Jo Peters

Long story .... short

My partner has his own tyre & exhaust business. Yesterday, he fits 4 tyres to a Mondeo, guy pays & leaves. This morning, the guy returns and claims that my partner has scratched all the rims on the guy's wheels and has left finger marks on the brake dust/dirty rims (wheel cleaning is not part of the service). My partner explains that the rims are consistent with kerbing and are very obviously not new scuffs. Also the tyre machine would leave round the rim marks, not down the rim marks.

Guy then says he's cancelled the cheque (£193.00) and threatens my partner saying he knows where he lives and will "sort out" his Subaru. He then gets in the car and drives off.

My partner goes to the bank and the cheque has indeed been stopped. Phoned police who have "logged" his complaint (presumably for AFTER the guy has torched the car!) and they can do no more.

My partner has a debt collector he has used on occasion who is going to try to get the money back through the courts.

Does anyone know if we can impound the car? The guy just left without giving my partner chance to take the tyres off and prove that it was not him that scratched the rims. We have the guy's address and are tempted to go round and take some photos but don't really need the confrontation again.

Comments / legal advice please

Thanks

Jo

47 NAT

If he'd done that to me then there would be a confrontaion without a doubt. If he never gave me the chance to rectify the problem before cancelling the payment, the wheels would be off his car and in my garage till payment is with me in full. Sounds like he's trying to lift your leg!

Doing it legally would probably be a waste of time if hes got that kind of attitude. Play him at his own game and beat the ****** ....

Nath

Brendan Hughes

Report him for theft of the tyres.

Brendan Hughes

Oh, and as soon as you can, get 3 other tyre fitters to look at the rims and see if they agree it's kerbing or not. (Though I think this is a bit utopian).

Spoon

Friend of mine has a tyre, exhaust etc centre and every so often he gets this.

The majority of people trying it on have no intention of paying from the onset.

It simply becomes a game of who has the biggest, best methods of winning.

If you were nearer you'd win.

fast bloke

tell all the other tyre fitters what he has done and then slash his tyres

chaos.

..and burn his car out ..

..and house down..

..with him in it..

HTH

Jo Peters

LOL at Chaos & Fast bloke .... those were MY initial thoughts, I must admit!!

47 NAT - the guy drove off before he had chance to get the wheels off otherwise my partner would've had them off and left the guy with the rims and the old tyres outside on the forecourt!

Jo

Freak

theft
The police wont do anything?
Shocking

Vilma

Unfortunatly, this sounds like a civil dispute. Names and addresses should have been exchanged at the time. You are going to have to make a claim through the small claims court to get the money back. As for the threats, we'll that should be taken a little more seriously. You can threaten to cause criminal damage which is still an offence, unless they've changed the law (sorry, it's been a while, only deal with murder now and things can get a bit rusty). Re contact the local old bill and stress the urgency over the treats then throw in the tyre dispute. Make sure you get a crime number, ensures they have taken your complaint seriously. Hope this helps

Spoon

Forget the above totally, the law is a complete arsé.

If your partner was prepared to take the tyres back off had he been given the opportunity then he should still be prepared to do it, if he can be bothered.

Turn up at his address and take them off, if he calls the law (which I doubt) they'll only turn up and ask the story and not be interested. (Chances are they wouldn't arrive for 3 days anyway).

They will more than likely hang around until you've finished, unless he hands you payment in full (cash), in which case they can leave sooner. His receipt should state the goods still belong to you till they are paid for in full.

If the guy gets threatening then a) hurt him, b) call the law yourself and tell them he has an outstanding speeding ticket( that'll get them out quicker than if you say he has a gun).

By the time you take the "jokers" route you might get the money back but after costs it won't be worth it.

ajm

I find myself agreeing with Spoon ( )

For the amount of money you are talking about it really isn't worth the hassle of courts etc. Normally I would advise you that this means you have £193 worth of fun to extract from the bloke's property and/or the bloke himself. However, now you have reported it, you have registered a motive with the old bill!

So... give it a year, then recoup your £193 fun token!

Spoon

I'd just like to make it clear that I, in no way, co-erced ajm into giving that statement.

Jo Peters

Thanks guys, think we're going to take the small claims court action to start with and then if we get nowhere, we'll consider the other "options"

In the frame of mind he was in yesterday, my partner was ready to go round there and remove the tyres but it probably would've turned into something more serious and you just know that it would've ended in my partner being done for trespass, gbh or more (we could've called on your current knowledge then Vilma!! - ONLY JOKING OF COURSE).

Jo

paulr

1.Was the cheque not suported by a cheque gurantee card,can you still stop it?
2.If you do any of the above "stupid" suggestions and it gets in the paper,thats your reputation down the swanny.

