bank manager) before sending the goods to avoid being scammed again.

 

[Des.123]

We used Quickbooks as our merchant service. They let us know they tried 3 times to collect by using her check and each time it bounced. She is claiming that she put a stop the transaction AFTER receiving the product and that she stole nothing and wishes to return the item now that we have told her we would be taking legal action. Prior to us notifying her she refused to answer our calls, texts, voicemails and emails

1> We do not accept returns.
2> We caught her lying point blank to us stating that she stopped the transaction. We have documentation of her check bouncing multiple times prior to her "stoping" the transaction.
3> Just because a person steals from a store, gets caught, and returns the item does not mean you are out of trouble. We want her punished for taking food off our table essentially in a theoretical sense. Our business has come to a stand still due to having to deal with this.

We are now in debit with our business account due to this persons refusal to pay us for purchased merchandise. She is also halfway across the country. It's not like we can just walk down the street and serve papers.

When we did some research on her we found that she has scammed more than just us from her current business but we are unsure if any of those people have taken legal action. We have a bystander who reached out to us who claimed she was in a similar situation with stolen merchandise. The item she purchased from us was over 3k.

Any further advice you have I would be more than open to hearing. Thank you.

It might be best to report the bad check she gave you to scam merchandise out of you to the police or sheriff's department located where you shipped the products.

As far as ever receiving any payment for the goods she scammed out of you, you'll have to sue her in Florida.

Yeah, that sucks.

Furthermore, even IF you receive a judgment against her for the money she owes you, collecting it might be impossible.

But, let's not try to get the cart to pull the horse.

Start by reporting the bad check to the proper law enforcement agency, or county prosecutor.

You'll have to track that down yourself, but with the delivery address she used, that shouldn't be hard.

In the future it might be best NOT to accept personal checks or business checks from small businesses.

Furthermore, if I were you I'd require a certified check, cashiers check, maybe a money order, but no checks.

Of course, credit cards can also be a safeguard for you.

You can send the check for collections (takes about 10 days, ask your bank manager) before sending the goods to avoid being scammed again.

 

[army judge]

We used Quickbooks as our merchant service. They let us know they tried 3 times to collect by using her check and each time it bounced. She is claiming that she put a stop the transaction AFTER receiving the product and that she stole nothing and wishes to return the item now that we have told her we would be taking legal action. Prior to us notifying her she refused to answer our calls, texts, voicemails and emails

1> We do not accept returns.
2> We caught her lying point blank to us stating that she stopped the transaction. We have documentation of her check bouncing multiple times prior to her "stoping" the transaction.
3> Just because a person steals from a store, gets caught, and returns the item does not mean you are out of trouble. We want her punished for taking food off our table essentially in a theoretical sense. Our business has come to a stand still due to having to deal with this.

We are now in debit with our business account due to this persons refusal to pay us for purchased merchandise. She is also halfway across the country. It's not like we can just walk down the street and serve papers.

When we did some research on her we found that she has scammed more than just us from her current business but we are unsure if any of those people have taken legal action. We have a bystander who reached out to us who claimed she was in a similar situation with stolen merchandise. The item she purchased from us was over 3k.

Any further advice you have I would be more than open to hearing. Thank you.

As originally suggested, I'd start by contacting the appropriate law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction where the merchandise was delivered.

For the immediate future (the next three to six months) forget about collecting the money.

That may never happen.

Heck, for all you know you may have sold the stuff to some guy that doesn't even reside or work where the goods were dropped.

That's why you need the cops to get involved.

You need to know who or what you've been scammed by, and what the cops know about these pukes.

Don't delay, because you might be be able to get the cops to recover the goods and get the product returned to you sooner, rather than later, or not at all.

 

[adjusterjack]

We are now in debit with our business account due to this persons refusal to pay us for purchased merchandise.

Then you have a BIG problem being in business without having sufficient cash reserves to cover this kind of contingency especially if only one person's breach can bring your business to its knees. If your business is that vulnerable perhaps you should rethink how you operate, who and where to sell to, and how you get paid.

She is also halfway across the country. It's not like we can just walk down the street and serve papers.

Then you hire a private process server. You would likely have to do that wherever you sue anybody.