Triton
Gold Member
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2000
- Messages
- 35,515
So, I've got this issue...
As a sideline I build custom sword / knife scabbards for customers. It pays fairly well and it is gratifying to be able to provide customers with a quality product for a reasonable price. I've been doing this for years with little in the way of drama.
However, at the moment I've got a little bit of drama. The way it typically works is a customer sends me their sword, I do up custom work to their specifications and ship the whole package back to them. In this case I got a scabbard done and notified the customer. He gives me a story about car troubles etc and says he can't pay. He wants to do installments. I'm not a bank and tell him to put it on a credit card. He refuses to do that. Then he tells me that he is getting a new job which should help his financial situation. He tells me he will pay the entire bill in September. Sword and scabbard go in the safe. There they sit. Obviously he didn't pay in September. If it was a smaller amount I would just send him his sword back and tell him to have a nice life. However in this case it's a 400 dollar bill and there is little chance I can sell the scabbard to someone else because it is so customized.
So... my options are:
1) Take it on the chin and send him his sword back.
2) See if I can get him to pay on installments
3) Sell the sword and scabbard for some small price although I'll undoubtedly lose money in order to sell the package and chances are good that this will cause additional drama.
It's the third option I want to ask about.
Do I have a legal right to do alternative 3? This seems like it would be analogous to a car repair shop that is not being paid for repairs but I don't know...
Thoughts?
As a sideline I build custom sword / knife scabbards for customers. It pays fairly well and it is gratifying to be able to provide customers with a quality product for a reasonable price. I've been doing this for years with little in the way of drama.
However, at the moment I've got a little bit of drama. The way it typically works is a customer sends me their sword, I do up custom work to their specifications and ship the whole package back to them. In this case I got a scabbard done and notified the customer. He gives me a story about car troubles etc and says he can't pay. He wants to do installments. I'm not a bank and tell him to put it on a credit card. He refuses to do that. Then he tells me that he is getting a new job which should help his financial situation. He tells me he will pay the entire bill in September. Sword and scabbard go in the safe. There they sit. Obviously he didn't pay in September. If it was a smaller amount I would just send him his sword back and tell him to have a nice life. However in this case it's a 400 dollar bill and there is little chance I can sell the scabbard to someone else because it is so customized.
So... my options are:
1) Take it on the chin and send him his sword back.
2) See if I can get him to pay on installments
3) Sell the sword and scabbard for some small price although I'll undoubtedly lose money in order to sell the package and chances are good that this will cause additional drama.
It's the third option I want to ask about.
Do I have a legal right to do alternative 3? This seems like it would be analogous to a car repair shop that is not being paid for repairs but I don't know...
Thoughts?