Jo Peters

paulr - yes, the cheque had a guarantee card to cover, wrote all the details on the back of the cheque also his name address etc but apparently that makes no difference - if the guy wants to cancel the cheque he can!! I agree on the reputation part, that's why it's in the hands of the debt collector and we've not been round to take the tyres back. My partner has a very good reputation and plans to keep it that way

Tiggs

some normal morron ideas on here...this guy runs a business......how the hell is he supposed to do that if he "hurts people" that belive he has damaged their tyres???

forget if he did or didnt, you think anyone will care when they have to choose a tyre fitter and have one in mind who they then discover turns up at ppls houses and steals the tyres back?

go through the courts or do some of the above and wreck anything from your reputation to your own car in stupid tit for tat rubbish.

T

Spoon

Translation will follow.

What is stupid about taking back what is legally and rightfully yours?

Your reputation only gains respect done in the right manner.

Jo- Let me know the name and address of the business, I too fancy the "buy now, never pay" deal.

It's fairly obvious your partner has no intention of doing anything other than using the courts. If that's his choice then good luck.

Tiggs

b) go to jail
c) business folds
d) post on SN asking about way to pay mortgage while husband does 3 months for assult
e) take more stupid advice

Spoon

That's in the real world. We are talking about the country as it is now.

I'd sooner take advice from somebody who has a grasp of the English language too.

ajm

Tiggs is obviously a natural born victim!

I'm sure Jo's partner will be back to thank him after they have wasted time and money pursuing a paltry £193 pounds! If he puts any sort of value against his own time there is no way he'll break even, even if he wins!

THE M25 FLYER

A few years back i had a customer (builder) with a Renault master van which had lost its oil so killed the engine,all previous work i had done for him was allways paid for promptly no problem.
I busted a gut to find a low milleage replacement engine and stayed late over a couple on nights to sort it out for him,got paid (£1250.00) and thouht no more of it.
A week later i find the payment (company credit card) had been declined,it turned out the bloke was about to go bust so had done a deal with the tax and vat man via a debt management company and his bank so he could carry on trading to pay the big bills off but screw the little guys like me with an offer of about 15% of my lost money paid back over 5 years.
He had known he was going down when he brought the van and knew i was only a small business so that really got to me,still i left it a few weeks and as i knew where the van was parked at night i had a friend pay it a visit and so he could slide under the front and pop a small stone inside the cambelt cover.
I got a phone call a few days later from the cheeky git saying his cambelt had snapped
and he wanted me to fix it free of charge,obviously you can imagine my reply to that but i did point out to him that i had contacted all the local garages and dealers in the area and had given them his name and the reg of the vehicle along with a brief history of the way he did bussiness.
I never got my money back and i struggled for a month or two to cover the loss but the git wasn't going to get away with it.

ajm

Nice one! The important thing is that you also managed to achieve "closure" so it doesn't keep knawing away at you. Without a little bit of justifiable vigilantism there really would be little deterrent against scum screwing over decent people.

andrewdelvard

Both 'jobs' well done Good for you

yoza

Do you stock those Bridgestone STI8 sticky tyres ?

If so, I would like to write a cheque for four, thanks.

I shall ensure my wheels are extremely dirty when I turn up......


Ps. On serious note I agree with Chaos, which is a bit worring, but there you go.

Tiggs

whats this blokes objective?

if he wants his money he has to either go through courts or confront the bloke. Personally, i wouldnt bother for £200 but neither would i go down the road of "hurting" him when im trying to run a business.

or is he looking for revenge? in which case he's a muppet and can pick from any number of daft ideas above......he will never see his cash though so im not sure what sort of business man that makes him.

my business would right it off......luckily for me im a good enough businessman to not need to worry about arsing around with 10 year old ideas to get back at someone over £200......seems i am alone!

(although, it does appear that the bloke in question wont adopt the daft ideas so maybe the two only real business people on here agree with each other)

yoza

Tiggs,

Your getting far too old and sensible, where's your sense of adventure ?

PS What do you sell in your business ?

And what do I get for £200......

ajm

Tiggs, took you a while

Its the propensity of people like you to write off bad debts like this that enourages people to take the liberties they do. You have "daft" people like us, who are willing to look after our own interests, to thank for the fact that you don't have more cases like this to write off.

Apart from the obvious benefits to oneself of getting someone back there is the added bonus that teaching someone not to screw decent people over does a valuable service to society.

Like you say, its his business so he has the right to deal with it in any way he sees fit, however if this guy gets away with it then he may have your money or mine in his greedy little sights next.

Jo Peters

LOL at Yoza! Thanks for all your comments. Tiggs - £193 is quite a lot of money to lose for him - it is only a small business - he doesn't have the backing of Kwik **** or any other larger company so he doesn't really want to write the money off unless he really has to - if you let the ****** get away with it, they'll all be in for "free" tyres.

He has decided the legal route to start with - his debt collector is on it already and court forms get processed this Friday but at the end of the day, if he doesn't get the money back that way, the guy will get payback - we know where he lives and the tyres WILL become unroadworthy.

It's like M25Flyer said - he will get over the money loss but the guy WON'T get away with it. We just have to hope he doesn't retaliate and trash the Scoob.

Tiggs

if he gets his money back thats great......if you wreck his tyres and he screws your scoob then you have yourselves to blame.....hope it doesnt come to that (i wonder if it does how many of "lifes heros" will chip in for your respray?)

T