# Chargebacks and Arbitration



## Guest (Oct 5, 2011)

Most all of us at one time or another has had chargebacks for items that are completely bogus and without any merit. 

We have started to notify all our national service providers that in the case of a chargeback that we are requesting arbitration. All contracts that we have seen allow that option in the case of a dispute. Reading our contracts they state that the "losing party" is responsible for all expenses associated with arbitration. This includes: court costs, any lawyer fees, travel time and a daily perdiem. 

It seems that the chargebacks have come to an abrupt stop when we started requesting arbitration on everyone of these "crimes against the contractor". 

I know though that at some point they will "go the route" of the arbitration hearing and I wonder if *anyone out here on the forum has ever went through these proceedings?*

We did seek legal council on this, but our legal experts are in the Midwest and you would have to travel to the County that the Service Companies are located or they have in the contracts that we signed. 

(We feel this is just great since some of these companies are close to the beach and they would help front a free vacation) 

Anyways, our lawyer said that there is virtually no way these Service Companies would "WIN" on these arbitrations since what they request from us contractors and how they are charging back for willy nilly items that no "normal person/arbitrator" would/could find in the favor.

Any opinions?

Some day maybe we will see:whistling


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## thanohano44 (Aug 5, 2012)

FremontREO said:


> Most all of us at one time or another has had chargebacks for items that are completely bogus and without any merit.
> 
> We have started to notify all our national service providers that in the case of a chargeback that we are requesting arbitration. All contracts that we have seen allow that option in the case of a dispute. Reading our contracts they state that the "losing party" is responsible for all expenses associated with arbitration. This includes: court costs, any lawyer fees, travel time and a daily perdiem.
> 
> ...


I have thought about it. You bring up an interesting prospective.


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## Guest (Oct 5, 2011)

FremontREO said:


> Most all of us at one time or another has had chargebacks for items that are completely bogus and without any merit.
> 
> We have started to notify all our national service providers that in the case of a chargeback that we are requesting arbitration. All contracts that we have seen allow that option in the case of a dispute. Reading our contracts they state that the "losing party" is responsible for all expenses associated with arbitration. This includes: court costs, any lawyer fees, travel time and a daily perdiem.
> 
> ...


Sounds good to me.


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## mtmtnman (May 1, 2012)

Fremont, Anna Maria Island is nice in the winter!! http://www.annamariaislandchamber.org/ :whistling:whistling:whistling:whistling


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2011)

*Good Idea*

Never even considered that. That is a good idea.


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2011)

*charging me back*

I am currently getting chargebacks for countless jobs due to maybe 1 day late or 2 days late on a work order. Is this even constitutional? I am a sub-con and the chargebacks are coming from the company that is sub-coning me. To me, knowing the price they are getting for what I am completing, even 1 day late, its a crime!


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2011)

Its not a crime but by law/contract you can request arbitration. Per some advise I teceived today once you request the service company must provide. 

Disclaimer: i am not an atty and i would get proper legal council


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2011)

FremontREO said:


> Its not a crime but by law/contract you can request arbitration. Per some advise I teceived today once you request the service company must provide.
> 
> Disclaimer: i am not an atty and i would get proper legal council


Fremont, what your asking is very possible but with caveats.

First of all, I assume your not working with these companies anymore. If your still active, good bye client relationship. They would view this as no different than placing a lien on a property. Legal fees mean money.

Now if this is an ex-client, why bother with arbitration? Why not go straight to the lien process?

I know liens have rules. I ignore them. I dont care if a job is 3 years old. If I get a chargeback or something and then I'm no longer working with them, I will file that lien in a heartbeat. I have a 100% collection rate when filing liens. Further, the rules say you can only lien for actual work done. I ignore that too. I tack on a $200 "inspection fee" and when they do contact me and cry foul, I give them $100 back in negotiations. 

What if the lien is local? If your talking nationals, and they arent local to you, your in great shape. If your talking about a local person, whole different ballgame.

Check this mistake out I made:

We were hired to restore an REO to the tune of 30k. It was an unusual job. I got it via a potential sub who brought it to me. If I could get the sale, he would do the work and get paid when I get paid. I fronted him the materials. We split the final proceeds. I put up about 7k and no idea how many hours he put in but he did a beautiful job. It was perfect. The new homeowner who hired us got the check and played dumb, ignored us, didnt pay us. We lien-ed the house. 

Idiot sub sues him in small claims IN ADDITION to our lien for 7.5k. The idiot judge gives us about 2 minutes to plead our case. We have hundreds of photos. The owners case is, "you cant see all the defects but they are everywhere" and has closeups of levels being un-level etc.

The judge doesnt know who is right and dismisses the case, AND dismisses our lien.

Point being, dont end up in front of a place you could lose, because you might.


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2011)

Your part right and part wrong...... At least for our State.

I found out on the leins is this: Let the lawyer do ALL the paperwork then process the small claims court action if under $5000 and let the lawyer do the small claims "show up" and I've yet to ever lose.:thumbsup:

In our State after the judgement is issued we give them 30 additional days to make payment then the lawyer starts foreclosure and eviction proceedings (all at the cost of the defendent)....This normally gets a check PLUS the lawyer cost in our hands within DAYS of the papers being served:laughing:

We have one right now where the guy owes us $2000 (paid $2100 of the $4100 bill) and he thought we would accept this....NOT!! What really stinks is he was paid $7000+ from the insurance company and took a trip and paid for their sons private school tuition out of the monies and "just can't afford to pay us our amount due"


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## BPWY (Apr 12, 2012)

FremontREO said:


> We have one right now where the guy owes us $2000 (paid $2100 of the $4100 bill) and he thought we would accept this....NOT!! What really stinks is he was paid $7000+ from the insurance company and took a trip and paid for their sons private school tuition out of the monies and "just can't afford to pay us our amount due"






My reply would be, cry me a river. Its not my fault that you didn't pay your bills for services rendered.
What an idiot to take a vacation on money that was needed to pay for the repairs.


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## GTX63 (Apr 12, 2012)

Yes, lein is a word that when mentioned to a national will cause your services to be immediately terminated, but it usually the last and best recourse of action. Completely ignored that "litigation must be filed in county ***X company is based" nonesense, and so do the judges.


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